Bjarke Ingels Group a imaginé cette tour de 130m de hauteur pour la ville de Phoenix dans l’Arizona. Ce projet, commissionné par Novawest, a été pensé afin de permettre aux touristes de se rendre dans un endroit unique pour leur permettre de profiter du paysage. Plus d’images dans la suite.
On view at the Ace Hotel in NYC, “Fifty and Fifty State Mottos” is an exhibition of prints paying graphic homage to our historic maxims, curated by designer and illustrator Dan Cassaro. After designing a print for his native New York, Cassaro reached out to friends and colleagues in…
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Danish studio BIG has designed an observation tower shaped like a honey dipper for Phoenix, Arizona.
Rising above the downtown city rooftops, the spiralling structure is conceived as a tourist attraction that will contain a continuous series of exhibition spaces, shops and restaurants.
BIG has nicknamed the structure “The Pin” and the designs show a reinforced concrete tower with three glass elevators to transport visitors from the base of a narrow stalk to the summit of the sphere.
Just like the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the ArcelorMittal Orbit at London’s Olympic Park, visitors will be encouraged to take an elevator to the top then gradually work their way down whilst looking out across the city and nearby mountains.
“Like the monsoons, the haboobs and the mountains of the surrounding Arizonian landscape, the Pin becomes a point of reference and a mechanism to set the landscape in motion through the movement of the spectator,” commented BIG founder Bjarke Ingels. “The motion at the Pin is turned inside-out, allowing visitors to contemplate the surrounding city and landscape of Phoenix.”
To create the spherical shape, the spiralling open-air pathway will be widest at its centre and will taper away at the start and end of the route.
“Like a heavenly body hovering above the city the Pin will allow visitors to descend from pole to pole in a dynamic three dimensional experience seemingly suspended in midair,” said Ingels.
Restaurants will be located at the base of the sphere, while a new public square surrounded by shops will be positioned at the ground-level entrance.
In the last week BIG also unveiled plans for two twisted apartment blocks in Miami.
See all our stories about BIG »
Here’s some more information from the architects:
BIG unveils Phoenix Observation Tower
BIG is commissioned by Novawest to design a 420 ft tall mixed-use observation tower to serve as a symbol for the city of Phoenix, Arizona.
Located in downtown Phoenix, the 70,000 sf Observation Tower shall add a significant structure to the Phoenix skyline from which to enjoy the city’s spectacular views of the surrounding mountain ranges and dramatic sunsets. Phoenix-based developer Novawest, commissioned the team to create a destination event to provide tourists and citizens of Phoenix alike the chance to enjoy the unique features of the Valley of the Sun.
Above: simple concept diagram
The future observation tower is conceived as a tall core of reinforced concrete with an open-air spiral sphere at its top, resembling a metaphorical pin firmly marking a location on a map. The spiraling sphere contains flexible exhibition, retail and recreational spaces which are accessed via three glass elevators that connect the base with the summit and offer panoramic views of the city and the tower’s programs as visitors ascend or descend.
Walking downwards from the top through a continuous spiral promenade, the visitors of the observation tower experience all of the building’s programs in a constant motion, while enjoying dynamic 360 degree views of the city of Phoenix and the Arizonian landscape.
Above: design concept
The spiral layout combines the different programmatic elements and the circulation into a continuous dynamic twirling space which is proportioned according to the movement of the visitors, producing a unique viewing experience of the surroundings. Instead of a constant width, the spiraling promenade starts from zero at the point of arrival, reaches its maximum width at the middle, and shrinks back to zero at the point of departure. Separation between the programmatic elements within the sphere happens not through physical vertical barrier-walls, but softly through the slope and the height difference to preserve a total continuity and create a flexible space for exhibitions and events.
Once the visitors reach the middle of the sphere, they can choose to either conclude their journey by taking the elevator back to the ground, or continue to the restaurant levels at the lower hemisphere. The motion resembles a journey through the center of a planet, and a travel from the north to the south pole.
The base of the tower will serve as a public plaza offering shade, water features and a small amount of retail together with a subterranean queuing area. The tower will serve as a working model of sustainable energy practices, incorporating a blend of solar and other technologies.
