Architecture Lab

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Project Details:
Location: Farum, Denmark
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Client: GB4 Aps
Gross floor area: 2,600 m2
Year of construction: 2007 – 2010
Type of assignment: Commission
Carpenters: Jakon A/S
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With its location in the beautiful, hilly landscape of the previous training area of Farum military barracks, the Scandinavian Golf Club comprises an exclusive nature park and golf course of 2 x 18 holes.

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The architectural vision has been to bridge the gap between the traditional American golf club and the functional architecture of Scandinavia. The golf club is a traditional wing house but is built in rustic materials with large cantilevers and oblique angles. The roof floats above the plateau as a sculptural element integrated in the hilly landscape, tree crowns and clouds of the sky.

The fine, sophisticated materials and exquisite craftsmanship provide the building with a high degree of exclusivity and ensure a unique balance between the architecture and the surrounding landscape. The extensive use of the wood species Douglas, Norwegian slate, stone and tombac combined with the generous inflow of daylight through the large windows provide the building with a weighty yet light expression.

The project won the annual award of the Copenhagen Carpenters’ Guild in 2009.
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Via Bustler

A jury consisting of Daniel Libeskind, Wiesław Bielawski, Grzegorz Buczek, Wiesław Czabański, Wojciech Duda, George Ferguson, Wiesław Gruszkowski, Jack Lohman, Andrzej Pągowski, and Hans Stimmann has announced their decision for the competition for the Museum of the Second World War in Poland, Gdańsk.

- Prize I EUR 80,000- entry no. 117- identification number 84171358- 92 pt – Studio Architektoniczne “Kwadrat”, Gdynia; Poland. (See below for details)
- Prize II EUR 50,000- entry no. 125- identification number 11092109- 79 pt – Piotr Płaskowicki & partnerzy Architekci; Warszawa; Poland.
- Prize III EUR 30,000- entry no. 21- identification number 02122001- 75 pt – BETAPLAN S.A. ; Ateny; Greece.
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View the winning entry “Kwadrat”, with jury comments:

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The Jury is of the opinion that the design selected in the Architectural Competition has every chance of becoming one of the most important features of the Gdańsk City Centre from the very beginning. In our belief it meets all conditions of joining in the sophisticated symbols in the future alongside the Armoury, St Mary’s Church, or the Crane.
The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.
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The huge building tactfully merges in the neighbourhood sharing the chance of becoming an icon of Gdańsk with the major historic elements around. The minimalist means of architectural expression proposed by the authors gracefully blend the modern idea of the building with the historic background. In its Design, the innovative, huge-scale project makes use of the unique air of the city and transforms it in a modern manner. The colour and texture proposed in the design smoothly blend with the colours of Gdańsk giving the museum the power to pass the test of the 21.c century.

Check the rest of the entry at Bustler
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Project Details:
PROGRAM:Offices, University, Auditorium and Retail
CLIENT: El Consorci – Zona Franca de Barcelona
Consorci del Campus Interuniversitari del Besòs
SIZE: 27650 m²
Offices: 12150 m²
University: 8500 m²
Parking: 7000 m²
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Zaha Hadid’s design for the Edifici Campus confirms the role of the 22@ area at the very forefront of Barcelona’s changing water edge. The tower’s striking design creates a new presence in a territory of transition.The spiralling tower stitches the border of the municipalities of Barcelona and Besòs, creating a new infrastructure that is a joint-venture of the two cities and two clients: El Consorci, Zona Franca de Barcelona y b –TEC, Consorci del Campus Interuniversitari del Besòs.

