On May 18th, we celebrate the 130th birthday of one of the most highly regarded modern architects of the 20th century, Walter Gropius. Gropius’ contribution to architecture is that of an architect, philosopher and educator. He was the founder of the Bauhaus, the German “School of Building” that embraced a “total art” in the arts’ production and influence in the social context. This “laboratory” was an effort to incorporate the elements of art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography in its design, development and production.
More after the break.
Gropius’ ideas developed in the post-war climate of Europe; the Bauhaus existed in the years between both World Wars, greatly influencing the current of modern art and architecture. Like many modernists of the period, Gropius was interested in the mechanization of work and the utilitarianism of newly developed factories. He and Adolf Meyer designed the Fagus-Werk factory, a glass and steel cubic building that is thought to be the pioneering work of the style of modern architecture. The Bauhaus in Dessau was designed in 1925 by Gropius, distilling his teachings into architectural elements of the building.
Gropius contributed with published writings, discussing the Bauhaus Manifesto, the role of the artist and the artist’s relationship to his or her work. After immigrating to the United States, Gropius continued his teachings and exploring the Bauhaus idea. While teaching at Harvard University, he lived with his family at the self-designed Gropius House.
Bauhaus rose in popularity with an exhibition, organized by Gropius, at the Museum of Modern Art. By the time Gropius died in 1969, his ideas on architecture and the Bauhaus itself had become a staple of modernist architecture.
Architects: Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten
Location: Claude-Dornier-Platz 1, Friedrichshafen, Germany
Project Manager: Frank Karlheim
Project Architects: Christof Killius, Lisette Oberleitner, Ana Prikic, Kerstin Schaich, Katrin Wittmann
Area: 7,000 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy of Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten
Competition Architects: Robert Klein (Project Managment), Katharina Brunn,Uwe Ernst, Johannes Schmersahl
Client: Dornier Stiftung für Luft- und Raumfahrt
Total Cost: 15 million EUR
Gross Volume: 61,100 m3
Structural Engineer: Werner Sobek Ingenieure
Building Services: Laux, Kaiser & Partner Ingenieursgesellschaft
Interior Design: Grego Exhibition Design: Atelier Brückner
Facade Consultant: R+R Fuchs
Energy Consultant: TransSolar Energietechnik GmbH
Building Physics: Ingenieurgesellschaft für Bauphysik Thor
The plot for the Dornier Museum is located in the immediate vicinity of the runways at Friedrichshafen‘s regional airport. The aim of the museum is to present the technology of aircraft construction and the history of the Dornier plant, which was founded in 1922. In addition, links to contemporary history are to be established. Among the exhibits are veteran aircrafts some of which can still fly today. The shape of the museum is derived from the di- rect access of the exhibited airplanes to the runways. Translucent, curved facades delimitate the interior space and guide the way to the tarmac. The end faces oriented towards the airport are closed by transparent gates. A box within the large hall offers space for scenographic presentations of different eras.
Function and Concept
This museum documents the corporate history and rich tradition of the Dornier Corporation. It is sited in connection to the Friedrichshafen Airport, thus facilitating a uniquely contextual design concept. Translating the particular site quality in reference to architectural typology, to focus the predetermined program of the exhibition within a singular building, to design this space in a restrained fashion – similar to a stage space – encompasses the basic con- ceptual decisions for the Dornier Museum.
Maintaining and exhibiting the material documents of people and their environment mostly serves for the benefit of society and its development. Private institutions and individuals, among others, provide this important contribution. Thus, Dornier joins the ranks of renowned founders of private museums who make their collections publicly accessible. In order to document aerospace history, the Dornier Museum is conceived as a platform for the purpose of projection of and reflection on events of the past. On the one hand, exhibits and their historic context; on the other hand, the visitors and their individual comprehension and experience of history. Topically, exclusion and inclusion are both rooted within this concept to equal degrees. The goal of the museum’s architectural concept is to influence this process by facilitating and designing transitions, similar to an airport and its transitory function.