Above: accommodation diagram
Name: Phoenix Observation Tower
Type: Commission
Size: 70,000 square feet
Client: Novawest
Collaborators: MKA (structure), Atelier10 (sustainability), Gensler (local architect), TenEyck (landscape)
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Country: USA
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Christoffersen
Project Leader: Iannis Kandyliaris
Team: Thomas Fagan, Aaron Hales, Ola Hariri, Dennis Harvey, Beat Schenk
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by BIG appeared first on Dezeen.
News: UK firm Foster + Partners has unveiled plans to overhaul New York Public Library’s flagship branch on Fifth Avenue by inserting a contemporary lending library into unused reading rooms and stacks at the back of the building.
At present only a third of the the Stephen A Schwarzman Building is accessible to the public, but Foster + Partners plans to insert a new corridor that will connect the main entrance with a new four-level atrium at the rear, where visitors can browse collections whilst enjoying a view of Bryant Park through the existing tall windows.
“We are reasserting the Library’s main axis and its very special sequence of spaces, from the main Fifth Avenue entrance and the Astor Hall, through the Gottesman Hall, into the dramatic volume of the new circulating library, with views through to the park,” said Norman Foster.
Located beneath the Rose Reading Room, the new section will replace seven relocated floors of closed stacks, while a 300-person workspace for students and researchers will take the place of several offices and storage areas.
Floorplates will be pulled back from the exterior wall to create a series of tiered balconies and visitors will enter the space via a grand staircase that descends from above.
Proposed materials include bronze, wood and stone, which the architects claims will age gracefully and fit in with the existing beaux-arts building designed by Carrère and Hastings in the early twentieth century.
The New York Public Library launched its £185 million renovation strategy earlier this year, but faced criticism as scholars and writers claimed the plans would comprise the library’s existing facilities.
Foster commented: “Our design does not seek to alter the character of the building, which will remain unmistakably a library in its feel, in its details, materials, and lighting. It will remain a wonderful place to study. The parts that are currently inaccessible will be opened up, inviting the whole of the community – it is a strategy that reflects the principles of a free institution upon which the library was first founded.”
Construction is scheduled to commence in the summer and is expected to complete in 2018.
Foster + Partners has been working on a number of projects in New York in recent months, including a vision for the future of Grand Central Terminal and a competition-winning design for a Park Avenue skyscraper.
See more stories about Foster + Partners »
See more stories about New York »
Here’s some more information from Foster + Partners:
Designs for the New York Public Library revealed
The New York Public Library today unveiled proposals for the integration of the Circulating Library into its flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street – Lord Foster presented the plans at the launch of the public exhibition.
The project aims to safeguard the building’s legacy and precious books for future generations. The existing research library will be retained as it is today, with more space for researchers, as will many of the public spaces – the project will open twice as much of the building to the public and will restore the logic of the Neo-Classical design to improve the experience of the library’s historic halls. The two circulating collections will be housed in a spectacular new space previously occupied by book stacks.
The centrepiece of the 5th Avenue and 42nd Street building is the magnificent Rose Reading Room, below which are seven storeys of book stacks. However, these stacks are inaccessible to the public and no longer meet the needs of the books they contain, in terms of capacity, fire safety or preservation. The books will be moved to a large humidity-controlled chamber under Bryant Park, which was created in 1989 as part of the Bryant Park project, and provides the ideal environment for their conservation. Thus the stack space is freed to create a new ‘library within a library’ comprised of the Mid-Manhattan collections and the Science, Industry and Business Library – reinstating a circulating library to the NYPL main building, as had originally existed until the 1980s.
The 13,000 structural points of the existing stacks will be replaced with an innovative new vaulted stone and steel cradle. This move will free the floors from the west façade, allowing them to be peeled back to form a series of balconies – in the process revealing the full height of the slender windows internally for the first time. New study areas will line the perimeter of the balconies and new reading platforms will sit beneath the vaulted ceilings, which are carefully attuned to ensure excellent acoustic performance. The materials palette and design of the interiors will evolve with further development. The current combination shows bronze, wood and stone, which will age gracefully with the passage of time and use. A new internal atrium runs the full length of the base of the circulation library, connecting the visitor facilities to the building’s accessible entrance on 42nd Street.
