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

Waterfront Redevelopment 3

Source: Jesús Granada archdaily.com

El Palmeral of Surprises, Málaga, Spain, 2011 designed by Junquera Arquitectos

EL PALMERAL OF SURPRISES, events, varied and changing, permanent or temporary, a new space for Malaga with the aim of becoming the benchmark public space that the city needs a place of peaceful coexistence. -- ArchDaily

Source: Joao Morgado archdaily.com

Tagus Linear Park, 2625-039 Póvoa de Santa Iria, Portugal, 2013 designed by Topiaris Landscape Architecture

The Tagus Linear Park is an area of 15 000 sq m that was conquered by the surrounding communities of the industrial private sector and was felt as a democratic intervention by those forever deprived of access to the River. -- ArchDaily

Community Pavilions

Source: Scenic Architecture archdaily.com

Community Pavilion at Jintao Village, Shanghai, China, 2010 designed by Scenic Architecture

Since the environment has the spatial quality of openness and aggregation, we designed a hexagonal ring building for the village residence to rest, communicate and have recreation activities. 3 interior spaces contain a recreation room, a teahouse, and a stage facing the grain-sunny ground; whereas 3 semi-outdoor spaces face 3 different sceneries: the concrete bridge to the northwest, the river cross to the southwest, and the little stone bridge to the southeast. -- ArchDaily

Source: Tran Tuan Trung archdaily.com

Bes Pavilion, Ha Tinh, Hà Tĩnh, Vietnam, 2013 designed by H&P Architects

BES pavilion is a service space for an open community, focusing on the aspects of art and culture. Located in the central Ha Tinh city, BES (Bamboo + Earth + Stone) is set up from local materials and traditional building methods which based on the idea of centralizing the users. -- ArchDaily

Urban Spaces: Triangular

Source: halvorsondesign.com

Plan, Source: posquare.com

Post Office Square, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1992 designed by The Halvorson Design Partnership

Nestled in the heart of Boston's financial district, this green oasis has been enormously popular from the day it opened. Hailed as "the perfect park," Post Office Square integrates the busy, festive character of downtown Boston with elements that suggest tranquility and refuge. With more than 125 species of plants, it is a garden for all seasons, rich in detail and visual interest. Two garden pavilions host a year-round café and pedestrian access to the parking garage that lies beneath the park. In 1997, the park was officially renamed in honor of Norman B. Leventhal, whose original idea and leadership made it happen. -- architect's web site

Official web site for the Norman B. Leventhal Park

Read details from PPS

Source: Duccio Malagamba archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Plaza del Torico, Teruel, Spain, 2007 designed by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

This projects is the remodeling of a square of 1,798.76 sqm surface and arcades that surround it of 1,047.01 sqm, with the renewal of its pavement with basaltic stone pavers. Under gradient, a gallery of connection between the two tanks, Somero and Fondero, and museum area with a total of 409.56 sqm has been projected. The intervention focuses on the complete renovation of the appearance of the square, its pavement, their porches and facades, following a carefully designed lighting. -- ArchDaily

Source: Buro Sant en Co

 

Plan, Source: Buro Sant en Co

The Hill Square, Tilburg, The Netherlands, 2007 designed by Buro Sant en Co

De Hill is located at the junction where three roads come together. The receding shape of the space is characteristic for the square and emphasized in the design. In order to make the Hill a spatial landmark, we have chosen to add a floating stage in the centre of the square. The shape of the stage is defined by its surroundings and offers many opportunities for public use. With the use of different materials the stage becomes a hybrid between an urban centre and a green oasis. -- architect's web site

Urban Space: Superkilen

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Superkilen, Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012 designed by Topotek 1 + BIG Architects + Superflex

Superkilen is a half a mile long urban space wedging through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. It has one overarching idea that it is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice – a sort of collection of global found objects that come from 60 different nationalities of the people inhabiting the area surrounding it. Ranging from exercise gear from muscle beach LA to sewage drains from Israel, palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia. Each object is accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing the object, what it is and where it is from – in Danish and in the language(s) of its origin. A sort of surrealist collection of global urban diversity that in fact reflects the true nature of the local neighborhood – rather than perpetuating a petrified image of homogenous Denmark. -- ArchDaily