The design articulates the transition between the forum and the campus, between the new equipments and parks water-front area, in Barcelona, and the requalification of the delta of the river Besòs area, in Sant Adriá del Besòs. The formal theme of the spiral actively binds the two together with an encompassing movement, stimulating the seamless integration of the city fabric, connecting in a dynamic way, the different surrounding areas.
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Project Facts:
ARCHITECT:
ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
DESIGN: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Tiago Correia
PROJECT ARCHITECT: Alejandro Díaz, Aurora Santana
PROJECT TEAM: Fabiano Continanza, Víctor Orive, Rafael González, Oihane Santiuste, Mónica Bartolomé, Raquel Gallego, Esther Rivas, Jessica Knobloch, Hooman Talebi, Maria Araya, Ebru Simsek

CONSULTANTS:
LOCAL ARCHITECT: Ferran Pelegrina Associats SL (Barcelona, Spain), J/T Ardèvol i Associats SL (Barcelona, Spain) [technical]
PLANNING: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: BOMA Brufau, Obiol, Moya & Ass. SL (Barcelona, E), Adams Kara Taylor (London, GB) [Concept Stage]
M&E: Grupo JG. SL (Barcelona, Spain), Max Fordham and Partners (London, UK) [Concept Stage]
FAÇADE: Ferrés Arquitectos y Consultores.SL (Barcelona, Spain)
LIGHTING: Architectural Lighting Solutions (Pamplona, Spain)
HEALTH & SAFETY: J/T Ardèvol i Associats SL
QS/COST: J/T Ardèvol i Associats SL
GEOTECHNICS: Losan (Barcelona, Spain)
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Via Bustler - Archinect

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Lively architectural exchanges occur every day in schools, coffee shops, and on online blogs. Archinect Sessions looks to formalize these discussions through a series of debates that will take place in front of live and online audiences. Why debates? Because we believe that a level of criticality needs to return to architecture. This format strips away the visual crutches of the traditional “show and tell” lecture circuit, and instead requires participants to advocate for a particular point of view rooted in genuine political conviction.

For some years now architectural discourse has tended towards the abstruse and self-involved. We are looking here to broaden the conversation. The Archinect Sessions will bring to the surface new developments, strategies, and positions affecting a broad range of issues including urban form, architectural education, practice, and modes of production.

Format & Location
The Archinect Sessions will occur once per month and will focus on a different theme or problematic. A moderator will lead the discussion directing questions at two or more guests. The format will consist of three rounds of discussions (lasting 15 minutes each.) At the end of the three rounds, the audience (both physical and virtual) will get their turn to ask questions of the guests. Online audience members can post their questions online on Archinect (a selection of these will be read by the moderator.)

The Archinect Sessions will be physically located at Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake (2300 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039) and will be streamed live on Archinect.

Because of limited seating at the VDL House, attendance to the live event will be limited to the first 50 people that reserve a space. To reserve a space, email sarah@neutra-vdl.org.

Come join the melee. No hitting below the belt, holding, tripping, pushing, biting, spitting or wrestling.

Topics/Guests
Our first debate, The Future of Urbanism, is scheduled for 4pm on September 11th 2010, will feature moderator Orhan Ayyuce, and guests Bryan Finoki (Subtopia) and Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG.)
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Discussion will center on the future of urbanism in series of visual, psychological, political, and fictional snapshots.

Orhan Ayyuce is an architect, educator and writer. He will scribble on any subject: architecture, urbanism, politics, art, culture. Sometimes his low-end, hi-style, avant-garde stuff causes security guards chase him.

Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG where he categorizes his writings as “

architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscapes futures.” He has lectured on a broad range of architectural topics at design schools and museums around the world, and he has taught at Columbia University, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Bryan Finoki is a writer, artist, photographer, and worldwide wanderer. He has a background in literature, creative writing, art, psychology, and activism. He maps and writes about the strange urban underworlds and global borders he visits on his website Subtopia.
Series are co-directed by Orhan Ayyuce and Sarah Lorenzen.

