Architecture Lab

Via Foster + Partners – Bustler

————————————–
“Foster + Partners’ masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District, on a reclaimed harbour-front site, has been launched in Hong Kong. ‘City Park’ will capture and recreate the unique character, the DNA, that makes Hong Kong such a great city. At its heart, a 23-hectare great park and a green avenue will provide a landscaped setting for a series of spectacular new cultural buildings – the jewels in Hong Kong’s architectural crown. These new buildings will be approachable and welcoming – places for both high culture and popular enjoyment.

The seventeen new cultural venues include a Great Opera House; M+ (a pioneering museum of modern art); concert halls; and a 15,000-seat Arena with an Expo Centre below. Arts educational facilities, apartments, offices, shops and transport links are to be fully integrated, and 2 kilometres of harbour-front promenade will give the people of Hong Kong their first chance to look back at the city’s iconic skyline. A social focus is created along a new central avenue, extending from Canton Road in the east to the Harbour Tunnel mouth in the west, along which a variety of cultural and commercial activities are integrated.”
————————————–

————————————–
“Foster + Partners brings its understanding of urban design and knowledge of Hong Kong – gained from thirty-one years’ experience in the city – to create a vibrant new cultural quarter with public spaces and buildings where public and private realms converge, social and physical boundaries are dissolved, and different groups can meet. West Kowloon’s familiar street pattern will extend into ‘City Park’ so that it becomes a natural extension of the local community. This relationship is reflected in a rich mixture of colonnades, alleyways, lanes and tree-lined promenades – streetscapes that recall the bustle of Lan Kwai Fong and thoroughfares such as Shanghai Street in Kowloon.

Though the district will attract visitors for its imaginative cultural programme, equally important are the 30,000 square metres of arts education facilities that will encourage home-grown artistic talent and benefit the people of Hong Kong.”
———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————
“The 19-hectare great park will have magnificent views of the harbour and Hong Kong Island, and be open and accessible to local people and visitors alike. Its sculpted terrain, with dense tree planting, will provide shade and shelter, bringing the Hong Kong countryside into the city. A series of outdoor terraces and promenades will link the cultural buildings to the waterfront with vistas to Hong Kong Island. The great park also incorporates areas for outdoor performances and exhibitions. The needs of pedestrians and cars are balanced by sinking the main vehicle route below ground level; and to further maximise parkland, the Expo Centre is embedded below the Arena, combining two functions in one compact form.”
————————————–

————————————–
“City Park will achieve a carbon-neutral rating with a synergistic system of high-efficiency and low-consumption infrastructure. The low-energy design includes district cooling/heating, grey water recycling, energy recovery systems for sewage, recycling, a waste-to-energy scheme and the generation of local, low-carbon electricity. There is also provision for solar and wind energy generation.

Lord Foster, Founder and Chairman, Foster + Partners said: “Hong Kong is a great city and this project captures what is important about its DNA: the civic spaces, the squares, the parks, the greenery, the avenues and the small side streets. At ‘City Park’ we have created a world class setting for a new cultural city for everyone.”
————————————–

————————————–
“Mouzhan Majidi, Chief Executive, Foster + Partners said: “The West Kowloon Cultural District is an ambitious project to create a dynamic new district with a rich mix of spaces for everyone in Hong Kong. Our approach is to create a masterplan where the boundaries between living, working and playing are blurred, public space is welcoming and lively, and the quality of urban life is substantially improved. We look forward to carrying out further work on this exciting endeavour.”
————————————–

————————————–
Spencer de Grey, Head of Design, Foster + Partners said: “City Park belongs to the people of Hong Kong. What we have done is taken our years of experience here, listened to what people need and created a setting for a new world class cultural district that expresses the hopes and aspirations of the city. It will be the most extraordinary international destination – a new landmark on the world’s cultural map.” Foster + Partners
—————————————————————————-
Work on the WKCD will be phased and the venues include:

The Great Park and green avenue
Characterised by an organic landscape, the Great Park is a twenty-three-hectare green oasis, including a nineteen-hectare park, on the western promontory of the site. It not only provides the setting for three major venues – the Arena, the Exhibition Centre and the Opera House – but also contains tea houses, small temples, follies, picnic areas and informal sports pitches within its hills and densely planted trees.

The Arena and Expo
A reinvention of a building type, the Arena and Expo centre contains a stacked programme – combining two functions within one compact form. With the arena constituting a large-scale performance venue on the upper levels, the expo centre is dug-into the site, below ground. The benefit of this unique programme is that it not only frees space for more parkland, but also concentrates two heavily serviced buildings within one, thereby reducing the infrastructure required for access and services for each. While the Expo centre will be full of activity during the daytime, the Arena will host events at night, thus creating a lively 24-hour shopping and entertainment centre.

Habitable Wall
Sweeping around the inner perimeter of the park and establishing a buffer to the West Harbour Crossing, a “green wall” contains hotels, restaurants, conference facilities and the showcase energy centre that serves the whole site.

Great Opera House
The home of WKCD’s resident opera company, the Great Opera House nestles within the Great Park, flanking its north-eastern edge and representing the western culmination of the Avenue. The Great Opera House marks the transition from city to park-scape. In front of the Great Opera House is Opera Plaza, which can be used for informal events and temporary exhibitions. This space sits within the park and offers spectacular views of the Bay and the Hong Kong skyline.

