Hasta La Ideas

New York architect Steven Holl has released two movies about the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, China, a building designed to recreate the “parallel perspectives” that are characteristic of Chinese landscape paintings.

The first of the two movies depicts a typical day at the museum, which is located at the entrance to an architectural complex within the Laoshan National Forest Park. The second is a guided tour from Steven Holl that explains how he and collaborating Chinese architect Li Hu came up with the design.

According to Holl, the building was designed as a sequence of walls that angle in different directions to confuse a visitor’s sense of perspective.

“It gives you a feeling of mystery about the space. It’s not really clear what’s parallel to what,” he says. “This had to be worked out on the site. We had to actually position these walls while standing and manipulating the space on the site, that was the only way it could be done.”

The concept to create “parallel perspectives” around the building was inspired by the Chinese artists who rejected the single-point-perspective approach of Western painters in favour of images that allow the viewer to travel between vistas.

“The first drawings were about the courtyard,” says Holl. “You can see the way the landscape is organised in these parallel perspective walls, creating conditions where there’s not really the sense of a vanishing point but there’s a kind of a sense of warping the space.”

The base of the building is a black concrete volume surrounded by walls imprinted with the texture of bamboo, while the upper section is an illuminated glass tunnel raised up on columns. It is surrounded by a landscape of fields and pools.

“This landscape comes down to an edge, but the edge isn’t quite yet the building because there’s this edge of bamboo against a freestanding wall which also creates an ante space before you get to the condition of the parallel perspective,” says Holl.

Galleries are located on all three floors of the building, creating places for displaying contemporary art and sculpture. “The condition of space isn’t exactly box-like, but it is more or less orthogonal and that gives a good background for the art,” added the architect.

Movies were produced by Spirit of Space. Photography is by Xia Zhi.

Here’s some extra information from Steven Holl Architects:

Steven Holl Architects presents two films on the Sifang Art Museum

Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Spirit of Space has created two short films on the Sifang Art Museum, which opened in November 2013 in Nanjing, China.

The film series explores the changing perspectives as visitors move through the new Sifang Art Museum, from the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, through the Museum’s entry court and lower gallery, to its floating upper gallery. The film, A Conversation with Steven Holl, presents Steven Holl on site, as he explains the design concept for the new building.

Designed by Steven Holl with Li Hu, the Sifang Art Museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, and expanses of mist and water, which characterise the deep alternating spatial mysteries of the composition of Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a “field” of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black bamboo-formed concrete over which a light “figure” hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the gallery above. Suspended high in the air, the upper gallery unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at “in-position” viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. This visual axis creates a link back to the great Ming Dynasty capital city.

The courtyard is paved in recycled Old Hutong bricks from the destroyed courtyards in the centre of Nanjing. Limiting the colours of the museum to black and white connects it to ancient Chinese paintings, but also gives a background to feature the colours and textures of the artwork and architecture exhibited within. Bamboo, previously growing on the site, has been used in bamboo-formed concrete, with a black penetrating stain. The museum is heated and cooled by geothermal wells, and features a storm water recycling system.

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News: New York architect Steven Holl has won a competition to design four museums in Qingdao, China, with a concept for a series of “art islands” linked by a looping route of galleries and pathways (+ movie).

The Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao will occupy an 18-hectare site to the north of Jiaozhou Bay, creating a complex of museums dedicated to classic art, modern art, public art and performing arts.

Steven Holl’s plan features a snaking tunnel structure designed to reference the form of the nearby Jiaozhou Bay Bridge – the world’s longest bridge over water. This “light loop” will connect the four museums, accommodating a trail of galleries inside.

“The project starts with a very unique connection to Qingdao and the idea of actually connecting to the morphology of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge,” says Holl in a movie accompanying the competition entry. “It inspires the possibility of this whole project to become related to that linear idea.”

Three of the museums will comprise cube-shaped structures positioned at intervals along the route, while the fourth will be positioned around a public square at the centre of the complex.

The surrounding spaces will be filled with gardens, pools of water and an outdoor sculpture park.

“There’s a great porosity and a great fusion between the movement across the site and the movement in the gallery system above,” says the architect. “It will have breezes coming in from the ocean that cool the entire landscape.”