Sponsors:
Archinect
Neutra VDL House
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Project Details:
Building Use: Middle School
Architects: Peter Gluck and Partners Architects
Capacity: 160 students / 5th-8th grade
Cost: $9,355,000
Gross Sq. Ft.: 27,800 SF
Height: 5 stories
Location: New York, New York
Status: Completed November 2008
Photo Credits: “Theo Morrison” Contact: Theo Morrison, Tel + 1 917 499 0457/ theomorrison@mac.com
“www.freelandarch.com” Contact: Erik Freeland, Tel +1 646 942 7099/ erik@freelandphoto.com
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Summary:
East Harlem, New York is a community beset by poverty and its attendant ills of early high school withdrawal, violent crime, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse. The project is an independent, not-for-profit year-round middle school that affects change in this high-risk community by recruiting students from low-income families. Our charge was to find an affordable and creative solution to address the pragmatic programmatic requirements of a school tripling in size, while achieving the school’s dream of, in the words of the Co-Founder and Head of School, “hav(ing) a space that showed we would defend our families’ interests (and) had a soaring ambition for them and ourselves…In a democracy, we believe that…shared spaces, not private dwellings should be the most beautiful in our lives.”

The new 27,800 square foot building champions the school’s mission and culture of learning and social awareness through spaces suffused with natural light, promoting calm, creativity, and collective responsibility. The school is committed to maintaining an intimate cohort of students, in which each is recognized as an individual and as a contributor to the community. Students begin and end each day in group reflection. Spaces for daily school-wide gatherings, as well as public special events, are concentrated in the lower floors. The entry lobby, dining room, multipurpose gymnasium and backyard are all linked by light-filled stairs and gentle ramps.

Sheathed in translucent, acidetched glass, a hint of the daily activities of students and teachers is conveyed to the neighborhood, while a protective veil is provided to maintain the intimate nature of the school. Classrooms and other specialty academic spaces reside on the upper floors, and are screened by a fabric-like weave of windows and panels of varying colors and degrees of
reflectivity. As part of the pixelated façade, window openings are placed in relation to interior planning rather than imposing a formal exterior logic. In the classrooms, this composition of staggered windows and colored panels in turn creates an organized system of tack boards for instructional materials and other displays.

The school had an extremely tight budget, caused both by the high cost of New York City construction at the height of the building boom and its location within the 100-year flood zone. Every decision had the goal of enhancing program and design for the school while minimizing costs. Circulation was streamlined in a tight core to maximize usable space. Straightforward exterior wall framing with punched openings was coupled with a high-quality panelized façade system arranged in a weaving pattern for a sophisticated, distinctive presence in the neighborhood.

Prefabricated concrete plank floors lowered construction costs yet provided the advantage of high 11- and 13-foot clear ceiling heights for a light and airy learning environment. Mechanical systems were tightly coordinated to minimize inefficiencies and wasted space. Quality materials were used on the flooring to absorb sound and lessen the institutional feel that plagues most schools. The backyard was designed with special touches, including amphitheater steps, sloped surfaces covered in low-maintenance artificial grass, and a weeping willow tree.

Our office acted as both architect and construction manager in an integrated project delivery process, involved at every stage including land use development analysis, programming, and building design and documentation to subcontractor negotiations, on-site project management, means and methods coordination, project financials and FF&E selection and procurement. We provided a Guaranteed Maximum Price at $9.875 million and came in under budget with over $520,000 in savings, which was returned to the school to become part of their endowment. (New York City public schools cost on average $440-600/SF while this project’s final construction cost was considerably less at $337/SF.) The result was a level of intensive quality control at substantial cost savings, producing a building that otherwise would have been out of reach for the school.