Just 30 percent of the library is currently accessible to the public – the project will more than double this, opening 66 percent of the building by utilising unused reading rooms, back of house spaces, offices and book stacks. The design aims to make the building more inviting, more permeable and to bring the books to the fore rather than hide them away. Starting with the circulation strategy, the central axis through the Neo-Classical building will be reasserted. Visitors will be able to walk in a straight line through the grand Fifth Avenue portico and the majestic Astor Hall into Gottesman Hall, where a permanent treasures gallery will display some of the most important pieces from the collection. For the fist time, the westerly doors of the Gottesman Hall will be opened up, restoring a sense of symmetry and intuitive circulation across the building. Visitors will enter the new circulation library on a balcony in the centre of the former book stack space, where they will face elevated views of Bryant Park. From here, a grand staircase will sweep down to the main level, aligned with the park, and further to the state-of-the-art education and business library below.
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for New York Public Library appeared first on Dezeen.
Danish studio BIG has unveiled plans for two twisted apartment blocks in Coconut Grove, Miami (+ slideshow).
The 20-storey towers will be constructed on the site of the former Grand Bay Hotel, one of Miami’s most prestigious attractions during the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite being the only hotel in the area to have earned a five-star rating, Grand Bay lost popularity in its later years and was eventually closed in 2008.
Over that time many houses and apartment buildings have been constructed in the neighbourhood, so the developers felt that a hotel would no longer be appropriate and commissioned BIG to design a residential complex.
The two similar towers will include a total of 96 apartments and both will feature balconies wrapping the exterior walls, offering residents views across the bay.
Behind the balconies, the buildings will have glass walls that create floor-to-ceiling windows for each aprtment.
BIG’s founding architect Bjarke Ingels explained: “Miami has developed a contemporary condominium vernacular that combines brise soleil style balcony shading with floor-to-ceiling windows in order to best enjoy the panoramic water views of the area. We propose to elaborate on these indigenous elements and continue the evolution of the local condominium architecture.”
Landscape architect Raymond Jungles has designed gardens and terraces to surround the buildings, while the curling red sculpture created by artist Alexander Liberman at the hotel entrance will remain in its place.
Construction is scheduled to begin this month, with completion anticipated for late 2014.
BIG previously designed a twisted skyscraper for Vancouver, while Chinese architects MAD just completed a pair of contorted towers near Toronto.
This year BIG also completed a brightly coloured carpet on a street in Copenhagen and revealed proposals for a building shaped like a hash symbol.
See all our stories about BIG »
Here’s a project description from BIG:
The Grove at Grand Bay residences, located on the former site of the Grand Bay Hotel and just minutes from key areas including the airport, downtown Miami and Coral Gables shall leave an imprint on the South Bayshore Drive community, redefining luxury and breathing new life into Coconut Grove for decades to come.
Developed by Terra Group, Miami’s leading real-estate development company, the construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012, completing end of 2014. Upon completion, the project seeks LEED Certification Silver designation, the first such structure in Coconut Grove.
Rising 20 stories over the bay-front, Grove at Grand Bay will showcase 96 expansive residences with panoramic views from every angle as the two towers take off from the ground and clear the surrounding buildings, readjusting their orientation to capture the full breadth of panoramic views from sailboat bays and the marina to the Miami skyline.
The interactive movement of the two towers creates a new dancing silhouette on the Grove’s skyline.
Whether in the shade of the buildings’ twisting facades or inside, residents of the Grove at Grand Bay will fully experience and relish living amid the open air.
The gardens and architecture will fuse seamlessly at the amenity levels, maximizing indoor outdoor living experiences that are unique to the South Florida climate.
Views down into the gardens, towards the surrounding canopied neighborhoods, and beyond Sailboat Bay will offer peaceful, verdant backdrops to elegant residential interiors and vast balconies.
