Social Community Center / 3 Arquitectos

Posted on mayo 22, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: 3 Arquitectos
Location: La Serena, IV Región, Chile
Area: 613 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Alberto Castex

Collaborators: Luis Rojas P, (Dibujo CAD).
Client: I. Municipalidad de La Serena + MINVU Cuarta Región, Chile.
Constructor: Constructora Erices y Toro Ltda.
Structural Engineer: Ronald Segovia M.
Technical Inspection: I. Municipalidad de La Serena.
Sanitary: Eduardo Avalos P.
Site Area: Parque 18 de Septiembre, La Serena.
Costq: 19uf/m2

This projects is part of the program ‘Quiero Mi Barrio’ (‘I Love My Neighborhood’) from the MINVU, that seeks to improve the quality of life of the 200 neighborhoods with greater vulnerability and deterioration of Chile.

The edge of the ’17 de Septiembre’ slum is physically deteriorated. It faces huge empty spaces with no defined uses, and residual areas in which small landfills and land seizures have taken place.

The visible facade from the streets that surrounds the slum is formed by backyards, land seizures and residual public spaces, which degrades the presence of this neighborhood towards the city.

With this project, we intended to revert this urban situation, generating a new face in the environment and in two of the main internal corridors. Throughout a lookout plaza, we want to encourage the occupation and use of the public space, improve the access to the park and becoming a potential articulator of pedestrian circulation, integrating the actual activity form the neighbors as well as activities in the new places of the social center.

The inner spaces need to have multiple functions and they are distributed in three main levels: teenage room, administration room and events room. The protection and good care of the place was a main issue. Usually, this community centers are very hermetic spaces, without proper brightness. To address these two conditions, we worked with a continuous perimeter of prefab concrete, providing protection, sifting the light and allowing proper ventilation.

The chosen materials are similar to those already used in the neighborhood (tambourines, metal fences, and calamines), so it assimilates with the local language and giving priority to the proximity of the people with the project.

Social Community Center / 3 Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 21 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Ice Falls / James Carpenter Design Associates

Posted on mayo 21, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: James Carpenter Design Associates Inc
Location: New York, NY
Architect In Charge: Foster and Partners
Design Team: Johanna Kindvall, Jonathan Forsythe
Year: 2006
Photographs: Andreas Keller

Architect Of Record: Adamson Associates Architects
Design Principal: Torsten Schlauersbach, Richard Kress
Water Consultant: Fluidity Design Consultants
Cast Glass Fabrication: John Lewis Glass

In 2001, the Hearst Corporation appointed Foster and Partners to expand 959 Eighth Avenue, a building designed in 1926 by Joseph Urban and George C. Post for William Randolph Hearst. Foster and Partners’ tower design reunites the Hearst Corporation’s multiple media interests under one roof. The new tower preserves the landmark’s original façade while creating a technological and ecological structure that extends the original building aspirations.

An inclined plane traversed diagonally by escalators, connects the lobby entrance with the main lobby and elevator floor thirty feet above. JCDA was asked to design a water feature along this plane. Cast glass was selected as a medium for the waterfall so that its profile and resulting internal reflections could be designed to redirect light. By controlling the water temperature the water feature is a functional method of controlling temperature and humidity within the vast atrium space.

The diagrid of the building’s structure is reminiscent of cut diamonds. JCDA took this idea to explore the idea of controlling the incoming daylight. The complexity of the cast glass form allowed for a high level of light control through the glass’ internal reflections.

The overall layout of the water cascade corresponds with the major diagonal grid of the building. Staggered joints between the glass planks follow the diagonal grid of the support framing below. Accent blocks with polished surfaces matching the Ice Falls incline rhythmically accentuate the diagrid at these staggered joints, while providing points of mirror-like reflection within the field of kinetically activated water reflections.

The waterfall consists of cast glass blocks whose special profiles create an even and controlled flow of water. The large volume of the lobby is dissolved in the luminous plane of water and glass. The rays of light from the clerestories at the elevator floor are captured inside the facetted cast glass accentuating the beauty and brightness of the water’s energy. The crystalline beauty of the glass and the flowing water is the result a series of internal reflections and refractive turbulences, creating the phenomenon of luminosity.