Green Rooms / the Urban Edge
With services and infrastructure placed below ground and the level of the development dictated by the buried Express Rail Link station, the public urban realm of WKCD is raised three metres above the current topographic datum. The city therefore steps down to the water’s edge, establishing dramatic views across the bay. A series of ‘green rooms’ step down from the cultural venues along the site edge, and extend towards Kowloon Park. Each room has a distinct identity, with the level change offering potential for terraced gardens, stepped plazas and integrated services and kiosks.

The Avenue
The Avenue, a bustling, wide boulevard-like pedestrian street, is the central spine running east/west from the Great Opera House at the edge of the Great Park, to Black Box Tower and Canton Road Plaza Gateway. The Avenue unlocks the whole district, connecting all the different elements together, and is characterised by a dynamic mix of major cultural venues, along with shops, noodle bars, private galleries, artists’ studios, workshops and residential apartments. A network of smaller streets intersect the Avenue, offering specialist culture-related shopping and cultural experiences. At the far western end of the Avenue, a bridge leads directly to Elements shopping centre and to Kowloon MTR station, while at the far eastern end, Austin Bridge connects directly to Austin Station and to King George IV Memorial Park beyond.

Xiqu Plaza and the Chinese Theatre
At the centre of the Avenue, adjacent to the Chinese Theatre, Xiqu Plaza is the centrepiece of the district. Occupying a strategic location, Xiqu Plaza connects to the forecourt plaza of the Express West Kowloon Terminus Rail Link, establishing a dramatic gateway to the development on arrival by train with a view corridor towards the Hong Kong skyline. The social heart of West Kowloon Cultural District, the plaza is filled with food stalls, organic markets, restaurants and cafes. The square is influenced by the presence of the adjacent Chinese Theatre, with its generous overhanging roof, beneath which there are restaurants and cafes. This establishes a traditional Chinese identity for the entire district.

Art School, Theatre and Academy, Music Square
Adjacent to the Great Opera House, a mixed-programme development would house an art school on the upper levels, with a music academy on the lower levels and theatre below grade. To the north of the building, a public square establishes an outdoor social space, with temporary music-related events or installations and a possible showcase for the art school and music academy. Rising above the height of the surrounding buildings, the art school is a bold marker, with spectacular views towards Hong Kong and an external rooftop terrace with sculpture garden.

The Concert Hall and Symphonic Stairs
The concert hall is defined by its raised public terrace that steps up, dramatically, from the waterfront. A key viewing point for the Hong Kong skyline, audiences are able to watch performances against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Equally, the building’s strong form is a civic and cultural marker for the cultural district, when viewed from Hong Kong. A music centre of international standing, the concert hall will consolidate West Kowloon’s position as an arts destination in its own right.

East of Xiqu
A number of further venues and public squares extend eastward from Xiqu Theatre. Characterised by a mixed programme of commercial, education and cultural uses, these include recording studios, the White Box gallery, Literature Square and Dance studios.

Knowledge Centre
The Knowledge Centre is located to the south of West Kowloon Terminus and Austin Station, connecting to East Gate Plaza and Austin Bridge to the east. A 21st century library and centre for learning and literature, the Knowledge Centre is welcoming and accessible, offering visitors and the local community a place to learn, meet, research and spend leisure time. Containing a library, computer rooms with wi-fi, the building is also home to exhibitions relating to literature and local history and culture. The programme suggests open, flexible environments in which communication can flourish.

M+
WKCD’s pioneering museum of modern art, M+ is accessed from the Avenue, near to Kowloon Park Bridge on the waterfront. Flanked by two plazas, the venue is also home to a sculpture-making courtyard to the east and a sculpture garden to the west. The building is characterised by its flexible exhibition spaces – including spaces for large-scale installations – as well as additional functions, such as lecture theatres, an archive of Chinese painting, art storage and a roof-top restaurant and sky-garden. A pedestrian public route leads through the site, reinforcing its integration into the wider city context. A major international centre for the visual arts, M+ is ranked among the world’s elite modern arts institutions, such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Tate Modern in London.

Canton Road Plaza and Black Box Tower
The Avenue culminates, at its far eastern end, in the Canton Road Plaza and the distinctive Black Box Tower. The tower houses a twenty-four-hour bookshop at the lower level, with three theatres stacked above, hosting fringe performances and comedy.

Connections and transport integration
Central to the vision for WKCD is the seamless integration of public transport and connections to Hong Kong, China and beyond. There are footbridges to Austin Station, Elements shopping centre, Kowloon Park and West Kowloon Station (with trains to the airport taking just twenty minutes). There is also the China ferry terminal to the East and the Star Ferry terminal close to the concert hall with regular connections to Hong Kong. The infrastructure for the entire site is discreetly placed below grade, with deliveries and service access to the venues separated from the predominantly pedestrian ground level. An automated transit system is proposed, which would connect all venues, keeping walking distances to a minimum and strategically connecting all the dots on the transport map. A fleet of eco minibuses connects further into central Kowloon areas.”
———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————

Via EASTERN design office

—————————————–
Project Details:
- Location：Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- Client：AMERICAN CLUB INTERNATIONAL CO, LTD
- Site Area：711.46㎡
- Total Floor Area：361.84㎡
- Structural Engineering：HOJO STRUCTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- Contractor：Fukasaka Co., Ltd
- Photographer：Koichi Torimura
—————————————–
“This building is a design room for a Japanese sneaker brand, Dragon Beard, as well as a residential house. The site is in Takarazuka-city of Hyogo Prfecture. It is located in an exclusive residential district that commands an entire view of the Osaka Plain. The architecture is built on the slope of a hill with an elevation of 330 meters. The level difference of the site is ８ meters.

