Brooklyn’s Prospect Park will soon receive a refurbished Lakeside Center, with help from a $10 million donation to the Prospect Park Alliance and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The LeFrak family, real estate royalty within the borough and in the Tri-state area, has gifted the sum in support of the oft-delayed […]
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Architects: 05 AM Arquitectura
Location: Carrer Manresa, Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Barcelona, Spain
Project Team: Joan Arnau Farràs, Carmen Muñoz Ramírez
Project Area: 1,335 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: José Hevia
Collaborators: Jordi Sánchez
Structures: Genescà Molist S.L.
Facilities: GEPRO engineering
Technical Architect: Antoni Ventura i Carles Valldeperas, AVIASAT. Dirección de Ejecución
Budget: Sergi Pérez y Anna Badias
Client: GISA
Owner: CATSALUT
Construction: Construcciones Cots i Claret S.L.
Project: September 2006 – February 2007
From the architect. The building fits into its immediate urban context, as it identifies the specificity of the pre-existing buildings on the site. It is adjusted around them with the goal of giving them new value.
The volume in relation to the street has two floors, a direct encounter with the sidewalk and vertical openings. Instead, the volumes facing the railway have a single story, are high on the ground and the openings are unified in a single horizontal strip.
The row of poplars and the old railway facilities warehouse define the exterior limits of the access.
The lobby is strategically positioned in the center of the building, acting as a panoptic space that articulates and relates the different functional areas, as well as the views of the pre-existing exteriors.
At one end of the lobby, a courtyard surrounds the large poplar and allows us to separate, on its two other sides, the health education classroom and consultation area.
Consultation rooms are located on both sides of a waiting area lit naturally through two skylights oriented intentionally to frame the foliage of the poplars.
In the continuing care area, the waiting room has a double height and a window at the end that frames the old warehouse and the row of poplars at the access.
The answer to the site becomes a resource, an opportunity to add value to the correct functional design, characteristic of a primary care center.
Primary Care Center / 05 AM Arquitectura originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 Nov 2013.
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After three months of in-depth analysis and public outreach, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has shortlisted 10 design “opportunities” for the third and final round of Rebuild by Design. The design competition, focused on making New York’s Sandy-effected regions more resilient, sustainable, and livable, will now have the final project teams collaborate with local and regional stakeholders in developing their projects over the next five months. The goal is to arrive at projects that are implementable and fundable, leveraging the variety of federal recovery investments being made in the region.
OMA, BIG and WXY are just a few practices involved in the final round. Read on to review a glimpse of each shortlisted proposal.
The Final Shortlist:
Coastal Commercial Resiliency Financing
Project Team: HR&A Advisors, Inc. with Cooper, Robertson & Partners
Location: Regional
The HR&A team is working with businesses, merchants associations, and local government in up to three vulnerable areas in New York City and on the New Jersey shore to create a replicable financial tool to enable implementation of temporary and long-term physical and operational interventions, protecting critical local businesses from future extreme weather events and climate change.
Resilience + The Beach
Project Team: Sasaki, Rutgers, Arup
Location: New Jersey
Sasaki’s vision for the Jersey Shore builds upon one of its most valuable assets – the beach. Three typologies define the beach culturally, economically and ecologically: the Barrier Island, Headlands, and Inland Bay. Within this framework, the design opportunity rethinks iconic elements of the human experience of the shore – the pier, the boardwalk, and the marina – to integrate ecological function and help the region adapt in the face of sea level rise.
Designing with Nature for the Future of the Mid-Atlantic Coast
Project Team: WXY, West 8
Location: Regional
A paradigm shift in coastal planning is essential at the regional level. A cost-benefit analysis reveals the potential for large scale storm mitigation measures to play a significant role in coastal management. The design opportunity here is in the governance, insurance, and communications mechanisms that would aid in the resiliency of this vulnerable territory.
New Medowlands: Productive City + Regional Park
Project Team: MIT CAU, ZUS, Urbanisten
Location: New Jersey
Our project includes a gradual conversion of substantial parts of the Meadowlands into a regional landscape infrastructural park that protects the edges from floods and rebuilds biodiversity lost over the past century; absorbs water; and hosts recreational, civic programs. Along the edges, a mix of new residential density and other uses could take advantage of the park as a civic amenity.
