Saturday, December 12, 2015

Monumental Ramps

Source:Sergio Grazia archdaily.com
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs Headquarters, 21 Quai Gallieni, 92150 Suresnes, France, 2015 designed by AZC
The atrium houses a monumental ramp, a unifying element at the heart of the building that invites exploration and visual contact between the different levels. The height of the atrium renders the building’s layout readily comprehensible and brings the sky right into the heart of the building. -- ArchDaily

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Fire Stations

Source: Ossip van Duivenbode archdaily.com
Fire Station Doetinchem, Stokhorstweg 1, Doetinchem, The Netherlands designed by Bekkering Adams architects
The Fire station in Doetinchem is designed as a villa, integrated in the landscape. It is a green oasis situated along side the major thoroughfare in Doetinchem. The horizontally oriented building is surrounded by majestic trees and has clear, crisp lines and surfaces. The grass of the surrounding countryside is pulled over the building in a large slope and evolves into a series of roof gardens and patios on top of the sheltered area for the fire trucks. -- ArchDaily

Source: Filip Dujardin archdaily.com
Firestation Berendrecht, Kruisweg 22, 2040 Antwerpen, Belgium, 2014 designed by Bovenbouw
On top of the two utilitarian floors  there is a domestic floor with a living room, kitchen, fitness, sleeping rooms and an outdoor sports field, arranged around a patio. The sports field, located on the corner of the building, is covered with a semi-transparent wooden panelling and therefore stays in contact with outside. -- ArchDaily

Source: Andrew Pogue archrecord.comstruction.com
Galveston Fire Station #4, Galveston, Texas, USA, 2014 designed by HDR
....the new Galveston Fire Station #4, designed by HDR, is a rock-solid, two-story, 14,000-square-foot bunker with the look of an unpretentious yet polished beach house.  -- Architectural Record

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Skin of Architecture: Undulating Fins

Source: John Gollings archdaily.com
Surgeon’s Rooms, Melbourne VIC, Australia, 2014 designed by FMD Architects 
....to emphasise the parallels between the disciplines in the built form. The layered façade references the tools, prosthetics and the human frame. The design creates interplay between the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional qualities of the X-ray, another essential analytical tool of the surgeon. The façade emphasises the thinness of an X-ray sheet, while developing a depth through layering film, steel and recycled plastic forms. As it is backlit by the interior, the façade mimics the visual qualities of the X-ray on a lightbox. -- ArchDaily

Friday, November 28, 2014

Cylindrical 14

Source: architecture.com
Tower of Winds, Yokohama, Japan, 1986 designed by Toyo Ito Associates Architects
In the Tower of Winds Ito represents the visual complexity of Tokyo metaphorically in terms of a never-ceasing, ever-changing wind. The tower, a light sculpture that responds to wind speed and directions, was designed years before anyone else explored the use of photo-responsive glass or ‘interactive architecture’ in the same way.  -- RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2006

Source: wikipedia.org
Lipstick Building(53rd at Third), New York City, New York, USA, 1986 designed by John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson
The building receives its name from its shape and color, which resemble a tube of lipstick. The shape, which is unusual in comparison to surrounding buildings, uses less space at the base than a regular skyscraper of quadrilateral footprint would use. This provides more room for the high numbers of pedestrians who travel via Third Avenue. -- Wikipedia
the unusual shape, which has given the building its nickname, was a requirement of the developer, to make the building stand out and compensate for the less fashionable location of Third Avenue. The elliptical shape also claims to make all the exterior offices "corner" offices. -- galinsky

Source: archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Office Silo & Containers, Tajonar, Navarra, Spain, 2005 designed by Vaillo + Irigaray
The office buildings is composed by an elliptical construction, as a counterpoint to the wings: in front of an horizontal and pointy construction, a curved tall tower appears, searching for the minimum “friction” between the rest of the buildings. -- ArchDaily

