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© Collectif ETC

Architects: Collectif ETC
Location: Saint-Étienne, France
Client: Établissement Public d’Aménagement de Saint-Étienne
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 670 sqm
Photographs: Collectif ETC

After winning a competition commissioned by the Public Urban Planning Agency of Saint-Etienne (France), the Collectif Etc designed a public square of 670 sqm and built it with the inhabitants in a participative process in July 2011.

At the intersection of two streets, the site was formerly a wasteland. Answering the on-going urban changes in the neighborhood, the project simulates a first step of the process in which a building is designed and built. The idea is to represent the plan of imaginary housings on the ground and their section on the wall. Now people can imagine living in the future buildings and get an idea of the impact of the real one that should be built in a couple of years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Diagram

For a whole month, three types of workshops have been set up and were fully open to anyone, every day from 9 am to 8 pm:

• A carpentry workshop to build all the urban furniture;
• A graphic design workshop to give life to the imaginary housings and to the surroundings;
• A landscape and gardening workshop to establish the green space and shared garden in the middle of the site.

© Collectif ETC

The construction site was open to the public and people could exchange and learn from each other. The Collectif Etc provided everyone with tools, safety gears and advice. Local associations, artists and musicians were invited to organize various activities such as wall paintings, concerts, circus workshops, open air movies, sports tournaments, tango lessons, special meals, debates, etc. An online blog was set up to showcased the everyday life on the construction site: http://www.placeauchangement.fr.

© Collectif ETC

The works are now over. A water tank is available and local people had the initiative to keep taking care of the garden themselves and organize regular events. The furniture is not damaged, the place is well maintained and the inhabitants decided to name it “Place of the Giant” after the large painting made by artists Ella&Pitr. It is now an important element in the neighborhood, a place that neighbors identify to.

© Collectif ETC

Text provided by Collectif Etc

© Krueck + Sexton Architects

The glorious feeling of winning an architectural competition may quickly diminish after the realization that the achievement was only the beginning of the battle.

Officials have confirmed that Krueck + Sexton’s winning competition entry for the new home of the Chicago Children’s Museum has been removed from the redevelopment plan of the Richard J. Daley Bicentennial Plaza on the northeast corner of Grant Park.

Continue reading for complete coverage.

Despite arguments concerning the development’s violation of century old court rulings to protect the openness of Grant Park, in 2008, the competition entry was approved by the Chicago City Council and praised by former Mayor Richard M. Daley. The LEED Gold proposal offered an innovative, low profile building that elegantly replaced a deteriorating underground parking garage.

Following the controversial approval, the economy collapsed, fund-raising stalled, and the newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned about his plans to reevaluate the museums proposal. Last June, rumors reported that the museum will remain at its original home on Navy Peir and its quarters would be expanded there, which were designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects. O’Neill commented, “This is sort of design on a dime.”

With the removal of the museum, the Daley Bicentennial Plaza budget dropped from more than $100 million to a little over $30 million. The council’s president, Bob O’Neill, said “It’s not a really good economy, so a capital campaign is difficult.” The non-profit organization that recently took over the Navy Pier’s museum is strongly focused on keeping it at its current location.

Bob O’Neill stated, “I can tell you that the Children’s Museum has dropped out of this project.”

Krueck + Sexton Architects also designed the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.

Reference: ChicagoTribune

Back from the grave, the first post from The Indicator series by Guy Horton, published in 2010 at AD.

This town, is coming like a ghost town.
This town, is coming like a ghost town.
This town, is coming like a ghost town.
This town, is coming like a ghost town.

- The Specials, “Ghost Town”

When I look back at the events leading up to being laid off, I think of zombies. Of course zombies aren’t real so what I’m really thinking of are movies about zombies. I haven’t seen them all—there are hundreds—so the zombies I’m most familiar with are the pop-locking ones from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” or the funny ones from “Shaun of the Dead”. I never thought that that part of my subconscious that identifies with zombies would get triggered. But, then again, I never thought I would get laid off. There is a first for everything.