Above: site plan
The interior design of the individual units are refined towards minimalism and luxury.
Above: North Tower plan, levels 2 – 8 – click for larger image
With an open flow-through floor plan, each residence will showcase 12′ ceilings and 12′ floor-to-ceiling windows, first among Florida developments, and spacious outdoor terraces with wraparound balconies that create a continuous indoor/outdoor living environment.
Above: North Tower plan, levels 12- 17, click for larger image
Raymond Jungles, the landscape architect renowned for his creative and ecologically sensitive landscape architecture, captures the natural beauty of the neighborhood and magnifies it with ample green spaces.
Above: North Tower plan, penthouse – click for larger image
The two glass towers in a pas de deux appear to float over Raymond Jungles’ lush, canopied oasis, beckoning to Biscayne Bay and beyond.
Above: Section A, click for larger image
Name: The Grove at Grand Bay
Client: Terra Group
Collaborators: Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates Inc, Esrawe, Desimone, Hngs, Raymond Jungles
Above: Section E, click for larger image
Type: Commission
Size: 58 900 m2
Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL, USA
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by BIG appeared first on Dezeen.
New York practice Cooper Joseph Studio was inspired by Mexican beach huts to insert four pyramidal chimneys behind the concrete exterior of this playground pavilion in Dallas, Texas (+ slideshow).
Sandwiched between a football pitch and a children’s playground, the pavilion offers a sheltered seating area for resting between games as well as picnicking benches for lunchtimes, so Cooper Joseph Studio wanted to keep the space as cool as possible.
The architects concealed the four bright yellow chimneys within the chunky concrete structure and each one works in the same way as the traditional Mexican “palapa” huts, drawing hot air upwards to keep the lower level ventilated.
“The palapa is a time-tested mechanism for creating shade and encouraging passive air flow in a hot climate,” Cooper Joseph Studio’s Greg Evans told Dezeen. “Many state parks use a similar form for picnic structures. We took the geometry and embedded it within a different volume, gaining the cooling benefits without the prescribed aesthetic.”
Describing the decision to colour them yellow, he explained: “We carefully selected a colour that could resolve itself with both the green landscape and the blue sky visible in the apertures.”
The structure of the pavilion is built entirely from concrete and three rectangular columns support the weight of the rectilinear roof.
“We were able to lighten the concrete with the use of local fly ash,” said Evans. “We used a rough board formwork to soften the aesthetic.”
The two playing fields on either side are at slightly different levels, so the structure is partially sunken into the slope to create three tiered levels of seating on the raised edge.
The Webb Chapel Park Pavilion is one one several new shelters planned in the city’s parks, as replacements for 1960s structures that have decayed over time.
Above: site plan
Cooper Joseph Studio also recently completed a writer’s hideaway in upstate New York. See more projects in the USA »
Above: ground floor plan
Photography is by Eduard Hueber.
Above: ceiling plan
Here’s a project description from Cooper Joseph Studio:
Webb Chapel Park Pavilion
Cooper Joseph Studio
In Dallas, Texas, the Department of Parks and Recreation is working to replace several decaying, minimal 1960s shelters in the surrounding metropolitan public parks. Sandwiched between a community soccer field and playground, this simple pavilion embraces a passive, natural cooling system that becomes one with the spatial design.
Above: long section
The solution asserts pure geometry to simultaneously achieve bold form and function. A concrete canopy of exaggerated depth enables a simple structure with minimal visible supports to create virtually seamless views of the surrounding site. The result is an impressive cantilever that comfortably sits atop a mere three structural supports.
Inside the pavilion, the heavy shell of concrete opens to reveal four playful, pyramidal voids in the roof. Although a whimsical surprise of color, the ceiling’s primary purpose is a natural ventilation system based on a traditional “palapa” encouraging the hot Texas air to move through the pavilion. Convection breezes are increased as the bold volume perceptually lifts away from the ground, leaving the seating embedded in a berm where the box once was.
Above: cross section
The use of raw concrete as both structure and finish makes the shape both expressive and efficient. Both its conceptual model and execution match the demands of program and community with reductive simplicity. This bold result finds its identity in these dualities.
