Medical Library Oasis / HPP Architets + Volker Weuthen

Posted on marzo 20, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: HPP Architets
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Design Team: Myriam Hamdi, Stephan Heimann, Bärbel Walger, Wolfgang Miazgowski, Anja Biechele
Area: 19,950 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Ralph Richter, Jens Kirchner

Interior: Working Group Silvia Pappa / UKW Innenarchitekten
Structural: Bollinger + Grohmann Ingenieure, Frankfurt a. M.
Technical Engineer: Winter Ingenieure, Dusseldorf
Acoustic: Peutz Consult
Landscape: W. Prechler, Dusseldorf
Lighting: AG Licht, Bonn

A place of Exchange, of Innovative Teaching and Learning and of Development. The name evokes longing and although the name Oasis is chiefly a play on words, the architecture of the new medical library of the Heinrich Heine University and the University Clinic in Dusseldorf demonstrates clear similarities with a fertile spot in the desert. Not through its form but through its concept; the brief was to design a space for enthusiastic learning; a place of exchange, of innovative teaching and learning and of development. The initial letters of these concepts in German together form the word O.A.S.E. – oasis.

In less than two and a half years of design and construction we managed to create a landmark on the campus of university in the North Rhine Westphalian capital. The new medical library is part of the 2030 Master Plan to reorganise the 14 hectare university campus in the Wersten district of the city. Constant expansion of the university over the past few decades led to an extremely heterogeneous appearance. New identification points are required; a lighthouse project for innovative teaching and learning, for example.

New Points of Attraction and Identification

The Oasis is such a point of attraction; visible from a great distance, it is 38 m tall, has a very unusual façade structure and a gleaming white skin. It projects unequivocally out of its rather monotonous grey surroundings. The external appearance of the solid structure reflects the library’s specialist topic; it is the architectural expression of the capillary system. This idea is further reflected in the smooth, white façade. Organically shaped glass mosaic tiles linked by glass strips spread like a network over the slender cube and lend the structure its unmistakeable shape.

This dynamic is reflected in the interior design through the flowing open spatial structure. Along with the obligatory library facilities such as the reading and lending areas, work and study rooms, a cafeteria and generous public and exhibition areas are arranged on the eight floors above ground level. The various library, study and learning rooms are stacked on top of one another and are accessed via a cylindrical lift and staircase core. The service core is diagonally opposite as are the document lounges and the toilets.

Stacked Library Functions

The ground floor of the library has been designed as a double-height space with a suspended mezzanine floor. The café, the cafeteria counter and the large lecturetheatre are directly connected to the entrance foyer that houses the information desk and the electronic library security gate. The mezzanine offers a conference space with a direct view onto the hustle and bustle of the café below through a glass wall.

The specialist medical and dental library rooms along with study rooms of various sizes are organised on levels 1 to 4. Digital whiteboards in the study rooms permit the most up-to-date interactive communication and data exchange. A specially fitted out parent-child study room is reinforces the user-friendly aspects of the concept. Learning lounges are arranged freely in the central zones of each floor reflecting the easy transition between geometric and organic forms in keeping with our intention to make this a library to be experienced and not just used. All desks are equipped with WLAN and power sockets and half of these are additionally fitted with fixed LAN sockets.

The centrepiece of the library is on the fourth floor – the borrowing desk – we fulfilled the University’s request for a state of the art issue and return system with automatic sorting of returned books. Also on this floor are an e-learning room with 30 computer desks, another small cafeteria and offices for library staff. Whereas the lower floors are only accessible via the staircase and lifts, open internal stairways lead to the upper library floors where the bookshelves are laid out alternating with open-plan reading and working areas and separate group study rooms. In keeping with the concept as a whole, the areas become quieter and quieter as one moves upwards through the building and the atmosphere becomes ever more conducive to concentrated working.

Level 7 is, like the ground floor, a double-height storey with a suspended mezzanine level providing further individual study areas and chill out zones. The uppermost floor of the Oasis is a roof terrace that affords students clear views of the entire university campus. The basement has been designed to house the technical functions including the cloakrooms and toilets for the exhibition areas on the ground floor.

