Pool lounge © BIG

To close our coverage of this years P.S.1 YAP competition we present you BIG’s proposal.

BIG’s invitation to the P.S.1 is not only rare for not being based in NY or in the US (they are based in Denmark), as it has been the common denominator over the years, but also because they have built several small-medium-large scale projects.

But personally, this was the proposal I wanted to see the most: BIG’s P.S.1 out of 7295 is a “cloudscape” formed by
translucent recycled PVC “bubbles”, with a cradle to cradle life-cycle design on which 7,295 bags will be made out of the ballons after the installation, completing the cycle that started as recycled truck bed covers and bags.

Check our P.S.1 coverage (2008 until 2010!) here.

More on BIG’s proposal after the break:

Bar © BIG

How can you make something temporary sustainable?

Bubbles to bags © BIG

Bubbles to bags © BIG

Building something in order to tear it down three months later seems like the epitome of excess and wastefulness. BIG proposes a structure that creates maximum impact with a minimum of means, where human life unfolds to the fullest with minimum material expense. An installation that consists of 99.9% air is formed as a cloud-like landscape for playing, relaxing, and dancing that provides seating, playgrounds, water, shade and light. The P.S.1 installation is conceived as a three-month chapter in the cradle to cradle life-cycle design of the cloudscape. The fabric of the cloudscape is translucent recycled PVC, made from recycled truck bed covers and bags, reducing the environmental impact by 80% on average by eliminating the raw material extraction and production processes.

Bounce © BIG

Pool © BIG

Dance © BIG

The cloudscape is continuous from the entrance to the courtyard, taking on three primary forms – a bubbly dune in the big rectangular courtyard, including a mega air mattress for play and physical activity and a paddling pool surrounded by bouncy seating; a three-dimensional cumulus landscape in the main courtyard with a covered chill out area of air mattresses and beanbags as well as a shaded bar for staff and guests; and a cluster of free floating cirrus clouds above the DJ and dance floor. The cloudscape is composed of spheres of two different sizes made from a composition of identical triangulated S-shapes. After deflation at the end of the season, the S-shapes can be folded into ManhattanPortage Bags. Each bag is given a unique number that is printed on the fabric along with the pattern and folding instructions. After the season the bags can be sold as numbered fragments of the total piece – P.S.1 out of 7295.

The bar cloud © BIG

The grotto cloud © BIG

The lounge cloud © BIG

PROJECT: P.S.1 OUT OF 7295
CLIENT: P.S.1 MoMA
SIZE: 1.550 M2
LOCATION: LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK / USA
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Jakob Henke
Contributors: Daniel Sundlin, Aleksander Tokarz, Alysen Hiller, Xi Chen

From Norway, Spain, Mexico, USA, and Chile. Fantastic hotels for you to enjoy your stay! See the First Part and Second Part. Check the other four after the break.

Turtagro Hotel / JVA
The old Turtagrø Hotel, which has been the starting point for climbing in the Hurrungane Mountains for more than a hundred years, burned down in 2001. The owner wanted to create some of the atmosphere of the old building – a recognisable scale, spatial sequence, colours and materials, relating to a nearby timber annex. Outside of this the requirement was for a hotel with a new architectonic expression and an efficient layout (read more…)

La Purificadora Hotel / LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA
Located in the city of Puebla and belonging to the Master Plan “Paseo San Francisco”, the Boutique Hotel has colonial heritage and is registered as historical patrimony, which must be respected and included as part of the new design project. The building used to be an ice factory where the water was bottled and purified (read more…)

Consolacion hotel / Camprubi i Santacana
It will no longer be so easy to overlook Monroyo, in the heart of the county of Matarraña in Teruel (Spain). The usual stopovers to buy some of its ham or pick some wild mushrooms or truffes in season can now be lengthened thanks to a striking new hotel on the outskirts of the town, next to the Consolación Hermitage (read more…)

W Hotel / BBG-BBGM
Conceived as an urban oasis, the new guestrooms of the W Hotel designed by BBG-BBGM offer a respite from the chaos of the city by immersing the guest in soothing colors and textures inspired by nature. Curving, organic shapes complement modern angles while crisp white is softened with tones from the forest and earth (read more…)

Talca Hotel & Casino / Rodrigo Duque Motta + Rafael Hevia García-Huidobro
Since the very beginning, this commission was determined by a preexisting disposition of the various parts of the program (casino, hotel, restaurants, and convention/event’s center), predefining surface areas, position in plan layout, and corresponding levels within the structure (read more…)

After thousand of nominations in the last 3 weeks, we are proud to announce the finalists for the Building of the Year Awards, a selection made by our readers.

