Auckland Art Gallery Wins Prestigious World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival

Proud to be an Aucklander at the moment! I have to say, the subtle and delicate beauty of the Auckland Art Gallery is quite inspiring - and the strategic, almost 'hidden' placement of the site makes for a great place for recollection and repose in Auckland. Read the rest of the article here, at Dezeen.

Buenos Mares House by RDR Arquitectos

This house by RDR Arquitectos is located next to the sea on a beach in José Ignacio in Uruguay. Completed in 2009, the program is a single family vacation home with continuous use during the summer, and occasional use during the winter. It is designed almost entirely in a single floor that terraces slightly following the natural slope of the terrain. The house is formed by a series of stone wall pavilions, separated by courtyards and covered by a large slab. This roof garden is a strong horizontal gesture that relates the house with the sunset on the ocean horizon. Both elements define the social area of the house as a sequence of exterior, interior, and semi-covered spaces that interrelate creating various conditions adapted to the climate variables of the site. 

House T by Tsukano Architect Office

A narrow vertical slice at one corner is the only interruption to the monolithic facade of this plain white house in Miyazaki, Japan, by Hiroshima studio Tsukano Architect Office. Designed with a simple rectilinear shape, the austere two-storey residence has a single window slotted into its narrow opening, as well as a dark corridor that leads down inside. Architect Michiya Tsukano describes his intention to protect the house from the noises of the road and the overbearing surrounding buildings using an encasing "white plate". He explains: "With the white plate, the house can be separated from the outer crowdedness, while sunlight is allowed to come into the courtyard."

Here's a short description from Michiya Tsukano:

"The road in front is so busy and noisy, and there are tall buildings for residence at the south. Considering all these factors, I came up with a brilliant idea to harmonize with the circumstances having a piece of white plate wrap the whole home space. With the white plate, the house can be separated from the outer crowdedness, while sunlight is allowed to come into the courtyard, which makes inner space warm and brighter."

Spa House by Metropolis Design

Architect: Metropolis Design

Location: Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

Project Team: Jon Jacobson, Jenny Bath, Shani Schabort

Client: Cape Dream Stay

Project Year: 2011

Set on the mountainside on the urban edge of Hout Bay, overlooking the bay and harbour, surrounded by weathered sandstone formative. The primary design intention was to integrate the building with the powerful landscape and to derive its poetics from the qualities of its surroundings. The Spa House is separated from the principal residence by a berm, and is connected to it by foot paths. The brief called for a place of entertainment and relaxation both for the client and his occasional guests, who would also be accommodated there. It incorporates swimming pools, guest accommodation, spa facilities and general living and poolside areas. The house is conceived of as a hovering set of elements, suspended over a large waterscape, which forms an extended terrace on the mountainside. Water constitutes the primary experience of the building. The floor planes are arranged to provide contrasting experiences of water, and the underwater spa with large viewing windows into the pool has a sense of stillness and mystery. The guest accommodation block hovers dramatically over the water and projects into space towards the mountain and sea. The dining area is submerged below water level, and pool decks are arranged as islands in a sea of water, connected by a bridge. The building masses are arranged in a dynamic composition, across and counter to the contours of the landscape. The building acts as a windbreak, protecting the pool from the south-easterly winds raking down the mountainside in summer. The ground floor opens up entirely to the landscape and the interior and exterior finishes are continuous, to minimise the distinction between inside and outside and enhance the experience of the building as a light platform in a vast landscape. Formally, the building comprises a number of separate sculptural forms in a dynamic composition. The base of the building, incorporating pools, relaxation rooms and guest accommodation is entirely of concrete. The superstructure is of steel construction, which is clad in afromosia shiplap boards on timber studwork.

Cairns Botanic Gardens by Charles Wright Architects

This mirror-clad visitor centre by Australian firm Charles Wright Architects was designed to be invisible amongst the surrounding trees of the Cairns Botanic Gardens in Queensland. Comprising two buildings and a dividing promenade, the visitor centre was designed as a gateway to the gardens, which contain a selection of tropical plants from northern Australian rainforests as well as from across Southeast Asia. Charles Wright Architects drew inspiration from the suit worn by the alien-hunter in the 1987 movie Predator to give both buildings a reflective outer coating that would play down their impact on the park landscape. "We proposed a design which literally reflects the gardens as camouflage for the building," explain the architects. Rather than cover the surfaces with a single polished plane of metal, the architects added a series of flat panels that break the facade down into facets. Each one sits at an incrementally different angle and helps to muddle the reflected images.Charles Wright Architects have offices in Melbourne and Shanghai. 