Taking advantage of the slope, one of the characteristics of this site, an architecture which suits the desires of two persons is built.

* A.　To be underground in the warmth of the earth.
* B.　To fly like a bird.

—————————————————————
A.　To be warmed up. A lower floor, a house, invisible in a mountain.

1. The site has an ８ meter difference in height. ８ meters is higher than a two-story building. The lower floor is in the ground of the slanted site. It is invisible from the upper road.
2. There is a bedrock layer 1.5 meters beneath the ground surface. It is so hard that even a shovel car could not crush it. Dig to the bedrock and the foundation is supported by this bedrock.
3. Build two mounds using the soil dug. Insert a residence between these two mounds.
4. Built on “a new topography-mountain”, all parts of the building are close to the earth. The mountains are designed to emphasize the slope.

An exclusive residential area on a hill features a good commanding view as its sales point. Development of this kind of community is planned in a similar way with no individuality. We consider this phenomenon as “a loss of topography”. We have dreamed of a mountain whose slope was scraped away. The lost mountain is designed into this architecture.
Architecture is not built on a site where the slope is flattened. By contrary the angle of the slope is increased, which results in two mounds. Between these two mounds a living space is built, and the upper story floating on these two mounds is a design room.

B. Flying. An upper floor, a design room

1. Observe the Gulf of Osaka, high-rise buildings, Kobe port, Kansai Airport, Itami Airport, and shadowy blue mountains.
2. The land originally slanted at an angle of 18 degrees. Mounds are built there to let the slope undulate.
3. These mountain waves are topography where no previous topography existed. The upper floor was designed to float on these mountain waves.
4. We have designed the form which passes over the waves. Is it a dream of a long-distance ship going over high waves or is it a dragon?

The dream of this architecture is like a voyage setting out.
An 18 meter-long terrace. The sea and a range of mountains 60 kilometers away can be observed. When standing on this terrace, rows of other houses in this area are out of sight. This is the way we have arranged this architecture and its openings.
You can get a sense that your body is slightly floating. It is our intention to give the sense of being on a deck of ships, but not in the house. The design room on the upper floor of this architecture is a ship.

The plan is designed in L-shape. The edge protruding greatly from the slope is an opening that swallows the outside.
Straight eaves run amidst the curvilinear forms of the topography. The eaves project in a powerful manner not to be beaten by the inherent force of the topography. They are thin, thick, short, long and carved.

To be protected by the house, yet at the same time have the feeling of flying away. Making two extremes into one. This is realized in the architecture in the corresponding forms of the upper and lower floors.

It is a cave and also a nautical form.

It is flying away, yet it is anchored.
It is drifting, yet it is homely.
It is sky, and it is Earth.
It is far, yet it is near.

—————————————————————
The Material of the Mountain

The outside (exterior) mountain is formed into a mound by piling up soil excavated from the slope. The surface of the mound is a type of raw material made from crushed marble called “Kansui”. Glittering fragments of crushed marble on a whity surface shine brilliantly. There are two white mountains. The living quarters are inside the white mountain while atop the white mountainous wave is a deck.
One of the two white mountains functions as a structural support for this building, while the other mountain conceals the bathroom. These two mountains are also set into the living spaces of the residential quarters.

—————————————————————
The Structure of the Deck

The framework of the upper floor is steel and the lower floor is reinforced concrete. The upper floor evokes a sense of being on the deck of a boat and in order to achieve this feeling architectural columns and walls are designed as to make one unaware of their existence.
Entering the house from the northern road, a 14meter wide opening and the 16.5 meter x3 meter terrace outside create the feeling that your own body is floating in the scenery. This is a deck.
To achieve this, we used two different methods.

1. Revaluation of the trusses
2. Concealing the structural members in the curves

—————————————————————
Living Space + Opening + Mountain

The lower floor fully utilizes the slope of the mountain. The hidden areas become mountains、while the areas that is required light become valleys. These rolling undulations are all part of the design.

Two Horizontal Eaves

The upper and lower floors are used in different ways. The upper floor is a design room. The lower floor houses residential quarters. That is there are public spaces within the residential quarters. The demand of how the spaces should be is different; therefore, the structure is also different.
Taking balance to unify the upper and lower portions, the curves of the mountain are made continuous with the curves of the openings. There are two thin iron plate eaves on the openings: one with the length of 14 meters on the upper floor and the other with 16.5 meters on the lower floor. The thickness of the iron plate is only ９mm. The straight line of these two eaves emphasizes the expansive spreading horizontal width of this house. Consequently, this makes you forget that the house is on a sloped site.

—————————————————————
Blue and White

The overall whiteness is not just a general white coat of paint. It is white mixed with blue. This is because we want white that　corresponds with the blue sky. In addition, we intend this white to reflect the light of fragments of marble scattered in the raw material which covers on the surface of two newly built mountains.

