Arrive In Style On A Paris Train Fit For A King

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

Public transportation is rarely described as decadent, even though it is a luxury enjoyed by most city dwellers. Urban environments lend themselves to commuter trains and bus routes, helping millions of people arrive at their destination, albeit not always on time. Unfortunately, between over-crowded trains and delayed schedules, urban commuters can sometimes forget that public transportation is a treat. Parisian city officials have recently transformed a train on the main rapid transit system to resemble the Palace of Versailles, creating potentially the most luxurious and ostentatious train commute imaginable. Read more!

Ever since May, passengers on the RER C line traveling between the Palace and the capital city have indulged in their opulent surroundings. The refurbishments, which involved layering the walls of the train with a high-tech plastic film, create replications of seven different palace areas including the Hall of Mirrors, Marie-Antoniette’s estate, the formal gardens, and even a mock library in one of the train cars.

The train cars are completely covered, from walls to vaulted ceilings, in the extravagant replications from the palace, including ornamented furniture, golden statues, and decorative ceiling designs. The new changes were funded by the Palace of Versailles, with the changes being carried out courtesy of a deal made between palace officials and the rail operator SNCF.

Photos: courtesy of Wenn

[via dailymail]

Australia House Proposal / Andrew Burns Architect

Posted on febrero 3, 2012 by socializarq

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view from the north

Andrew Burns Architect recently won the competition for a gallery in rural Japan – Australia House. The competition was judged by Tadao Ando and open internationally. Their design is scheduled to be completed in July 2012 and will be a key part of the Echigo Tsumari Art Trienale 2012. More images and architects’ description after the break.

view from the south

The Australia House project is a gallery / atelier for Australian artists to practice and exhibit in the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale in Niigata Prefecture, rural Japan. The project creates an apparently simple form, alternating in perception between an art object and a domestic construction. On approach to the site, the acute angles of the triangular plan are visible, presenting a dynamic edge. Upon entering the courtyard a frontal view is presented, an abstracted verandah with a more familiar domestic presence.

view from the courtyard

A series of hinged full height panels reference the windows of the traditional Australian Georgian farmhouse, whilst the inclusion of a daikoku-bashira (king post) and steep pitch of the roof references the Japanese minka. The envelope contains three gallery spaces (wide, long and tall) interlocked to create prismatic spatial composition. The building invites curatorial and installation approaches that engage with the surrounding landscape and the structure makes these landscape spaces present.

Australia House Proposal / Andrew Burns Architect originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 03 Feb 2012.

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Rietveld: The Remix

Posted on enero 17, 2012 by socializarq

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The Rietveld Chair

A professor once explained to me, several years into teaching “Architecture after the Industrial Revolution,” that a student had long ago gifted to him his very own Rietveld Chair, painted and assembled by hand. As I tried to envision the iconic collage of primary colors in any house, my professor proceeded to explain how the rigid, angled planes of the Rietveld Chair had a remarkable effect on the human body: the sitter resting in what the Dutch architect had foreseen to be a simultaneously mass-produced and artisanal object would experience an unexpected floating sensation, a state of relaxation bestowed upon any working class man who can pick up a saw and hammer (and a paint brush, I suppose).

Though Rietveld Year has come and gone (in case you missed it, June 24, 2010 to January 30, 2011 was officially dedicated to the architect), a good remix of a classic can always be appreciated. Taking cues from contemporary trends in music, the DZA “remixed” Rietveld’s now canonized design according to various musical genres. Ch-ch-check it out.

Pop Rietveld

‘King Tubby’ Rietveld

The clarity of color, shape and form make the Rietveld Chair a prime candidate for the sampling, covering, remixing and collaboration commonplace in the music industry. Taking inspiration from a 12” vinyl single release, the DZA produced variations of the Rietveld Chair expressive of different styles of music: dub music switched the iconic De Stijl blue with green for a Rastafarian flavor, while pop music was cleverly expressed as an Ikea-style flat pack. An experimentation with an ‘extended edition’ led to a Rietveld bench, and ‘classical’ Rietveld abandoned colors altogether for refined finished wood. We’re ready to take design proposals for Polka Rietveld.

Rietveld Extended Edition

Classical Rietveld

[All images courtesy the designers]

100 Ideas: 008 Barcelona Chairs for NYC Parks

Posted on diciembre 21, 2011 by socializarq

Parks need furniture out on those lawns, but it has to be robust & secure; in short, it needs to be bulletproof.

The Barcelona Chair is so big, so heavy and so durable that it could, in an outdoor version, be easily anchored and last for decades. Paris can have its little folding chairs, and London can have its teak benches, but American’s butts need something with a bit more ‘girth’.