So, how does one identify zombies? As I learned from “Shaun of the Dead”, by the time you know, it’s too late. Remarkable as it seems, the people you least expect to become zombies are suddenly shuffling along shedding limbs and trying to eat you. They are, as it turns out, usually your close friends and colleagues.

When the economy began to falter back in 2007, architecture was one of those fields that began to experience a steady increase in zombie population. There were many rumors about which firms they worked for, whose softball teams they were playing on, whether they were more likely to be associates or principals. What about that Arch II with the mysterious limp and the foreign accent? Then there was the designer who always looked like he had had too many late nights out. Maybe those strange interns.

In my office, there were definite indications. My big Middle East project was finishing up and there was nothing definite for me to move onto. This was a bad sign, I thought. I kept enquiring but responses were always vague. It was being worked on, I was told. Then, by chance, I happened to get a peek at the new seating chart over my PM’s shoulder—it was a pdf stamped, “CONFIDENTIAL.” I zeroed in on my future cubicle: a former dumping ground for carpet samples with a flat file sticking into it. Distinct feelings of unease and paranoia followed. I think this was when zombie movies began to provide answers for me. It provided a context for the new psychological limbo I was entering.

I did filing. I made coffee. I took lots of breaks. Were those co-workers who moved out of my way uneasy in my presence, I wondered? On occasion, small groups would look in my direction when I was in my carpet cubicle. When I returned their gaze they would look away and shuffle off in different directions. Zombies.

I soon discovered there were a few of us wandering around, lost, like a bunch of school kids who couldn’t find their classrooms. We gave each other knowing looks. Where are you sitting? Near the copy machine? What are you working on? Nothing? It was disconcerting and uncomfortable. I kept myself busy by maintaining the model shop. I even volunteered to help separate trash for some firm-wide Green initiative. This felt like a new low because now I was going around and chatting with people about their trash. I was a rising star in the firm, I thought. I was being groomed for bigger things. They had plans for me. This was all just temporary.

All of these things were true, in a sense. And it was temporary, because one Friday morning, after a couple weeks of this, I received The Phone Call. It was the head of staffing, one of the nicest guys in the office, the kind of guy you can’t say no to. Would I mind coming up to the conference room? I’ll be right there, I said. I put the receiver down, looked over at my neighbor and said, “This is it.” Not hearing me because of her i-pod, she continued staring at her monitor, sipping her coffee. Everyone else around me did the same. Now it dawned on me that I was the zombie. Had I not, in fact, been behaving like the undead these past few weeks?

In light of on-going economic issues, we regrettably have to let all zombies go, said the Managing Principle. At least, this is how I had heard it.

We recently had the pleasure of having Steven Ehrlich visit our office and give a talk about his work. He is as personable as his work is fascinating. He left us with a recently published book of his work titled Steven Ehrlich Houses. We have featured two of the houses that are covered in the book if you would like a preview of what the book has to offer. (Ehrlich Architects’ projects houses and more) The book, of course, offers a far more in-depth look at the projects including a title page for each project with photographs of what inspired the design. As a world traveler who lived in west Africa for 6 years, Ehrlich’s inspirational photographs are captivating and clearly illustrate the driving force behind each project.

Product Description:

“Residential design forms the core of Steven Ehrlich’s award-winning architectural practice. Sixteen houses are presented here, designs characterized by the fusion of powerful modernist forms with the cultural, climatic, and contextual particulars of place.

Ehrlich spent six years living, teaching, traveling, and studying indigenous vernacular architecture in North and West Africa. During that time he was immersed in the visceral power and raw beauty of “Architecture Without Architects” and dazzled by settings like the luminous Zaria Mosque in Nigeria, the textured hill towns of Tunisia, the maze-like souks of Fez, the protected and intimate courtyard houses of Marrakesh, the gravity-defying raised forts of Ghana, and the interconnected desert cities of Algeria.

