Building/Ground: Changing Topography

Source: openbuildings.com

International Port Terminal - Yokohama, Japan, 2002 designed by Foreign Office Architects. 

"Our proposal for the project start by declaring the site as an open public space and proposes to have the roof of the building as an open plaza, continuous with the surface of Yamashita Park as well as Akaranega Park. The project is then generated from a circulation diagram that aspires to eliminate the linear structure characteristic of piers, and the directionality of the circulation." - FOA

The articulation of the circulation system with the constructive system through this folded organisation produced two distinct spatial qualities; the continuity of the exterior and the interior spaces and the continuity between the different levels of the building. -- Open Buildings.com.

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Source: archdaily.com

Maritime Youth House, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004 designed by PLOT

A third of our budget was allocated to remove our polluted topsoil. By covering the site with a wooden deck we could leave the soil where it was and invest the money on the building rather than the site’s polluted topsoil. The result is a public landscape of social functions surrounded by water on all sides.

Two very different users had to share the facilities: a sailing club and a youth centre with conflicting requirements: the youth centre wanted outdoor space for the kids to play; the sailing club required most of the site to moor their boats. The building is the result of these two contradictory demands: The deck is elevated high enough to allow for boat storage underneath while providing an undulating landscape for the kids to run and play above.  -- ArchDaily

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Source: construction.com

City of Culture of Galicia Archive and Library

Eisenman’s project of a lifetime, now 12 years in design and construction, has involved serious digging and earthmoving to create topographical man-made structures that blur figure and ground.-- Architectural Record June 2011.

Source: Iwan Baan

Museum of Ocean and Surf, Biarritz, France, 2011 Designed by Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Solange Fabiao

Topographically melding with the landscape, the Cité is a museum of oceanography, exploring themes of science, ecology and leisure that expand the remit of Biarritz’s more conventional marine life centre. The choice of the soubriquet ‘Cité’, rather than ‘Musée’, anticipates how this as yet isolated fragment in picturesque beach suburbia has the potential to set up an engagement with the town, ostensibly forming a new locus of cultural and architectural gravity. But for now you get the strong sense that the action is still elsewhere. -- Architecrural Review

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Source: Patrick López Jaimes archdaily.com

Monument for the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico, 2011 Designed by TEN Arquitectos

An artificial resemblance of the original topography, the superposition of the top layer offers visitors a park with undulating movements that generate different environments. The surface is divided into garden areas, wooden deck and sandpits; this division allows for a multiplicity of uses. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jens Lindhe archdaily.com

Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark, 2013 Designed by BIG

The hall, formed by bevelled concrete walls, is covered by a soft vaulted wooden roof formed by a series of uniquely curved glued laminated timber beams. The roof, serving two functions as an interior and exterior skin,is a welcome addition to the existing 1950’s campus of yellow brick buildings. The hilly courtyard creates an informal meeting place that can host numerous activities from group work to larger gatherings. -- ArchDaily

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