Facade structure as Starting Point for the Interior Design

The interior design was conceived and realised together with the Silvia Pappa_UKW Innenarchitekten working group. The quality of the fittings reflects the architectural aspects of the spaces. The expressive cubature of the building, the free-flowing forms and fabric of the façade require a fitting response in the design of the interior.

Medical Library Oasis / HPP Architets + Volker Weuthen originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 Mar 2013.

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Medical Library Oasis / HPP Architets + Volker Weuthen

Posted on marzo 20, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

New Points of Attraction and Identification

Stacked Library Functions

Facade structure as Starting Point for the Interior Design

Medical Library Oasis / HPP Architets + Volker Weuthen originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 Mar 2013.

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Ueberflieger Bridge / Agirbas & Wienstroer

Posted on enero 31, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Agirbas & Wienstroer
Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
Year: 2012
Photographs: Thomas Mayer

Two slender ramps, two half-ellipse shaped steel-arcs and a series of steel-ties lifting up the floating road-track is all: the new fly-over at the Völklinger street in Düsseldorf, Germany, does not need anything further to smoothly move traffic into the harbour. Two symmetrically set steel arches appear to effortlessly grapple with the traffic load: With a light touch and graceful gesture they greet all visitors coming into the city from the south. In front of the skyline of the city-gates and the Rhine-tower they create another architectonic highlight; a delicate horizontal sweep gives a harmonic contrast to the peaks of the Düsseldorf silhouette. Road infrastructure once called the millipede in the centre of town amidst the “Schauspielhaus” and the “Dreischeibenhaus” now has a counterpoint with the “Überflieger” in the centres periphery.

The architecture office Ağırbaş / Wienstroer from Neuss, Germany designed a bridge that appears almost weightless and gets away requiring only few supports. It’s not an aesthetic game but is purely functional: Fewer pillars result in a crossing with minimal visual obstructions deliberately enhancing traffic safety. The primary weight of the structure with its 4m wide road and 2m wide verge is carried by the two steel arches. A mayor waste water collecting canal underneath the Völklinger street posed specific constraints for the foundation of the bridge structure. Approaches other than deep pile foundations were discarded from the outset. These pile foundations – safely anchoring the bridge in the ground of the Rhine river valley – carry the weight of its daily users. The “Überflieger” creates new routes across one of the most used road-crossings in Düsseldorf: directly leading into one of the most dynamic locations of the North Rhine-Westphalia capital.

The harbour of Düsseldorf is a special success story. The partial redevelopment into a media-harbour and the further expansion of the pre-existing industrial harbour required this new road-infrastructure like life needs water: The new fly-over connection across the Völklinger street into the developments of Plock street is indispensable. The bridge provides enhanced capacity to smoothly connect the increasing traffic loads into the harbour for both commuter and commercial traffic. Alongside it secures a persistent flow of all traffic moving away from the city centre extending out of the mayor road-tunnels flanking the Rhine. All commuters have to be thankful for the existence of the “Überflieger”.

The architectural contextualisation of the bridge construction succeeds in its playful manner: a gentle rising slope with a slight, calm left turn that – without stopping – dips back down just as gently. A short ride on the “Überflieger” replaces long cues with long waits on a critical left turn. No matter whether small car or lorry, the entire traffic towards the harbour is routed over the bridge ramps into Plock street. Right-turn traffic coming from the town-centre side seamlessly joins at ground-level. To create minimum visual impact on the flowing traffic the entire bridge structure was kept as short and narrow as possible. As a result the ramps made out of reinforced concrete have a continuous rise of six percent whilst the road slants inward at 2.5% within the curve section, altogether a finely balanced geometry resulting in a high driving comfort and design aesthetic. The slender steel arches leave plenty of sight-lines onto the road-traffic.

An atmospheric, colourful illumination at night delivers an aesthetically pleasing architectural experience of the traffic. Technically the bridge has been realised through a composite steel superstructure made out of a seven cell, hermetically sealed and welded hollow core with a composite concrete top slab. Together these provide a low inspection and maintenance overhead. Aesthetically as well as technically and economically the “Überflieger” proves to be a truly innovative design that sets a new momentum for the South of Düsseldorf.

