In what the Cincinnati Enquirer called “a meeting filled with fire and suspense,” City Council voted 5-4 to halt construction on its $133 million streetcar project. The Enquirer has a breakdown of how and why, in their own words, each council member voted: “We don’t want to waste money,” said Councilwoman Amy Murray, who voted […]
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New Wave Architecture‘s proposal (one of eight) for the 2015 Milan Expo demonstrates an essence of Iran brought together in a series of organic forms. The expo’s theme, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, is encapsulated the designer’s exploration of the trace of cookery in culture, literature and Iranian art. The conceptual idea behind New Wave’s proposal, The Persian Garden, reflects the cycle of a tree: the organism is fed by the soil, grows and blossoms, before nourishing people and spreading throughout the earth “to asset its support.”
According to the architects, “the tree offers a pleasant space on its shadow, carries natural ventilation and becomes a rain shelter in the rainy days of Milan.” “Iran’s pavilion should be an alluring depiction of its long-time civilization, art, historical characteristics and cultural events with having close connection with agronomics, food and technology.”
“Reminding the structure of the dome and various transition techniques in historical Persian monuments, from polygonal shapes to circular forms in the Persian architecture we impel to extract the parametric pattern of the Sheikh Lotfo-Allah dome in Isfahan seamlessly whilst interplaying with light and shade and integrating the architecture with its structure.”
“As a consequence of the continuous arches and open areas alongside the water stream, natural ventilation is deduced throughout the pavilion. Meanwhile the rain water is re-collected, stored in a tank, filtered and distributed to the lower parts of the area for re-use, lavation etc. Solar panels are efficiently angled on the roof to receive an important amount of sunlight for providing a high percentage of energy required for the pavilion.”
Architects: New Wave Architecture
Architects: Lida Almassian, Shahin Heidari
Design Associates: Zahra Hamedani, Helaleh Alaei, Mohammad Keshavarzi, Fatemeh Dehghani, Soheila Zahedi,Golnaz Baharami, Mona Ramzi, Maryam Shokouhi, Sara Milani Nia
Year: 2015
Photographs: Courtesy of New Wave Architecture
References: Milan Expo 2015
Competition Entry: Iran Pavilion (Expo Milan 2015) / New Wave Architecture originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 07 Dec 2013.
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The Rockefeller Foundation has named the first group of cities selected in the “100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge.” Each city has been chosen for demonstrating “a commitment to building their own capacities to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back rapidly from shocks and stresses.” More than 1,000 registrations and nearly 400 formal applications from cities around the world were submitted. After careful review of each city’s challenges, these 33 where chosen:
Africa
Dakar (Senegal)
Durban (South Africa)
Central and South America
Medellín (Colombia)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Porto-Alegre (Brazil)
Quito (Ecuador)
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Europe
Bristol (UK)
Glasgow (UK)
Rome (Italy)
Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Vejle (DK)
Middle East
Ashkelon (Israel)
Byblos (Lebanon)
Ramallah (Palestine)
North America
Alameda (CA)
Berkeley (CA)
Boulder (CO)
El Paso (TX)
Jacksonville (FL)
Los Angeles (CA)
New Orleans (LA)
New York City (NY)
Norfolk (VA)
Oakland (CA)
San Francisco (CA)
Oceania
Christchurch (New Zealand)
Melbourne (Australia)
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Bangkok (Thailand)
Da Nang (Vietnam)
Mandalay (Myanmar)
Semarang (Indonesia)
Those selected will work with The Rockefeller Foundation’s partners to establish the suite of financial and technical assistance support to develop and implement the resilience plan, become an integrated member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network, and create or expand the role of a Chief Resilience Officer within the municipal government.
Select on each cities name to learn more about their challenge.
Rockefeller Foundation Selects 33 Cities for Resiliency Challenge originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 07 Dec 2013.