This is a slope when architecture is erased. The architecture of the “house” is a “mountain.” The plan for this slope is to shape the mountain structurally, but that goal was to let people feel the uninterrupted flow of the curves that define the mountain. Let the people have a sense of closeness to the wave-like mountain. A small change to the curve will lead to a loss of balance, affecting the way openings should be designed, the mountain, and the entire architecture will also have to be change its form. However at this moment not even one person felt unnatural when standing on this undulating slop.

[Left]Putting the ideas of a “slope” into order. The correlation between rising and falling(＝up and down) , crossing far and nearby nature. The multifarious worlds that people can sense in a place called “slope”
[Right] A person standing on a slope. A person crouching on a slope. A person flying off a slope. Only on a slope can people look back on the road they’ve climbed and, also can look at the way they will go from now on. It can be called a visional place that inspires people.

[Left]1.5 meters beneath the ground surface is hard bedrock. The foundation is raised on this bedrock. For this, the excavated earth was used and the red curving line was designed to achieve this. In other words, by heaping up the excavated soil, a new undulating mountainous topography is built. The lower floor is built under the mountain.The form which runs over the mountains is the upper floor. The corresponding upper and lower floors are made into one form.[Right]Haven’t you ever had the experience of gazing far into the distance, all alone in a spot on a grassy slope where adults will surely never come? ”

Source: EASTERN design office
————————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Robert Adam Architects

————————————————
“1458 Marfaa is a mixed use building on an historic site. Completed in October 2009 the building responds to the client’s request for a building of ‘timeless’ quality for a prominent corner site that marks an important medieval gateway into old Beirut.

The Bab Idriss gate of the city was said to have once sat on this site and marked the line of the rising sun on the day of the city’s foundation. The building design draws on this historic memory relating physically and symbolically to Beirut’s past.
The building also acts as a formal entrance into the Place de L’etoile, created under the French mandate.

British architect Robert Adam cooperated with the Beirut architect and friend Fadlallah Dagher after his firm Dagher Hanna & Partners Architects won a competition to develop the site.

This building provides 5,840 m2 of retail and office space and eleven luxury apartments, plus additional levels below ground for car parking.

Decoration reinterprets traditional Ottoman and Islamic forms and uses different levels of embellishment across each façade, graded in detail from the simplified street elevations to the more elaborate classical detail on the corner as the most important element of this building. A modulation of three bays with recessed balconies and set backs creates a characteristic streetscape. A proportion of 1 to 1.8 is used for this building, which is consistent with the proportions of Ottoman period town house bays.

The rooftop beacon or lantern emphasises the corner along the axis of the Roman gateway and provides a focus between the junction of the old centre and the surrounding modern city. It is a contemporary lit structure that develops a Middle Eastern classicism with modern materials.”
————————————————

————————————————
About the Architects
Robert Adam Architects
The Practice was founded in 1955 and became Robert Adam Architects in 1992. It has an international reputation in classical and traditional architecture and has become a world leader in progressive classical design, combining tradition with the latest technology.
As well as significant projects in the UK and the USA the practice works across Europe, the Middle East and Japan.
Its portfolio of award-winning projects includes exclusive town and country houses, public and commercial buildings, pioneering work in masterplanning, urban design and the conversion, restoration and extension of important historic buildings.

The work of Robert Adam Architects has been widely published, exhibited and broadcast. As widely acclaimed experts in classical design and progressive technology, its directors are consulted by government agencies and ministries on policy and design, and regularly invited to write, lecture and teach.
In addition, all five directors are trustees of many national interest groups and founders of international architectural and urban design organisations.”

UK Architect: Robert Adam at Robert Adam Architects
Client’s representative/Local Architect: Dagher Hanna & Partners Architects
—————————————————————————————————————–

—————————————————————————————————————–

EASTERN design office

———————-

Project Details:
・Location: Shiga Japan
・Completion: 2007
・Total floor area: 311.50m2
・Design team: EASTERN design office + Jin Sasaki
・Photographer: Koichi Torimura
・Constructor: Marusho Co., Ltd
———————-
Do they really live beyond this・・・The mountain village appears when having started a little anxious so. The Horizontal House is here.

This house does not look like the house.
“The shape of the house traces the boundary of the village. The village consists of six houses in all. The shape of the village could be done by making it by stone wall in old times. The project site is located on the north edge of the village that is in the prominent place, and makes the face of the village.
—————

—————
There is a position to observe the village from afar. Our intention is to form scenery from there. The shape to extend naturally the stone wall of old times. The horizontal slit carved there. It becomes familiar with the scenery of the village surprisingly.

When you enter the house, you will be surprised at the sequence of the view that the slits cut out and the spaciousness there. Because of the horizontal slits surrounding the whole house there is scenery wherever you see. The horizontal slits that overlap in succession at the up and down are 15 totals and the total length of 115m.

The village in the deep place is seen in the slit in the north. Sequence of the mountain continues far away. Footpath in rice field and the person’s coming and going, which disappear into the mountains. The river is seen in the slit in the east. Children bubble over to catching sweetfish there. The Shinto shrine lurks under a large Japan cedar of 400 years. Tsukiaimichi(a communal alley) can be seen through the slit in the shoji in the south. The roofs of the village and the zelkova big trees overlap in the scenery. A mountain comes in the scenery in succession over that. The shrine where the forest and this village are defended is seen in the slit in the west.
——————–

—————
There is the one “Tsukiaimichi”. Though the road belongs to somebody of the village, everyone of village may freely pass through. The person in the village stroll their dog on “Tsukiaimichi”, they stand chatting, and it takes a shortcut. The client gives importance on “Tsukiaimichi”. And she wishes to defend the privacy without closing the view to outside.