The success of the building is well-described by the Head of School, who said, “There is a hush when people enter here…an intake of breath when one realizes that this is really how things should be.” He continues, “While the building is the most beautiful structure within several blocks, we have been free from vandalism and people have thanked us for…building a space they see as theirs…(S)ymbolically the building means to the community that they are of value; that education is critical; that…our families…are of great worth.”
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Project Team:
Peter Gluck and Partners
Shannon Bambenek, Kees Brinkman, Kathy Chang, Steven Chen, A.B. Moburg-Davis,
Marc Gee, Construction Manager
Bethia Liu, Jill Reinecke, Elaine Sun
Stacie Wong, Project Architect

ARCS Construction Services
Marc Gee, Construction Manager
Stacie Wong, Project Architect
A.B. Moburg-Davis
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Via Ja StudioInc

Solar Park south, August 2010s
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Slow Up-rising
Solar Park south, International Idea competition – Calabria, Italy – August 2010
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“Subject: Solar Park South Works – Solar Highway – carried out by re-using Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway sections between Scilla and Bagnara to be decommissioned by the Italian Highways Authority.” Solar Park South brief
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“Rather than completely demolishing the old route, with its extraordinary reinforced concrete viaducts, now fully integrated within the landscape and the collective imagination, the reuse and redevelopment of certain by-passed sections is proposed as a means of boosting the production of renewable energy; experimenting with new eco-friendly technologies; favoring connections between villages and access to the valuable crops on mountain crests; and, finally, developing new forms of environmental and land art capable of stimulating responsible tourism.” Solar Park South brief
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The submitted panels for the competition:

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Via Studio Banana

Studio Banana TV features Gas Natural Tower in Barcelona with explanations by its author, Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue.

The new building shows a clear desire to be compatible with its urban surroundings: the small scale of the neighborhood of La Barceloneta…the nearby houses and the park…the new tall buildings of Barcelona.

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“It has the verticality of an office tower, and the fragmentation of a series of constructions of different scales which in the end form a single unified volume… but respond to different scales, and a clear relationship with the apartment buildings…
It gives rise to a great projecting overhang, forming a great doorway which allows the opening up of the neighborhood of La Barceloneta…
It forms a singular public space that lower the construction to the ground, until it forms an urban landscape of different dimensions…

The treatment of the façades followed a similar criterion…

A series of large windows create interest from close up… while an undifferentiated volumetric treatment protects the building from the sun and the noise and shows a series of abstract volumes that blend in with the other constructions along the periphery. And a singular public space that lower the construction to the ground, until it forms an urban landscape of different dimensions…

The treatment of the façades followed a similar criterion…

A series of large windows create interest from close up… while an undifferentiated volumetric treatment protects the building from the sun and the noise and shows a series of abstract volumes that blend in with the other constructions along the periphery.

Text by Enric Miralles, 1999
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ENRIC MIRALLES MOYA Barcelona, 1955/ Sant Feliu de Codines, 2000.

Studied architecture at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). Graduated in 1978. Set up his own practice in 1984, shared with Benedetta Tagliabue from 1991 onwards. Fulbright Visiting Scholar to Columbia University, New York, 1980-81. PhD Things seen from left and right, 1983. Senior lecturer at ETSAB from 1985. Professor at ETSAB from 1996 Master Class director and lecturer at Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, from 1990. Kenzo Tange Chair lecturer at Harvard University from 1992. Guest lecturer and speaker at many universities and schools of architecture in the USA, South America and Europe (Columbia University, 1988 1989. Princeton University -J. Labatut Chair- 1993-1994. R.I.B.A., A. A., architecture schools of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Rosario, Mexico City, Berlage Institute, Mackintosh School). Honorary Member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. Gold Medal, Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya in July 2002.

BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE Milan, 1963.

Has lived and studied in Venice and New York. Graduate from IUAV (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia) in 1989. In 2004, awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Arts and Social Science Faculty of Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland. En 1991 formed a partnership with Enric Miralles and founded Miralles Tagliabue EMBT. Visiting lecturer at ETSAB since 2000. Visiting lecturer at l’École Spéciale d’Architecture (ESA), Paris in 2007, and the Architecture Faculty, Università IUAV di Venècia in 2008. Speaker at many architecture schools, universities and colleges of architects in the USA, South America, Europe and Asia, (Columbia University, University of Southern California, Central University of Venezuela, Zhejiang University, China, R.I.B.A (The Royal Institute of British Architects), A.A. (Architectural Association), London, Mackintosh School, Glasgow). Honorary Member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
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Via OMA