Under the Highways

Source: popupcity.net

Bratislava’s Green Square

When you think of revitalizing space, paint is perhaps the best option. At least it’s one of the cheapest. Here at a bus terminal in Bratislava the urban interventionists of Civic Association and the people of Sadovský Architects have uplifted a bus stop that used to be a very sad place. As long as the government is not doing enough to improve urban conditions, why don’t we do it ourselves? That’s what the initiators thought when they initiated the 1,000 square meters Green Square project. -- The Pop-Up City

Source: Cassandra Hryniw archdaily.com

Public Art Sculpture Mirage, Toronto, Canada, 2012 designed by Paul Raff Studio

Suspended overhead of pedestrians, large scale mirror-like surfaces create an illusory appearance, which bends light rays to produce a displaced image much like a mirage. The mirage is made up of 57 reflective polished stainless steel panels fastened to the underside of the overpass. -- 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

Urban Spaces: Square 4

Source: wikipedia.org

Bedford Square, London, UK

The square takes its name from the main title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford, who were the main landlords in Bloomsbury.

Bedford Square is one of the best preserved set pieces of Georgian architecture in London, but most of the houses have now been converted into offices. -- Wikipedia

Source: Naru Kenji Panoramio.com

Belgrave Square, London, UK

Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest 19th century squares in London, England. -- Wikipedia

Source: e-architect.co.uk

Fitzroy Square, London, UK

Fitzroy Square is one of the Georgian squares in London and is the only one found in the central London area known as in Fitzrovia. Today, the square is largely pedestrianised (scheme designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe). In 2008 the square was upgraded by relaying most of the surface at a single level, removing street clutter such as bollards, and further restricting vehicular access. -- Wikipedia

Building/Ground: Changing Topography 6

Source: David Frutos archdaily.com

Public Library and Reading Park, Torre-Pacheco, Murcia, Spain, 2007 designed by Martín Lejarraga

The folded terrain characterizes the design, in which the two facilities that occupy the site, Library and Park, adapt their relative position, forming sheltered reception, communication, and accommodation spaces. Public space contains and protects the building – two sides of the same coin. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jaime Sicilia archdaily.com

Sa Vinyeta Hostel, Menorca, Spain, 2008 designed by Ripolltizon

The project is developed simultaneously in both, a landscape and architectural scale. The aim is to create a new complex that integrates the existing elements with the new functions and buildings under a single logic. The reference elements to start the design were the main existing building and the two key elements of the landscape: the horizontal plane of the flat land and the dry stone walls. -- ArchDaily

Source: André Nullens archdaily.com

Library + Restaurant + Multifunctional Space, Dendermonde, Belgium, 2010 designed by BOB361 Architects

By shifting the parking onto the top of the building, the green area can become a pedestrian connection where the main entrance of the library is situated. The roof functions as a public and easily accessible square. The multifunctional hall (exhibitions, functions, lectures…) along the main road and meeting rooms on the “backside” are lifted and can function separately through the roofscape. The ‘roof- square’ acts as a transit space for the flux of cars and people. It folds to get natural light into the underlying spaces. -- ArchDaily

Source: Miguel Souto archdaily.com

Sede Geacam, Cuenca, Spain, 2010 designed by dra arquitectos

The project is part of a set of actions to get an attractive and sustainable space. On a plot in the steep terrain, we adapt to it with molded shapes as three volumes that save the unevenness. The landscape is introduced into the building through attractive elongated courtyards which could guide the various offices of the offices by a north-south orientation logic and save the terrain variations between the two access roads. -- ArchDaily

Source: Hisao Suzuki archdaily.com

Agora Sociocultural Center, San Pedro de Visma, A Coruña, Spain, 2011 designed by Rojo/Fernández-Shaw & Liliana Obal

....an architecture that is integrated with natural land topography and continuing with it. That’s why roof is modeled as landscape, with green and hydroponic systems, calling to a simulated and decorative fiction of a rural landscape associated with original.