Constellation And Gesture
Museum and airport, past and present, in one location. This simultaneity manifests itself within a bowshaped runway, resembling an exit in proximity to the southern airstrip. At its apex, it is superimposed with a rectangular volume. The geometric intersection area is the basis for the museum floorplan. The exhibition space volume features curved perimeter surfaces in the north and south, projecting the contour of the runway upward to the rectangular roof structure. In the west and east, the lateral perimeter permits a transition from roof to façade to the runway. The roof elements, projecting outward from the longitudinal perimeter along the intersection of floor plan and runway, distort the accustomed, conventional image of a hangar. The hangar as recognizable type is subject to formal transformation. It thus evokes similarity and difference to the surrounding airport buildings.
Material and Character
Spatial juxtaposition of museum and hangar serve as basis for the predetermined exhibition program. The architecture, reminiscent of industrial buildings, originates in perceiving these areas as a unit. Not a museum with a hangar, but a hangar as museum. Context and budget determine the quest for the ideal form of an aerospace museum. The result is an exhibition space that conveys the principle of airplane manufacturing as an image by citing the economic use of resources.
The curved longitudinal perimeter surfaces are segmented imperceptibly by polycarbonate panels. The assembly system of the full-height, transparent panels enables avoiding construction-based divisions in the building exterior. This construction material, primarily used in industrial construction, conveys lightness and formability, and receives a degree of precision that transforms its expression and significance due to the dimensions of the building perimeter.
Along the southern facade, a dot raster pattern is applied to the perimeter surface, reducing sunlight intake. The raster pattern obscures the linear structure of the polycarbonate panels. The absence of a clearly recognizable structure conveys the image of a wall to the observer; the progressing impression of transparency however signals permeability. The limited number of apertures for doors and windows, latter framed as showcases and intersecting the homogeneous surface at medium height, provide points of reference of scale of the hangar. Along the north facade, polycarbonate panels are applied without further treatment. Their curved arrangement gives them, according to the observer’s point of view, characteristics of a filter, offering mere apparitions of the interior, and sometimes characteristics of a mirror, reflecting the expanse of the airstrip.
STUDIO magazine just released their Issue #4: TRANSFORMATION which focuses on how the city is a place involved in a continuous Transformation where man is the main creator and user. Furthermore, this issue uses several architectural projects to demonstrate how the city withstands continuous changes in its form, generating new and different landscapes. Through various scales and facets of architecture, the magazine clearly presents to its readers, from basic to in depth analyses, this transformation process cities undergo. For more information, and to read the magazine, please visit here.
Connecting time and space with the ‘lucky cloud’, the Aedas designed Xuzhou Suning Plaza is interpreted as magical and delightful, bringing history to life in Xuzhou. Located in the ‘Imperial Emperor’s Town’ of China, the changing of forms inspires reverie and the oval buildings reflect the union of masculine and feminine qualities as well as power and gentleness. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The ring shaped design represents the formation of atmosphere. The hard and soft lines symbolize the co-existence of strength and elegance. The project, with a site area of 44,338 square meters, comprises a five-star hotel, Grade-A office and SOHO buildings as well as serviced apartments.
With construction commenced in 2012, the plaza is expected to be a keyhole to the future development of the city upon completion in 2016.
Architect: Aedas
Location: Xuzhou, China
Client: Xuzhou Suning Real Estate Co., Ltd.
Gross Floor Area: 486,550 square meters
Site Area: 44,338 square meters
Architects: MASS Design Group
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Architect In Charge: MASS Design Group
Design Team: Michael Murphy, Alan Ricks, Sierra Bainbridge, Ebberly Strathairn, Branden Collins, Andrew Brose, Marika Shioiri-Clark, Ryan Leidner, Eric Mutabazi
Area: 900 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Iwan Baan
Consultants: Ujenge Construction and Engineering, K. Dohrety
Landscape Design: Sierra Bainbridge
Background
In 2007, UK charity A Partner In Education (APIE), as part of its mission to boost education in Africa, committed to building a new school campus in the Kigali neighborhood of Kabeza to replace dilapidated existing facilities. MASS was brought onboard to select the new site, design the new educational facility, as well as assist in building the organizational structure to support the educational programs for the Kabeza neighborhood. The school opened in July of 2011 with H.E. President Paul Kagame inaugurating the project.