65 projects in 13 categories are now running for the award, with a very good selection of buildings, ranging from large campus buildings to small libraries with no budget, featuring renowned practices such as DS+R, OMA, REX, Tadao Ando, and small young firms from from around the world.

To thank our readers we have decided to give away an iPod Touch, more details at the Awards page.

Remember that you can vote once per day here: Building of the Year Awards page.

And the nominees are:

CULTURAL

BTEK – Technology Interpretation Center / ACXT (vote | project page)

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre / REX | OMA (vote | project page)

Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center / Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects with FXFOWLE (vote | project page)

Winspear Opera House / Foster + Partners (vote | project page)

Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center / Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (vote | project page)

EDUCATIONAL

Yapi Kredi Bank Academy / TEGET (vote | project page)

UCSD Price Center East / Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design (vote | project page)

Ecological Children Activity and Education Center / 24H > architecture (vote | project page)

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art / Morphosis Architects (vote | project page)

The Julliard School / Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects (vote | project page)

HOUSES

Villa Vals / SeARCH & CMA (vote | project page)

House of Ruins (Drupas) / NRJA (vote | project page)

Y House / Jorge Sousa Santos (vote | project page)

Treehouse / RPA (vote | project page)

Hemeroscopium House / Ensamble Studio (vote | project page)

HOUSING

Mountain Dwellings / BIG (vote | project page)

Aqua Tower / Studio Gang Architects (vote | project page)

Celosia Building / MVRDV with Blanca Lleó (vote | project page)

Linked Hybrid / Steven Holl Architects (vote | project page)

MacAllen Building Condominiums / office dA (vote | project page)

INTERIORS

Honeycomb / SAKO Architects (vote | project page)

The “Front and back” Apartment / h2o architectes (vote | project page)

Fugas Lusas / extrastudio (vote | project page)

Bastard Store / studiometrico (vote | project page)

Mameg + Maison Martin Margiela / Johnston Marklee & Associates (vote | project page)

INSTITUTIONAL

Huanacu Warehouse & Office / tFPS (vote | project page)

Wender Police Station / Studiobase Architects (vote | project page)

Saxo Bank / 3XN (vote | project page)

Serta International Center / Epstein | Metter Studio (vote | project page)

Unilever Headquarters / Behnisch Architekten (vote | project page)

OFFICES

Facebook Offices / O+A Studio (vote | project page)

Selgas Cano Architecture Office / Selgas Cano (vote | project page)

Sunone / Department of Architecture (vote | project page)

Manitoba Hydro / KPMB Architects (vote | project page)

Nestlé Application Group Querétaro / Rojkind Arquitectos (vote | project page)

PUBLIC FACILITIES

National Tourist Route Trollstigen / RRA (vote | project page)

Community centre Herstedlund / Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter (vote | project page)

Emergency Terminal / Produkcija 004 (vote | project page)

Pavilion at Aventura Park / PARATELIER (vote | project page)

Rouen Grand Mare / Beckmann-N’Thépé architects (vote | project page)

REFURBISHMENT

Tehama Grasshopper / Fougeron Architecture (vote | project page)

55 Blair Road / Ong & Ong (vote | project page)

House + / Anne Menke (vote | project page)

Pullpo Advertising Agency / Hania Stambuk (vote | project page)

Haus im Haus / Behnisch Architekten (vote | project page)

RELIGIOUS

The Prayer Chapel / debartolo architects (vote | project page)

Farewell Chapel / OFIS Arhitekti (vote | project page)

The Cathedral of Christ the Light / SOM (vote | project page)

Rennes Métropole Crematorium / PLAN 01 (vote | project page)

New Church in Foligno – Doriana e Massimiliano Fuksas (vote | project page)

SPORTS

City of Jaca Hockey Arena / Coll-Barreu Arquitectos (vote | project description)