....an architecture that balances architectonic and landscape configuration, integrating volumetric form and molded landscape. For that purpose, we are proposing a formal structure, spatially and structurally dense, in which geometric and transparent solids are integrated with continuous and fluid empty spaces that run between them. -- ArchDaily

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Auditorium in Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain, 2011 designed by Selgas Cano

....the immaculate straightness of the pier edge (straight), the invariably calm sea (flat), the artificially horizontal plane of the dock (flat), the sky as the variable background for this plane (plane on a plane?), all based on an artifice to represent the simplest -and by virtue of its simplicity, the most natural, the most immensely artificial- plane that equates to the most natural. -- ArchDaily

Read an article from Architectural Record 

Source: Adrià Goula Sardà archdaily.com

OKE, Ortuella, Vizcaya, Spain, 2011 designed by aq4 arquitectura

OKE is the new Ortuella Culture House, in the former mining area of Vizcaya. Connect Otxartaga Square, the most significant public space of the village with Catalina Gibaja Street. Use this opportunity to make the new house of culture “stretch” the plaza to the street and the street to the plaza. -- ArchDaily

Source: Philippe Ruault archdaily.com

Lycée Régional René Goscinny, Alpes, Maritimes, France, 2012 designed by José Morales & Rémy Marciano

The building is both layered and dynamic, stretched out and dense reminding us of very different pictures such as those of walled architectures surrounding fields or villages. It has a shape one can immediately recognize and therefore fulfills the basic condition to be identified as a public building. -- ArchDaily

Source: Werner Hutmacher archdaily.com

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Abbestraße 2, Berlin, Germany, 2012 designed by Huber Staudt Architekten

The new MRI Laboratory is part of the “physical park” of the PTB Institute. The MRI is located underground in the historic “crystal-controlled-clock cellar”, which lies projecting the basement of the observatory. A folded green roof marks the sculptural entrance, ” submerging” becomes readable, the laboratory thus turns into  an intrinsic element of this park. -- ArchDaily

Source: Eric Taylor archdaily.com

St. Elizabeths East Gateway Pavilion, Washington, DC, USA designed by Davis Brody Bond

The new G8WAY DC, formerly known as Saint Elizabeths East Gateway Pavilion, is a multi-purpose structure providing a venue for casual dining, a farmers’ market and other community, cultural and arts events. The Pavilion, spread over a two-acre plot of the campus, creates an instantly iconic, visible and welcoming view into the site, particularly from the vantage points that reflect the existing and anticipated movements of people from different areas of the neighborhood. Forming a dramatic backdrop to the plaza, the main area of the pavilion is a 24-foot high space filled with modular booths convenient to where food trucks access the site. -- ArchDaily

Source: CROstudio archdaily.com

Section, Source: archdaily.com

Casa de las Ideas Library, Popocatépetl, Camino Verde, 22190 Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, 2012 designed by CROstudio

The slope generated by a different levels articulates a void on the outside at the back of the building, where an outdoor forum proposed. A sequential cascade of spaces makes the smooth and tight building fully open to the public even when outside business hours. The primary intention is to create and contribute to the city through the form of architecture that creates an initiative of civic life in its adjacent spaces. -- ArchDaily

Source: Oscar Hernandez archdaily.com

Borregos Stadium, Aguascalientes, Mexico, 2012 designed by Arkylab + Mauricio Ruiz

....the perceptual impact of an architectural object lies in its density on the contextual level, in this natural case we opt to defragment and spread it along its topography fulfilling its intrinsic functions, this is when it generates a new landscape hybridized from monolithic elements inserted in the site. -- ArchDaily

Source: Joonhwan Yoon archdaily.com

Nine Bridges “The Forum”, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, South Korea, 2013 designed by D·Lim Architects

....the subterranean project avoids disrupting views of the surrounding forest and natural landscape. More than half of the volume is dug beneath the ground level, with a large hole subtracted from the roof to filter light through to the spaces below. -- ArchDaily

Source: FG +SG archdaily.com

Centro De Artes Nadir Afonso, Boticas, Portugal, 2013 designed by Louise Braverman

Merging architecture and landscape, Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso links an emerging urban center with its pastoral environs. The1858-square-meter single artist museum fuses a light, lucid contemporaneity with the rich materiality and sustainability of Portuguese design to honor one of Portugal’s most beloved native sons, the artist Nadir Afonso. -- ArchDaily

Source: Paul Warchol archdaily.com

Bushwick Inlet Park, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2013 designed by Kiss + Cathcart

Bushwick Inlet Park transforms the Brooklyn waterfront from a brownfield industrial strip into a public park. The Park wraps over the building on the west side, turning the building into a green hill so that 100% of the site is accessible to the public. -- ArchDaily

Source: Cemal Emden archdaily.com

Eyüp Cultural Center and Marriage Hall, Istanbul, Turkey, 2013 designed by Emre Arolat Architects