At the same time Ehrlich had a deep commitment to modernism, with its focus on minimalism, honesty in materials, and rooted connection to the land. Over a thirty-year career he has brought these two strands together in the houses he has designed in the desert landscape of Southern California and the Southwest. There are commonalities in these houses—generous volumes, visual clarity, large windows, interlocking rooms, protected courtyards, structural honesty, richly textured materials, and a connection to nature—but each home is a new beginning, a chance to learn and to create a spatial experience.”

Contents:
007 Introduction by Sam Lubell
013 Kalfus Studio

025 Addition to Neutra Beach Hous

037 Schindler House on Ellis Avenue

049 700 Palms Residence

069 Webster Residence

083 Boxenbaum Residence

097 Schulman Residence

111 Canyon Residence
125 Waldfogel Residence
143 Zeidler Residence

163 Leonard Residence

175 Carrillo Residence

193 Wolfe Residence

205 Helal Residence
223 Kreuzer-Schroeder Residence
227 McElroy Residence
231 MacMillan Residence
236 Project Credits
239 Acknowledgements
240 Illustration Credits

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: The Monacelli Press (April 12, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1580933068
ISBN-13: 978-1580933063

© Ty Stange

Architect: POLYFORM arkitekter
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Project Team: Thomas Kock, Jonas Sangberg, Nikolaj Frølund Thomsen (POLYFORM), Bart Brands, Charlotte
Ernst, Joost de Natris (KARRES EN BRANDS)
Collaborators: Oluf Jørgensen ingeniører and Ulrike Brandi Licht
Client: Københavns Ejendomme
Total cost: 19 million Danish crones – 2.55 million Euros
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 1,000 sqm
Photographs: Ty Stange

© Ty Stange

Project description provided by POLYFORM arkitekter.

This is a classical challenging task. How to establish innovative architecture in an age-old quarter of the city and still respect the old environment? The collaboration between the Danish architecture firm POLYFORM architects and the Dutch architecture firm KARRES EN BRANDS Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning led to the idea of build underground instead of build on surface. In this way it is possible to build new spaces for offices and staff for the public cleaning facilities – even in the heart of the dense medieval city.

section © POLYFORM arkitekter

In order to receive the most daylight possible in the new offices and staff facilities, all primary functions are located around an open underground courtyard. Atrium soft shapes maximize natural light into construction and simultaneously help to define the unique and attractive spaces both inside and outside. The building provide a softly naturally enlighten working environment for approximately 100 daily users. Facilities include showers, changing rooms, a canteen and parking spaces. The garden is an extension of the workspace. Various types of planting change their colour and texture throughout the seasons, and the flagstone paving area creates places for rest breaks whilst serving as an outdoor workplace.

rendering

The location in the very heart of Copenhagen contributes to large savings time wise and in relating to resources which makes the project profitable and sustainable. By combining the new building program with the lush playground at Hauser Plads and exploit the former parking garage underneath, creates an entirely new type of buildings. A scenic office building without air turbulence, shade noise from outside.

Text provided by POLYFORM arkitekter.

© Ty Stange

© Ty Stange

© Matthew Carbone

Milstein Hall, the new 25,000 sqf flexible studio space at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) in upstate New York, was opened last month for students.  The first new building in over 100 years for the AAP, the design by OMA was led by partners Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with associate Ziad Shehab.

“Not only is this going to be our new home, but everyone has a new attitude,” AAP student Ben Waters told the Cornell Sun. “Everyone has this new-found sense of pride for the program.”  The excitement from students and the AAP surrounding the new hall comes with no surprise considering the danger that the program faced in early 2009 – threatening both their accreditation and the hopes of a new OMA designed building eliminated from the campus.

© Matthew Carbone

Featuring a unique hybrid truss system of 1,200 tons of steel to support two dramatic cantilevers Milstein Hall provides a must needed connection between the existing Sibley and Rand Hall.  Professor Mark Cruvellier shared, “We have a couple of buildings here on campus that were always divided, and we’d always have to run back and forth in the middle of winter.  Here, we have a building that not only connects Rand Hall and Sibley Hall together, but one that also embodies architecture and design ideas.”

Enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass and a green roof with 41 skylights, this “upper plate” cantilevers almost 50 feet over University Avenue to establish a relationship with the Foundry, a third existing AAP facility.  The truss system allows for a wide-open upper plate that will house sixteen design studios.

“The upper plate of the box was a direct response to the need for interaction that the art field entails, though we realize this cannot be perfectly achieved or designed by architecture,” Shigematsu commented. “Our ambition for the upper plate was for it to serve as a pedagogical platform for the architecture, art and planning departments – an open condition that could trigger interaction and discussion. I am sure the students and faculty will generate unexpected uses and conditions that go beyond what we have planned for it.”

Thanks to architectural photographer Matthew Carbone for the amazing photos of this project!

Architects: OMA
Location: Ithaca, New York, USA
Client: Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP)
Project Area: 47,000 sqf addition to the College of Architecture, Art and Planning – Studios, Crit spaces, Auditorium, Exhibition, Exterior Workspace and Plaza.
Project Year: 2009-2011
Photographs: Matthew Carbone

© Matthew Carbone

Milstein Hall is the first new building in over 100 years for the renowned College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The new building is situated between Cornell’s historic Arts Quad and the natural Falls Creek Gorge redefining the entry for the northern end of the campus.

Currently the AAP is housed in four separate buildings, distinct in architectural style and programmatic use but similar in typology. Rather than creating a new free-standing building Milstein Hall is an addition to the AAP buildings creating a unified complex with continuous levels of indoor and outdoor interconnected spaces. Milstein Hall provides 47,000 additional square feet for the AAP, adding much-needed space for studios, gallery space, critique space and a 253-seat auditorium. The additional space enabled a new master plan of the College’s facilities creating extraordinary new spatial relationships between internal programmatic elements.

A large horizontal plate is lifted off the and connected to the second levels of the AAP’s Sibley Hall and Rand Hall to provide 25,000 square feet of studio space with panoramic views of the surrounding environment. Enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass and a green roof with 41 skylights, this “upper plate” cantilevers almost 50 feet over University Avenue to establish a relationship with the Foundry, a third existing AAP facility. The wide-open expanse of the plate — structurally supported by a hybrid truss system — stimulates interaction and allows flexible use over time.

© Matthew Carbone

The exposed hybrid trusses were designed to balance structural efficiency at the cantilevers and maintain open circulation within the large open plan. A field of custom designed lights and chilled beams were carefully coordinated with the structural and mechanical systems using normally hidden functional elements to define the ceiling plane. The lighting is programmed by a highly customizable and efficient Lutron control system connected to daylight sensors to maintain constant light levels that balance the daylight with artificial light.

© Matthew Carbone

The studio comfort environment is maintained by the ceiling’s chilled beams that provide cooling by utilizing local lake source chilled water, reducing the need for large traditional HVAC mechanical systems. The heating is distributed through the concrete radiant heated slab. The efficient mechanical systems and abundance of natural daylight are possible through the use of high performance insulated glass units with Low-E coating on all the exterior glass walls. The building is expected to receive a Silver LEED certification with the possibility of achieving Gold.

© Matthew Carbone

The south-east cantilevered area of the studios, named the AAP Forum, is considered a unique space within the upper plate as it is most visible from the pedestrian walkways to and from the Arts Quad beneath as well as the transparency seen from East Avenue that is approximately the same elevation as the studio floor. Given the east and south exposure a specific solution to moderate the daylight was required. OMA looked to Petra Blaisse and her firm, Inside Outside, to design a custom curtain for this prominent corner of the building. The goal was to preserve views out from the studios towards the Arts Quad, maintain natural daylight without the glare and present a striking image at this northeast entry to the Quad. Inside Outside’s concept for this curtain is considered together with the auditorium curtain design using architectural drawings from the Dutch artist/architect Hans Vredeman de Vries to suggest another space outside of the Milstein Hall. The enlarged perspectival drawings are digitally printed onto white vinyl mesh and perforated with holes along the perspective lines.