Sports and Leisure Center in Saint-Cloud / KOZ Architectes (vote | project description)

Zamet Centre / 3LHD (vote | project description)

Wellness Sky / 4of7 (vote | project description)

Gymnasium 46º09′N-16º50E / STUDIO UP (vote | project description)

MUSEUM AND LIBRARIES

Safe Haven Library / TYIN Tegnestue (vote | project page)

MAXXI Museum / Zaha Hadid Architects (vote | project page)

CAM FRAMIS Museum / Jordi Badia (vote | project page)

Chongqing Library / Perkins Eastman (vote | project page)

Tama Art University Library / Toyo Ito by Iwan Baan (vote | project page)

HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS

The Yas Hotel / Asymptote (vote | project page)

Ar de Rio Bar Esplanade / Guedes + DeCampos (vote | project page)

Conduit / Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects (vote | project page)

Coffee Shop + Shading Surface / ateliermob (vote | project page)

Yellow Treehouse Restaurant / Pacific Environments (vote | project page)

The competition awarded three prizes and eight special mentions, with first prize captured by Liminal Projects for their project: Home Spun: Water Harvesting Prefab Urban Housing for the Great Lakes Region. See the three prizes after the break. Special Mentions projects can be seen in the competition’s official website.

First Place / Liminal Projects / Home Spun: Water Harvesting Prefab Urban Housing for the Great Lakes Region:

Second Place / Rafael Luna / Hongquiao Station: Living within the Shanghai Subway Station:

Third Place / Qili Yang / Smallness: Re-scripting Collective Housing in Szenzhen:

Architects: Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık / Melkan Gürsel & Murat Tabanlıoğlu
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Project Team: Murat Cengiz , Çağrı Akay, Ozan Öztepe, Ali Eray
Interior Design: Tabanlıoğlu Architects
Client: Ortadoğu Otomotiv ve Tic.A.Ş
Structural Engineering: Altıneller
Mechanical Engineering: Elmak
Electrical Engineering: Öneren Proje Mühendislik
Facade: Emmer Pfenninger Partner AG
Architectural Lighting: Studio Dinnebier
Main Contractor: D – Yapı / Ataman İnşaat
Landscape Consultant: Esin Kılınç
Site Area: 4,299 sqm
Construction Area: 11,475 sqm
Project Year: 2006–2007
Construction Year: 2007–2008
Photographs: Thomas Mayer, Cemal Emden

On Ankara-Eskişehir road, Doğan Medya Center is a distinctive media figure in the Capital city, housing Ankara studios of Dogan Media Group and its newspapers’ regional editorial offices, creating the basis of interaction between the brands of the group and providing a common source. Conceptually, the Doğan Media Centre is a simple glazed cube in response to an orthogonal site.

site plan

Configured within a basic planning module of a 4m x 4m x 4m cube and a structural module of 8m x 8m x 8m, the purist form has subsequently been remodeled, with the extrusion and attachment of smaller cubes, and simultaneously eroded by the subtraction of other cubic volumes. The building is consequently perceived as a sculptural grouping of related boxes of the same genus but with a variety of sizes, starting on the surface. The concrete structure reaches up to 7 stories by feasible use of galleries so that extra operative space created by mezzanines, whereas the standard is 4-4 ½ floors. The story height is 4 meters, every two floors a cube is formed; the modular structure provides a flexible basis for planning. Intermediate floors are supported on secondary steel columns and beams.

section 05

The building is perceived from afar and in diverse prospects at various angles, due to perforated shield resembling Braille alphabet at range of sizes, symbolizing “communications for all”. The metal panels filter the sunlight entering the building into shifting patterns of dappled shade. The panels’ perforations are echoed in the suspended ceilings, where circular cut outs house connections for camera equipment and lighting.

The emblematic use of façade creates a visually legible dynamic ambiance with reference to today’s fast moving and assertive image of the media. In accordance with topographic directions, the modules on the entrance elevation are slightly angled to enhance the dynamic appearance. The finishes in the interior draw on the same muted palette of calming colours that is applied to the exterior: dark grey, black and shades of brown.