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After less than four years under construction, the massive De Rotterdam towers, OMA’s grand experiment in urban density and scale, were completed a few weeks ago. With over 1,700,000 square feet of floor space, Rem Koolhaas’ glass-clad “vertical city” is the largest multifunctional building in the Netherlands. Within a 6-story, 100-foot-tall plinth, and three, 44-story, […]
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Architects: Architectare
Location: Itaipava – Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Project Architects: Flavia Quintanilha e Rodrigo Fernandes
Area: 704 sqm
Photographs: Leonardo Finotti
Lightning: RBF arquitetura de iluminação
Construction: K2 Engenharia
Structural Project: MPompei Engenharia
Site Area: 2790 m²
From the architect. Despite being in a proportionately large lot, the building has its shape defined by the small triangle of its buildable area on the entrance of the lot, resulting from enforcement of the condominium and local legislation. The whole building area is embedded in this triangle, with the exception of the deck, which was designed as permeable construction, as allowed. Those restrictions forced the house to be very exposed to the street and that was taken as a design proposition.
The façade towards the street was designed to give the impression that it is all closed, with exception of the library and some small openings on the first floor. The graphic texture of this façade represents the integration of the architecture with the land. From the soil, a well-defined form arises, with organic texture, made with rocks gathered in the place. On this strong base, another volume is lightly settled.
This volume contains the rooms and interacts with the street by means of theirs big sliding panels made of aluminum. This very rational texture is interrupted by the library bookshelf, which is dominated by the disordered timber wood graphism working as a moucharebiya.
The façade towards the inside of the land is made of sliding glass panels, receiving direct sun during the winter afternoon, warming the house for the night. and increasing the integration between the interior and the nature outside. Those glass panels provide the necessary input of light during the day.
To increase the interior sun light, a skylight above the stairs was designed. At night, the lighting design benefits from the material´s textures to preserve the warm atmosphere. The entire 1st floor is designed to ensure full interaction among the different uses and spaces of the house. For this, the sliding glass panels can be completely open; transforming the living room into a veranda and the deck becomes an extension of the internal space, annulling the barriers between the swimming pool and outside kitchen.
The 2nd floor is more private and all the bedrooms turn to the mezzanine where the library is, from which you can see the first floor without being too exposed.
House in the Hills / Architectare originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 02 Dec 2013.
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Monita Raipaul interviews Sri Lankan born Engineer and Designer Cecil Balmond [part 1]
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Architects: Denton Corker Marshall
Location: 1 Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Architect In Charge: Denton Corker Marshall
Area: 230.0 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Itsuka Studio
Builder : Leeda Projects
Engineer: Perrett Simpson Stantin
Custom Furniture : Arteveneta
Client: Isakaya Enterprises
From the architect. Summary
Hihou is located in Melbourne’s central business district but the design concept provides patrons with a sense of being transported to Tokyo, Japan. The patrons’ journey begins at the anonymous entrance, through a minimalistic corridor, before arriving into a Japanese inspired venue where they are welcomed by sophisticated staff.
Design Brief
The project brief was to refurbish and convert a two-hat restaurant, Verge, located opposite Treasury Gardens in Melbourne’s central business district, into a Japanese style café and bar. The first meeting with the client was held in November 2011 and the venue opened in June 2012. The client’s vision was to utilise the existing split-levels and turn the venue into two separate identities, a café (day time operation) and a bar (night time operation), by using sliding screens inspired by Japanese architecture. The aesthetic brief was very simple; create a bright and fresh café on the lower level, and a dark and moody bar on the upper level.
Design
The bar entry is located on Flinders Lane in Melbourne. There is no signage, just an intercom at the door. The anonymous entry enhances patrons’ sense of being transported to another city – Tokyo. Inside the venue, sliding screens are used to create flexible planning and to separate the two identities located within the one venue, a café and a bar. The screens slide in and out to create two different, almost conflicting themes between the day and night time operations. A minimalistic corridor guides patrons to the bar on the first floor. The bar space is designed with a timber chandelier which also doubles as a wine rack and a screen. A feature wall is created with timber battens arranged into a three-dimensional piece of artwork; bottles and glasses are displayed in between the battens to add another dimension. Opposite the feature wall, along the Flinders Lane glass façade, timber planter boxes have been designed to form a screen between the inside and the outside, as well as to create a vertical garden which responds to the surrounding Treasury Gardens and street trees.
