Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Skin of Architecture: Pattern 12

Source: Thomas Fischer archdaily.com
Institute buildings University Kassel, Kassel, Germany, 2010 designed by ATELIER 30
....the busy public spaces such as the foyer and main entry zones are highlighted by a glass facade opening up the buildings interior towards the campus and the historic structures of the former industrial complex “Henschel- Anlage”. This stands in stark contrast to the Jura-stone facade with its precisely inset window strips. -- ArchDaily

Source: Arthur Meerloo archdaily.com
BioPartner, Wassenaarseweg, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2012 designed by JHK Architecten
The similar design and alignment of the two buildings creates a powerful ensemble, which is further accentuated by the consistent use of materials, clear horizontal segmentation and high-quality detailing. The omni-directional design of the buildings ensures that there are no rear or side elevations and every façade is presented as frontage.   -- ArchDaily

Source: Metropolis archdaily.com
Building Omega, Santiago de Surco, Peru, 2013 designed by Metropolis
Other facades were cover with aluminum panels and a broken weft of windows so a visual tension could be generated in the whole complex. -- ArchDaily

Source: Mathieu Ducros archdaily.com
Academy Of Art Crafts (ESMA), 50 Route de Narbonne, 31320 Auzeville-Tolosane, France, 2013 designed by LCR Architectes
The school, overlaid with two levels of parking (55 spaces reserved for school and 60 for the residence), offers facades that affirm their identity on different orientations. -- ArchDaily

Friday, December 20, 2013

Skin of Architecture: Punched Holes 7

Simmons Hall at MIT, Cambridge, completed in 2002, has a cast-concrete exoskeleton clad in sanded aluminum. Read the description from architect's web site.

Source: trendir.com
Cell Brick House, Tokyo, Japan designed by Atelier Tekuto
three-storey home featuring a unique facade of alternating steel blocks and glass. While the connection between architecture and nature may not be immediately apparent, this amazing home’s checker-board exterior lets light permeate interiors, like sunlight beaming through foliage. On the inside, these steel boxes become built-in storage shelves. -- TrenDir

Source: archdaily.com
KMAR – Koninklijke Marechaussee, Amsterdam, The Netherlands designed by Wansleben Architekten
The building’s outer facade stands out by dint of a seeming sobriety indicative of a defensive nature. You initially feel you’re facing a massive, dark complex – square, plenty of windows that nevertheless look small in their deep recesses, and with a facade texture like that of a woven carpet, partly due to the windows.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Vulkers Fotografie archdaily.com
ROC Mondriaan Laak II, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by LIAG
The building forms a powerful and colourful (a la Mondriaan) completion of the Leeghwaterplein. Seen from the train, it serves as a calling card for ROC Mondriaan. The building has a grid shaped concrete façade decorated in the ROC colours. The effect in combination with the windows results in a strong whole.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Giovanna Silva archdaily.com
Office Building, Vado Ligure, Savona, Italy, 2011 designed by Carlo Bagliani + Antonio Norero
....a chess textile because of the industrial landscape around the parcel, thinking to some building painted in black and white chess in order to be viewed by the air traffic. -- ArchDaily

Source: Mika Huisman archdaily.com
Helsinki University Main Library, Kaisaniemenkatu, Helsinki, Finland, 2012 designed by Anttinen Oiva Architects
The architectural starting point – the cityscape considered – was a vision of a unique public building that will suit its surroundings in terms of its materials, design and height.  The dense fenestration grid, which blurs the standard floor division, together with the large arched openings give the library a distinct external appearance. By varying the size of the arched openings the building is fitted as an integrative solution within a situation of three different types of street space. -- ArchDaily

