© Peter Bennett

Architects: Edwards Moore
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Project Team: Ben Edwards, Juliet Moore, Leo Dewitte, Jacqueline Nguyen
Area: 70 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Peter Bennett

A flagship store for the Brazilian shoe brand, the fitout needed to reflect the internationally renowned brand as well as support the unique product.

© Peter Bennett

A dream commission that required an equally unique response. Housed in a corner site in Melbourne’s QV centre, a highly visible high traffic area it was essential that the fitout provided a visual feast for the passing pedestrian, a dynamic and constantly evolving space. Internally the need was to create another world, a sensory delight.

© Peter Bennett

Using nearly 300 PTFE plastic spheres threaded onto tensioned cables mounted around the perimeter provides a separation between customer and pedestrian whilst encouraging views into the store and generating intrigue. The ‘bubbles’ celebrate the materiality synonymous with the product. The bubbles themselves providing the display for the shoes, a bespoke fitting utilising a suction cap, allows for shoes to be mounted anywhere within the display. The rear wall of the store acts as a giant billboard, a canvas for the signature graphics and artwork produced for each new designer range, ensuring views of the store do not dwell only on the perimeter.

© Peter Bennett

The use of muted and understated colours means the fitout doesn’t compete with, but supports the shoes, whilst programmable integrated LED lighting allows for an unlimited amount of colours to wash over the displays and create a truly dream-like atmosphere for both observer and occupier.

Plan

Courtesy of MIZIEN

Architects: MIZIEN
Location: Palau-solità i Plegamans, Barcelona, Spain
Client: Palau-solità i Plegamans Municipality
Completion: 2011
Area: 450 sqm
Cost: 1,062,847.25 €
Photographs: Courtesy of MIZIEN

Courtesy of MIZIEN

Like many towns in El Vallès, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Palau-solità has tripled its population since the 1980s and extended by means of single-family houses and low-rise apartment blocks. In this context, a public building may be designed to give the main streets in the fabric an urban, civic character or to fit in with the series of warehouses, shopping centres and franchises that form the periphery of this sprawling urbanization. The headquarters of the local police force is an example of the former. The project highlights the civic axis that is Passeig de la Carrerada, a former watercourse, as a quality public space lined with plane trees and broad pavements, and a complex of facilities, with the Escoles Velles school building designed by Josep Lluís Sert, the sports centre and the new addition of the police station. The volumes and building lines of the project respond to the aim of integration into the architecture of this avenue.

The building was made to stand out, emphasising its public role and shunning the domestic appearance of a single-family home that the size of the project might otherwise suggest. The aim was to create a compact, unitary and clearly identifiable image suitable for a police station that needs to convey safety and security. Any association with standard tertiary architecture is avoided by concentrating on the specific characteristics of the building.

The project is T-shaped in section to create large projections at the front, on the avenue, and at the rear, overlooking the courtyard, with intermediate spaces and outdoor lobbies. It further transfers ground-floor uses to the first floor, so that only spaces for relation with public are situated at street level. Inside, the uses are laid out around a double-height central space that communicates the whole building.

Courtesy of Prechteck

The main idea behind the design for the S.Deer Corporate Headquarters building was to create a world of fashion underlining the lifestyle the retail company stands for. As fashion is not just about clothing, the new S.Deer headquaters should not just be about administration. Inspired by S.Deer’s appearance design, Prechteck‘s proposal implemented rotated cubes as a formal element in their design. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Courtesy of Prechteck

At fashionshows, photoshootings or previous store designs, cubes in different size and configurations are omnipresent and have been a key object and an unofficial logo for representing S.Deer. The scheme divides the building into 2 structurally independant components interacting with each other on a certain height. 2 entities supporting each other and generating an working and lifestyle hybrid for the company.

Courtesy of Prechteck

The larger cube contains a 25.000sqm administrative area with offices, conference and meeting rooms, workshops and creative areas for staff, including underground parking for 300 cars. Angled sky-gardens cut into the building getting natural lighting to the lower floors of the building. On the upper floors creative areas for rebooting and relaxing circumscribe the peremiter of those gardens. A 3,000sqm lifestyle area for fashion shows, parties and a small museum showing the history of the company should visitors strongly connect to the brand.

Courtesy of Prechteck

Some sustainable aspects of the design include grey water treatment, photovoltaic panels on the outside of a double layerd facade, pipes for algae bio cltivation in between the two layers and a use of local materials during the construction of the project. Prechteck’s scheme aimes to produce a natural and organic expression having a refined structure embraced by a textile facade pattern.