Source: CMV Architects archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Barceló Raval Hotel, Madrid, Spain, 2007 designed by CMV Architects
The hotel was built as an elliptical construction, made up from two basements, a ground floor and ten high-rise floors. The project was born with some specific volumes marked by “PERI” of Ravalin Barcelona, and all the attention goes in the direction of the axes of the elliptical plant. In the same way, depending on the direction from which it is seen, the building is perceived in a more or less volumetric way. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jomar Bragança archdaily.com
Parc Zodiaco Building, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2010 designed by GPA&A
The residential building was developed to harmonize with its surroundings, so we used curves, balconies, and gardens as a way to insert it into the landscape, softening its contours.  -- ArchDaily

Source: architectmagazine.com
Source: architectmagazine.com

1 Bligh Street, Sydney, Australia, 2011 designed by Architectus and Ingenhoven Architects

After considering a number of schemes, the architects adopted an elliptical plan, with its long side facing toward the harbor. The ellipse gives each office space floor-to-ceiling panoramic views.  -- ARCHITECT Magazine

Source: architectmagazine.com
Plan, Source: architectmagazine.com

Coffee Plaza, Hamburg, Germany, 2011 designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects

Raised on a podium overlooking nearby Sandtorpark, the oval-shaped tower mediates the separation between the park and plaza. Inside, behind a ventilated façade, the oval configuration improves visual and physical connections between the office workers, resulting in greater collaboration.  -- ARCHITECT Magazine

Source: Aleksey Naroditsky archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Bank Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2011 designed by NPS Tchoban Voss
The tower contrasts them by its height and its special silhouette. On the riverside its glass façade bends inwardly along the entire height. The resulting waistline adds subtle dynamics to the building making it appear elegant from almost every direction from across the river.   -- ArchDaily

Source: Aedas archdaily.com

Al Bahar Towers, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2012 designed by Aedas
For Abu Dhabi’s newest pair of towers, Aedas Architects have designed a responsive facade which takes cultural cues from the “mashrabiya”, a traditional Islamic lattice shading device. Completed in June 2012, the 145 meter towers’ Masharabiya shading system was developed by the computational design team at Aedas.  Using a parametric description for the geometry of the actuated facade panels, the team was able to simulate their operation in response to sun exposure and changing incidence angles during the different days of the year. -- ArchDaily
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Source: Filip Dujardin archdaily.com
Site plan, Source: archdaily.com
Police Headquearters & Charleroi Danses, Boulevard Pierre Mayence, 6000 Charleroi, Belgium, 2014 designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel + MDW Architecture
The Charleroi police headquarters has been installed in a blue tower building which is a reminder of the dark blue colours of the police force. The idea was to create a city scale landmark which is not too high, as a sort of dialogue with the City Hal belfry, and as a message stating that the police force services are open to all at all times. -- ArchDaily

Affordable Housing: USA

Source: archrecord.construction.com
Navy Green Supportive Housing, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2012 designed by Architecture in Formation
Navy Green is a unique residential development occupying almost an entire block and rising on the site of the former Brig, a naval prison built immediately outside the Navy Yard's confines in the early 1940s and demolished in 2006. The project's mix of low- and moderate-income rental and ownership units and market-rate co-ops, dispersed across large, multi-unit buildings and small townhouses, provides affordable housing in a newly desirable stretch of land sandwiched between the elevated Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the industrial buildings currently being adapted in the Navy Yard. -- Architectural Record

Source: John Linden archdaily.com
Pico Place, 430 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, California, USA, 2013 designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects
Pico Place is a 32-unit LEED Platinum affordable apartment building consisting of 2 and 3-bedroom family units with a common laundry room, community room and subterranean parking. -- ArchDaily

Source: archrecord.construction.com
Rene Cazenave Apartments, San Francisco, California, USA, 2013 designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
Its 120 units provide supportive housing for the chronically homeless and help satisfy the city’s requirement that 35 percent of the approximately 4,500 apartments in the new neighborhood be affordable for very low- to moderate-income households. -- Architectural Record

Source: archrecord.construction.com
474 Natoma, San Francisco, California, USA, 2014 designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
The Natoma Family Apartments, a just-completed affordable-housing complex, is in a particularly rough part of San Francisco's rapidly evolving South of Market neighborhood.  The apartments are necessarily compact and efficient but still manage to feel open and inviting, in part because of the balconies and generously sized windows. Finishes, such as engineered quartz countertops, dark-stained poplar cabinets, and nylon cut-pile carpeting, were chosen with visual appeal, comfort, and durability in mind. -- Architectural Record