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Skin of Architecture: Text

Source: José Oller archdaily.com
Mary Immaculate Parish Hall, Santa Cruz of Tenerife, Spain designed by Equipo Olivares Arquitecto
The very nature of a building intended for worship, raised the need to get spaces for contemplation and meditation. For this, the Parish Hall turns to the interior gardens, isolated from the outside by cyclopean concrete walls and reinforced concrete. The closings are understood as light screens. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ernesta Caviola archdaily.com
Villa Sottanis Library and Gamesroom, Via Annuti, 36, 16030 Casarza Ligure Genoa, Italy, 2008 designed by 5+1AA Alfonso Femia Gianluca Peluffo
A number of verses written by Gianni Rodari, who was and still is the greatest fairy tale writer of the 20th century, have been chosen to represent the new centre. The cultural and playful nature of the project can be interpreted through his works that the building explicitly pays tribute to. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pietro Savorelli archdaily.com
Curno Public Library and Auditorium, Via IV Novembre, 24128 Bergamo BG, Italy, 2009 designed by Archea Associati
Through various laboratory tests and various samples, they opted for a colored concrete with a “mix-design” integrated with natural iron oxide pigments and with the addition of lubricants to make the concrete workable according to particular conformations of the molds.
The realization of the letters on the surface of the walls was made possible by the positioning of plastic matrices onto those surfaces. -- ArchDaily

Fougères Biblioteque, Fougères, France, 2009 designed by Tétrarc Architects
The Fougères Biblioteque follows the contemporary approach to libraries as meeting spaces, rather than just book storage. Due to the public function of the building,it expresses itself to the city trough the facade details -- ArchDaily

Source: Element Arkitekter AS archdaily.com
The Teachers House, Osterhaus gate 4, Oslo, Norway designed by Element Arkitekter AS
Two layers of glass and the screen print (silketrykk in Norwegian) on the outside of the inner glass. In the competition we put art on the façade in order to symbolize the important role of Union of Education Norway concerning teaching and education. The art also functions as sunscreen. -- ArchDaily

Source: FG+SG archdaily.com
Corten Apartments, Venice, Italy, 2012 designed by 3ndy Studio
The facade designed by 3ndy Studio reproduce the dimension of the destroy one, but however suggests the spot of time on the plaster. In order to complete the facade and make it an exclusive one. 3ndy Studio under suggestion of Philippe Daverio, asked Giorgio Milani, a sculptor from Piacenza, to take part in this big artistic operation. Milani wrote on this page, enriching by using fullness and emptiness due to the words of the alphabet carved from the panels of corten steel. From here has been born “ Footfalls echo in the memory”, a work of lettering, which means composing letters and symbols carefully chosen by the artist, Giorgio Milani, according to their nineteenth-century origin (the age in which this building as been built) and their aesthetics dress, balancing 22 different alphabets, upper-case and lower-case letters, of different fonts in order to have an aesthetic and cultural harmony. -- ArchDaily

Source: Studio Erick Saillet archdaily.com
La Passerelle, La Saône, France, 2013 designed by Pierre Vurpas et Associés Architectes
A stone pebble cut like a diamond, a mineral forecourt that reaches out to draw in passers-by, a glass facade like an ever-changing skyscape, gilded like copper, words from the old French dictionary engraved into the glass panels, illuminated by curtains of woven metal: La Passerelle, a new cultural space for Trévoux, slots into the gap next to the hospital like a missing piece of the puzzle creating a perfect blend of history and contemporary architecture. -- ArchDaily

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Striated 3

Source: Herzog & de Meuron
Central Signal Box, Basel, Switzerland, 1999 designed by Herzog & de Meuron
The ground plan evolves from bottom to top into a rectangle. The copper strips cover the steps in the façade so that it becomes difficult to read the building‘s geometrical shape. It evokes something more organic and vulnerable, like a head or a brain, rather than a piece of technical equipment.  -- architect's web site
Read a post from ArchDaily 

Source: Leonardo Finotti archdaily.com
CREA-PB Headquarters, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil, 2012 designed by MAPA
The precast concrete permeable “skin” does not resemble the usual glazed institutional buildings, impervious and impermeable. Instead its transparency and lightness give the whole building qualities recommended for the modern state institutions. -- ArchDaily

Source: Tom Arban archdaily.com
St. James Cathedral Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012 designed by architectsAlliance
The addition is sheathed in a screen of horizontal glass ribs carried on a stainless steel supporting structure. The structural steel columns that support the new building are set back from the glass wall, allowing them to be read as a design element. -- ArchDaily

Source: Marcel Van Coile archdaily.com
Technology Building in Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium, 2013 designed by de Jong Gortemaker Algra
From the first floor upwards, perimeter walls are closed with externally insulated precast concrete components. The thermally insulated panels are finished with black acrylic lining. In front of those, an aluminium subframe supports 600 millimetre deep fibre cement vanes. The secondary façade serves as an additional layer of thermal protection and a shield from rainwater and sunlight. -- ArchDaily