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by Cooper Joseph Studio appeared first on Dezeen.
Eight architecture students from the University of Colorado have designed and built a cabin in the Utah desert for a Navajo woman (+ slideshow).
Above: photograph is by Scott Zimmerman
Under the guidance of tutor Rick Sommerfeld, the students teamed up with charity DesignBuildBLUFF, who regularly work with students to provide housing for some of the 2.4 million Native Americans that live in dilapidated or overcrowded housing on tribal land.
The team were tasked with replacing the home of Lorraine Nakai, an avid collector of books, ornaments and other memorabilia. “When we met her, she had her collections piled and dispersed within her old house. She expressed a strong desire to be able to showcase her eclectic collections in her new home – they were truly a part of who she was,” explains the team.
Above: photograph is by David Hevesi
The students planned a long and narrow residence with one room spanning its entire length. To accommodate all of Nakai’s possessions, they tucked all bedroom and bathroom facilities behind a 15-metre long storage and display wall. “It transforms the interior of the house into a diverse exhibit,” say the designers.
Instead of a conventional bedroom, Nakai’s sleeping area is little more than a bed-shaped shelf in the wall, although a doorway and ladder lead up to a guest bedroom in the loft.
Kitchen surfaces are also incorporated into the wall, but a wood-burning stove is suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the room. “The fireplace, which is an integral part of the Navajo culture, stands proud as a singular object in this space,” says the team.
The exterior of the house is clad with timber and the students also added panels of recycled glass to protect the walls from the harsh desert sun and open winds.
Large windows along the east-facing elevation and a large doorway to the south allow for cross-ventilation during warmer seasons. Meanwhile, a projecting window on the north side of the building provides an indoor seating area with a view out across the landscape.
The houses’s position beside three other small buildings and a tree frames the outline of a courtyard, providing further protection from the wind.
The building was constructed in just 80 days for a budget of $25,000, the equivalent of just over £15,000.
See more stories about houses on Dezeen, including an Alpine holiday villa in France and seven woodland cabins in Portugal.
Photography is by James Anderson, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a short description from the team:
DesignbuildBLUFF is a non-profit organization located in southeast Utah. The organization works with college students to help Navajos on the Indian reservation. Collaborating with DesignBuildBLUFF, during the summer of 2011 eight students from the University of Colorado at Denver designed the house, and during the fall semester moved to Utah for the build.
The house was built for an impoverished Navajo woman. With little-to-no construction experience, the team completed the house in 80 days with a budget of $25,000. The team’s final design is a true response to the client’s aspirations, existing site conditions, and extreme desert climate.
More importantly, the successful completion of this project hopes to inspire young architects and show them that with determination, persistence and the will to improve people’s living conditions, modern and thoughtful designs can be achieved even with little funding.
Students: James Anderson, David Hevesi, Zia Hooker, Courtney Hughes, Milen Milev, Cam Minor, Michelle Pollock and Josh Young.
Senior Instructor: Rick Sommerfeld
Above: site axonometric plan
Above: floor plan – click above for larger image
Above: long section
Above: north and east elevations
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University of Colorado students appeared first on Dezeen.
News: flexible high-tech rental apartments with moving “robo-walls” should replace speculative developments as young people increasingly view homes as services rather than possessions, according to Kent Larson, director of the Changing Places Group at MIT Media Lab (+ movie).
“People of the millennial generation are rejecting private cars, private homes, brands, owning a lot of stuff,” Larson said, speaking at the Urban Age Electric City conference in London last week. “They think of all these things as services rather than possessions and I think that will powerfully impact cities of the future.”
Larson said young people don’t want the type of micro-apartments being proposed by mayors of major US cities. “Mayor Bloomberg of New York is saying in order for New York City to remain globally competitive, they have to make housing affordable for young people, so the idea is to just build tiny little apartments,” Larson said. “Mayor Thomas M Menino in Boston says the same thing. The problem is young people don’t really like these tiny little apartments with a pull-out sofa.”
