Hasta La Ideas

Chinese studio Archi-Union has converted an office block in Shanghai into an art gallery with a concrete staircase twisting through its middle (+ slideshow).

The facade of the building remains unchanged but the interior spaces are entirely renovated to accommodate two exhibition galleries and a bar, with a glazed atrium sandwiched between.

Made up of six components, the contorted concrete staircase creates a spiralling route through the three split-level floors, while additional corridors cut across at different levels.

“Faced with the change in the use of the building, we first deconstruct the straightforward logic of the space and blur the functions’ interface,” says Archi-Union.

“The complex logic of the staircase form breaks the traditional two dimensional layer relations, but it’s not an arbitrary treatment out of control,” add the architects. “Every perceived line has its logical necessity; but the curving surface softens this logic, it gives the visitor a feeling between rationale and randomness, creates an exciting spatial feeling at the edge of conflicting ideas.”

A permanent exhibition occupies the ground floor gallery and is dispersed between a collection of rectilinear space dividers. A second gallery for special exhibitions sits directly above, but is instead sectioned off by undulating surfaces.

Recesses in these new volumes provide display areas for artworks, while a doorway in the first floor gallery leads through to a small seating area referred to as “the teahouse”.

A smaller exhibition room is also located on the first floor, while the floor above contains a meditation room, a study room and a staff kitchen and dining room.

Archi-Union is a Shanghai-based studio led by Philip F. Yuan. The studio previously created a similar concrete staircase in the Tea House library, which was one of our most popular stories of 2012. Another recent project is the Lan Xi Curtilage restaurant and members’ club in Chengdu.

See more recent architecture in China, including a new mixed-use complex by architect Steven Holl.

Photography is by Xia Zhi.

Here’s the full project description from Archi-Union:

Jade Museum by Archi-Union

Located in the high-density Xuhui District, in downtown Shanghai, Jade Museum is a renovation from an office building. For this project we were commissioned to convert the noncomplex office space into a multi-functional communication art museum on the premise of keeping the original building structure. Faced with the change in the use of the building, we first deconstruct the straightforward logic of the space and blur the functions’ interface. We implement the tools of digital design early in the conceptual phase, to help us rebuild the logic of space and translate the folding of the circulation flows into a folding of space itself.

Different layers of functions are organized around the main circulation space, facing the central courtyard. The simple single-layer mode was redefined with the introduction of a non-linear space. The simple vertical and horizontal circulation movements influence each other in the inserted space, the blur of the interface and boundaries make the space fold and integrated. The circulation flow adapts itself to this incision in the body of space. The antithesis between sloping and balance, continuity and boundary turns the simple coexistence of elements into a discussion of geometry. The complex logic of the staircase form breaks the traditional two dimensional layer relations, but it’s not an arbitrary treatment out of control: steps, door openings, handrails, beams and roof are distinguished components of the building structure that have a delicate and reasonable interconnecting relation. Every perceived line has its logical necessity; but the curving surface softens this logic, it gives the visitor a feeling between rationale and randomness, creates an exciting spatial feeling at the edge of conflicting ideas.

The folding of circulation lines and the twisted form of the inserted space create an entrance on the first floor, which faces the central courtyard. The permanent exhibition hall is located in front of the entrance. Via the stairs near the exhibition hall, one reaches the VIP exhibition space. The curving walls divide space into several micro spaces and also guide the visitors’ flow. The artworks are placed into the curving walls. Resting and communication space peer from behind these walls. In front of the VIP exhibition space is the teahouse, which is connected to the outdoors terrace.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Digital fabrication, as a methodology, is implemented throughout the design and construction process. Non-linear form and geometrical decomposition lie in the core of fabrication. The abstract multi-dimensional surface generated by the computer is decomposed into workable and controllable CNC panels; their exact position controls the 3D assembly. The curving form is transferred into linear machine logic closely following the geometrical principles. The three-dimensional space that the traditional two-dimensional drawings cannot express is eloquently expressed through the fabrication logic. This combination of digital lofting and CNC fabrication reduced the construction budget and at the same time improved construction quality and speed without compromising the design integrity.

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image and key

In addition to geometry and fabrication, light, as a third key-element in design coordinates with the folding, irregular spatial module and the flowing exhibition hall design to enhance this multi-dimensional experience.