The stone wall is extended. Thus the retaining wall is made. It forms “Tsukiaimichi” surrounding the site at the position without the pressure feeling. “Tsukiaimichi” goes up to the courtyard through the retaining wall where the width was narrowed once. The retaining wall lowers gradually and disappears on ground. Then view opens rapidly. But the stone of 170cm height wall is inside to obstruct the view into the house from passersby. And the stone of 120cm height wall appears. Here is the entrance. The shoji where the slit was put so as not to see the inside faces the courtyard.

All those become like “Invisible Layers” between “Tsukiaimichi” and the life scene, which makes the ambiguous boundary there.”
—————

———————————————————————————————————-

———————————————————————————————————-

Eastern Design Office

————————
Project Details:
project: Slit house
Architects : Eastern Design Office
location: Japan
Client: NIWAKA, INC.
Site Area: 318 square meters
Building Area: 210 square meters
Total Floor Area: 210 square meters
Structure: Reinforced Concrete
Levels: At ground level
Materials used: Concrete, Glass, Timber, Hemp carpet
————————
“This house is made “only” by the slits. there is no window. The wall of 105m lengths with 60 slits surround the site realizes the architectural space in this narrow and long site. No other architecture has ever been realized by such method.

This conceptual sculpturing by the slits is poles apart from glass-heavy contemporary architecture. This method with the slits is our challenge to “window”. This challenge is an experiment to innovate a design method of architecture. The concept to compose the architecture just by the slits directly figures this architecture. This simple method distinguishes the outline of the entire figure and abstracts the stance of the architecture.
————–

————–
The site is located in an old city in Japan, where many private houses stand in a row. The site size is depth of 50m and width of 7.5m. One of two narrow frontages faces a street and the other faces a river. We designed a long wall that encloses this narrow and long site. The slits open this enclosure. The 140mm width slits screen inner privacy from view from outside. But the slits bring 60 light into the house. This proposes one method to live in a dense residential area in Japan where houses stand side by side. 80 years old woman lives in this house. The house presents her both a life space with a soft light and an interesting experience of scale unlikely in a house.

The slits make us more sensitive to light. The interior space is light beyond our expectations. Light through the slits varies its appearance momentarily according to weather, season and time. The slits remind us our old experience in memory with poetic scenery. It looks as if a stream of light through Fusuma or Shoji in Japanese traditional architecture or a stream of light from skylight of ancient stone architecture.
————–

————–
This architecture has a silent ambiance just like in the midst of solitary jar and a poetic clearness as like in an endless spatiality. The slits hold the promise of an innovative design method of architecture.

The Slit House has its own special time.
At the dawn, watery light comes into the house through the slits. That makes the entire room bright faintly.
At 9:30AM,sequence of the feeble light that reflects to header of slits appears.
At 10:30AM, the sunlight pierces through angled slits at first.
At 11:00AM,the sunlight pierces through all slits. The sunlight through the slit and the reflected light on the header of the slit project the stripe of V type to the long corridor. If you saw the repetition of this edgy light, you might feel as if time of 11:00AM has stopped. In as much as ten minutes, the reflected light on the header disappears. The shape of the light that the slit makes changes from V type into one stripe. The moments that the sun pierces through the angled slits and through the straight slits are different.　The angled slits get a little earlier. The momentary time lag let us feel a running of the sun and makes us forefeel the upcoming time of the dusk.
And it shortens little by little. And watery light fills the house again with soft brightness. Then the night comes before long.”
————-

—————————————————-
Plans:

——————————————————————————————————————————-

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Bustler

Mashhad—home to the shrine of the 8th Imam of Shiites—is one of the most significant religious sites in Iran. It attracts many more visitors than the holy city of Mecca; almost 10 times as many per year. Given the economic and political power of the religious authorities in Iran, as tourism and travel overtake all industries around the world, Mashhad becomes the center of investment and development in this country.

The obvious need for accommodation and entertainment of the visitors has lead to major decisions in the recent Master Plan of the city. The Master Planning Vision has shifted from the strategy of isolation of the shrine via a green belt to a strategy of reconnection via boulevards. These boulevards are lined with large scale buildings with pilgrim accommodation and shopping as major functions. The site of the competition is located on one of the three main boulevards and acts as one of the three gateways to the religious site.

The competition called for entries for a 5-star hotel, hotel apartments, residential spaces, commercial spaces, a public park and a multi-story public parking in a development of about 80,000 m2. The site consists of 5 plots, however the brief allows for and the master plan of the city encourages the project to merge the 5 sites into one.

The competition was held by an architecture office; The Eight Company. The client was a private Iranian bank- Bank-e Pasargad. Of the twelve teams invited to the competition, 4 had been widely known foreign office associates (Atelier Bow-Wow from Japan, BIG from Denmark, BRT from Germany and Guallart Architects from Spain).

