Building/Ground: Terraced Down

What's the relationship between architecture and its site is an essential question confronting designers. These examples demonstrate some of the many ways that architecture fit onto the site. Many cases defy the traditional notion of Figure/Ground.

1969  Source: whatwow.org

2010  Source: construction.com

The Oakland Museum of California in 1969 designed by architect Kevin Roche and landscape architect Dan Kiley. Oakland Museum of California Renovation, completed in 2010, by Mark Cavagnero Associates

envisioned as a porous building with multiple casual entrances and exits instead of a grand front portal. Museum and park — the collaboration of architects Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates with landscape architect Dan Kiley — flowed together as a continuous public space, spanning the equivalent of five city blocks.--Architectural Record, December 2010.

Source: oursurprisingworld.com

Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall, completed in 1995, in Japan designed by New York architect Emilio Ambasz extends a city park over a public building.

The southern side extends an existing park through a series of terraced gardens that climb the full height of the building, culminating in a magnificent belvedere that offers views of the harbor and surrounding hills. --description from architect's web site.

Source: lisatown.com

Namba Parks in Osaka, Japan completed in 2003 designed by Jerde. 

a lifestyle commercial center crowned with a rooftop park that crosses multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels. ... Namba Parks creates a new natural experience for Osaka that celebrates the interaction of people, culture and recreation. Read a post at Inspiration Wall.

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Source: construction.com

Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Va. designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects

merging a 947-foot-long, 280-foot deep, curvilinear building with the earth. By deftly inserting a three-tiered, terraced structure into the gentle slope of a hill to serve as a research  center for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Uruguayan-born, New York–based architect has created a dramatically deferential work of  architecture. -- Architectural Record March 2007.

Source: Meng Yan archdaily.com

Jade Bamboo Culture Plaza, Shenzhen, China, 2009 designed by Urbanus

The Jade Bamboo Garden, which has insufficient connections with the surrounding streets, is one of the few areas partly retaining the original landform and vegetation in the urban center.

After negotiating with the government, the developer agreed to designate the area for urban public space. As compensation, the government agreed to build 50 parking spaces for the developer underneath this public square.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Østengen & Bergo AS

Schandorff Square, Akersgata 64-68 Oslo, Norway, 2009 designed by Østengen & Bergo AS

The dead end Schandorff street in the centre of Oslo was converted from car parking lot to an urban green space, Schandorff Square, adding up to an existing green structure through an old cemetery in the east. The square was privately financed by developer Høegh Eiendom AS and completed in 2009 when it was donated to the municipality. -- ArchDaily

Source: architectmagazine.com

Vancouver Convention Centre West, Vancouver, Canada, 2009 designed by LMN Architects.

Situated on a former brownfield site in downtown Vancouver, the LEED Platinum–certified convention center features 1 million square feet of convention space, 90,000 square feet of retail space, 450 parking spots, and 400,000 square feet of walkways, bikepaths, public space and plazas on a 22-acre site that spans eight acres over water.

The structure’s six-acre living roof is the largest in Canada and houses 400,000 indigenous plants and 240,000 bees. It is sloped to connect to nearby Stanley Park and foster natural drainage and seed migration patterns.  -- ARCHITECT Magazine, April 12, 2011

Source: architectural-review.com

Giant Campus, Shanghai, China designed by Morphosis, completed in 2010. 

Arguably, it belongs to a new typological strand of commercial buildings that, to steal Aaron Betsky’s term for something different, we might call the landscraper. That’s not to say it takes the form of a tall tower on its side, but a building that responds successfully to the programme and makes a positive statement about the way architecture inevitably obliterates the reality of the ground over which it is built.--The Architectural Review April 2011.

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Source: P. Guignard archdaily.com

Primary School For Sciences And Biodiversity, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 2014 designed by Chartier Dalix Architectes

This project is a “landscape as living space” rather than a simple building. There are two distinct parts to the building: a mineral section – the facades – and a section made of plants – the roof. -- ArchDaily