Contextual Design
The design of the building layout and circulation takes direct inspiration from the neighborhood and the region; due to the hilly landscape, people travel across switchbacks on terraced agricultural land — and the school’s traversing walkways and outdoor classrooms mirror this context. MASS created unique settings for learning with a mix of interior rooms, exterior teaching areas, and terraced play spaces for children. Local materials such as brick and papyrus reeds were used in the construction to cut down on transportation costs, limit the use of imported and often contextually inappropriate materials, and to spur the region’s economy by encouraging local markets. MASS collaborated with local craftsmen to incorporate local expertise in the process. The design employs natural ventilation strategies, and the verendeel trusses in the roof structure create clerestory lighting in order to reduce energy consumption.
Amenities
7 buildings with 9 classrooms, library, computer lab, kitchen, and administrative space, Mixed interior rooms and exterior teaching areas, Terraced play spaces
Within the next years a high-quality work and living space is originates for about 50 companies with approx. 500 employees on the area of the former “Post Garagen Areal” in Dornbirn. The Campus Dornbirn II was set up in the first construction phase 2008/2009 as the head building of a future business park.
Even the close connection to the “Fachhochschule Vorarlberg” is useful to generate a new scientific and research environment, were young entrepreneurs can set up their first business in a highly flexible business park.
The form of the monolithic building with his sharp edged facades produces a strong dynamic, which stands in a positive tradition of the booming and flexible architectural language of Dornbirn. The strong raster of the facade with his large windows provides an open view inside.
The ground floor of the building can be used as meeting and event space. With the design forum Vienna a corporation was developed for different exhibitions, which will be hosted several times a year.
Architects: James Carpenter Design Associates
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Production Architect: A. Lerman Architects Ltd
Area: 8820.0 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Tim Hursley, Courtesy of James Carpenter Design Associates, Reid Freeman
Structural Engineers: J. Kahan & Partners
Lighting Designer: Tillotson Design Associates
Graphics: Kasher Visual Communications
Landscape Design: West End Architects and Environmental Planners
Project Management: Nizan-Inbar
General Contractor: Danya Sebus
James Carpenter Design Associates led the reorganization, expansion and new construction of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, while Efrat-Kowalsky Architects was responsible for the renovation of the museum’s existing buildings. The expansion involves new construction (~95,000 sq. ft.), the reorganization of visitor circulation, Entrance Pavilions and a Gallery Entrance Pavilion improving visitor accessibility. The renovation of the existing museum galleries comprise of ~100,000 sq. ft. The particular quality of light in Jerusalem, a product of longitude and latitude, climate, geography and topography, is unique. We believe that integral to the experience of place, is the experience of light and, in view of its cultural history, the particularities of light in Jerusalem is evidently powerful. JCDA’s approach to the renovation and expansion of the Israel Museum was to merge our careful consideration of light in the landscape with a rigorous attention to the existing built environment. Initial visits to the museum established the need to re-connect the existing, and quite extraordinary, garden by Isamu Noguchi with Alfred Mansfeld’s regional interpretation of Modernist architecture. A guiding principal was to dissolve the barriers between the garden and the campus’ building interiors and to transform the problem for a museum of the intense light conditions of the Mediterranean, into an opportunity to integrate a sensory experience of light. Our design organizes and inserts light and light information into the new architecture. This light information specifically embodies the quality of light found within the campus landscape and is used to activate the Entrance Pavilions, the Gallery Entrance Pavilion and the major below ground passage connecting the two – the Route of Passage.