The Jury was composed of architects and developers from the city of Mashhad and prominent Iranian architects from the Association of Iranian Architects, including Iraj Kalantari, Abolfath Sepanloo, along with Seyed Reza Hashemi. Of the remaining 11 entries from 8 participating offices, 3 winners and 2 honorable mentions were awarded. The three winners of first to third place will be awarded monetary prizes. In addition, the first place winner will be awarded a contract to execute the project.
————————————————————————————
First Place: BRT Engineering GmbH (Germany) + Design Core [4s] Architects (Iran)

————-
Design Team:
Iran: Sam Tehranchi, Maryam Kompany, Ali Nabi
Germany: Hadi Tehrani, Ingo Hartfil, Heike Heister, Alice Pape, Manal Fakhouri, Zarko Serafimowski, Evgeny Stolyarov
Structure: Markus Maier, Angelos Tsirigotis from LAP
Renderings: Bloomimages
————-
The formal concept of the building results from stipulated building lines and construction heights in addition to site axis and road alignments. Thus, it creates a monolithic shape that follows the heterogeneous character of the plot in a subtle way.
A continuous band folds down on one end and defines a gateway toward the Holy Shrine while enclosing the block. Its continuity and elongated form emphasizes the direction along the main northern boulevard toward the religious site.
Public, semi- public and private spaces are created within the curves and folds of the structure. Thus a variety of public spaces, from loud and lively to spaces of reflection are created that respond to the brief. The shape of the building, defines an entry to the quiet courtyard in the back. This courtyard is planted with tall trees and water features which emphasize its peaceful character. With the access to the café, and controlled entry via a water feature, it provides a quiet space to linger in.
The hotel is located in a prominent space along the eastern main road on top of the building and defines its presence on the main intersection. It has a central lobby within a glass envelope that is equally accessed from the crossroad and the courtyard.

The residential is located in the western wing of the building. It is an independent part of the complex; technically, statically and functionally it is self-sufficient and can be constructed and operated individually.

Commercial spaces are located on the ground and first floors along the main northern boulevard as well as around the courtyard and form a pedestal for the building. An arcade runs around the pedestal in front of the shops on all sides and allows visitors to stroll around the building throughout the year.
——————————————————————————————–
Second Place: Bonsar Architecture Office (Iran), Guallart Architects (Spain), Delnaz Yekrangian (Iran)
(Mohamad Majidi, Vicente Guallart, Delnaz Yekrangian)

———————-
Design Team: Azar Farshidi, Vicente Guallart, Mehran Haghbin, Zahra Khaniki, Mohammad Majidi, Mehrnush Safdari, Hossein Salavati Khoshghalb, Delnaz Yekrangian
Structure: Mehdi Mirkhosravi
Sustainibility: Afsaneh Tafazoli
Renderings: Babak Taghikhani
———————-
A 5-star hotel, hotel apartments and a residential complex merge with a commercial center that contains in addition to shopping, opportunities for cultural, educational, health and religious promenades not only to accommodate but also to entertain the visitors. In a city where stroll in the city is the main tourist activity next to pilgrimage, the possibility of a stroll within the complex becomes a necessity.
Eight gardens within the project with individual characteristics defined by their location, activities, or their particular vegetation connected via public spaces compose this promenade as an extension of the city within the project. The strategy of the linked gardens provides an opportunity to combine pleasure with sustainability. The openness of the project and its permeability make natural light and ventilation accessible everywhere inside.
The structure of the building is derived from a decorative motif found on the entry courtyard to the Shrine. The decorative calligraphy is exaggerated in scale and defines the entire building. The interpretation is done in a subtle way to avoid an iconic presence for the project which tries to pay homage to the only icon of the city; the holy Shrine of Imam Reza.

—————————————
Check the rest of the entries and winners at Bustler
———————————————————————————————————-

———————————————————————————————————-

Bustler

The Greater Amman Municipality announced the awards of the design schemes for the culture and performing arts venue ‘Darat King Abdullah II’.

” The Greater Amman Municipality as the promoter of the ‘Darat King Abdullah II’ architectural competition credited two design proposals with the first prize. The winning offices are the Austrian architects Delugan Meissl Assossiated Architects and the British architect Zaha Hadid. The Norwegian architecture office ‘Snøhetta’ became third. A second prize was not awarded.

The competition was initiated following the directives of His Excellency King Abdullah II supported by a selected group of qualified advisers of the Hashemite Royal Office early last year. The aim was to establish a cultural centre in Jordan, called ‘Darat King Abdullah II’. The premium city center site at Ras Al Ain on the other side of the Al-Hussein Cultural Center, the former location of the Tobacco Company, was chosen for the new venue of Jordan’s performing arts.

The Municipality decided to organize an international architectural competition with top-class architects experienced in theater and opera planning, in order to achieve the best and most appropriate design for this cultural landmark. The selection committee short-listed the six teams amongst 30 applicants, because they achieved the requirements of the Municipality. The others did not fulfill the expectations in terms of the required experience.

The building will be designed to be the center of various art activities and associations, including the Amman Symphony Orchestra, the National Institute of Music, the National Folklore Group and the Amman Municipality Group of Folk Art. The ‘Darat King Abdullah II’ will additionally provide facilities and room for concerts, dance and theatre performances for local and international groups.

This new venue will consist of a large theater, accommodating 1600 persons and a small theater with 400 seats available both equipped with highly sophisticated audio systems. Training areas and public facilities, as a restaurant and a café will also be provided. The development will require a certain level of flexibility in terms of its design, construction and operation to accommodate large events and experimental workshops. ‘Darat King Abdullah II’ will arrange local community events and become the cultural hub for artistic programs and activities. The building will also offer space for learning programs, supporting education and training courses for children, youth and adults in various disciplines.