Architects: Prechteck
Location: Nanjing, China
Design Team: Chris Precht, Fei Tang, Daniel Mayer
Client: s.deer / concept
Plot Area: 14,000sqm
Floor Area: 28,500sqm
Height: 60m
Storeys: 15

© Aitor Ortiz

Architects: ACXT
Location: Salburúa, Vitoria – Gasteiz, Spain
Project Director: Iñaki Garai Zabala
Collaborators: José Marcos Cavallero, Ricardo Moutinho, Helena Sá Marques, Oscar Ferreira da Costa, Nuria Perez, Beatriz Pagoaga, Inés López
Client: VISESA Vivienda y Suelo de Euskadi S.A.
Photographs: Aitor Ortiz

The plot, in accordance with the criteria established by the town planning, is occupied by a 21 store-high tower and a continuous U-shaped block with a varying height between four and seven floors. All the front gates of the development are on the ground floor, as well as nine retail units. The two basement floors occupy the whole plot and house the garage, the box-rooms and technical rooms and the rest of the surface is used for council housing.

© Aitor Ortiz

The building is designed from a rationale of energy saving and economy of means, following the criteria established by the developer.

Town planning gave us a certain leeway as regards to the height of the building, which was used to achieve the maximum exposure to sunlight of the patios and the façades that look over it by limiting the maximum height of the building located to the south.

© Aitor Ortiz

The dwellings are double fronted, the bedrooms being on the façade that looks over the garden patio, whilst the kitchen and living areas face the street. Thus, the public area of the house is linked with its urban equivalent, and the more private one destined for rest, is linked with the inner courtyard as a space of peace and quiet.

Given the view from the rest of the towers of the roof of the lowest block of the building, an important effort was made to treat its appearance with care, considering it, without a doubt, as the building’s fifth façade. For that purpose, all buildings services are grouped around the central axis of the building and are ventilated through a continuous ventilation grille, thus avoiding the presence of rooftop typical chimneys.

© Aitor Ortiz

As regards to the proposed typology, how space is dealt with is worth noting. It is as if we were dealing with an open and free space, its centre occupied by a cluster of rooms with plumbing in them, all served by a single shaft, which is painted black, educationally showing how the building services work and, at the same time, offering a perception of a unique space crossed by light from one façade to another.

Apart from the typical building services of a block of flats, the installation of a cogeneration system complementary to the conventional thermal production of a central heating boiler with individual management is worth mentioning. This system covers part of the hot water and heating needs of the building whilst producing electricity to sell.

© Aitor Ortiz

The cogeneration unit consumes natural gas to generate 70 KW of electricity and 109 KW of thermal power in the same process, by making the most of the heat generated during the cooling of the motor and exhaust fumes. That implies a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and, furthermore, the fact of producing and managing its own energy allows, in turn, for a considerable saving in the electricity bill of the users.

The decisions regarding the image that we put forward for the building were conditioned by the proposed idea to build five towers on Salburua Avenue as a town planning landmark and as an answer to its intention of identifying different areas of the city in its expansion process. In this case, not churches but council subsidized houses rise above the skyline of the city, an expression of the creed of the society of welfare and its commitment with citizenship’s right to a decent home, regardless of the economic level of the people who live in them.

© Aitor Ortiz

The building we are showing occupies the central position of these five towers and it signifies “a milestone within the milestone” which, with its red colour, intends to express optimism, confidence and commitment with the future in a mainly grey social and architectonic frame.

Development of 242 affordable units located in the expansion area to the east of Vitoria-Gasteiz, specifically in Sector 11, plot M3, Salburua.

plan

The building consists of a 20-storey tower in the south-west and a continuous U-shaped block, of 4 to 7 floors, covering alignments west, north and east of the plot. Entrances to the flats and the 9 premises are located on the ground floor ; the garages, the storage rooms and the tower´s technical rooms are located on the two basements,; additional storage rooms of the dwellings are located in the attic. .

The houses are built with a view to offering excellent living conditions, being energy efficient, and economizing the common areas, giving priority to double orientations and offering the best views of the environment.

© Aitor Ortiz

In the interior, development is proposed to maintain the spirit of continuous green area plan (the linear park), so that the courtyard is perceived as an expansion of urban space instead of an enclosure.