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At the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice today, Rem Koolhaas was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement by Biennale director Kazuyo Sejima. Koolhaas commented: “It is a really wonderful moment to get a lifetime achievement award in the middle of my career. I will certainly treat it as an encouragement for further action. Thank you.”
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Project Details:
Pavilion Commissioner Agnieszka Morawińska
Curator Elias Redstone
Assistant Commissioner Joanna Waśko
http://www.labiennale.art.pl/
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press preview 26 – 28.08.2010
opening reception: 27.08.2010, 4 p.m.
exhibition open to the public: 29.08.10 – 21.11.10
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‘A neon Emergency Exit sign hangs on the facade of the Polish Pavilion. Inside, a surreal structure made of hundreds of reclaimed bird cages hides a path to its summit. It is lit from within, suggesting a night landscape, a fantastical de-materialized world containing an object and an action. You climb the seemingly precarious structure. At the height of the summit you look down into a churning sea of clouds. Your breath catches, your pulse quickens; you look down, then out, and then leap blindly into the void. . .’

The installation Emergency Exit by artist Agnieszka Kurant and architect Aleksandra Wasilkowska seeks to go beyond the logic of urban reality through the creation of ‘urban portable holes’: in-between spaces, places of uncertainty and doubt, of time-space discontinuity, such as abandoned or unfinished buildings, sites of catastrophe or accidents, illegal markets, rooftops and tunnels. The title refers ironically to the health and safety regulations in buildings and urban space that seek to plan, control risk and eliminate the accidental and unexpected.

The installation is constructed from an aggregate of metal cages, more commonly used to contain birds and prevent flight, to create a new fictional sport within the urban context. The design makes reference to the forms of decaying sports monuments, such as the ski jump in Mokotów, Warsaw—a surrealistic icon of socialist era architecture that is now in ruins. During a test phase, visitors will be able to climb to the top of the structure and jump out into artificially generated clouds, representing ultimate freedom and urban escapism. The Polish Pavilion acts as a laboratory within which Emergency Exit engages with the public directly to provoke, inspire and excite the collective body. These actions will be documented and then presented within the Pavilion.

Kurant and Wasilkowska interpret the city as an unpredictable, complex system whose collective understanding is composed of intersecting real and imaginary spaces changed through extremely rare events. Nine out of ten things that influence our behaviour and thinking are invisible or intangible. Factors such as myths, rumours and legends overlay themselves onto the physical environment to create an urban morphology of augmented landscapes. At the same time, spontaneity and risk exist as human characteristics that can work against a rational layer of control within the urban fabric. Both invisible phenomena and social actions can change the dynamic of a street, borough, or even the entire city. Architects and planners are therefore unable to precisely anticipate all the needs and transformations of the city. If a rigid and deterministic master plan is unable to integrate emergent needs and changes then the whole city looses its equilibrium.

Emergency Exit is conceived as a hybrid machine for the transfer to other realities, perforating the system of the city. It is a portable hole to the unknown; a catalyst for different, contradictory emotions and needs. Through the transfer, people fill in the gaps with their own emotions, ideas and desires. Kurant and Wasilkowska see the moment of jumping as an exit from the modernist paradigm in architecture where emotional, affective space was ignored and considered an obsolete ornament. The activity materialises the need and desire to lose control, to free oneself both physically and metaphorically from the current system; from a dominant paradigm, logic or state. To get out of here.

The project promotes an approach to architecture and urbanism that reverses the logic of a unilaterally defined urban reality and deterministic master plan; it embraces the unknown phenomena of the city; introduces a higher flexibility of the urban tissue through integrating interstices, gaps and pores, and leaving people space to plug-in or plug-out of dominant urban structures through developing individual, self-organising activities and actions.