The experience of light is particularly powerful within thresholds, and JCDA’s strategies for light were deeply informed by the idea of separating the building envelopes into two components: enclosure and shade. These components support the experiential presentation of volumetric light and views while moderating the sun’s intensity. The relationships between these two components were also carefully modulated to create a sense of passage through the built architecture and across the campus. The shifts in the depth of facades are adjusted, even stretched to transform them into shaded exterior passages. The play of transparency and opacity responds to both north/south and east/west exposures and is sometimes interrupted to frame views of important elements in the landscape and campus. The spatial experience of the decentralized campus becomes simultaneously intuitive and sublime. Drawing from the encyclopedic nature of the institution’s collections, JCDA has created a journey through the museum’s public and interstitial spaces that progresses intuitively and creates a sense of discovery. Volumetric light is the organizing principal for this passage through the museum and articulates Mansfeld’s Mediterranean hilltop village ideal through selective transparency. JCDA has reinterpreted the sensuality of narrow alleys and sunken oases by creating a defined arrangement of spatial experiences animated by phenomenal light.
By carving out a vertical volume at the Gallery Entrance Pavilion, it was possible to create the Route of Passage below the existing Carter Promenade, which would lead visitors from the museum’s entrance complex to the Gallery Entrance Pavilion along a slightly inclined and comfortably conditioned space, and into the Gallery Entrance Pavilion’s lowest level. The original Carter Promenade was envisioned as a processional experience that would define the overall experience of the museum and the Route of Passage maintains the experiential sense of progression and arrival within the Museum’s heart. Despite being below the ground plane, the Route of Passage is a luminous and active experience. As in a sunken oasis, the passage is protected from the direct sun, but daylight filters into the space at intervals marking one’s passage along its length. The concept was to transpose a sense of depth within a luminous atmosphere. A sequence of narrow courtyards along the Carter Promenade above connect the promenade and Route of Passage. Plant walls above and plantings in the courtyards moderate the quality of light before it is captured by the slightly diffused glass of the passage. The dark surfaces of the terrazzo floor and cast ceramic wall panels reflect light generating subtle shades of grey, while the dramatically animated light captured by the acid-etched glass further gives a sense of repose and heightened observation preparing visitors for the experience of passage through the museum’s encyclopedic collections.
The water feature runs the length of the Carter Promenade. Cast glass with a prismatic profile creates enough turbulence to control the flow of water while directing kinetically animated light through the water feature and down into the slot between the Route of Passage’s diffused glass wall and the exterior retaining wall. The retaining wall is clad with matt white terracotta panels, reflecting light onto the diffused glass wall. The sound of the bubbling water also activates the tranquil spatial experience of the courtyards creating an aural connection between the below ground Route of Passage and the Noguchi Garden. The water feature follows the combination of steps and ramps of the Carter Promenade, resulting in sections of prismatic cast glass blocks and sections of cast glass steps that feature prismatic and clear areas to the casting. The water is controlled and activated by the cast glass profiles in both the stepped and level areas of cast glass. The water feature activates light as well as sound, marking the path from the museum entrance to the galleries both above ground and in the below ground Route of Passage.
The water feature follows the combination of steps and ramps of the Carter Promenade, resulting in sections of prismatic cast glass blocks and sections of cast glass steps that feature prismatic and clear areas to the casting. The water is controlled and activated by the cast glass profiles in both the stepped and level areas of cast glass. The water feature activates light as well as sound, marking the path from the museum entrance to the galleries both above ground and in the below ground Route of Passage. Starting from paper models and mock-ups to explore the idea of the louvers, research evolved to include daylighitng analysis and material production. The lamellas are produced from a custom extruded ceramic. Full scale mock-ups were fabricated to test and verify both the idea and the daylighting analysis.
JCDA sought to build upon the existing language, and reinforce it to improve the level of wayfinding and connection to the existing architecture, landscape and art embodied in the museum. With the experience of entering the museum, JCDA understood that not only was it important to revive the Carter Promenade, but it would be critical to extend it to the street and re-establish the unobstructed view from the street up the entire promenade. JCDA worked with the museum to remove the services (the ticketing, café and retail) previously at the center of the museum and locating them at the museum entrance. By using the method by which these new service buildings are articulated JCDA sought to create a powerful threshold experience. Above ground, the visitors’ needs for tickets/information, dining and shopping are articulated by three separate buildings, while below ground these three buildings consist of a single basement level for access, storage and support. By combining this now liberated space with an un-built module in this same area, it was possible to both expand gallery space and create the Gallery Entrance Pavilion in the heart of the existing complex. The Gallery Entrance Pavilion is the museum’s central organizing hub, allowing for the sequential exploration of the various museum departments. The sequence through which visitors are introduced to the various collections and temporary exhibitions is now clarified and choreographed, enriching the overall experience of each department.