Source: Thomas Jantscher archdaily.com
DEY House, Les Masses, Hérémence, Switzerland, 2013 designed by Cagna + Wenger Architectes
The Mélèze facade is reminiscent of carefully stacked timber beams of an age gone by. The precise design of openings is emphasized by the play of light and shadow across the different surfaces of the wood. Horizontal and vertical beams work in unison to shape and lock the frame. Where the frame ends, light simply takes its place. -- ArchDaily

Source: Kengo Kuma & Associates archdaily.com
Shun Shoku Lounge, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, 2013 designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates
We piled up pieces of wooden panels to build the interior like topography. Various kinds of food-related items are laid out on this wooden ground. We expected that the chemistry would be just right for eating and the wooden stratum. -- ArchDaily

Source: Kaare Viemose archdaily.com
Dalarna Media Library, Högskolan Dalarna Akademin Språk & medier, Campus Falun, Högskolegatan 2, 791 31 Falun, Sweden, 2014 designed by ADEPT
The characteristic double facade with reflecting horizontal lamellae fronting a wood cladding is developed in collaboration with Danish artist Jeppe Hein. Instead of creating an isolated piece of art work Jeppe Hein and Adept has developed the competition design for the façade into a detailed and refined expression with an immateriality that mirrors its surroundings and the people in it with broken reflections. The lamellaes are made from highly polished stainless steel while their wooden background is a Siberian larch. -- ArchDaily

Source: Bartosz Makowski archdaily.com
Lublin City Stadium, Krochmalna, Lublin, Poland, 2014 designed by Estudio Lamela
Designed facade makes the building illuminated block which is a distinctive landmark. The elevation was designed in the form of longitudinal strips of metal panels (with a relatively large perforations) girding the building. -- ArchDaily

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

City Halls

Source: wikipedia.org
Säynätsalo Town Hall, Säynätsalo, Finland, 1951 designed by Alvar Aalto
The design of the Town Hall was influenced by both Finnish vernacular architecture and the humanist Italian renaissance. It was the Italian Renaissance from which Aalto drew inspiration for the courtyard arrangement which informed the name of his original competition entry entitled "Curia." While the main program of the building is housed within a heavy brick envelope, the courtyard is bordered by a glass-enclosed circulation space which can be linked to the model of an arcade-bordered Piazza. -- wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org
Toronto City Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1965 designed by Viljo Revell
Revell’s design consists of twin towers surrounding a white disk-like council chamber which is mounted on a raised platform, with entrances located below that are open to the public. There is also a ramp from the square that connects to the podium green roof and also leads to the council chamber. The two towers are of unequal height as the east tower is taller than the west. The City Hall is nicknamed “The Eye of the Government” because it resembles a large eye in a plan view. Revell died a year before the New City Hall was completed.  -- Wikipedia

Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1968 designed by Kallmann, McKinnell, & Knowles
As part of an international competition to design Boston’s City Hall in 1962, three Columbia University professors, Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles, diverted from the typical sleek, glass and steel structures that were being requested by popular demand.  Rather than basing their design on the material aesthetics, their goal was to accentuate the governmental buildings connection to the public realm.
Completed in 1968, the Brutalist style city hall bridges the public and private sectors of government through a gradient of reveal and exposure that allows the public to become integrated, either physically or visually, into the daily affairs of the governmental process. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Dallas City Hall, Dallas, Texas, USA, 1977 designed by I. M. Pei
The 113-foot cast-in-place concrete structure slopes at a 34° angle, each floor 9'-6" wider than the one below, expanding to a 192-foot width at top. The 560-foot-long form has both symbolic and functional logic: the architectural gesture serves as a "front porch" to welcome approaching pedestrians, providing shelter from rain and the torrid Texas sun while simultaneously accommodating diverse programmatic requirements. -- architect's web site

Source: Naomi Schiphorst @ MIMOA
Town Hall, Logroño, Spain, 1980 designed by Rafael Moneo
Logroño town hall is formed by three blocks- two triangle-shaped bigger ones and another with the shape of a piano for the theatre- which are organized with the intention of finding the balance between connection and independence.  -- MIMOA
Lotus International(33), pp. 61-66.