© Aitor Ortiz

Publication material via v2com

© Gilles Cabella

Architects: Hérault Arnod Architectes
Location: La Buisse, Saint Jean de Moirans, France
Design Team: Jérôme Moenne-Loccoz, Alexandre Pachiaudi, Camille Bérar, Nicolas Broussous, Matthias Jäger
Client: Skis Rossignol SAS
Built Area: 11,600 sqm
Completion: 2009
Photographs: André Morin, Gilles Cabella

The image of Rossignol, a historic leader in the world of skiing, is intimately linked to the mountains and to snow. The project for its global headquarters has nothing to do with the stereotypical office building, but is a tribute to nature and to the peaks, but also to technology, which is inseparable from top-level sport. The plot stands in the middle of a plain surrounded by mountains. It is a stretch of former farmland, marshy and perfectly flat, bounded on the northern side by the Lyon-Grenoble motorway.

The architecture has been designed specifically for Rossignol, a fusion of the company’s functional and fantasy aspects, in a surprising and minimalist form: it is inspired by board sports, by fluidity of motion, and also by relief, snow and glaciers sculpted by the elements. The roof, which envelops the whole project, is topography in osmosis with nature and the landscape. Its organic, timber-clad shape echoes the profile of the mountains that surround the site.

© Gilles Cabella

In order to create the “House of Rossignol”, the Rossignol Group will be assembling on these site different entities that are currently spread over several locations, but which all contribute to the company’s identity.

The roof covers three types of space:
- The racing ski production workshop, the brand’s technological showcase, and technical rooms, all grouped alongside the motorway.
- The office floors, which include the administrative and sales departments, R&D, research and design, etc.
- The street, spectacular and bright, the space of social encounter, which crosses the building from side to side. At its end, the street widens to become the showroom.

© André Morin

On the motorway side, the facade creates a kinetic and dynamic effect reinforced by the repetition of the logo, which appears gradually. The front of the building rises to form a roof over the workshops and then on to the apex, and descends again on the south-western side to cover the office area. It is then intercut with patios planted with birch trees that seem to grow through the roof: nature and building intertwine.

The irregular profile of the roof and office facades leaves the opportunity for future extensions as required. Additions can be built without disrupting the balance and identity of the project. From the start, the architecture embodies its own growth process. The roof ridge, with a glasshouse running along it, is situated above the street, a high-level space giving onto the “high-altitude restaurant”, the highest point of the structure, which refers to ski slope restaurants.

© André Morin

Inside, the building functions like a “hive” in which the different functions come into contact and interact, where people enjoy the experience of working together and meeting each-other. The originality of the programme is that it assembles very different functions, from production to services, under a single roof. The aim of this assembly is to create a global synergy which eliminates barriers between design, service and technology. Each person in their own diversity – engineer, designer, technician, secretary, salesman, etc. – meets in a reciprocal encounter.

To encourage this internal communication, social spaces are distributed around the building. The restaurant, situated right at the top and at the gravity centre of the street, is designed as the primary locus for the company life: two great glass-roofs divide up the panoramic views to the sky and the mountains, on one side to the Vercors and on the other to the Chartreuse. A large roof terrace is available for alfresco lunching, protected from the noise of the motorway. Whether on the terrace or around a wooden fire, the restaurant turns the midday break into a special moment.

© André Morin

Only two materials are used for the external envelope: wood (natural larch) and glass. The structure is made of steel, like an organic skeleton that outlines the shape, with its multiple warped surfaces. The roof frame is visible in the workshop and offices. The post and beam frame of the service floors straddles spans of 12 to 15 metres to leave the space as free as possible. The workshop space has a primary horizontal roof overlaid by the timber over-roof, creating a hidden space between the two which contains all the technical systems and machinery. This means that no technical elements are visible from the outside; therefore the external shape is pure.

© André Morin

The building is designed for minimal environmental impact. The technical choices make it an efficient and energy-saving building, well insulated and protected from the summer sun by the timber over-roof. The systems are optimised – the heat produced by the workshop machines is recovered and re-injected into the heating network. The offices receive natural ventilation through automatic window opening.