Ueberflieger Bridge / Agirbas & Wienstroer originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 31 Jan 2013.

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J. Mayer H. Expands German Business School With New Zig-Zag Lecture Hall

Posted on noviembre 27, 2012 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Ze Germans have called in J. Mayer H. Architects to create a new seminar building for the private business university, FOM (Fachhochschule fuer Oekononmie und Management, duh) in Dusseldorf. The prestigious school has accepted so many bright pupils that its campus is nearly bursting at the seams! This new building will include plenty of seating, new

Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany

Posted on agosto 6, 2012 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

md library 1 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany

O.A.S.E. Medical Library is a daring contemporary architecture project by HPP Architects, raising 38 meters high in Düsseldorf, Germany. With a smooth, white facade, the building stands out in its environment and is visible from a great distance. According to the architects, “the brief was to design a space for enthusiastic learning; a place of exchange, of innovative teaching and learning and of development. The initial letters of these concepts in German together form the word O.A.S.E. – oasis“. The modern dynamics of the exterior is further reflected in the layout and interior design of the project: “Along with the obligatory library facilities such as the reading and lending areas, work and study rooms, a cafeteria and generous public and exhibition areas are arranged on the eight floors above ground level. The various library, study and learning rooms are stacked on top of one another and are accessed via a cylindrical lift and staircase core. The service core is diagonally opposite as are the document lounges and the toilets“. Color is present throughout, contributing to a space that is both welcoming and engaging. [Photography by Jens Kirchner]

md library 3 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany

medical library 1 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 2 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 3 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 4 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 5 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 6 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 7 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 8 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 9 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 10 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany medical library 11 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany

md library 2 Engaging Design Showcased by O.A.S.E. Medical Library in Düsseldorf, Germany

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Random Special Places: Kling Klang Kraftwerk studio

Posted on agosto 3, 2012 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Kraftwerk at Kling Klang studio, 1981

In an industrial section of Düsseldorf squats a relatively unremarkable yellow-tiled modernist-looking building. It looks like the sort of building that went up in the post-war reconstruction (the city was bombed nearly flat in night raids during WWII).

The building, however, betrays obvious categorizations. At first glance it seems easy to place on an historical continuum. But just as it could be from the fifties or sixties, it could just as easily be from the twenties or thirties. It may have miraculously survived the RAF’s gasoline bombs. Post-raid aerial survey photos would always reveal those few exclamation points of untouched buildings dotting the monochromatic wastes. Could this be one of those survivors? Is this why it looks so special sitting amidst the other unremarkable buildings of Mintropstrasse? Or maybe it’s the mere fact of the photograph that makes it special.

Continue reading after the break

Mintropstrasse 16, Düsseldorf, Germany. Former home of Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studio, 1970-2009. Photo: A-Beats, Flickr.

My interest is not innocent but it is, as the title suggests, somewhat random. Recently, I found myself drawn into the 2009 BBC Four documentary, Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany. And it was through this that I learned about Mintropstrasse 16. I assumed it would have been well-documented, folded into the narrative of western architecture. But outside of it’s role as the site of Kraftwerk’s studio, Kling Klang, it remains—befitting the band’s process and inner workings—an enigma. But someone on that street knows. Someone knew the architect. Someone somewhere must be doing a PhD dissertation on it.

There is something optimistic and expansive about that band of glass at what I think is the second floor. You enter and step up into it. Why? It appears to be a building worth thinking about, but I cannot find it in any of the books or in the EU architecture database.

That dead-center entry at the street is actually the mouth of a breezeway that leads to an expansive internal courtyard. The building wraps around an open well of sky. You walk into it and then look up. In that well, the sky is more intense, as if being focused through a lens. It’s like the inward-looking castle at Heidelberg. While the front pushes flat against the sidewalk, defining, in concert with adjacent buildings, a familiar urban canyon, the experience of the courtyard produces a world of difference, the street left behind just beyond the breezeway.

It’s unabashed, undisguised symmetry is reassuringly calming. It looks as it stands with no slippage, no tricks. Nor is there irony. There is the sense that it is not trying to deceive anyone. It requires nothing from us.