Here's a project description from Charles Wright Architects:

Conceptual framework

We set-out to design a "green" building which represents a paradigm shift for Cairns, moving away from the conventional building vernaculars toward new and progressive solutions that can be applied anywhere on a tropical latitude. There was a collective desire to attract both national and international attention, which would also aid in creating new opportunities and connections to existing facilities, communities and groups.

Public and cultural benefits

A new, iconic gateway into the botanic gardens and tanks arts centre precinct – "a democratic public space under-cover" – a challenging new architecture for the tropics which will act as an attractor to assist Cairns in its mission to be seen as a progressive city nationally and globally significant.

Relationship of built form to context

Council called for the building to be long, low and blending seamlessly with the surrounding environment (ideally invisible). We proposed a design which literally reflects the gardens as camouflage for the building with visual effect similar to the suit as worn by the alien hunter in the original 1987 Predator film. We sited the new building to straddle and activate the pedestrian promenade linking the gardens with the Arts Centre, acting as an open and flexible conduit into the interpretive and performative spaces.

Integration of allied disciplines

The project team had a collective desire to develop a world-class ESD, flexible office and mixed use public facility which wasn’t reliant on complex technological solutions or costly maintenance. We collaborated closely with council's public artist to incorporate art glass within the glazed promenade facades.

Sustainability

ESD initiatives include solar panels for feedback into the energy grid, stormwater harvesting tanks, mixed mode air-conditioning systems, low energy light fittings throughout, low water usage fittings, long life cycle efficiency materials and construction, solar treatment to all windows, naturally ventilated circulation corridors and shaded exposed thermal mass internally.

Seeing Double: What China's Copycat Culture Means for Architecture

An alpine town, the Eiffel Tower, the whole Manhattan skyline … China is replicating the world's architectural gems. But now Zaha Hadid would like it to stop. Read the rest of the article by Oliver Wainwright here. 

 Now a barbecue restaurant ... Ronchamp in Zhengzhou, 2004.

Le Corbusier's Chapelle de Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France. 

Printing 3D Buildings: Five Tenets of a New Kind of Architecture

As a designer, architect, artist and founder of the Mediated Matter group at MIT’s Media Lab, Neri Oxman has dedicated her career to exploring how digital design and fabrication technologies can mediate between matter and environment to radically transform the way we design and construct our built world. In this article, which was first published by CNN, Oxman discusses the future of 3D printing buildings with five tenets of a new kind of architecture. 

"In the future we will print 3D bone tissue, grow living breathing chairs and construct buildings by hatching swarms of tiny robots. The future is closer than we think; in fact, versions of it are already present in our midst.

At the core of these visions lies the desire to potentiate our bodies and the things around us with an intelligence that will deepen the relationship between the objects we use and which we inhabit, and our environment: a Material Ecology.

A new model of the world has emerged over the past few decades: the World-as- Organism. This new model inspires a desire to instill intelligence into objects, buildings and cities. It is a model that stands in contrast to the paradigm of the Industrial Revolution, or the World-as-Machine."

Read the rest of Neri Oxman's article here. 

Eileen Gray's E-1027

Eileen Gray was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Enniscorthy, Ireland in 1878. After studying art in London, Gray moved to Paris in 1902 to further her studies. Using her experience in interior design, she designed E-1027 – a holiday home in the south of France. E.1027 was built by Gray between 1926 and 1929 as a summer vacation residence for Badovici. The name of the house was a code for their intertwined initials: E for Eileen, 10 for J, the10th letter of the alphabet, and, following this logic, 2 for B, and 7 for G. Though the house was in one sense a collaborative effort, in reality Gray was entirely responsible for its design and for overseeing its construction. Badovici mainly assisted in technical matters when needed. Gray built the house on an isolated stretch of the French Riviera, on the western side of Cap Martin overlooking the Bay of Monaco. She chose this sight for the beauty of its view and built the house directly into the terrain. Wishing to build a house that interacted with the natural elements surrounding it, she carefully studied the wind and the angles of the sun at different times of the day and year and in this way was able to build a structure with a constant, evolving relationship with the sun, the wind, and the sea. Gray designed the house so that inside and outside flowed together. Not only does every room give out onto a balcony, but the shutters, screens, and windows are all movable, allowing the inhabitant to harmoniously engage with the sea and the hills surrounding the villa. The house was designed as a “maison minimum” – simple and efficient, with areas of built-in furniture and no wasted space. The main level of the house consists of a large open living room, a study/bedroom, a kitchen, and a bath. The lower level consists of a large covered sitting area, a guest bedroom, maid’s quarters, and a WC. On the roof she built a garden which included an outdoor kitchen connected to the interior kitchen, and a small area for sunbathing. While E.1027 was a modern movement house and employed many of the key tenets of the movement’s chief architect, Le Corbusier, Gray took issue with Le Corbusier who famously felt that “the house is a machine to live in.” Rather, she described the house as a living organism, an extension of the human experience, stating that “it is not a matter of simply constructing beautiful ensembles of lines, but above all, dwellings for people.” “Formulas are nothing,” she insisted, “Life is everything.” Gray created a villa with an open and flexible design which allowed the user to experience the space of living as an organic whole comprising the self, the house, and the outside environment. At the same time her designs allowed the user to maintain a feeling of intimacy and privacy, both of which she herself valued enormously. With E.1027 Gray made a singular and fundamental contribution towards modern architecture.