The projecting boxes are each dedicated to a specific TV channel or newspaper so that the various units within the Doğan conglomerate can be readily identified from afar. Intermediate floors are supported on secondary steel columns and beams. There is a layering of views through the building, both horizontally, across the open-plan offices and out into the city, and vertically, in the way the different levels open onto the internal atrium. The floors are framed by parapet walls topped with glazing. Here, the transparency is complete. The parapets consist of frameless glass supported by a stainless steel handrail; above the rail, there is only air.

Separate sections like studios and offices of press people preserve their exclusivity and each segment is accentuated in the integral form of the re-assembled blocks of cube. The assemblage of smaller cubes within the structure of the large box can be read as a metaphor for the diversity of the company’s operations and a high degree of transparency serve to reinforce the separate brand images.

The top of the building contains a VIP lounge and terrace with teak decking. The floors below are segregated according to their specialty – newspaper or TV – but everyone comes together in the canteen in the ground-floor atrium. There is an open car park in a L-form parallel to the building besides two underground levels reserved for parking. The first basement is saved for technical facilities and storage requirements are solved in basement floors. The first basement level contains large studios as well as support facilities such as a hairdresser and make-up rooms. The two floors below contain M & E equipment and parking, along with cisterns that allow the landscaped gardens to be irrigated with greywater. Technological facilities and healthy infrastructure makes the building user-friendly and provides easy maintenance.

DMC Ankara is a genuine building in terms of transparency; strong in-out correlation enables a well-defined description before getting in the building; and on the other hand, transparency provides the panoramic views of the city for all offices. Composed harmoniously with the environment; it is open to the cityscape. There is a strong relationship between the interior of the building and the public realm.

Check last’s year installation by Gage Clemenceau Architects. Which one do you like the most?

Seen at The Architect’s Newspaper Blog.

North view

After visiting his website, I got in touch with Robert Stone and exchanged a few emails… He is a reader of ArchDaily and was very excited to share his work with the readers, and I was also very excited about it after learning more about him and what is behind Rosa Muerta and other projects he has been working on in the California desert.

Robert was born and raised in Palm Springs, Ca. in a decent copy of a Craig Ellwood house and across the street from a real Schindler house. After his masters degree at UC Berkeley, Robert spent over a decade in a studio in Los Angeles making experimental social-sculpture projects that were exhibited internationally. I mention this because it’s a clear influence on Rosa Muerta and Acido Dorado, two projects that came out of Robert’s passion for art, his architectural background, and his D.I.Y. punk roots:

Instead of looking for a client, Robert went solo to the desert to build vacation houses for rent, turning into an entrepreneur with Pretty Vacant Properties and probing that independent D.I.Y. architecture is possible.

South view

It is basically the American punk D.I.Y. approach that has engendered all contemporary independent music and film since the 1970’s. . .  now finally applied to architecture.

The passion Robert puts on his work is really inspiring, specially for young architects that debate between working at some else’s practice or kick start their own firm/business.

I hope to bring you more about Robert’s work in the near future. In the meanwhile, more about Rosa Muerta after the break:

Project Name: Rosa Muerta
Architect: Robert Stone
Location: Joshua Tree, California- open desert site
Completed: January, 2009
Living area: 1300 sqf / 124 sqm
Site area: 2.5 acres / 12,000 sqm

Program: Vacation house – open to the elements: uses shading, thermal mass, solar absorbtion, and breeze flow for temperature regulation.

North elevation

South section

Scale: The house is set 4′-0« into the ground so that it’s highest point is 8′ tall and it almost looks like it is too low to be a habitable structure. The overhang at the front step is 6′-8. Once inside the ceilings are almost 10′ high.

I have developed a present, local, and personal aesthetic language that I find can engage its specific physical and cultural context in more subtle and powerful ways than the more universal and abstract approaches that dominate the scene. I am well aware that it is very different than the leading edge of mainstream architecture, and I am sure that some of the things that make it resonate so strongly here in the Southern California desert also make it difficult for outsiders to fully assemble, but I am going for depth rather than breadth.

To place this work among other approaches, imagine a corporeal post-modernism. . . without the irony, diagrammatic detachment or architectural tourist references. Imagine critical regionalism that works with the dirty and real cultural context rather than idealized archetypes. Imagine modernism that shows the pathology and scars accrued over a century of cultural use and misuse. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I have found a lot of possibilities for new architecture.