New music in new machines

Those delicate curtains hanging behind the glass dematerialize the building’s solidity. I would like to see them flung open. The glass certainly could have been larger, but the architect decided to keep most of them punched rather than repeat that special band. The little windows recess in while the band floats off the façade, just enough to mean something. Is there a workshop behind that band, a small factory? Or a lounge?

The enigmatic Kraftwerk retreated into this industrial sanctuary to create new music on new machines. From 1970 to 2009, they produced most of their albums here, on equipment they invented—proto-synthesizers, oscillators, vocoders, and sequencers to name a few. The studio was famous for its secure, fortress-like nature. There was no telephone and the door would likely remain closed if knocked on—if one dared to knock. A private realm, not easily penetrated, from which emerged music that would give rise to so much of the music we know today. So much ground-breaking music emanated from that little corner with the loading dock, behind the categorization-betraying yellow-tile façade, with the optimistic band of glass and the diaphanous curtains.

There is something pre-about the architecture. A little like how Kraftwerk music can come across now. In the current sonic landscape, Kraftwerk can sound a little, well, early, a little pre-, but not in a bad way. It’s like looking over childhood photographs, without harsh judgment.

It’s thoroughly lived in yet somehow unscarred by time. In these photographs it appears almost unreal, like some freshly-painted apparition of the industrial city. A child’s stage set, merely as written or filmed…or dreamed.

And in the dream, try as you may, the doors do not open. And there is no way in. And this would be in keeping with it’s secretive purpose. At the back and to the right, where there is the loading dock, exists a modern pilgrimage site: the former location of Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studio.

Arte y Arquitectura: Anna di Prospero

Posted on enero 29, 2012 by socializarq

Nacida en Roma en 1987, Anna di Prospero, estudió fotografía en el Istituto Europeo di Design de Roma y en la School of Visual Arts de Nueva York.

Desde siempre se sintió enormemente atraída por la arquitectura contemporánea, como según ella misma nos cuenta “son un símbolo de nuestro presente y mi intensión es la de representarme como parte de la era que estamos viviendo. Con cada una de las imágenes que realizo busco experimentar el concepto de cuerpo, espacio e interacción”.

Anna ha tomado fotografías tanto en ciudades de su país natal, Italia, como en algunas europeas y norteamericanas. En sus retratos aparecen obras de Frank Gehry, Dominique Perrault, Renzo Piano, MVRDV, entre otros.

Más imágenes después del salto.

Las Fotografías han sido tomadas en las ciudades de Nueva York, Madrid, Paris, Dusseldorf, Basilea, Valencia, Bilbao, Berlin y Roma.

En 2008, fue seleccionada para “FotoGrafia–Festival Internacional de Fotografía de Roma”, con una exposición en solitario en la Galeria Gallerati. En 2009 formó parte del “FotoLeggendo Festival” y ganó el “Prix Exchange Boutographies” que le valió la participación en el “Boutographies Rencontres Photographiques de Montpellier 10ème edition”. En 2010 fue seleccionada para el seminario internacional de fotografía “Reflexions-Masterclass”, sostenido por Giorgia Fiorio y Gabriel Bauret. Recientemente ha sido premiada como «Discovery of the year» en Lucie Awards 2011.

Arte y Arquitectura: Anna di Prospero originalmente publicado en Plataforma Arquitectura el 29 Ene 2012.

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Barrio M | jurgen mayer h. architects

Posted on diciembre 6, 2011 by socializarq

Con sede ene berlin jurgen mayer h. architectss ha ganado uno de los dos primeros premios de una planificación urbana concepto en Dusseldorf, Alemania, con su diseño de “barrio m ‘. Con una fecha aproximada de construcción en 2014, el proyecto es servir de enlace entre la estación de Hauptbahnhof central y Tanzhaus NRW / capital, proporcionar un barrio animado de vida y de trabajo.

Consta de tres bloques de construcción para oficinas, hotel y ambas financiadas por entes privados y viviendas públicas subsidiadas por el gobierno, el proyecto cuenta con una gran altura que crecerá como una escultura del periférico desarrollo adjunto. La estructura cohesiva se circunscribe para unificar el plan urbanístico, crea una bolsa urbana de una intensa actividad dentro de la ciudad.