Ice Falls / James Carpenter Design Associates originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 21 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Updated Plans Released for Chicago’s Navy Pier

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

James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) and nARCHITECTS have released updated renderings for their competition-winning redesign of Chicago’s 3,300 foot long Navy Pier. The slightly scaled-back, revised plans seemed to have dismissed the more “dramatic” and costly facets reviewed in last years’ submittal, such as the floating pool and sand beach, to depict a contemporary “park-like feel.” Highlighted features include the south-facing Wave Wall and grand stairway, inspired by the Spanish Steps in Rome, along with an interactive splash fountain-turned-winter ice skating rink at the beginning of a heavily vegetated promenade.

These updated plans for phase-one of the Navy Pier redesign were released alongside an announcement by the Chicago Mayor’s office that confirmed the project will receive $55 million in public funding.

More images and information after the break…

As featured in the Chicago Tribune, nARCHITECTS’ Wave Wall will connect the pier dock to an upper level amusement park, providing a large south-facing social space with views of the lake and access to more than 500 linear feet of retail spaces below.

Other featured structures include the slender glass Info Tower and a series of Lake Pavilions. By combining boat ticket kiosks with undulating polished stainless steel canopies, the Lake Pavilions will provide shade and shelter along the pier, while reflecting the rippling water of Lake Michigan back onto the dock (more information on the Navy Pier redevelopment scheme here).

Construction is expected to start this fall and be completed in time for the pier’s centennial in 2016.

via The Chicago Tribune, nARCHITECTS

Updated Plans Released for Chicago's Navy Pier originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Emergency Station in Alboraya / OMBRA Arquitectos

Posted on mayo 18, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: OMBRA Arquitectos
Location: Alboraya, Spain
Architects In Charge: Pablo Peñín Llobell, Diego Carratalá Collado, Francisco Miravete Martín y Carmen Mellado Vera
Area: 2,200 sqm
Year: 2008
Photographs: Courtesy of OMBRA Arquitectos

Construction Company: Secopsa Construcción S.A.
Property: EGUSA.S.L.
Budget: 2.580.863,00 €

The Emergency Station houses in a single building the Alboraya Emergency services (Police, Civil Protection and Ambulance service). The site is somewhat hidden, located between property walls of an industrial park – Polígono de la Mar – close to the city ring road. The proposal aims, therefore, to make the installation more visible while creating a small public space that provides it with identity, kindness, a “place”. On this basis, we configured a functional building with industrial aesthetics.

The large cantilevered volume marks the main access from the entrance square. On the ground floor the large glazed surface invites the user in to the reception area. The building is structured around an interior courtyard of 10 x 7 m which provides light and ventilation to the different spaces. The stairwell and wet areas are located to the sides, thus liberating the rest of the floor plan and allowing a flexible distribution with the use of screens.

The public scale is solved via the double façade. The large glazed windows are protected by a perforated steel sheet that enables the views from the inside out, while providing sun protection and a good degree of privacy from the exterior. This kind of façade turns the building into a giant lantern at night. The back façade, facing south, consists also of two layers, but in this case separated enough to form a patio between the façade itself, and the protection skin.

Emergency Station in Alboraya / OMBRA Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 17 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Square de l’Accueil Winning Proposal / ARJM

Posted on mayo 15, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

ARJM, in collaboration with SUM, recently won the competition for their project, “Square de l’Accueil” (Welcoming Square), which includes a public square of 10,000 m2, 53 flats, a school, commercial spaces and underground parking. Located in a neighborhood at a strategic entry point towards Evere, one of Brussels communes, the project itself includes all the components of the city at a smaller scale. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The project is the missing ‘puzzle piece’ to the realization of the current site as an animated liveable space. The project proposes to address the increasing diversity and density of a Brussels neighborhood by re-thinking the interplay and the transition between public and private spaces. This is achieved, first, through landscaping which is manifested by a green (vegetation) and a blue (water) thread running through the public place, the commercial spaces on the ground floor of the proposed building and the housing units.