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Project Name: Jade Museum
Location: Xuhui District, Shanghai
Area: approx 1000 sqm
Design/Completion: 2012/2013
Client: Jade Museum
Architect: Philip F. Yuan / Archi-Union Architects
Design Team: Alex Han, Fuzi He

Above: ground floor axonometric – click above for larger image

Above: first floor axonometric – click above for larger image

Above: staircase concept diagram and plans – click above for larger image

Above: staircase sections – click above for larger image

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by Archi-Union appeared first on Dezeen.

This staircase concept by Canadian architect Andrew McConnell is based on a whale’s backbone (+ slideshow).

Andrew McConnell came up with the Vertebrae Staircase concept by simplifying the shape of a whale’s vertebra into a single component.

Each piece would incorporate one step, one banister and part of the hand rail, interlocking to create a rigid, self-supporting structure.

Two slightly modified components would be used to connect the floor plates, while metal fittings would mate one element to another.

“One benefit of this design is that its fabrication would require the production of essentially only one element repeated several times,” McConnell told Dezeen.

“There are no other hidden supports as the Vertebrae Staircase is designed to act as one structural element, bearing the loads of its users and transferring these forces to the floor plates.

McConnell completed his Master of Architecture in Calgary, Canada, before starting work as an architect in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

We’ve featured dozens of unusual staircases on Dezeen, including one built into a kitchen counter and another that looks like a slice of Swiss cheese – see all our stories about staircases.

We’ve also published objects made of bones collected from an abattoir and a range of handles and hooks shaped like sticks and bones.

See all our stories about staircases »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Inspired by the spine of a whale, the Vertebrae Staircase is not simply mimicry of organic form but an exploration in shaping structure. Much of the design work went into refining the single component, or vertebra, that mate with each other creating a unified spine running from floor plate to floor plate. These interlocking vertebrae provide a rigid structure for the steps, railing and its users. And the railing is reinforced by connections that help the staircase resist rotational forces caused by the cantilevered steps.

The Vertebrae Staircase is a reconfiguration of a familiar form and its connections, resulting in a unique yet functional piece of vertical circulation.

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by Andrew McConnell appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architects Shift ripped out the walls of this central Rotterdam townhouse and replaced them with a three-storey bookshelf.

The bookshelf, which is 10 metres wide and nine metres high, replaces the load-bearing wall in the middle of the house.

Contained in the shelves are kitchen appliances, wardobes, a walk-in closet and even a doll’s house in the children’s bedroom.

The steel stairs have been fitted close against the shelves to make all the books easily accessible.

The house is situated on a block of dilapidated nineteenth century buildings which was bought in its entirety by a developer to be restored. Each house was stripped bare, leaving the new homeowners free to make their own changes inside.

“What used to happen is that the municipality would tear the houses down, but they have beautiful facades, so it’s a good thing to try to keep them, ” said Shift architect Oana Rades. “It’s been a really successful strategy and it means a lot of people won’t move out of the city to the suburbs now.”

We previously featured another Rotterdam project by Shift – a monolothic pavilion with sliding glass windows.

Photographs are by René de Wit and Jeroen Musch.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Vertical Loft by Shift architecture urbanism – extreme makeover of a pre-war city dwelling in the centre of Rotterdam.

This so called do-it-yourself dwelling in the centre of Rotterdam is part of a bold experiment initiated by the municipality to revitalise dilapidated urban areas.

Run-down pre-war dwellings are renovated on the outside and brought back to their monumental appearance, while the interiors are stripped bare.

The empty shell dwellings are primarily bought by enthusiastic young people who transform them according to their specific needs, desires and budgets.

Real estate developers have picked up the initiative and a new demand driven market of urban housing has been generated in recent years.

Site plan

The result is a growing number of contemporary custom-made dream houses within the uniform old fabric of the traditional nineteenth and early twentieth century city.

Ground floor plan

Our dream was to create a vertical loft: a house without walls where all three floors are stitched together into one continuous space. The interior of the new house is organized by one oversized closet that connects all floors. It functions as a storage device for the whole house. This piece of XXL-furniture, measuring 10 meters in length and 9 meters in height, replaces the load bearing middle wall of the original house.

First floor plan

Its modular system integrates kitchen appliances, bookshelves, wardrobe, and a walk in closet. The introduction of a central void reinforces the presence of the closet. The void enables diagonal views through the house in which the closet is experienced in its full height. It also makes daylight penetrate far into the 14 meter deep house. Two steel stairs in the void make the bookshelves accessible and create a vertical circulation along and through the closet.