City chiefs in San Francisco this month voted to allow apartments as small as 20 square metres to help alleviate the housing shortage while New York floated a similar idea this summer. Boston and Vancouver are among other cities exploring the idea.
“The American dream of owning your house and owning your car and freedom and status and all of that, I think that’s breaking down,” Larson said.
Instead of micro-apartments, Larson believes the future lies with flexible, high-tech interior spaces that allow residents to customise them over time to suit their changing needs [above]. MIT Media Lab’s Changing Places Group, set up to explore new strategies for living and working spaces, has proposed a system of moving “robo-walls” and foldaway furniture that could fit within a standard loft-type space but provide greater flexibility than today’s apartments.
The CityHome proposal [above] also allows residents to generate their optimum dwelling configuration using software that analyses their lifestyle and living preferences.
“For the city I’m particularly interested in transformable houses; tiny little homes that function as if they were many times larger,” Larson said.
He added: “I don’t believe in smart homes, I think that’s a totally bogus concept. I think builders only know how to build dumb things, so you want to bring smart things into the home.”
Larson said the construction of vast, generic high-rise apartment blocks [above] to house newly urbanised populations was leading to “dreary, single-purpose residential ghettos that are almost totally dependent on the private automobile.”
Residents in such developments often strive to personalise their homes, he said, showing a photograph of a high-rise development in Taipei where occupants had added balconies, awnings, glazing and other ad-hoc additions. “If you go to Taipei where I took this photograph [above], you see these generic commodity housing projects bursting with this expression of personalisation, you know kind of ad-hoc customisation,” Larson said. “They’re illegal and often they are death traps, but it’s a powerful sort of visual acknowledgement of that desire.”
He added: “I’m an architect, but it doesn’t scale to have an architect work on homes for 300 million rural Chinese who are moving to the city over the next fifteen years. So we’re looking at design algorithms where you match a personal profile to a solution profile, you assemble a completely configured apartment and then you give people the tools to go into that space and refine it using these kind of advanced computational tools.”
In future, it will become normal for people to share, rather than buy, the amenities they need, Larson argued. “We’re moving towards shared resources in the office, shared desks, shared shops, shared fab-labs, shared electronics labs, shared recreational spaces.”
More videos from the Changing Places Group can be seen here. Images are courtesy of Kent Larson.
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as young reject home ownership appeared first on Dezeen.
A 30-metre-long felled poplar tree protrudes either side of this kiosk by Swedish studio Visiondivision to support a row of playground swings at a country park in Indianapolis (+ slideshow).
The architects were commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to design a small kiosk for the surrounding 100 Acres park and they decided to create a structure that uses every part of a single felled tree.
“We investigated the different possibilities of harvesting something from Indiana and making it into a building,” Visiondivision‘s Ulf Mejergren and Anders Berensson told Dezeen. “We really wanted to show where this building came from, take use of the raw materials’ different properties and make it almost educational.”
All the wood for the kiosk was strategically taken from the branches of the poplar tree. “Every board had to be calculated exactly and we had to point out where each board was coming from,” said the architects.
The shingle cladding was made from the removed bark, which was flattened and dried in a kiln before reuse, while the leaves and flowers were pressed to make ornaments and even the syrup extracted from the bark was repackaged to be sold as snacks.
The remaining trunk was slotted through the walls to provide the structure for the swings and frame the outline of a picnic area.
Wooden trusses support the ceiling of the kiosk to ensure it is strong enough to support the weight of the tree and swings.
Summarising the project, the architects added: ”We sometimes tend to forget where everyday things come from. Things doesn’t just pop up from thin air. Everything has a history and this was a very important aspect of the project.”
Another Visiondivison project that incorporates trees is The Patient Gardener, an hourglass-shaped hut Milan won’t be complete for 100 years. See more stories featuring trees »
Above: elevations – click above for larger image
We also recently featured another set of playground swings, which generate enough power for their own lighting.
Above: kiosk construction diagram – click above for larger image
Photography is by Eric Lubrick (IMA), Donna Sink and Visiondivision.
Above: concept diagram – click above for larger image
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Visiondivision was commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to create an innovative concession stand for the 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.