© Matthew Carbone

The exterior of the upper plate responds with different materials to the performative demands of their position on the building. The 26,000 square foot roof is a sedum covered green roof punctuated by a cluster of northern facing skylights which gradually increase in size towards the darker center of the plate further from the exterior façade. Two different types of sedum create a gradient pattern of dots that transition from articulated small circles near the manmade Arts Quad on the south to a dense, larger pattern of dots towards the natural landscape of the gorge on the north.

© Matthew Carbone

The continuous twelve foot high band of glass façade makes the long hours of studio activity transparent to the public. Above and below the glass two simple thin bands of Turkish marble define the extents of the upper plate. The naturally occurring vertical bands of grey and white enrich the exterior with a specific scale and material that is unique and yet unites the different buildings despite the proliferation of architectural styles in this area of campus. The uniqueness of the naturally striated marble directly influenced 2×4, Inc.’s design of the custom Milstein Hall building ID located on the south cantilever’s east façade. The vertical line text is engraved directly into the full height of the lower fascia marble panels.

Underneath the upper plate a continuous ceiling of custom stamped perforated aluminum panels extend through both the interior and exterior spaces deemphasizing the boundary between. The enlarged metal panels fabricated on an automotive stamping machine define a scale that is at once perceivable to the traffic passing under the cantilever along University Avenue as well as the pedestrians occupying the spaces below. The vernacular reference to New York stamped metal ceilings creates an urban room-like space below the upper plate surrounded by the existing historic facades of Rand, Sibley and the Foundry. Above the grid of perforated metal panels acoustic blankets tune specific zones such as the road area to absorb noises from passing vehicles, the auditorium to improve audible performance and the covered plaza to reduce noise transmittance to the adjacent offices, classrooms and auditorium.

© Matthew Carbone

Beneath the hovering studio plate, the ground level accommodates major program elements including the 253-seat auditorium and a dome that encloses a 5,000 square foot circular critique space. The materiality of the lower level, constructed of exposed cast-in-place concrete, is adds a contrast to the upper plate’s glass and steel character. However both spaces create frameworks of raw spaces to serve as a pedagogical platform for the AAP to generate new interaction driven by the students’ and faculty’s ambitions and explorations.

The dome is a double layered concrete system. The exposed underside is a cast-in-place structural slab spanning the main critique space beneath the dome. The dome was formed using two layers of 3/8” plywood with a finish layer of 3/8” MDO board and poured in a single 12 hour period. The strip light pockets were cast into the dome together with the electrical and sprinkler systems forming a clearly defined central space out of a complex construction process. Above the structural dome slab a concrete topping slab forms the exterior surface of the dome. The dome serves multiple functions: it supports the raked auditorium seating, it becomes the stairs leading up to the studio plate above, and it is the artificial ground for an array of exterior seating pods custom fabricated in Brooklyn, NY by Fabrice Covelli of Fproduct Inc.

© Matthew Carbone

From the main entry, a concrete bridge spanning 70 feet across the dome space draws people into the auditorium or brings them down the sculptural stairs to the lower level of Milstein Hall. The bridge’s structural concrete truss railing and stair allow the bridge to span across the dome column free.

Connecting the three levels of Milstein Hall a vertical moving room (12’-3” x 6’-4”) serves as the elevator. Large enough to facilitate the transport of models between the studios and the dome critique space it can also accommodate a chair and reading lamp. Custom designed by OMA and fabricated by Global Tardif and Schindler, the moving room, built from standard plywood panels, was fully assembled near Quebec City, dismantled and reassembled on site in Ithaca.