The Barcelona chair was designed by Mies van der Rohe for Germany’s pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. Why a chair designed by a German for a Spanish exposition 80 years ago? Because it is perfectly New York; international, historic, iconic, modern and very, very expensive.

Mies, after all, uttered “Less is more” and “God is in the details”. He was the sound bite king in the age of Mad Men and created one of The City’s first truly modern office towers, the Park Avenue’s Seagrams Building. And if the provenance of all modern architecture in New York runs through Philip J…

On the Path to Recovery in Rwanda, Designing Women’s Empowerment

Posted on diciembre 15, 2011 by socializarq

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Image via Sharon Davis Design on Facebook.

The politics of architect-led humanitarian efforts are complex. Criticism regarding such work is often based in an alleged imposition of Western values upon an autonomous community. The “imposition of the architect” exists within the US, as well: in the years after Katrina, New Orleans residents skewered many out-of-state architects for imposing contemporary design on a community that never asked for it. The value system implicit in such an exchange between architect and underserved population goes like this: contemporary design (oft created at a desk thousands of miles away) is a gift, and will lift you up from your misery.

Not all humanitarian-oriented offices operate on reductive logic. At the recent World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Sharon Davis Design were commended for their near-complete Women’s Opportunity Center in Kayonza, Rwanda, a project that proposes an alternative approach to the complicated process of empowering of a foreign community through design. Tasked with designing a center for education and recovery for survivors of the 1994 genocide, the office took a long look at the socio-economic conditions surrounding the Center. Working with DC-based non-profit, Women for Women International, they came up with an idea: rather than designing a space for education, they’d let the spaces result from the education itself. Their first task, then, was to work with the community to identify the skill sets taught by the Center.

Widespread deforestation in Rwanda makes timber scarce, for cooking fires and building both. It seemed essential that the Center be built from a sustainable material, and Rwanda’s bountiful clay mud seemed an obvious place to start. After doing a bit of research on the construction market, the team realized that while synthetic materials abounded, a market hole existed when it came to brick. Brick making, a relatively low-impact and easily learned process would offer a self-sustaining, environmentally sound skill to the Center’s future participants. It would also allow the Center’s members to participate in the construction of the Center itself.

Principle Sharon Davis made trips to the site regularly, a team of engineers, designers, and consultants in tow. Bruce Engel, the project manager, lives in Rwanda permanently. Working with an ensemble group of community organizers, non-profit leaders, and sustainability experts, they broached the topic of design carefully. A study of the southern Rwandan king’s palace inspired a series of curved window-less spaces that felt safe, intimate, and quiet. Winged rooftops funnel rainwater into a cistern for future use; and biogas, rather than firewood, fuels the cooking fires. The project (which is currently under construction) will eventually house and teach three hundred female survivors of genocide. When they graduate from the center, they’ll leave knowing how to build their own businesses and financial independence.

It’s a project that will strike a cord with any designer who’s tried to provide humanitarian relief from afar, knowing full well that successful architecture is far more than “design.” The process of rebuilding is fraught with the ghosts of the past: whether on an emotional or architectural plane, sparring with those ghosts is an essential part of the process. Whether or not we recover, the essential point is self-sufficiency, independence, and the skills and resources to power “the trying.” Read more here.

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All images (c) Sharon Davis Architects.

“King memorial opens on the National Mall”

Posted on septiembre 7, 2011 by socializarq

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“A memorial dedicated to struggle struggles to open”

IAA – (Education)

Posted on agosto 31, 2011 by socializarq

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City: AMMAN
Address: Saad Khair Street, King Hussein Parks
Architect: Symbiosis Designs LTD

In Progress: King’s Cross Station / John McAslan + Partners

Posted on agosto 24, 2011 by socializarq

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“It’s incredible to watch the reinvention of the station taking shape into a compelling piece of place-making for London. You can already see how the Western Concourse – Europe’s largest single span station structure and the heart of the development – reconnects this much-loved Victorian terminus to its context. It’s immensely satisfying to see the project move forward at such pace and we look forward to celebrating the project’s completion in 2012 for the London Olympics.”-John McAslan, Chairman John McAslan + Partners

Architect: John McAslan + Partners
Location: London, England
Photographs: Courtesy of John McAslan + Partners, Hufton Crow, John Sturrock

rendering Courtesy of John McAslan + Partners

With multi-phased, major works to Kings Cross station well advanced and the dramatic new Western Concourse in the process of being completed, the significance of the King’s Cross Station redevelopment is becoming increasingly apparent day by day.