The livability of the site is assured through a network of ‘communities of interest’: the larger community, the neighborhood, is progressively broken down into smaller bundles of individuals and households polarized towards shared spaces, firmly located within the site at large. This proposed layout presents a viable tool to manage the density and the diversity of the urban context of the site, characteristic of Brussels today.

The project uses the current site and its uses as the starting point, taking into account the historical evolution of the neighborhood. This approach contributes to the realization of the site’s full potential, thereby ensuring its longevity and usability in the urban landscape.

Architect: ARJM (Abdelmajid Boulaioun)
Location: Square de l’Accueil, Brussels, Belgium
Contractor: Commune de Evere
Urbanism: SUM
Structure: GREISCH
Building Services: JZH
Visualizations: QUICKIT
Program: public square + housing complex + school facilities + underground parking
Public Square Area: 10,000 sqm
Building Area: 7,000 sqm
Status: Competition winner
Competition Year: 2012

Square de l'Accueil Winning Proposal / ARJM originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Blurring Boundary / UTAA

Posted on mayo 14, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: UTAA
Location: Dongdaemungu, Seoul, South Korea
Design Team: Kim Chang-gyun, Choi Byung-yong, Jang Geun-yong
Area: 90 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Jin Hyo-suk, Kim Yong-soon

Blurring Boundary, is planned for the University of Seoul campus to communicate and coexist with the city by blurring the boundary between them. I put a wall the guides the flow of people to pass through the entrance instead of a heavily woven firm gate. This is a part of the effort to restore continuity with the city.

The university’s emblem was expressed on the walls and its floor, and made a continual connection between the floor pattern and a cut on the wall with yellow onyx and Macheon(marble) stone. This effect naturally causes drivers to slow down as they enter even without an entrance control bar being in place.

Blurring Boundary / UTAA originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Market Hall in Ghent / Marie-José Van Hee + Robbrecht & Daem, by Hufton + Crow

Posted on mayo 8, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

The Marie-José Van Hee + Robbrecht & Daem designed Market Hall in Ghent reinstates the presence of old urban areas that had become unrecognizable. As an urban interior, the inside embraces the passer-by with a dual modulated wooden ceiling, whose small windows scatter light inwards. The exterior, the entire building in fact, seems to assume a respectful role relative to the nobler historic stone buildings.

We have previously brought you images of the project, but these latest images by Hufton + Crow truly capture the experience and highlight the project’s materials and principles. A complete gallery of their photos can be viewed after the break.

Market Hall in Ghent / Marie-José Van Hee + Robbrecht & Daem, by Hufton + Crow originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 08 May 2013.

send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Challenged Athletes Foundation / Colkitt & Co

Posted on mayo 5, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Colkitt & Co
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Graphics, Branding, Interactive Exhibits And Signage: Hollis Brand Culture
Client: Challenged Athletes Foundation
Year: 2011
Photographs: Cheryl Ramsay

The Project

Originally a mundane commercial park building in Mira Mesa (San Diego), the space was re-imagined and built into a mixing chamber for community events, workspace, and athletic activity. The space is alive with color and optimism, serving as a very meaningful place for the CAF supporters to congregate, or for physically challenged athletes to play.

The Goal

CAF had the goal of creating a space that was inviting to employees, athletes, and guests alike. Connectivity, through openness and relationships, was a major design goal. Whether with sight or light, the space is as open as possible without compromising usability. For example, the upper level is tethered to the lower level; the indoors connected with the outdoors; and the donors linked with the athletes. The goal was to have the in-between spaces and walkways create moments of chance encounters.

Special Features

The building features an innovative facade and establishes a bold identity, while simultaneously allowing natural light to softly pepper the interior spaces. Internally, the weaving of both defined and undefined spaces forces interaction, yet playfully overlaps from room to room. This allows for flexibility of uses according to the changing needs of the facility, whether it is for recreation, work, or fundraising.

Exposed materials used in the renovation, emphasizes a sustainable approach that maintains the natural beauty of the structure, including: wood trusses, joists, shear walls, and steel posts and beams. In addition, analogous with the athletes, the building was enhanced through new technologies.