Source: Ricky Berkey
Columbus City Hall, Columbus, Indiana, USA, 1981 designed by SOM
right triangle building was angled so that the longest side bisected the full city block site facing the corner of 2nd and Washington and directly adjacent to the Courthouse. The other two sides are aligned along the adjacent streets for easy parking and access. -- 52 weeks of Columbus, Indiana

Source: emergentforms.com
Mississauga Civic Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 1987 designed by Jones and Kirkland
The building, for instance, includes a prominent clock tower. It was chosen as the winner of a design competition that included 246 submissions.  Mississauga City Council chambers located in the cylindrical struture ... -- Wikipedia
Architectural Design Profile 53, 1984. pp. 74-79

Source: arthurerickson.com
Fresno City Hall, Fresno, California, USA, 1987 designed by Arthur Erickson
The design for Fresno City Hall creates a landmark structure for that city. The 190,000 square foot building is the northern focus of the twelve-block  Mariposa Mall. -- architect's web site

Source: wikipedia.org
Tokyo City Hall, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, 1991 designed by Kenzo Tange
....a tower 48 stories tall that splits into two sections at the 33rd floor. The building also has three levels below ground. The design of the building (which was meant to resemble a computer chip), by architect Kenzo Tange (and associates), has many symbolic touches, most notably the aforementioned split which re-creates the look of a Gothic cathedral. -- wikipedia

Source: Lloyd Alter treehugger.com
Reykjavik City Hall, Reykjavik, Iceland, 1992 designed by Studio Granda
The moss wall softens the look of the building. It is made from porous volcanic rock, constantly wetted with water pumped from the pond. -- TreeHugger

Source: José F. García Martín
Murcia City Hall, Murcia, Spain, 1998 designed by Rafael Moneo
The façade/retable of the Town Hall facing the square could never, nor would ever, want to compete with the classical order. It's organised as a musical score, numerically, accepting the system of horizontal levels of the floor slabs. The façade resist symmetries and offers as its key element the balcony of the gallery. -- MIMAO

Source: Forster + Partners
London City Hall, London, UK, 2002 designed by Foster + Partners
City Hall includes a series of green features, including an unconventional building form to minimize heat gain and loss by reducing the exterior surface areas, as well as a stepped profile to the south to self-shade in the summer. Although the outer plane of the double skin facade is all glass, the inner wall contains significant less glazing area. The building uses natural ventilation and a geothermal system rather than air conditioning to maintain a comfortable interior. -- betterbricks.com
it expresses the transparency and accessibility of the democratic process and demonstrates the potential for a sustainable, virtually non-polluting public building.  -- architect's web site

Source: predock.com
Austin City Hall and Public Plaza, Austin, Texas, USA, 2004 designed by Antoine Predock
The new Austin City Hall and public plaza graces the shores of Lady Bird Lake at the edge of the dynamic Warehouse district, an area that is rapidly being transformed into a tight grid of restaurants, nightspots, housing, and mid-rise office spaces. The new city hall, completed in the fall of 2004, terraces down to the lake from Second Street, mediating between this busy city grid and the natural realm. -- architect's web site

Source: city-data.com
San Jose City Hall, San Jose, California, USA, 2005 designed by Richard Meier & Partners
The project comprises an eighteen-story office building to house the city departments, the city council chambers, a major civic rotunda, an exterior plaza and below-grade parking. -- architect's web site

Source: Pedro Pegenaute archdaily.com
Noain City Hall, Navarra, Spain, 2009 designed by Zon-e Arquitectos
The new Noain City Hall is equipped with passive and active systems of energy saving. The development of both systems was included from the early stages of design, so that the final outcome of the building is clearly determined by their presence. The project has been subject to an energy rating, resulting in a 60% saving. -- ArchDaily

Source: Cristóbal Palma archdaily.com
Salamanca City Hall, Salamanca, Chile, 2010 designed by Carreño Sartori Arquitectos
The site is adjacent to the city’s main square, Plaza de Armas de Salamanca. The first intuition was to start the building tour from enlarged public sidewalk, thinking the building as part of an urban situation. The building contains a ramp system, which runs through an interior space opened to the landscape from ground level up to the terrace on the top floor, bringing together the various municipal services. -- ArchDaily
Source: aiatopten.org
Chandler City Hall, Chandler, Arizona, USA, 2010 designed by SmithGroupJJR
The north block is devoted to a 5-story office tower at the north end and one-story buildings along Arizona Ave and Washington Street. The tower houses City departments while the 1-story buildings contain an art gallery, council chambers and a television studio. The south block is devoted to one-story buildings and a 2-level parking structure.  -- AIA Top Ten