The other architects participating in the competition were Kerry Hill Architects, HLT Henning Larsen Tegnestue and Atelier Christian de Portzamparc.

International and local architects as well as technical experts, specialized in theatre, music, performing arts, acoustics, lighting and special effects were part of the competition jury board.”
————————————————————————————-
Prize winners of the competition

1st Prize: Zaha Hadid Architects, London/UK

Explanatory report (abstract)
Inspired by the uniquely beautiful monument of Petra. …We are applying the principle of fluid erosion and carving to the mass of the building for the performing arts centre.
The urban strategy pursues the maximization of open public space on the western edge of the site. The mass of the new building is therefore pushed into the eastern extension of the site to clear the wider western end for sake of creating a big public plaza. This plaza is important to activate the site and the new institutions. It is proposed a generous, diagonal underpass that emerges in the great plaza as a grand connective gesture.
The volume is opened up in the northwestern direction to communicate with the public plaza. This large, inviting opening- the multi-level public foyer- is pushed all the way through the building to connect with the south side. The internal voids open up to the roof, animating the fifth façade of the building. The Concert Theater is exposed at the end of the public void. The Small Theater is exposed overhead at the front of the building where the public foyer fuses with the public plaza.

The plaza ground outside receives the underpass coming from the GAM strip and thus cerates an amphitheater-like valley. The main access to the building is via the plaza. The interior void is forming an interior square open to public at daytime, serving as a shade gathering area, a plaza for information, ticket vending and exhibitions. From here the theaters are entered via a small buffer foyers.
The second entrance on the elevated south side of the building is used as VIP entrance with a drop off point directly at the door. The artists and staff entrance is located at the east side of the building. Here a green lounge and artist’s café is welcoming all those who actively contribute to the creativity of the institution.
Along the south side runs a continuous spine with service and supports space. On the western side of this back-spine, above the main entrance, all educational facilities are allocated.”

Project Details:
Authors: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher
Employees and Student Trainees: Christos Passas, Tariq Khayyat, Nils Fischer, Dominiki Dadatsi, Marya Araya, Sylvia Georgiadou, Bence Pap, Eleni Paviidou, Daniel Santos, Daniel Widrig, Sevil Yazipi
Experts:
Structure Engineers: Arup, London/UK
MEP Engineers: Ove Arup, London/UK
Theatre Consultants: Artec, New York/US
——————————————————————–

1st Prize: Delugan Meissl Associates Architectes, Vienna/Austria

” Explanatory report (abstract)
The differentiated but interconnected spatial sequences of public spaces, foyers and theater halls turn the Darat King Abdullah II into a lively, discussion-rich platform for conversations, performances and societal action…
Proposed at a prime location in the heart of the Jordanian capital, the complex is planned to house all types of performing arts. Conceived as a place to rehearse, discuss, teach, study and perform, the complex is to become the premier venue for theater, music and dance performances and education.
The goal of the design is to conceive an open building that is effective as an inviting and yet powerful symbol in all directions while being permeated by generosity and openness.

In this distinctive urban planning situation, the Darat King Abdullah II forms the end point of the GAM strip, spatially envelops it and at the same time appears as a starting point for the further valley with its special qualities. “Bridges” are being erected and diverse public spaces on smaller and larger scales are being constructed for the connection of the urban areas that were previously divided by the traffic.
The three main pedestrian movements from the GAM strip flow into the public square in front of the building, which directly adjoins the foyer. The square is arranged six meters above street level and thereby removed from the traffic noise. It is bordered by restaurants and cafes and is highly attractive to visitors. With the direct connection to the bridge to the GAM strip and the newly created terraced and wooded recreation areas, this exterior space functions as a public stage for a communicative togetherness. The space forms an ideal transition to the “House of Music”, and this is increased by the inviting gesture of the exposed canopy.
The transparency and the inclusion of the location and environment as a part of the interior conception further underline the uniqueness and specific identity of the building. The differentiated but interconnected spatial sequences of public spaces permit the creation of a site that can just as well offer the quiet and concentration that is desirable for the enjoyment of music.”

Project Details:
Authors: Elke Delugan-Meissl, Roman Delugan, Martin Josst
Employees and Student Trainees:
Sebastian Brunke, Jörg Rasmussen, Oana Maria Nituica, Claudiu Barsan-Pipu, Marina Kolloch, Thomas Theilig, Xiaozhen Zhu, Peter Pichler, Jan Saggau
Experts:
Structural Design: Werkraum Wien, Vienna
Design of Open-air Spaces: Rajek Borosch Landschaftsarchitektur, Vienna
Concert Theater and Acoustics: Müller BBM Akustik, Munich
HVACR: Scholzegruppe, Vienna
——————————————————————-

3rd Prize: Snøhetta AS, Oslo/Norway

Explanatory report (abstract)
Our intention with this design is to create a prestigious, contemporary and stimulating complex for the performing arts, truly integrated into the landscape and urban context.
Connectivity and density are the key strategies for the project. The roof and the arch connect the building with the landscape; the green backdrop of pine trees, the steep hillside and the park in the GAM strip. Horizontal soft lines form a great tent covering the diverse cultural content.
The building is a dense body on the northwestern part of the competition site. The two southern expansion sites can be used for expansion, may be a car park or additional cultural and educational purposes, or even housing.
The indoor and outdoor pedestrian spaces become much more than a foyer but an urban feature woven into the context of the city, with its surrounding streets, bazaars and alleys that make up the urban fabric of Amman. This conceived covered street, the foyer, invites the citizens of Amman into the heart of the Cultural Complex. Here one will find all the elements that contribute to a lively, bustling urban experience: cafes, ticket office, bookstore, retail, education facilities and rehearsal rooms, a cultural bazaar.
The school is grouped on the eastern end of the foyer in close proximity to the staff entrance and primary rehearsal facilities.