© Matthew Carbone

Milstein Hall provides the AAP its first auditorium and large scale lecture hall within its own facilities. The auditorium was designed to provide maximum flexibility to allow a multiplicity of programs and functions to occur. The auditorium is divided into two halves of fixed seats on the raked section of the dome and loose seats on the level section. When the auditorium is not used at its full capacity of 300 people, the lower level can be used for studio critiques and smaller meetings. The fixed and loose seats were custom designed by OMA and developed and manufactured by Martela Oy of Finland. Their unique design reinforces the flexibility of the auditorium as the cantilevered fixed seat backs fold down to form a continuous bench for higher capacity seating. The bench configuration can also be used for exhibition and display, or create a side table out of unoccupied adjacent seat. The simple rectangular form of the loose seats with the seat backs folded flat and grouped together can serve as tables for models display or exhibitions.

© Matthew Carbone

The auditorium can further be transformed into the Boardroom for University Trustee meetings. The Boardroom is assembled at the touch of a button which deploys 61 seats by automatically raising them from below the raised floor of the level floor section. OMA custom designed the solution to integrate the Boardroom into the auditorium and was developed and manufactured by Figueras International of Spain. Each of the 61 individual seats can be raised or lowered independently and is integrated with power, an oversized tablet, a storage bin and is attached to a post that allows 360 degree rotation with locking positions every 7.5 degrees.

The glass-enclosed auditorium provides a permeable boundary between academic space and the public. When privacy or blackout is required, a custom designed curtain unfurls from the auditorium balcony in one continuous form. The curtain is digitally printed on both surfaces with a different Hans Vredeman de Vries enlarged perspective print. Prints of classical columns are countered by the modern design of Milstein Hall suggesting a classical landscape on the interior and exterior of the building.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The insertion of Milstein Hall amongst the existing AAP buildings forms a new gateway for the northern end of Cornell’s campus and transforms together with the recently completed addition to the Johnson Arts Museum an underutilized area into a new corridor for the arts, planning and design.

All photos © Matthew Carbone

© 2011 The American Institute of Architects

Star architect, Frank Gehry, attempts to survive the decline of U.S. growth by turning to Asia. The Architecture Billings Index illustrates the decreased demand for design serves in America by plunging from 51.4 in August to 46.9 in September. According to the American Institute of Architects, a score less than 50 indicates a decline in billings.

Continue reading for more detailed information.

Gehry enthusiastically reported that the art scene in China is exploding. He currently is competing to design a Chinese museum in one of the countries rapidly growing metropolitan areas and expects to sign a contract by next quarter.

However, in China, architects are compensated by a percentage of the construction costs, which are about a third less than they are in the U.S. Gehry stated in an interview with Bloomberg, “If you take a percentage and your work with western salaries, you can’t make it work. So it almost forces you to open an office in China and work with local people.”

Earlier this month, Gehry’s 450,000 square-foot Guggenheim Abu Dhabi museum was brought to a painful standstill. Gehry designed the museum before the 2008 financial crisis and has been working on it for the past six years.

Gehry is focusing on computer-aided, paperless, three-dimensional design to cut construction waste and costly change orders, in order to aggressively compete for contracts. Construction waste often accounts for 30 percent of the development budget.

If Gehry had his way, he would be working mostly in California and New York. However, his 100 person staff at the Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners LLP depends on him to find work.

Reference: www.bloomberg.com, www.aia.org

Click here to view the embedded video.

Forget stairs, elevators and escalators, Carsten Höller is bringing a new method of circulation through the New Museum in New York City. It will take visitors down a three-storey, 102-foot tunnel, and may require helmets and elbow pads. What is this innovative invention? None other than the age-old, kid-friendly slide. This insallation is part of a survey exhibition of Höller ‘s work over the past twenty years in which he has explored “such themes as childhood, safety, love, the future, and doubt” in with an attitude towards his work that is “equal parts laboratory and test site.” [New Museum.org] Höller’s pieces explore human sensory experience and perception by creating environments and experiences that over-stimulate or deprive us of our senses. Read on for a preview of what to expect at the New Museum.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The New Museum will also be hosting other elements of his work including “a new light installation; disorienting architectural environments; a spectacular mirrored carousel; and a sensory deprivation pool, among others.” The exhibition opened October 26th and will continue through January 15th. Watch these videos for a preview of what to expect from your next visit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via New Museum, Gothamist + Curbed