A mixture of sanded aluminium and stained concrete will be used to construct the new buildings.

Here are some extra details from Steven Holl Architects:

Steven Holl Architects Wins Invited Competition for the Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City

Steven Holl Architects has been selected by near unanimous jury decision as the winner of the new Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City competition, besting OMA and Zaha Hadid Architects. The 2 million sq ft project for four museums is the heart of the new extension of Qingdao, China, planned for a population of 700,000.

The winning design for the new Culture and Art Centre begins with a connection to Qingdao. The linear form of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge – the world’s longest bridge over water – is carried into the large site, in the form of a Light Loop, which contains gallery spaces and connects all aspects of the landscape and public spaces. The raised Light Loop allows maximum porosity and movement across the site, and permits natural sound bound breezes that blow in off the ocean to flow across the site.

Set within the master plan are Art Islands, or Yishudao, which take the form of three sculpted cubes, and four small landscape art islands that form outdoor sculpture gardens. Five terraced reflecting pools animate the landscape and bring light to levels below via skylights.

The Light Loop and Yishudao concepts facilitate the shaping of public space. A great central square for large gatherings is at the centre of the site overlooking a large water garden. The Modern Art Museum shapes the central square. The Public Arts Museum forms the main experience of entry from the south. The North Yishudao contains the Classic Art Museum, with a hotel at its top levels, and the South Yishudao, which floats over the large south reflecting pool, holds the Performing Arts Program.

In the Light Loop, all horizontal galleries receive natural light from the roof that can be controlled with 20% screens as well as blackout options. The 20 metre wide section of the Light Loop allows side lighting to the lower level galleries, and provides space for two galleries side by side, avoiding dead-end circulation.

The basic architecture is in simple monochrome of sanded marine aluminium and stained concrete, with the undersides of the Light Loops in rich polychrome colours of ancient Chinese architecture. These soffits are washed with light at night to become landscape lighting in shimmering reflected colours.

The entire project uses the most sustainable green technologies. Placed between the skylights on the Light Loop, photovoltaic cells will provide 80% of the museum’s electrical needs. The reflecting ponds with recycle water, while 480 geothermal wells provide heating and cooling.

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News: American firm Steven Holl Architects has begun construction of a new building for the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History, adjacent to the award-winning Art Building West that the practice completed in 2006.

Designed in collaboration with Missouri studio BNIM, the new Visual Arts Building at the University of Iowa by Steven Holl Architects is required to relocate teaching spaces from the original 1936 faculty building, which was badly damaged when the campus was flooded in 2008.

The new building will include 11705 square metres of open space for use by the ceramics, sculpture, metals, photography, print-making and 3D multimedia departments. It will also include graduate student studios, faculty and staff studios, plus offices and gallery space.

The rectangular plan will be interrupted by six cutaways creating courtyards round the perimeter and a central forum boring down through the centre, crossed with staircases to join the four floors.

“The courts are characterised by a language of shifted layers where one floor plate slides past another,” said the architects. “This geometry creates multiple balconies, providing outdoor meeting spaces and informal exterior working space.”

Large landing areas around the staircases will be furnished with tables, chairs and sofas for working and meeting, and there will also be an accessible green roof.

The white concrete structure will be cast in-situ and clad in solid recycled zinc panels on the northeast and northwest sides. The southeast and southwest facades will be covered with custom perforated stainless steel panels, while the courtyards will be surrounded by channel glass.

The new building will sit to the northwest of Steven Holl Architects’ Art Building West, which has received numerous accolades since its opening including an RIBA International Award, The American Architecture Award and four awards from the American Institute of Architects.

“While the 2006 Arts Building West is horizontally porous and of planar composition, the new building will be vertically porous and volumetrically composed,” said the studio. “Natural light and ventilation are inserted into the deep floor plates via multiple centers of light.”

Steven Holl Architects and BNIM won a competition to design the building organised by the University in 2010. The new building is due to open 2016.

Steven Holl is also working on a new institute for contemporary art at the Virginia Commonwealth University campus and a new sports centre for Columbia University in New York.