Living with the Bay: Resiliency-Building Options for Nassau County’s South Shore
Project Team: Interboro Team
Location: New York
This project presents a collection of resiliency-building initiatives for communities on Nassau County’s South Shore. While the safety of residents during future extreme weather events is the main goal of these initiatives, each seeks to also enhance the quality of everyday life in non-emergency times. Taken as a whole, the initiatives present a collection of relatively low-risk, “no regrets” propositions for the present that sow seeds for a more resilient future.
Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge: a comprehensive strategy for Hoboken
Project Team: OMA
Location: New Jersey
Hoboken is susceptible to both flash flood and storm surge. Our project capitalizes on a combination of political, ecological, and economic factors to create a comprehensive flood strategy – resist, delay, store, discharge – that both defends the entire city, and enables commercial, civic, and recreational amenities to take shape.
The BIG “U”
Project Team: BIG TEAM
Location: New York
The multivalent ‘U’ consists of multiple but linked design opportunities; each on different scales of time, size and investment; each local neighborhood tailoring its own set of programs, functions, and opportunities. Small, relatively simple projects maintain the resiliency investment momentum post-Sandy, while setting in motion the longer-term solutions that will be necessary in the future.
Living, Growing Breakwaters: Staten Island and Raritan Bay
Project Team: SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
Location: New York
Our layered strategy introduces protective breakwaters and interior tidal flats that can dissipate wave energy and slow the water, while rebuilding sustainable oyster populations within the Harbor. Working with locally impacted communities a range of alternative futures can be developed that are effective, resilient, and complimentary to the ongoing shoreline work of the area.
HUNTS POINT / LIFELINES
Project Team: PennDesign, OLIN
Location: New York
This Design Opportunity engages community to develop site-specific designs for integrated storm protection and green infrastructure that offers high quality social space, engages industrial property owners, and has components that can be manufactured locally and built cooperatively. The aim is to stake out the potential of hybrid port protection and ecology uses throughout the estuary.
Resilient Bridgeport Network
Project Team: unabridged Coastal Collective
Location: Connecticut
The project will build the spaces and programs for the South End of Bridgeport to become more self-sufficient through public safety, education and job training, community activities, and a mix of commercial and housing functions fostering connections between people. The City’s proposed Green Collar Institute will become part of the neighborhood’s resilience, training people for green industrial processes, building retrofitting, construction disassembly and salvage, landscaping, environmental remediation, renewable energy, and materials upcycling research and development.
Reference: HUD, Rebuild by Design
Project descriptions via HUD.
10 Projects Advance to Rebuild by Design's Final Round originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 Nov 2013.
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Architects: Diez + Muller Arquitectos
Location: Valle de los Chillos, Cuenca Canton, Ecuador
Project Architects: Gonzalo Diez P, Felipe Muller B.
Project Area: 550 sqm
Project Year: 2012
Photographs: Sebastían Crespo Camacho
Construction: Ing. Diego Cueva
From the architect. The design of this house arises from previous research and understanding of the regional architecture of the Ecuadorian highlands, and how it engages with a modern system through understanding the place, tectonics and space of each, creating a tension between the two systems.
First are the traditional architectural and spatial elements, such as the courtyard, the wall, porch and slope. At the same time, the open plan and the continuous space are modernist concepts contrasted with the elements previously mentioned. The material palette includes local stone, wood and tile as local or endemic materials, and exposed concrete, steel and glass as modern materials. This mix not only expresses a formal idea, but also a structural and constructive idea that reinforces the argument.
In an area of approximately 2 hectares with a steep slope, the house is implanted in the highest part of the site, with a privileged view. In plan, the house is designed linearly, taking advantage of the views from every room. The design in section becomes important, access is from the upper level of the site to the social area, kitchen and terrace. The most private areas and bedrooms are on the lower floor.