The administration forms a compact and effective unit at the western end of the foyer. The staff canteen is located at the top of the administration under the great roof canopy providing daylight and a relaxed atmosphere.
The catering is divided into bars and cafes at foyer level and a quality restaurant at the top of the great arched wall with direct access to the park. Below the restaurant are the VIP lounges, which to enter from a bridge to the balcony level.
The two main auditoriums and rehearsal room are aligned in a linear front row with public access from the foyer and good access to all building facilities in the back row.

Project Details:
Authors: Robert Greenwood, Oslo
Employees and Student Trainees:
Kjerstin Bjerka, Peter Dang, Peter Girgis, Tine Hegli, Andreas Nypan, Julian Preiss, Erik Vitanza
Experts:
Civil, structural, services and specialist engineers: Büro Happold Ltd, Glasgow/UK
Acoustical consultant: Arup Acoustics, Winchester, Hampshire/UK
——————————————————————-

Further participants of the competition (not awarded)

Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, Paris/France

———————————-
Henning Larsen Architects

———————————-
Kerry Hill Architects, Singapore

———————————-

Source: Bustler

Wired

Death Chamber: Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary (largest prison in the United States), 2005
A new book by photographer Richard Ross: Architecture of Authority, examines the way institutional buildings exert power over people. Ross managed to gain impressive access to all kinds of secretive or high-security buildings, from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, to the supermax high-security Pelican Bay prison in California. Ross credits his unprecedented access to a combination of persistence and sincere curiosity. “Many of these people want to show you these places once they know that you’re interested in their world,” he says.

To question the pervasiveness of intimidating, “disgusting” architecture, the images in Ross’ book are both striking and inviting. Ross intentionally makes the photos of oppressive structures look seductive. “You can convince people a lot easier by whispering in their ear rather than hitting them over the head,” says Ross.
Continue Reading

BUSTLER

” schmidt hammer lassen has won a competition to design a new hotel and conference centre in Lund, in southern Sweden. This project aims at giving Lund a prominent new landmark, located at the highest point in the city. The new complex also provides Lund with a new civic hub for both business people and the general public.

schmidt hammer lassens project pays great attention to the symbolic significance of a building located at this particular place and aim to symbolise the city’s new development area.

“Our new complex will be the centre-point of Lund’s exciting new urban district. Our aim was to design a building that would reflect this dynamic of rapid change, creating a new icon for the city,” says Kristian Ahlmark, associate partner in schmidt hammer lassen.
Continue Reading

Modern Residential Design

Model Rebuild – When remodelling their own residence Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa could never have imagined the press and accolades that would be bestowed upon a build designed around their own very personal needs. Economical, solar powered, solar water heating, nearly off the power grid and with a fitting yet aesthetically contrasting extension. A rear extension that embraces the house’s 1920′s bungalow origins and pays homage to its design sake, the Paul Rudolph Umbrella House of 1953.

Overview and Plot
The lot, in Venice California, typical of the area, has two road frontages. This allowed the house’s orientation to be flipped, the crux of this build. With the living area and kitchen behind now facing the larger rear garden, an additional bedroom was added upstairs, and the second bedroom converted to an office. Most of all, the flip orients the house to the southern sun allowing the sun’s energy to be stored in the concrete eastern and western walls and floor.

Continue Reading

- Via New York Times

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF ” It has been 12 years since the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas unleashed his concept of “the generic city,” a sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties. His argument was that in its profound sameness, the generic city was a more accurate reflection of contemporary urban reality than nostalgic visions of New York or Paris.
Now he may get a chance to create his own version.

Continue Reading

- Via OMA

” The building of 23,000 m2 will comprise of a Science Centre, aquarium, theatre, offices, laboratories and commercial and retail facilities and is located at the eastern edge of Hafencity, Hamburg’s ambitious harbor redevelopment.

The Science Centre is constructed of ten modular blocks that connect to form a ring shaped building. This concept allows for maximum flexibility for exhibitions. Visitors will start their visit at the so called “base station” just under the top of the building, cross over through the exhibition halls and descend in the modular blocks through the various exhibited scientific subjects, such as “the beginning of life” or “everything flows”. Approx. 8,500 m2 of the building is located underground with a large part of this space being taken up by the aquarium, providing a zoological tour from Hamburg to the Red Sea.

Continue Reading

- Via STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

Steven Holl Architects have presented a masterplan for Hudson Yards, a large former rail yard beside the Hudson River in Midtown, New York… Continue Reading

- Via STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

Steven Holl Architects have presented a masterplan for Hudson Yards, a large former rail yard beside the Hudson River in Midtown, New York… Continue Reading