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Cube 9

Source: Reading Tom archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Citigroup Center, New York City, New York, USA, 1977 designed by Hugh Stubbins + William Le Messurier
Resting on four stilts perfectly centered on each side, it cantilevers seventy-two feet over the sidewalk and features a trademark 45-degree sloping crown at its summit. -- ArchDaily

Source: Rafael Vargas archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Puig Tower, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain designed by Rafael Moneo + Antonio Puig, Josep Riu GCA Architects + Lucho Marcial
The tower strictly follows the floor plan and height established in the original plans, and the proposition that it was to be perceived as a united figure and not only as a simple superimposition of horizontal floors, led to the suggestion of the spiral glasswork which encases everything. 
The floor plans of the tower- a 27.5m by 27.5m square- shows the importance of the core, which not only resolves the vertical connections, and the service and mechanical elements, but also contributes to defining and structuring the usable space.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Young-chae Park archdaily.com

Site plan, Source: archdaily.com
G-Tower, Art center-daero, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea, 2013 designed by HAEAHN Architecture + Designcamp Moonpark dmp + Gyung Sung Architects + TCMC Architects & Engineers
Four atriums reaching up to 6 floors and sky garden of 25m depth reverse-slope influence characteristic of a building as drastic and creative element. Formativeness of a diagonal line shown on the elevation of a tower building is simple and dynamic figure. -- ArchDaily

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Urban Spaces: Unorganised sports

Source: Helen & Hard archdaily.com
Geopark, Stavanger, Norway, 2008 designed by Helen & Hard
The park is a playful urban space on Stavanger’s waterfront, utilizing a vacant forecourt adjacent to the Oil Museum. We drew from three different local resources in the design process: first, the geological and seismic expertise of the oil industry; second, technology, materials and waste related to oil production; and third, the ideas of and collaboration with local youth groups for the programming and making of the new park. -- ArchDaily

Source: Antoine Espinasseau archdaily.com
Evolution Ground Alfortville, Alfortville, France, 2011 designed by NP2F 
Embedded within the boundaries of the ZAC (coordinated developed zone) Chantereine, the “evolution” grounds of Alfortville represent a qualitative approach to which we lay claim in this district’s public spaces, and more generally in today’s city. Thus, the playground becomes a truly architectural space, integrated in the urban structure and open to the city’s other practices. -- ArchDaily

Source: Doublespace archrecord.construction.com
Underpass Park, Toronto, Canada, 2012 designed by Paul Raff Studio
Below two elevated overpasses and a stone's throw from the Don River, Underpass Park encompasses 2.5 acres—enough room for swings and climbing structures for children on one side of a narrow road and basketball courts and a skateboarding terrain for teenagers on the other side. Designed by the Vancouver-based landscape architecture firm Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg (PFS) in collaboration with The Planning Partnership, a Toronto-based planning, urban design, and landscape architecture firm, the $9 million Underpass Park is part of an ongoing effort by the publicly funded agency Waterfront Toronto to reimagine public space below and around major transportation links. -- Archiectural Record

Source: Mikkel Frost / CEBRA archdaily.com
StreetDome, 6100 Haderslev, Denmark, 2014 designed by CEBRA + Glifberg + Lykke 
StreetDome is a vast and unique urban landscape for activity and recreation including a 4.500 square metre skate park, facilities street basket, parkour, boulder climbing, canoe polo etc. StreetDome’s overall ambition is to set new standards for urban arenas for unorganised sports. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adrià Goula archdaily.com
Skate Park Jardines de Aureà Cuadrado, Barcelona Spain, 2014 designed by Scob + Sergi Arenas
The project works with the limits of the area, taking advantage of the gradients and the containment of the slopes in order to place all the elements for skate. -- ArchDaily

Source: Played in Britain archdaily.com
‘The Rom’ Becomes Europe’s First Listed Skatepark
English Heritage has awarded a Grade-II listing to “The Rom,” a skatepark in Hornchurch on the outskirts of London. Built in 1978, the Rom was one of the UK’s first wave of purpose-built skateparks, and probably the most complete example found in the UK today.   -- ArchDaily