The building is considered as a kind of structural landscape component combining the level difference between the pedesterian way and the sea with a walking ramp. -- ArchDaily

Source: Joao Morgado archdaily.com

Pe no Monte – Rural Tourism, 7630-174 Odemira, Portugal, 2014 designed by [i]da arquitectos

In the lower level, the intervention results in a new independent building that adapts to the topography of the site and uses the slope of the ground to differentiate the owners’ house of the guest areas. This long volume, half-buried and perpendicular to the line of trees, preserves the scale of the house and reinforces the verticality of vegetation. -- ArchDaily

Source: Martin Schubert archdaily.com

Moesgaard Museum, Aarhus, Denmark, 2014 designed by Henning Larsen Architects

With its sloping roofscape of grass, moss and brightly-coloured wild flowers, the building is a powerful visual landmark perceptible even from the sea. -- ArchDaily

Source: Steven Ngu, Andy Lim archdaily.com

The Arc at Bandar Rimbayu, Periwinkle, Bandar Rimbayu, Selangor, Malaysia, 2014 designed by Garis Architects

The roof solution responds to the desire to keep itself and the space below cool by sustainable means: insulating with soil and greenery. In doing so it effectively ‘replaces’ the original greenery at ground plane with an new eco-system on elevated deck that not only provides open space for recreation but also offers higher vantage points to enjoy views across a fairly flat township and the activities below. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG archdaily.com

D. Diogo de Menezes Square, Cascais, Portugal designed by Miguel Arruda Arquitectos Associados

The exterior treatment plan of the parking lot in square D. Diogo de Menezes in Cascais, is projected as a roof surface platform with volumes that connect with the interior of the underground parking.  -- ArchDaily

Urban Spaces: Square 3

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaça Reial, Barcelona, Spain

Plaça Reial (In Spanish Plaza Real, meaning "Royal Plaza") is a square in the Barri Gòtic of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It lies next to La Rambla and constitutes a well-known touristic attraction, especially at night.The Plaça Reial was designed by Francesc Daniel Molina i Casamajó in the 19th century. The lanterns there were designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. -- Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain

The Plaza Mayor was built during the Habsburg period and is a central plaza in the city of Madrid, Spain. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape, measuring 129 by 94 metres, and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 breathtaking balconies facing the Plaza. It has a total of nine entranceways. The Casa de la Panadería, serving municipal and cultural functions, dominates the Plaza Mayor. -- Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain

It was built in the traditional Spanish baroque style and is a popular gathering area. It is lined by restaurants, ice cream parlors, tourist shops, jewelry stores and a pharmacy along its perimeter except in front of the city hall. It is considered the heart of Salamanca and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful plazas in Spain. -- Wikipedia

Urban Spaces: Square 2

These are urban spaces with rectangular shapes and bounded by streets or a landmark building:

Source: wikipedia.org

Bryant Park, New York City, New York, USA

The Rockefeller Brothers created the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC), under the founding leadership of Andrew Heiskell, then Chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library, and Daniel A. Biederman, a Harvard Business School graduate and systems consultant with a reputation as an innovator in downtown management. Heiskell and Biederman, in 1980, created a master plan for turning around the park. 

Bryant Park reopened in April, 1992, to lavish praise from citizens and visitors, the media, and urbanists. -- official web site 

Source: geograph.org.uk

Manchester Square, London, UK

Manchester Square, west of Bentinck street, has a central private garden with handsome plane trees, laid out in 1776. The mansion on the north side of the Square, now the home of the Wallace Collection that features world-class French eighteenth-century painting, porcelains and furniture, once housed the Spanish ambassador, whose chapel was in Spanish Place. -- Wikipedia

Source: Scott Pease archdaily.com

Perk Park, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 2012 designed by Thomas Balsley Asociates with Jim McKnight

.... as part of Pei’s urban renewal scheme. The first park on the site was completed in 1972: a New Brutalist ensemble of heavy concrete planters surrounding a sunken plaza, the old park quickly became a favorite haunt of vagrants and pigeons, an unloved and underused blight in the middle of the bustling central business district. 

The new park greets the street courtesy of what Balsley describes as a “forest and meadow” concept. Shade trees, as well as modified versions of the original planted mounds, are preserved from the old design; but now they’re complimented by a wide-open lawn sitting atop the former central sink, punctuated by a sculptural knoll perfect for daylight lounging. -- ArchDaily