East entry

There is also in this architecture the application of a lot of lessons learned from the subject/object relationship fostered in contemporary art. This approach regrettably has no parallel in architecture today, but it makes possible a more dynamic conception of how people inhabit and perform in the space, how the wider culture can be engaged, and where meaning is located and how it is produced or discovered.

Patio south

What I am proposing that is new, other than this particular desert modern aesthetic, is a way of working that is more exploratory in terms of meaning, personal in its inspiration, direct its execution, and meaningful to its intended audience. More than anything I hope to stake out a wider field for architecture to engage its context in more interesting and nuanced ways. This house is just one small step out into that expanded field.

Overhang and beam detail

© Iwan Baan

The 22@ is an experimental district in Barcelona, Spain, with a mayor energetic load (District Climate), where the new values of the companies are intangible: they are not based in having natural resources of water, soil, gas, they don’t have real-estate values, retransmission rights (media Pro), they have patents (Indra), they have intelligence, programming and interaction (like the Reactable of Sergi Jorda from the Pompeu), a district, the way Artur Serra from I2CAT and the people form the 22@ say, an urban Lab.

Is here where Spanish architect Enric Ruiz Geli designed this innovative building with a net-like steel structure, avoiding pillars on the ground floor, introducing the public spaces to the building.

Check the photos Iwan Baan took for Abitare and some drawings after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our friends at EXH Design shared their design of a hotel in Ordos, which is scheduled to be completed within a few months, with us.  Taking inspiration from the yurt, the circular tent-like dwelling of Mongolian peoples,  the team transformed the traditional scheme to meet the demands of modern life.   The design “makes an accommodation experience in Ordos different from anywhere else and arouses a local cultural interest,” explained the architects.

More about the hotel and more images after the break.

Because the yurts were never stacked, the architects adapted the yurt’s  design into a striking structural geometry that will support a mid-rise luxury hotel.   Due to the form, each room possesses its own character while all the rooms share the same simplistic attitude toward the interiors space, customary of the yurts.  By taking a regional form and adapting it to modern needs, the Ordos Hotel “radiates as an urban landmark while maintaining a culturally sensitive design in the region.”

Architects: SOLID architecture
Location: Vienna, Austria
Project Team: Christine Horner, Christoph Hinterreitner
Structural Engineering: RWTplus ZT GmbH
Client: Österreichische Lotterien GmbH
Competition Year: 2008
Completion Year: 2009
Photographs: Günter Kresser

The bridge is enclosed on all sides and connects the two buildings Rennweg 44 and 46 at the fifth upper floor, 17 metres above the Kleistgasse (in the third Vienna district). The span length of the bridge is 22 metres.

Outward Appearance of the Bridge

In reference to its outward appearance, the bridge adds a third and formally individual element to the two existing buildings dating back to the 1980’s. The fair grey metallic colour of the exterior surfaces of the bridge assimilates with the grey-green colour spectrum of the two already existing building structures.

Large-area glazed sidewalls make the supporting construction of the bridge, which is arranged inside, visible from the outside, and they make the bridge appear light and transparent.

Experiencing the Bridge from the Inside

© Günter Kresser

The interior area of the bridge has its own individual character, independent of the two already existing buildings.

If you cross the bridge, you will experience space that is dominated by the dynamic alignments of the supporting construction and the bottom and top plate. There may also be made out a colour difference between the interior area of the bridge on the one and the existing building structure on the other side. With the exception of the fair grey floor, all surfaces are white.

© Günter Kresser

Extending from the building Rennweg 46, there is created a horizontal plane into the road space, 17 metres above ground level of the Kleistgasse. From this horizontal area, there is presented a wonderful view onto the road space situated beyond and as far as the towers of the Arsenal. Following a bend in the botton plate, a slightly inclined ramp counterbalances the difference in height between the two building structures and leads into the building Rennweg 44.

geometry diagrams

In ground view, the bridge is tapering from 2.70m down to a width of 2.35m at the middle of the bridge. In combination with the bends in the roof and the bottom plate there is created a bridge structure, which extends across the road space in a rather elegant way; furthermore, its interior area is clearly dominated by the perspective dynamics of the strongly aligned lines.