When you start researching the house,  you begin to suspect that Corbusier had something to do with Gray’s obscurity, and in fact many believe this. It’s hard to determine what role Corbusier played in this, but it’s clear that he was extremely fascinated by E-1027. It’s known that Gray was infuriated by Corbusier’s alterations of the villa, especially the murals he painted on it while she was away and which she felt had vandalized it. She never returned to the house after that, and even in her nineties it was said she was still fuming about it. Eileen Gray was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Enniscorthy, Ireland in 1878. After studying art in London, Gray moved to Paris in 1902 to further her studies.

My Architect

A beautiful reflection of a life, through the lens of a son is endearing and the intercepting old-people moments are priceless and adorable. Kahn's buildings herald monumentality in the twentieth century landscape of architecture, with several touting him as the most important architect of the latter part of the 20th century. 

Kahn was uncompromising in his work ethic vowing to achieve clarity and truth in his design, but his personal life was wrought with chaos and a life filled with secrets. He died penniless in the mens room of Penn Station in New York, leaving only three families and three children from three seperate women to his name. His youngest son, an illigitimte child Nathaniel embarks on a journey to discover his fathers buildings as well as the man behind them, through is friends, his encounters and his collegues. In the end, it is made clear that it wasn't only his buildings that touched all those who encounter them and will conitue to, but his person, was the greatest design of all. Nathaniel's journey leads him to Philly (Louis' hometown), New Jersey, New York, California, Jerulesum and Bangladesh, where he would eventally finish his joureny. His encounters include the likes of Kahn's former lovers, legitmate and illigitamte children alike, and other cameos peppered throughout the film from the likes of Frank Gehry, I.M Pei and the late Philip Johnson, in what I must say, is an untimely encounter. A jewish immigrant from Estonia, whose face and hands were permanently scared from an accident early on in life. You learn about the price of genius and how that effects the people that ar around everyday My Architect (2004) slowly peels back the layers of this mysterious life from an enigma of a man. An enigma so puzzling even his own son finds it perplexing to piece it all together. 

It is a poetic portryal of a great men with iconic buildings, but most of all its a son's journey to discover who his father really was, in what was essentially the messiest legacy any son could have potentially inherited and uncovering home truths that haunt both parents and children alike. In a documentary with the emotional impact of a dramatic feature film (including an original orchestral score), Nathaniel’s personal journey becomes a universal investigation of identity, a celebration of art and ultimately, of life itself.

Vieux Port Pavilion by Foster and Partners

A polished steel canopy reflects visitors walking underneath at this events pavilion in Marseille's harbour by UK firm Foster + Partners. Supported by eight slender columns, the stainless-steel structure stretches over the paving to create a sheltered events space in the city's Old Port. The roof features sharply tapered edges, creating the impression of a paper-like thickness. "The new pavilion is quite literally a reflection of its surroundings," explained head of design Spencer de Grey. "Its lightweight steel structure is a minimal intervention and appears as a simple silver line on the horizon." The Vieux Port pavilion forms part of a masterplan of public realm projects that Foster + Partners has been working on along the seafront of the French city to tie in with its role as European Capital of Culture 2013. Other improvements includes new surfaces, wider pavements and a series of nautical pavilions. "Our aim has been to make the Vieux Port accessible to all," said De Grey. "The project is an invitation to the people of Marseille to enjoy and use this grand space for events, markets and celebrations once again.". The architects worked alongside landscape designer Michel Desvigne, who added granite paving to complement the original limestone cobbles. They also collaborated with local firm Tangram Architectes to deliver the structure.

Here's a project description from Foster + Partners:

The transformation of Marseille's World Heritage-listed harbour was officially inaugurated on Saturday during a ceremony attended by Eugène Caselli, President of Marseille Provence Métropole and Jean-Claude Gaudin, the Mayor of Marseille. The event marked the completion of the new 'club nautique' pavilions and a new sheltered events space on the Quai de la Fraternité at the eastern edge of the port, built to commemorate the city's year as 'European Capital of Culture'.