See all our stories about architecture by Steven Holl »
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Here’s some more information from Steven Holl Architects:

Steven Holl Architects’ Visual Arts Building at the University of Iowa starts construction

The new Visual Arts Building at the University of Iowa celebrates the beginning of construction. Designed by Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with BNIM, the new facility for the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History will provide 126,000 sf of loft-like space for the departments of ceramics, sculpture, metals, photography, print-making and 3D multimedia. It will also include graduate student studios, faculty and staff studios and offices, and gallery space.

The new Visual Arts Building relocates and expands educational space from the original 1936 arts building, which was heavily damaged during a flood of the University of Iowa campus in June 2008.

The new building will be located directly adjacent to and northwest of Art Building West, which was designed by Steven Holl Architects and has received numerous awards since its opening in 2006.

While the 2006 Arts Building West is horizontally porous and of planar composition, the new building will be vertically porous and volumetrically composed. Natural light and ventilation are inserted into the deep floor plates via multiple centers of light.

The aim of maximum interaction between all departments of the school takes shape in social circulation spaces. Seven vertical cutouts encourage interaction between all four levels. These light courts are characterized by a language of shifted layers where one floor plate slides past another.

This geometry creates multiple balconies, providing outdoor meeting spaces and informal exterior working space. Interior stairs stop at generous landings with tables and chairs, and lounge spaces with sofas.

Steven Holl said, “We are very pleased to be able to work again with the University of Iowa towards the creation of campus space as well as an inspiring new facility for the arts.”

Chris McVoy added, “We are excited to begin construction on this ambitious studio arts building, which offers the rare circumstance to realize a complementary architecture and shape campus space with one of our favorite built works, the 2006 Art Building West.

The new building is dedicated to space for the ever-evolving practice of art within and across different disciplines, from foundry to digital media, all connected by porous social spaces and light courts.”

The LEED Gold building includes an accessible green roof, and integrates active slab heating and cooling into the exposed loft-like concrete bubble deck structure.

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Architect Steven Holl describes how the design for his new athletics centre at Columbia University was based on a diagram for a football strategy, in the first of two movies by architectural filmmakers Spirit of Space.

Completed earlier this year, the Campbell Sports Centre is a five-storey building that is partly raised up on stilts, providing both a student facility and a new entrance to the existing sports tracks of the Baker Athletics Complex.

Steven Holl explains the original concept for “points on the ground and lines in space”, like a game strategy. “Those point foundations of the building [are] where it becomes a gateway and the idea of the outer exits is as lines in spaces moving on the building,” he says.

The building features an exposed concrete and steel structure, as well as a series of exterior balconies and staircases. “Those big heads of the [nearby] Broadway Lift Bridge were, in a way, inspirations for this sort of grey steel structural shape,” adds Holl.

The interior of the building is divided into three zones, with physical exercise zones located on the lower levels and student study areas at the top. “This has to do with the aim of the scholar athlete, that you develop both the body and the mind together,” adds architect Chris McVoy.

Holl concludes by talking about how the building comes alive after dark, forming a “chunk of architecture that equally gives a feeling of light and brightness,” alongside the glowing lights of the sports pitch. “The building has a kind of life that it gives to that site at night,” he says.

See more images of the Campbell Sports Centre in our earlier story, or see more architecture by Steven Holl Architects.

Spirit of Space has previously filmed movies about other Steven Holl-designed buildings, including an underground gallery in South Korea and the mixed-use Sliced Porosity Block in China. See more movies by Spirit of Space on Dezeen »

Architectural photography is by Iwan Baan.

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– Steven Holl on Campbell Sports Centre appeared first on Dezeen.

The second of two movies in this series about Steven Holl’s Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China, is a walk through the spaces of the mixed-use complex.

Produced by filmmakers Spirit of Space, the architectural tour begins with the approach route into the public plaza, which is surrounded by the five towers of the scheme and sits above a shopping centre.

The movie shows the daily activity in this plaza, where three staggered terraces feature seating areas, trees and large pools of water.  In the first of the two movies Steven Holl explains that he designed this space first, then added the architecture around it.

See more images of Sliced Porosity Block in our earlier story, or see more architecture by Steven Holl Architects.

Spirit of Space previously filmed two movies about the Steven Holl’s Daeyang Gallery and House, an underground gallery with a pool of water underneath. See more movies by Spirit of Space on Dezeen.

Architectural photography is by Hufton + Crow.

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