Organization of the Exhibition: Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Pavilion Commissioner: Agnieszka Morawińska
Curator: Elias Redstone
Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko

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Special effects: Artur Etiop Bartos ETIOP FX productions
Audio-Video: Eidotech
Video documentation: Mirek Szewczyk with special thanks to EBH Polska
Installation engineer: Monika Bodurkiewicz
Construction: Befstal
Cages: Net–Kar
Neons: Neoneon
Lighting: Lumiere essence Małgorzata Baj
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Via Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners, working with construction firm, CRIBA S.A. and local architect, BBRCH-Minond, has won the competition to design a new corporate headquarters for the Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Plans for the energy-efficient building, which will occupy an entire city block in the neighbourhood of Parque Patricios, echo its park-side setting with landscaped courtyards and shaded walkways and will provide a distinctive new presence for the bank in the city.

The scheme occupies the whole site to create an internal campus of ‘villages’, which are connected by circulation routes and external landscaped patios and are unified by a flowing roof canopy. The entrance plaza is sheltered by the deep overhang of the roof, which is supported by slender pillars. A full-height atrium directs circulation into four tiers of terraced office spaces, all of which have direct views of the park. Based on an eight-metre-square planning grid, the generous light-filled floor plates allow the work spaces to be flexibly planned.

The plans form part of a wider regeneration initiative in the barrio of Parque Patricios, a formerly light industrial area to the south of the city centre, which has been identified by the city’s government as a centre of technology. The design incorporates a number of sustainable features and targets LEED Silver accreditation. These include utilising the exposed thermal mass of concrete soffits with chilled beams for cooling; and reducing energy demands through shaded facades, which are oriented according to the path of the sun, and by encouraging natural ventilation.

David Summerfield, design director at Foster + Partners, commented:
“The project is Foster + Partners first office development in Argentina and we are looking forward to further developing our designs for Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires. The plans will create a sustainable, distinctive headquarters for the bank, while drawing on the site’s industrial past to reinforce the unique character of the neighbourhood.”
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Via agps architecture

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Project Details:
Client: Portland Aerial Transportation Inc.
Location: Portland, Oregon
Architects: agps architecture
Project team : Marc Angélil, Chet Callahan, Keith Evans, Sarah Graham, Gant Jones, Jesse LeCavalier, Moshik Mah (PL), Mark Motonaga
Specialists: Ove Arup & Partners – W&H Pacific – Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners PC – KPFF Consulting Engineers – Kiewit Pacific Co. – Doppelmayr CTEC Inc.
photos by Eric Staudenmaier
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“The Portland Aerial Tramway connects the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, located at the top of a canyon hillside, with a proposed medical research redevelopment neighborhood on the bank of the Willamette River, just south of downtown Portland.

The project utilizes a kit of strategies, an open system adaptable to change and development. The tram and a pedestrian bridge serve to link disparate communities. The project, accordingly, addresses issues from technical design issues to urbanism.
Three types of connections exist between the top and the bottom of the hill: an air connection, a land connection, and a green connection. The upper station is of the air, a steel frame with photovoltaic screen. The tram car is a curvilinear form intended to disappear against the sky.” agps architecture
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Project Details:
Client: Stockholms Hamn AB
Architect: Arkitektfirmaet C. F. Møller and Berg Arkitektkontor
Address: Värtahamnen, Stockholm, Sverige
Size:16500 m2 and a new customs area of 1100 m2
Competition year: 2009-2010
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“The new terminal for Stockholm’s permanent ferry connections to Finland and the Baltics will be a landmark for the new urban development Norra Djursgårdsstaden – both architecturally and environmentally. The terminal, which will have a facade covered with expanded mesh, recalls the shape of a moving vessel and the architecture – with large cranes and warehouses – that previously characterized the ports. At the same time, the terminal has an ambitious sustainable profile, characteristic of the entire development.