The design is based on the universal notion that you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car, a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or another. Our project is about trying to harvest something as gently as possible so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and respectful way—respectful to both the source itself and to everyone visiting the building.
The raw material we selected is a 100-foot yellow poplar tree, the state tree of Indiana, known for its beauty, respectable size, and good properties as hardwood. We found a great specimen standing in a patch of forest outside of Anderson, Indiana. Our goal was to make the best out of this specific poplar tree, from taking it down and through the whole process of transforming it into a useful building that is now part of one of the finest art parks in the United States. As the project proceeded, we continued to be surprised by all of the marvelous features that where revealed in refining a tree into a building; both in the level of craftsmanship and knowledge of woodworkers and arborists, and also of the tree itself.
The tree was then transported to the park site, where it became the suspended horizontal beam of this new structure, which is almost entirely made out of the tree itself. The tree’s bark was removed to prevent it from falling on bystanders, a process that occurs naturally as the moisture content in the wood drops, causing the tree to shrink and the bark to lose its grip. Craftsmen loosen entire cylinders of bark from the trunk that are then flattened and cut into a standard shingle length. The shingles was carefully stacked and placed under pressure to avoid curling. The stacks was then kiln dried to the proper moisture content, sterilized, and kept in climate-controlled storage until they where ready for use. Bark shingles are very durable, long lasting (up to 80 years), and maintenance free.
After debarking, pieces of wood are extracted from the suspended tree and used for each of the components of the concession stand; structural support of the construction, pillars and studs for the kiosk, swings under the tree for kids, chairs and tables to be placed under the tree’s crown, from which special fixtures made out of bark pieces will hang. Many school children visit 100 Acres, and we had those kids in mind when we decided to hang swings from the tree. On a smaller scale, we explored ways to use other parts of the tree in the concession stand, including pressed leaves and flowers that were taken from the tree and that became ornaments in the front glass of the kiosk.
We also made Yellow Poplar syrup that was extracted from the bark of the tree and that will be sold in the kiosk, thus meaning that you could actually eat a part of the building.
The delicate balance act of the risk of weakening the hovering tree with taking cuts from it versus having to have a certain amount of wood to stabilize and construct the kiosk and carrying the load from the tree itself was very challenging.
Many days was spent with the structural engineer trying different types of cuts in a computer model to optimize the structure. To be able to fit all pieces that needed to be taken from the tree into the actual cuts we needed to make drawings for every single piece taken from the tree. We also needed to optimize the kiosk both in size and in its constructions since it would take a lot of weight from the hovering trunk. The kiosk got a truss frame construction with two larger pieces of wood that are right under the tree. Using the schematics from our engineers force diagram program, we concluded that the wall closer to the end of the tree was taking more load, thus we sized up the two larger pieces of wood in that specific wall. All these alterations really just made the project more beautiful since the design became more refined in terms of more balanced proportions.
Architects: visiondivision through Anders Berensson & Ulf Mejergren
Local architect: Donna Sink
Client: Indianapolis Museum of Arts
Location: 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park at The Indianapolis Museum of Arts. Indianapolis, IN, USA
Curators: Lisa Freiman & Sarah Green
Structural engineer: Dave Steiner
Contractor: The Hagerman group
Logger: Dave and Dave
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Visiondivison appeared first on Dezeen.
American firm Morphosis has completed a museum of nature and science in Dallas where visitors begin their tour by taking an escalator journey to the uppermost floor.
Surrounded by glazing, the escalator streaks diagonally across the striated concrete facade then angles back inside the building. At the top, each visitor is faced with a view of the city before spiralling their way back down through five exhibition floors into the atrium where they first arrived.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is sited in Victory Park, downtown Dallas, and when it opens to the public next weekend it will replace some of the facilities of the existing Museum of Science and Nature, located further east in Fair Park.
Morphosis‘ founder Thom Mayne conceived the building as a large cube emerging from a series of landscaped lower tiers. These levels, designed in collaboration with landscape architects Talley Associates, are covered in stones and drought-resistant grasses that are typical of the landscape in Texas.