Source: Fernando Sánchez Cuadrado archdaily.com
Santa Marta de Tormes Town Hall, Santa Marta de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain, 2011 designed by Sanchez Gil Arquitectos
The proposal arises from the configuration of the representative public space as a generator of the project. We create an elliptical plaza with a slope, about 42×35 meters, a typology with very outstanding precedents in the field of historic urbanism (Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican, Campidoglio in Rome or the Piazza del Campo in Siena). -- ArchDaily

Source: Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre archdaily.com
Bilbao City Hall, Bilbao, Spain, 2011 designed by IMB Arquitectos
The treatment applied to the residual public spaces has the objective to fluff the urban fabric and increase the available area to generate a little plaza becoming an urban antechamber or lobby to access the Town Hall Headquarters. The fragmentation of the whole in two volumes has the will to integrate the building into the city plot, adapt the scale and the heights to the place and enhance the traditional pedestrian way across the parcel. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mõrk archdaily.com
Stadshuis Nieuwegein, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by 3XN
Architecturally the building takes its point of departure from a central and bright atrium from where a sculptural staircase soars up through the building and connects the many diverse facilities – indeed facilities not normally found in a City Hall. -- ArchDaily

Source: aasarchitecture.com
North Vancouver City Hall, North Vancouver, Canada, 2012 designed by MGB Architecture
The City of North Vancouver’s City Hall renovation project expands the existing City Hall 1970’s modern heritage building into a recently vacated library structure with a new bridging atrium. -- architect's web site

Source: Marc Cramer archdaily.com
Saint Roch-de-l’Achigan City Hall, 7 Rue Doctor Wilfrid Locat North, Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan, Quebec, QC J0K 3H0, Canada, 2012 designed by Affleck de la Riva architects
Located in the village center, the old convent is a building of important heritage value, a symbol of community and a source of pride for Saint Roch residents. The recycling of this historic structure as the city hall and municipal offices re-establishes its presence at the center of community life. The project creates a dialogue between the restored heritage building and a contemporary addition housing a new entry lobby, an elevator and a generously glazed stair-tower. Creating a new entry on the lateral street is part of an overall site strategy that relocates parking to the back of the building and frees up the front of the site for a new formal garden.  -- ArchDaily

Source: David Matthiesenarchdaily.com
Bad Aibling City Hall, Marienplatz, 83043 Bad Aibling, Germany, 2012 designed by Behnisch Architekten
The visitior enters the wood-clad building with its strong form from Marienplatz to a view through the house that expands into fractured planes. This main feature - a light refracting wall – dominates the atrium space and rises to a glass ceiling. It connects the exterior public realm of Marienplatz with all the functional spaces creating a vibrant public hub – a flowing communicative thoroughfare for chance and planned encounterss. -- ArchDaily

Source: Luc Boegly archdaily.com
City Hall of Plomodiern, Plomodiern, France, 2013 designed by Studio 02
While bringing a modern architectural touch, the design of the building remains in total harmony with the surroundings as far as shapes, colors and location are concerned. The building is L-shaped: one leg houses all administrative services while in the other one are both the Board room and the wedding hall. At the intersection of those two legs is the main lobby. -- ArchDaily

Source: Alain-Marc Oberlé archdaily.com
Maire School and City hall, Rammersmatt, France, 2013 designed by ideaa architectures
We preserved the old buildings to install the new program. To reach the energy goals (the building produces more energy than it consumes it) a new “box” was juxtaposed in the existing volume. -- ArchDaily

Source: Archframe archdaily.com
Seoul New City Hall, Seoul, South Korea, 2013 designed by iArc Architects
The City administration is opened to citizen through overall vertical space of office and that symbolize transparency and democracy of Seoul city hall. The Citizen can access to new city hall through existed city hall and bridge on sunken square to open basement one floor. The Seoul-new city hall is completed by linking the past and future of Seoul square`s. -- ArchDaily

Source: Timothy Hursley archdaily.com
Newbern Town Hall, Newbern, Alabama, USA, 2013 designed by Auburn University Rural Studio
Sited to the north of the Newbern Volunteer Fire Department (2005 Rural Studio Project), the walls of the Newbern Town Hall and Fire Department create north-south boundaries to define a civic square. -- ArchDAily