Each of Mansfeld’s modular buildings consists of a solid concrete box covered by centrally supported hyperbolic paraboloid floating above it. Clearstory windows occupy the narrow space between box and roof. As a result, slivers of bright light occupy the relatively dark spaces. His work was focused on carving and linking the negative spaces created by his modular volumes. The spaces are self-contained and insulated from the wider campus. JCDA took a closely related, yet opposite approach by building all glass pavilions within tuned shading enclosures. The result is a sense of openness and connection with the campus. The museum’s idea for the renovation and expansion was to touch the museum’s existing architecture and landscape lightly and to preserve the museum’s architectural strengths. JCDA’s has interwoven the museum’s encyclopedic collections and its extraordinary campus, deploying light to articulate the visitors’ passage through the campus, heightening the experience and discovery of the ephemeral qualities of the Jerusalem’s light.
Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won an international competition to design “Sydney’s next masterpiece.” Selected over three other shortlisted firms – Renzo Piano, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, and KPF – the London-based practice will now be responsible for the design of a $1.5 billion sculptural icon to host a six-star Crown Sydney resort on a 6000-square-meter site in the inner-city waterfront precinct of Barangaroo.
Subject to approval, the 235-meter-tall skyscraper will provide 350 guest rooms and suites, along with four restaurants, a cafe, an ultra-lounge, day spa, roof top pool and luxury retail facilities.
On winning the design competition, Chris Wilkinson, Founding Director, Wilkinson Eyre Architects stated: “Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it is a great privilege to design such a significant building on the waterfront. My ambition is to create a sculptural form that will rise up on the skyline like an inhabited artwork, with differing levels of transparency, striking a clear new image against the sky.”
Paul Baker, Director, Wilkinson Eyre Architects added: “The architecture takes its inspiration from nature, composed of organic forms that provide an abstract, sculptural shape; it does not try to mimic any particular plant or flower but is derived from the specificity of the site and the client brief. Its curved geometry emanates from three forms which twist and rise together. The first form peels off, spreading outward to form the main hotel room accommodation, with the remaining two twisting together toward the sky.”
Foster + Partners has been selected to developed a proposal for a low energy, high-density residential community in Islington, London. The site is a 1980s business park that is to be regenerated into a residential zone of two towers and a landscaped park. The project will incorporate the arera’s planned high-rise buildings and is ultimately set to provide a new landmark for the city.
The two residential towers at 250 City Road will provide the area with 800 new units. At 36- and 42-stories, the two towers are taller than the surrounding buildings, but are stepped down in such a way as to blend with the existing low-rise architecture.
The site is designed to create a comfortable and healthy environment that provides outdoor spaces, amenities, transportation connections and protection against wind and noise in the open spaces. The site is interconnected with pedestrian routes, connections to adjacent streets and transportation links and shops and cafes to establish an urban quarter.
The buildings are designed with a combined heat and power plant that can be connected to the local grid, photovoltaic panels, green roofs, and rain water collection systems.
Foster + Partners has been selected to developed a proposal for a low energy, high-density residential community in Islington, London. The site is a 1980s business park that is to be regenerated into a residential zone of two towers and a landscaped park. The project will incorporate the arera’s planned high-rise buildings and is ultimately set to provide a new landmark for the city.
The two residential towers at 250 City Road will provide the area with 800 new units. At 36- and 42-stories, the two towers are taller than the surrounding buildings, but are stepped down in such a way as to blend with the existing low-rise architecture.
The site is designed to create a comfortable and healthy environment that provides outdoor spaces, amenities, transportation connections and protection against wind and noise in the open spaces. The site is interconnected with pedestrian routes, connections to adjacent streets and transportation links and shops and cafes to establish an urban quarter.
The buildings are designed with a combined heat and power plant that can be connected to the local grid, photovoltaic panels, green roofs, and rain water collection systems.