The new events pavilion is a simple, discreet canopy of highly reflective stainless steel, 46 by 22 metres in size, open on all sides and supported by slender pillars. Its polished, mirrored surface reflects the surrounding port and tapers towards the edges, minimising its profile and reducing the structure's visual impact.

Reclaiming the quaysides as civic space and reconnecting the port with the city, the boat houses and technical installations that previously lined the quays have been moved to new platforms and clubhouses over the water. The pedestrian area around the harbour has been enlarged and traffic will be gradually reduced over the coming years to provide a safe, pedestrianised environment that extends to the water's edge.

The landscape design, which was developed with Michel Desvigne, includes a new pale granite surface, in the same shade as the original limestone cobbles. The simple, hard-wearing, roughly textured materials are appropriate to the port setting, and to improve accessibility for all, kerbs and level changes have been eliminated."

Inception anybody?

Domino Sugar by SHoP Architects and James Corner Field Operations

Manhattan studio SHoP Architects has designed a masterplan of hollow skyscrapers surrounded by gardens for the site of the former Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn. Working alongside landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, SHoP Architects has planned a mixed-use complex that includes the renovation of the nineteenth century factory, five new buildings, plus a series of public parks, gardens and sports fields.

The plans replace earlier proposals by Rafael Viñoly for the historic site, which started production as a sugar factory in 1856 but has been out of use since 2004. Viñoly's proposals proved unpopular with local residents, so developer Two Trees commissioned an alternative that would offer taller buildings but more public spaces.

"If you're standing next to a 400-foot tall building or a 600-foot tall building, you have no idea," SHoP principal Vishaan Chakrabarti told New York magazine Curbed. "But if a 600-foot building means that you get a park where your kid can graduate, that means something to you."

The tallest building in the scheme is a 180-metre tower, which will be positioned beside the Williamsburg Bridge to the south. Other structures will be shorter in height, relating to the scale of buildings to the north and east, and will include a tower with a rectangular void through its middle and a school at its base, plus a 600-unit apartment building. The old factory will be transformed into offices for technology companies and the creative industries.

The developer plans to push ahead with the project this year and is organising community meetings in the upcoming weeks. SHoP Architects has worked on a number of high-profile projects recently. The team completed the Barclays sports arena in Brooklyn in September and is also developing a masterplan for a new "silicon" city in Kenya. New York-based James Corner Field Operations is best known for its role on the High Line, an elevated park on an abandoned railway.

Here's some more explanation from SHoP Architects:

"With Two Trees Management Company, SHoP and Field Operation's masterplan for the Domino Sugar site replaces a city-approved 2010 plan with a new proposal that adds 60% more publicly-accessible open space on a new, highly accessible street grid; provides for a new 24/7 mix of office, residential, neighborhood retail, community facilities while retaining original commitments for affordable housing; and a new form of open architecture that connects the existing neighborhood to the new quarter-mile waterfront.

Most strikingly, the plan envisions a new skyline for Brooklyn—one that relates to the height of the Williamsburg bridge to the south and scales down to meet the lower buildings across Kent Avenue to the east. Central to the scheme is the renovated Domino Sugar refinery building, which will become the nerve center of the project as a new office building across from a new public space, Domino Square.

The new surrounding buildings are porous, featuring large openings that allow light and air to penetrate through the site and into the neighborhood beyond. While exuberant on the skyline similar to new architecture being built around the world, the buildings responsibly meet the ground and the Williamsburg Street grid."

Kate Seabrook's Endbahnhof

Urban decay and bratwurst. These are the things that continue to draw artists and photographers alike to Berlin, none more so than Aussie born Kate Seabrook, who has called Berlin her home for just over a year now. The juxtaposition of the old and new Berlin continues to be a source of inspiration for many. The following photoset is a collection from her latest project, Endbahnhof, which is a study of each U-bahn station, each with possessing its own quirky style. 

Kate says of her work: 

"Endbahnhof is a photographic series documenting Berlin's entire U-bahn system, end to end, one line at a time. The idea for the project was born out of an appreciation of the impressive and varied styles of U-bahn architecture and typography and the reliability of the system to get Berliners where they need to go. What makes Endbahnhof special is that each line is shot in a single journey, disembarking at each station to photograph it before the next train arrives.". 

And of the Berlin Public Transportation system, Kate says:

"I have found it very interesting that the architecture of the U-bahn station reflects the local area. Generally speaking, the historical working class and former communist neighbourhoods tend to have stations that are more purist in design, whilst the most elaborate designs can be found in wealthy former West Berlin neighbourhoods such as Wilmersdorf. The thing I really love is that anyone can experience these extremes of architectural design for the cost of a train ticket!".

You can find out more about Kate's work, here and here.