As lead architects and masterplanners, John McAslan + Partners’ (JMP’s) transformation of King’s Cross Station for Network Rail is an object lesson in the fusion of three very different styles of architecture: re-use, restoration and new build. The train shed and range buildings have been adapted and re-used, the station’s obscured Grade I listed façade has been very precisely restored, and a new, highly expressive Western Concourse has been designed as a centrepiece and the beating heart of the project. When the works to the station are complete and it opens to the public in March 2012, the transformed station and its memorable new Western Concourse will take on the role of a new, iconic architectural gateway to the city in time for the 2012 London Olympics. This structure re-orientates the station to the west, creating significant operational improvements and revealing the main south façade of Lewis Cubitt’s original 1852 station, a masterpiece that has been hidden behind a canopy since 1972.

Although the Western Concourse is probably the most visually striking change to the station, JMP’s work on the project also involves a series of layered interventions and restorations that started with the completed restoration of the Eastern Range building (finished in 2009) and will also see the Main Train Shed, Suburban Train Shed and Western Range buildings revitalised.

Having begun work on the project in 1998 and establishing the masterplan for the development in 2005, John McAslan + Partners has played a key role in the profound infrastructural, social and commercial changes occurring in the area, connecting the station with the massive King’s Cross Central scheme north of the station as well as connecting to St Pancras, the London Underground, and surrounding context. The architectural ambition of JMP’s scheme recognises the opportunity to drive meaningful urban improvement in this part of the city, whilst also allowing King’s Cross Station to cope with increasing passenger numbers, which are thought to reach 50 million a year by 2012.

WESTERN CONCOURSE

The centrepiece of the £500m redevelopment is the new vaulted, semi-circular concourse to the west of the existing station. The concourse rises some 20m and spans the full 150m-length of the existing Grade I Listed Western Range, creating a new entrance to the station through the south end of the structure and at mezzanine level on the northern end of the Western Concourse.

Designed by John McAslan + Partners, and engineered by Arup, the 7,500sqm concourse has become Europe’s largest single-span station structure, comprising of 16 steel tree form columns that radiate from an expressive, tapered central funnel. The graceful circularity of the concourse echoes the form of the neighbouring Great Northern Hotel, with the ground floor of the hotel providing access to the concourse.

The Western Concourse runs delicately alongside the façade of the Western Range, clearly revealing the restored brickwork and masonry features of the original station. From the concourse’s dramatic interior space passengers can reach the platforms either through the ground level gate-lines in the Ticket Hall via the Western Range building, or by using the mezzanine level gate-line, which leads onto the new cross–platform footbridge.

Sitting above the new London Underground northern ticketing hall, and with retail elements at mezzanine level, the concourse will transform passenger facilities, whilst also enhancing links to the London Underground, and bus, taxi and train connections at St Pancras. The concourse is set to become an architectural gateway to the King’s Cross Central mixed-use developments, a key approach to the eastern entrance of St Pancras International. It will also act as an extension to King’s Cross Square, a new plaza that will be formed between the station’s southern façade and Euston Road.

WESTERN RANGE

Iconic design is matched at King’s Cross Station by considered architectural interventions. King’s Cross Western Range is the historic station’s biggest component and will provide the greatest range of uses. Complex in plan, and articulated in five buildings, its renewal will deliver greatly improved working conditions for the station staff, train-operating companies and Network Rail management teams. The Northern Wing, destroyed by bombing in World War II, has been rebuilt to its original design. The reinstatement of the Western Range by JMP will deliver key gated connections, including a new gate-line at the southern end, which will become the main point of connection between the Western Concourse and the platforms of the Main Train Shed.

MAIN TRAIN SHED

The station’s Main Train Shed is 250m long, 22m high and 65m wide, spanning eight platforms. It is being transformed by John McAslan + Partners’ several major interventions. The bold architecture of the main south façade will be re-exposed and is in the process of being restored, whilst the north and south gables are being re-glazed and platforms are also being extensively refurbished. In addition, the brickwork is being cleaned and any ad hoc accretions and outdated services stripped out.

section

The two barrel-vaulted roofs are currently being refurbished, with the first section of the work soon to be unveiled, and are being lined with energy-saving photo-voltaic arrays along the linear roof lanterns. JMP has designed a new glass footbridge – which has recently been installed – to extend across the Main Train Shed, replacing the old mid-shed Handyside bridge and giving access to every platform as well as the mezzanine level of the concourse.

JMP’s design integrates the main and suburban train sheds for the first time, creating a completely coherent groundplan for passenger movements into and through the station. Improvements to the Suburban Train Shed located to the north of the Western Concourse and Western Range buildings will enhance the operation of its three platforms (the busiest in the station during peak-hours at King’s Cross).

rendering Courtesy of John McAslan + Partners

Network Rail’s ambitious transformation of the station, with John McAslan + Partners as lead architect, creates a remarkable dialogue between Cubitt’s original station and 21st Century architecture, marking a shift in strategic infrastructural design in the UK. This relationship between old and new will raise King’s Cross position to that of a modern transport super hub, whilst revitalising and unveiling one of the great railway monuments of Britain.