The main idea has been to create natural links between central Stockholm and the new urban area in connection with the terminal, so that city life will naturally flow into the area. Therefore the terminal is raised to be at level with the urban zone, so it is easy for both pedestrians and traffic to access. At the same time the roof of the terminal building is designed as a varied green landscape with stairs, ramps, niches, and cosy corners, inviting both Stockholmers and passengers for a stroll or relaxing moments, while enjoying the view of the ferries, the archipelago, and the city skyline.

The aim is that the ferry terminal will be predominantly self-sufficient in energy and thus stand as an environmental model for public construction. Therefore the architecture of the terminal will integrate i.e. solar and wind power, for example the terraced landscape on the roof will integrate beds of solar cells along with the planting. The plan is to communicate the sustainable efforts to the people in the building by using i.e. centrally placed television screens, helping to raise awareness of the potential of sustainable construction.
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Via Atelier Hapsitus

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Selected as co-finalist

The project consists of the creation of a landmark for the city of Beirut, extending the existing building without destroying it. We created a project whereupon the new structure shares the corner with the existing building and cantilevers above it.

The presence of the existing building at the corner of the site was an enigma to us. It had the key position on the site, although it was not necessarily the most appropriate image for the BLC new headquarters.
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In order to resolve this issue, we created a project whereupon the new structure shares the corner with the existing building and cantilevers above it. In this way, the different expressions of old and new become complementary, working together in symbiosis.
Our proposal for the BLC headquarters strives to reflect the history of the bank and project its future with a design strategy that responds intuitively to the site. Like the new administration of BLC, we have chosen to adopt the existing structure, streamline it, correct its dysfunctional aspects, and celebrate it as the departure point for a dynamic, sophisticated and unique composition growing around and above it.
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We believe that BLC Bank is best represented by a project that opens itself visually to the urban fabric with alluring spaces and landscape, rather than the hermetic and alienating facades that often characterize large corporations. The streetscape we have conceived gives the image of a bank which is progressive, has a civil consciousness and offers a quality environment to clients and employees alike.
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The design of the project is an unselfconscious gesture shaped by the site itself and the needs of the project. We toyed with forms and ideas until an intuitive, almost spontaneous shape imposed itself; a process which gives the design an edge of unconventionality.
The total project is an arresting visible landmark that thrusts the bank headquarters into the 21st century in all ways possible. It is innovative in design, in its integration of the existing building, in the way it addresses the site, in its use of sustainability, in forward-thinking social facilities, and in its bold structural solution which makes the design possible.
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Consultants:
ARUP London for structural studies.
ZEF London for sustainability and low energy studies.
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Project Details:
Client: Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia, Regione del Veneto, Comune di Venezia
Architecture design: C+S Associati, Carlo Cappai, Maria Alessandra Segantini
General plan: Technital s.p.a.
Environmental project: Agri.Te.Co s.c.r.l.
Structures and systems: General Progetti s.r.l.
General coordination: J. Stocker, Consorzio Venezia Nuova
Project coordination: G. Mainoldi, Consorzio Venezia Nuova
Surface: 897,11 m2
Cost: 1.053.000,00 €
Photography: Pietro Savorelli

Prizes:
Winner of the honourable mention in the AR AWARDS for Emerging Architecture competition 2008
Finalist project, Medaglia d’Oro all’Architettura Italiana 2009
Selected Work, Mies Van der Rhoe Award 2009
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“Located in the lagoon of Venice, on the southeastern edge of Sant’Erasmo island, the depurator is part of the general urban and environmental upgrading of the island.
The fragility of the island, its indefinite shores that change contours and thickness with the tide, the beautiful Austrian battery, the regular division of the artichoke cultivations and the internal canals give the building part of its character.
Four rough and one meter thick parallel walls, built in reinforced concrete coloured red with pigment, become the structure of the space which building form, like the ruins of an old austrian battery, at the same time defines structure and shape.
The spaces between the concrete structures are closed by full-height Iroko panels that may be opened at the entrance and in the areas used for unloading of dust.
The red concrete walls also serve as basic structures for the design of the landscape.”
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