Innovation
The Hihou design uses simple ideas to achieve a distinctive Japanese atmosphere. The use of sliding screens, feature wall and planter boxes achieves an effective multipurpose use of the space. The sliding screens enable the venue to interchange between a bright and fresh atmosphere, to dark and moody, by sliding into different positions. A timber chandelier is suspended over the communal table in the middle of the bar area. LED light fittings are arranged and embedded into the timber battens to bring indirect light into the space. It also forms a screen dividing the communal table and the wine rack. The feature wall is constructed with timber battens arranged to form a three-dimensional piece of artwork and is used to display bottles and glasses. LED light fittings are again used between the battens to light up the space, and also cast reflections on the items on display. The design of the planter boxes is based on a brief to obscure the view from the outside and reduce the ‘goldfish-in-tank’ effect. A green vertical garden responds to the surrounding Treasury Gardens and street trees. This feature was again designed with flexibility in mind – as a screen, planter boxes and/or display shelves.
Client Testimonial
The project challenge was to make over a modern design, retaining most of the existing structure while giving the venue a sense of something new, with a strong Japanese feel. The Senior Architect on the job was Japanese, allowing us to naturally instil a strong Japanese ethos into the design, while retaining the unique style of the firm. The success of creating two businesses under the same umbrella has been successfully achieved, with most customers unaware of the space above or below.
The brief for Hihou was to create a sense of being transported to Tokyo and this has been realised through the secret entrance, Japanese screens and the design of the bar area. The discreet lighting, timber battens, blackened bar top and stone tables exude an elegant Japanese feel with a sense of modernity and seriousness. Most importantly neither the practical operations of the bar nor the importance of strong, effective design, were compromised. The end result is a successful bar which combines food, design and culture to create a unique Japanese feel.
Hihou / Denton Corker Marshall originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 28 Nov 2013.
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Architects: MODU
Location: Beijing, China
Collaborators: Ho-Yan Cheung, Arup
Year: 2013
Photographs: Matthew Niederhauser
From the architect. MODU’s Outdoor Room project for the 5th China International Architecture Biennial creates an urban public space that reactivates Beijing’s iconic Olympic Park while focusing on the air quality crisis in Beijing. The competition-winning project will be open in Beijing through November 2013 and will be installed in six other cities in China.
Outdoor Room serves as an engaging urban public space and a barometer of Beijing’s well-documented air quality levels. Along with the weather report, daily readings of air particulate contaminant have become part of everyday urban life in Beijing. On most days, pollution creates a dense fog that transforms the city with an unsettling palette of colors—from dull grey to off-white and yellow-beige. On the occasional day of better air quality, urban forms suddenly materialize “out of the fog.” The concept of a city that disappears and reappears is central to the public experience of Outdoor Room. Inside the pavilion, a large elliptical roof opening provides a visual measure of the air quality. On days of good visibility, the roof void frames clear views of the Olympic Observation Tower and beyond to the National Stadium. On days of poor air quality, the landmarks virtually disappear from sight. The uncanny experience of a city disappearing and reappearing comes into focus from within Outdoor Room and draws attention to the crisis of air pollution in Beijing.
The design of Outdoor Roomprecipitated the concept of the “room in the city”andits converse, the“city in the room.” Viewed from the Olympic Park, the “room in the city” does not attempt to recreate the urban boundaries that separate polluted outdoor air from conditioned and filtered indoor air throughout Beijing. From within the public space, the openings between the fabric panels frame a “city in the room.” This “city in the room” offers changing views of the OlympicPark and the air that surrounds it. The glossy translucent fabric panels both reflect and transmit the color hue of the polluted air enveloping the city—from blue to grey to yellow. The torque geometry of the fabric panels reflects the colors differently, especially when viewed fromdifferent vantage points within Outdoor Room. All of the fabric panels were recycled from nearby exposition tent structures in the Olympic Park, highlighting existing environmental opportunities even in Beijing.
Outdoor Room / MODU originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 28 Nov 2013.
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Bad news for biking enthusiasts in Los Angeles. According to LA Downtown News, Bike Nation’s deal with the city of Los Angeles to create a Bike Share program is now basically dead. The plan, originally slated to open this April, called for an eventual 125 stations in Downtown and 400 (containing 4,000 bikes) across Los Angeles. But the […]
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San Diego’s New Central Library, which opened earlier this fall, was a long time coming. The project has been in the works since at least 1971, when the first of 46 studies on the subject of a new library building was published. Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA, who designed the $184.9 million structure with Tucker Sadler […]
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