The house is stratified into two zones: the stone base and glass box on top. The base is a stone bearing wall, where private areas are distributed. This base, true to its characteristics, is the support of the house on the ground, and contains the excavated soil for its settlement. It comes into view in full from certain viewpoints, while from others it is half-buried and seems to arise. At the back and at the entrance of the house, a large cut in the ground generates a submerged courtyard which serves mainly to illuminate and ventilate the bedroom areas on the ground floor. At the same time, it becomes one of the most important areas of reference of the house. It is contained by an exposed concrete wall, contrasting with the stone wall, thus creating tensions between the two systems.
The arrival to the house is through a steel and glass bridge that intersects with the stone wall, and opens the space to a large steel and glass nave that contains the social areas of the house on the upper floor. On this nave rests a traditional mud tile roof.
Finally, the finishes of the house are simple materials like concrete and wood on floors, concrete walls, wood deck, etc.. The lightness of the glass top volume is even more evident at night when artificial light exposes its permeability and the great nave of the roof, which is juxtaposed with the monolithic volume of the base on which it rests.
Los Chillos House / Diez + Muller Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 Nov 2013.
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Architects: Clive Wilkinson Architects
Location: Irvine, CA, USA
Architect In Charge: Clive Wilkinson, Sam Farhang, Sasha Shumyatsky, Matt Moran, Chester Nielsen, Andrea Schoening, Mitsuhiro Komatsu, Annie Ritz, Meredith McDaniel
Area: 82,000 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Benny Chan
Mechanical And Plumbing Engineers: TK1SC
Electrical Engineers: OMB Electrical Engineers, Inc
Structural Engineers: Englekirk Structural Engineers
Landscape Architect: Melendrez
Civil Engineers: Ware Malcomb
General Contractor: Howard Building Corporation
From the architect. The leaders of the motocross apparel company, Fox Head, Inc. approached us in November 2011, with the goal of relocating their headquarters from Morgan Hill, in Northern California, to Irvine, California. They wanted a space that would inspire their staff and encouraged CWa to challenge preconceptions about how an office space can work and how this warehouse shell could become a cutting edge creative house.
The industrial warehouse on Armstrong Avenue in Irvine offered an opportunity of consolidating the company in one open, creative environment. The design solution for the 82,000 sq. ft. space evolved from the desire to create a functional yet playful environment that befits the Fox image. Equally significant was the company’s desire for an open, flexible and collaborative work environment for its employees.
Traditional urban planning concepts were utilized to provide the architectural frame to foster a community centered around place, interaction and innovation. A Main Street concept, individual task-oriented neighborhoods, park-like landscape elements and circulation-oriented ‘facades’ were each enlisted to create a community unique to the company’s culture. The various departments were organized on either side of the warehouse connected through a ‘Main Street’ bisecting the ground floor. The need to articulate the ‘Main Street’ led to the adoption of diverse interior building frontages emphasizing the varied functions. Fox’s operational needs were met through incorporation of open offices, workstation systems tailored to departmental needs and accompanying support spaces, such as sewing room, photo studio and tech-room.
On the exterior, a sculptural addition was proposed to accommodate Fox’s main entrance and provide an identifying landmark. From the main entrance, a wide street leads you through the single story reception area, defined by a red slatted ceiling, into the ‘Main Street.’ Here product showrooms define the boundary of the ‘Main Street’ terminating at the lounge/cafeteria zone with its 18-foot high glazed storefront opening to the outdoor recreation area. Here informal meeting areas are housed on the ‘roofs’ of the ‘Main Street’ structures and a raised boardroom offers an unprecedented view of the ‘Main Street’ and the creative warehouse area. Existing and new infrastructure are exposed and coordinated to enhance the architecture, while thewarm palette of reds, oranges and yellows reference the original brand colors of Moto-X Fox while differentiating the ‘monuments’ in the city from the muted background.
Fox’s brand represents a diverse set of apparel, equipment, and lifestyle products. In order to celebrate this diversity, the architecture was enlisted to emphasize the different teams of designers, engineers and marketing professionals behind the company image. Each area of the design boasts a uniquely identifiable character. The resulting ‘city’ is a reflection of the company’s character: an open and creative workplace that fosters interaction between varied groups of specialists.
The exterior grounds offered an extension to the workplace and gave Fox the opportunity to embrace the active culture which it represents. A scheme was developed with a raised garden area emanating from the warehouse, enclosed by hedges and shade trees. Outside the clubhouse, loose furniture under trees encourages people to meet, work and relax; while a bike track becomes a highly visible extension of the company.