A 3D cinema, auditorium, cafe and shop accompany the eleven exhibition galleries inside the building.
Above: site plan – click above for larger image
“The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is a gift to the city of Dallas,” said Mayne. “It is a fundamentally public building – a building that opens up, belongs to and activates the city. It is a place of exchange. It contains knowledge, preserves information and transmits ideas; ultimately, the public is as integral to the museum as the museum is to the city.”
Above: exploded axonometric diagram – click above for larger image
See more projects by Morphosis on Dezeen, including a floating house for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans.
Photography is by Iwan Baan.
Here’s a project description from Morphosis:
Museums, armatures for collective societal experience and cultural expression, present new ways of interpreting the world. They contain knowledge, preserve information and transmit ideas; they stimulate curiosity, raise awareness and create opportunities for exchange. As instruments of education and social change, museums have the potential to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.
Above: east-facing section – click above for larger image
As our global environment faces ever more critical challenges, a broader understanding of the interdependence of natural systems is becoming more essential to our survival and evolution. Museums dedicated to nature and science play a key role in expanding our understanding of these complex systems.
The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Victory Park creates a distinct identity for the Museum, enhances the institution’s prominence in Dallas and enriches the city’s evolving cultural fabric. Designed to engage a broad audience, invigorate young minds, and inspire wonder and curiosity in the daily lives of its visitors, the Museum cultivates a memorable experience that persists in the minds of its visitors and that ultimately broadens individuals’ and society’s understanding of nature and science.
Above: north-facing section one – click above for larger image
The museum strives to achieve the highest standards of sustainability possible for a building of its type. High performance design and incorporation of state of the art technologies yields a new building that minimizes its impact on the environment.
This world class facility inspires awareness of science through an immersive and interactive environment that actively engages visitors. Rejecting the notion of museum architecture as neutral background for exhibits, the new building itself is an active tool for science education. By integrating architecture, nature, and technology, the building demonstrates scientific principles and stimulates curiosity in our natural surroundings.
Above: north-facing section two – click above for larger image
The immersive experience of nature within the city begins with the visitor’s approach to the museum, which leads through two native Texas ecologies: a forest of large native canopy trees and a terrace of native desert xeriscaping. The xeriscaped terrace gently slopes up to connect with the museum’s iconic stone roof. The overall building mass is conceived as a large cube floating over the site’s landscaped plinth. An acre of undulating roofscape comprised of rock and native drought-resistant grasses reflects Dallas’s indigenous geology and demonstrates a living system that will evolve naturally over time.
The intersection of these two ecologies defines the main entry plaza, a gathering and event area for visitors and an outdoor public space for the city of Dallas. From the plaza, the landscaped roof lifts up to draw visitors through a compressed space into the more expansive entry lobby. The topography of the lobby’s undulating ceiling reflects the dynamism of the exterior landscape surface, blurring the distinction between inside and outside, and connecting the natural with the manmade.
Above: west-facing section one – click above for larger image
Moving from the compressed space of the entry, a visitor’s gaze is drawn upward through the soaring open volume of the sky-lit atrium, the building’s primary light-filled circulation space, which houses the building’s stairs, escalators and elevators. From the ground floor, a series of escalators bring patrons though the atrium to the uppermost level of the museum. Patrons arrive at a fully glazed balcony high above the city, with a bird’s eye view of downtown Dallas. From this sky balcony, visitors proceed downward in a clockwise spiral path through the galleries. This dynamic spatial procession creates a visceral experience that engages visitors and establishes an immediate connection to the immersive architectural and natural environment of the museum.
Above: west facing section two – click above for larger image
The path descending from the top floor through the museum’s galleries weaves in and out of the building’s main circulation atrium, alternately connecting the visitor with the internal world of the museum and with the external life of the city beyond. The visitor becomes part of the architecture, as the eastern facing corner of the building opens up towards downtown Dallas to reveal the activity within. The museum, is thus, a fundamentally public building – a building that opens up, belongs to and activates the city; ultimately, the public is as integral to the museum as the museum is to the city.
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by Morphosis appeared first on Dezeen.
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