Second floor plan

The extreme makeover of the house is combined with a selective preservation of elements of the old casco. Industrial materials such as the phenol coated multiplex of the closet and the polyurethane flooring are balanced by the longitudinal brick wall that is left bare, the stained glass and the original doors that are restored and re-used. The roughness of the wall, full with traces of the past, tells stories about the continuous makeovers that the house has undergone in the last hundred years.

Section

Text: Shift architecture urbanism
Photography: René de Wit, Jeroen Musch
Shift architecture urbanism
www.shifta.nl
info@shifta.nl

Elevation

Design: Shift architecture urbanism, Rotterdam
Project architects: Oana Rades and Harm Timmermans
Contractor: JWK Bouwteam, Gerrit Kooiker, Ijzendoorn
Construction: B2CO, Richard Fielt, Ede
Installations: Installatietechniek Fred vd Pol & Zn., Ede
Floors: DRT, Oss
Fixed furniture: Gerrit Kooiker, Gaby van den Boom

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by Shift appeared first on Dezeen.

London architects Liddicoat & Goldhill added an extension to a south London home with an oak-screened staircase and double-height windows.

The 1930s house was originally built on sloping ground, which left the living spaces at the back hanging one storey over the garden.

The architects came up with an extension in the style of an orangery, with double-height windows to draw light into the lower levels.

An oak staircase is bordered by a screen of vertical strips of oak which mirror the steel frames of the glazing.

A glass balustrade has been positioned on the other side of the stairs, allowing light to reach into the rooms behind.

An unusual double-height white door leads out to the back garden.

Projects by Liddicoat & Goldhill we’ve previously featured include another glazed extension to a period house in London as well as the architects’ own home which makes use of black bricks and white marble.

See all our stories about residential extensions »

Photographs are by Keith Collie.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The family moved to their 1930s house in Southfields in 1989. Since then, they has gradually outgrown the house: in 2011 they asked Liddicoat & Goldhill to adapt it to theirs and their four teenage sons’ ever-evolving needs.

The original house, one of a collection built on a hill overlooking south London, apparently ignored the sloping ground on which it was built. Viewed from the street, it sits comfortably on the site. But at the rear, the living spaces hang one storey above the mature garden – they are left aloof and separate.

This disconnection was also felt inside: the large basement spaces were dimly lit and truncated from the upper parts of the house.

Liddicoat & Goldhill’s solution is conceived as an Orangery. By stripping away the lower part of the rear facade, the Architects created space for this new double-height extension, floating half-way between the ground floor and basement.

The Orangery acts as a lantern, gathering sunlight into the living spaces deep within the house.

The kitchen is afforded wide views over the verdant rear gardens, while the split levels allow for separate and private operation of each of the living spaces.

Slender steel-framed glazing gives the new structure a sense of fine fragility, while the handmade oak furniture, staircase and kitchen – designed specifically for the project by the architects – creates a continuity between the new spaces and the old.

Project Particulars:
Site: London, SW18
Architect: Liddicoat & Goldhill LLP
Main Contractor: Considerate Building
Structural Engineers: Fluid Structures
Completion date: March 2012
Extension floor area: 56m2
About Liddicoat & Goldhill

Architects David Liddicoat & Sophie Goldhill are focused on making. Their interest lies in the haptic and the imagined, the poetry of practical things. They work with humble materials in contested environments to create the unexpected.

Their work has been critically acclaimed and published and exhibited worldwide. Named as one of Wallpaper* Magazine’s ‘Future 30’ in 2009, they were longlisted for Young Architect of the Year Award in 2011.

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Liddicoat & Goldhill appeared first on Dezeen.

There’s a special staircase for dogs at this renovated house in Ho Chi Minh City by architecture studio 07Beach.

The pets’ route features narrower treads and shorter risers than the adjacent one for humans, making it more suited to canine strides.

This also means the dogs’ staircase is nearly twice as long so it curls round the back of the TV towards the front door.

We’ve previously featured a house where shelves create a route for a pet cat, as well as a house with a ceiling ledge for a cat to curl up on.

Photography is by Hiroyuki Oki of Decon Photo Studio.

Ground and first floor plans – click above for larger image

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by 07Beach appeared first on Dezeen.