To realize the project within a tight timeframe, the project team took a highly collaborative approach, enlisting early input from the contractor in order to streamline the design and construction process. The project was taken from conception to permitting within 4 months, and constructed on a fast-track schedule over 7 months. The resulting efficiency of delivery ensured the client significant costs-savings without sacrificing quality of the finished product.
Fox Head / Clive Wilkinson Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 Nov 2013.
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I love building spaces: architecture, furniture, all of it, probably more than fashion. The development procedure is more tactile. It’s about space and form and it’s something you can share with other people.
Sleeping Like A Bauhäusler | 7 Architects On How To Design For Disaster | World Famous Architects Design Bus Stops for Tiny Austrian Village | We Asked Three World-Class Architects to Go Crazy With LEGO | Deconstruction versus Demolition | Daniel Libeskind Is No Architect | At Just 4ft across, this home is a tight squeeze | This Impeccably Designed $20,000 House Could Soon Be Yours
last word: Restoring the railway station
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In recent years, modular architecture and product designs have become increasingly popular for home owners (see our previous modular design roundup here). Transformable and customizable, modular designs give consumers a standard template with which can be altered to suit their own personal taste—a highly desirable feature in a design world that champions the individual. Capitalizing on our current obsession with modular design, Davis Furniture recently designed a line of couches that leave the configuration and color totally up to the consumer. Davis Furniture’s Kontour couches come in two distinct shapes, which can be rearranged to create seemingly endless possibilities of forms. “Curved” pieces come in the shape of quarter-arcs, while “Straights” are defined by sleek, linear edges. Combined with a selection of ottomans and end tables, the rectilinear and curvilinear shapes create strong visual appeal while enhancing a designer’s ability to define spaces and control traffic flow in large public areas. Comfort was also prioritized in these modular pieces, as a also subtle, quilted stitch detail on the cushions provide optimized relaxation. Best suited for business environments, Kontour’s sharp lines and transformability greet clients …
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Pigeons (or feral/street pigeons, as Wikipedia insists on calling them) aren’t exactly the most loved urban dwellers. Also referred to as “the rats of the sky,” the birds have become ingrained into the gritty image of larger, dirtier cities such as London or New York, to name a few. But it’s about time to mediate our quarrels and analyze their role as an inevitable part of our infrastructure. Our curiosity was piqued when Colin Jerolmack recently offered his views on pigeons as contemporary urbanists, but we really couldn’t hold back when we heard that Phaidon’s new book is putting pigeons in the shoes of architecture critic. “Architecture According To Pigeons,” by the pigeon elder and architecture expert Speck Lee Tailfeather, is a true bird’s-eye-view of some of the most important structures in architectural history—it also includes some words from Stella Gurney and pictures from Natsko Sek. Covering over 40 buildings, including the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, the Taj Mahal, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, this book is just adorable, with stunning collage illustrations to match. A great way to brush up on your architectural essentials, no matter what age you are. …
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Because the owner-builder’s grandmother had reached an age at which she was no longer able to cope with her household tasks alone, and the distance between the two homes was too big, the owner-builders decided to move into their grandmother’s house to be able to guarantee that appropriate and effective help could be provided. As this house, situated in St. Valentin, did not in any way correspond with the requirements for two more residents, the decision was taken to extend it. Due to the elongated plot, rather than a further floor, a ground floor extension was suggested, which fulfilled all the required parameters. On the one hand, this would enable the grandmother to spend the last years of her life in a familiar environment, whilst on the other, to maintain her private sphere. The extension also enabled association outside. The extension was designed as a single-storey construction that combines the benefits of a hotel room with the advantages of the detached family house and functions as an independent building. Important parameters for the design of the layout included the course of the sun, the interior sequence of the room and the requirement for two private but different terraces. For these …
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A house designed by Edward Durell Stone, located in Darien, Connecticut, is under threat of demolition to make way for a developer’s vision: a neocolonial pastiche home. The 2,334-square-foot home is sited on a 1.1 acre wooded lot in the private community of Tokeneke. The house represents a transitional moment in Stone’s multifaceted career. Constructed for […]
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