© André Morin

Publication material via v2com

Courtesy of SOM

Ground will be broken today, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, for Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM)’s newest supertall building. The 96-story-tall CTF Tianjin Tower uses undulating curves to subtly express its three programmatic elements while presenting a bold monolithic expression on the TEDA district skyline outside Tianjin, China. The 1,740-feet (530-meter) tall tower houses offices, 300 service apartments and a 350-room, 5-star hotel beneath its boldly arched top. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Courtesy of SOM

The gently curving glass skin conceals eight sloping columns that lie behind the primary bends of the elevation. Integral to resolving gravity and lateral loads, these sloping columns increase the structure’s stiffness in response to seismic concerns. Strategically placed, multi-story wind vents combined with the aerodynamic shape of the tower dramatically reduce wind forces by reducing vortex shedding. “The single most important structural parameter of a tall building is the architecture,” says SOM Structural and Civil Engineering Partner William Baker. “The CTF Tianjin Tower will be significantly quieter, with less movement than other tall buildings. We tested 18 schemes in the wind tunnel before finalizing the design.”

The 4.2-million-square-feet (389,980-square-meters) project has been designed to LEED® gold standards with a high performance envelope, optimized daylighting and landscaped green site areas among its sustainable strategies. If completed today, The CTF Tianjin Tower would only be shorter than the SOM-designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

© Metrogramma with Paola De Pedri

Architects: Metrogramma
Location: Bolzano, Italy
Project Team: Andrea Boschetti, Alberto Francini, Enzo Fontana, Nicola Russi, Marco Corazza, Ekaterina Golovatiuk, Tom Hindryckx, Miriam Reuter
Structural Consultant: Stefano Moser
Technical Supplies: Milanoprogetti Spa
Construction Management: Renzo Boschetti, Rudi Lorenzi
Contractor: Prisma S.r.l.
Photos: Metrogramma, Paola De Pedri, Filippo Romano

Located in Bolzano Italy, the Villa Urbana Domus Radicalis embraces a concept that does not show identical, repetitive residential typologies, but instead offers different residences which increases the exclusivity of each unit. Designed by Milan based firm Metrogramma, the condominium is a contemporary building that is harmoniously integrated in the surrounding urban context.

© Metrogramma with Paola De Pedri

The relationship between the different typological proposals is conceived as a landscape, made of full and empty spaces. These active innovations have allowed Metrogramma to direct its efforts to the residential intervention model.

© Metrogramma with Filippo Romano

The residential typologies are as follows: residences with gardens (ground floor), one-family villas (1^st floor), loggia apartment (3^rd and 4^th floors), and attics with roof gardens (5^thfloor). Additionally, each apartment is provided with broad loggia-balconies and terraces on each floor.

© Metrogramma with Paola De Pedri

The façade is rich with precise details giving an idea of the inner heterogeneous subdivisions. The external covering is made with “Carat” asbestos cement slabs set on an understructure.

Courtesy of GGN

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN), with Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (CSS) of Boston, were recently announced as the recipients of the biennial Tucker Design Award for 2012 for their North End Parks in Boston, MA. First presented in 1977, the award is a nationally recognized architectural design award in both the building and landscape industries and honors those whose work demonstrates excellence in concept, design, construction and use of natural stone. More information on the awards after the break.

Boston’s densest and most historic neighborhoods. The Parks are designed as a system of varied spaces that serve the finely scaled residential neighborhood, while forming together as one, a unified threshold piece at a grander civic scale.

“It is an honor for GGN and CSS to receive this award for work that was a joy for us to do. We fell in love with the North End neighborhood while designing the Parks, and I like to think that this emotion came through in the careful detailing of the stone” said Shannon Nichol, Director of GGN. “Our interest in the beautiful layers of hand-crafted materials in the nearby streets influenced the stone details in the Parks. The colorful, passionate personalities in the neighborhood also inspired our selection of dramatic, marble-like granite and the overall design for social interactions at every scale”.

This year’s juror’s for the Tucker Design Awards were Ripley Rasmus, Senior Vice Presidentand Director of HOK St. Louis; Rae Price, FASLA, Peridian International, Newport Beach, CA;and Peter MacKeith, Associate Dean, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University St. Louis.

© Tang Yu

Architects: Atelier Archmixing
Location: Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
Gross Floor Area: 56 sqm
Completion: 2012
Client: Zhang Hong
Design Team: Zhuang Shen, Tian Danni
Main Contractor: Wang Zikui
Photographs: Tang Yu

© Tang Yu

Shanghai based Atelier Archmixing has recently changed a former pigpen into a cozy pavilion in a small traditional town located in Yangtze Delta area. It is a supplement for two traditional style residences, providing an extra place for meeting and recreation, just nearby a hill planted with orange trees.

© Tang Yu

Two big trees, a 20-year-old neem and a 15-year-old orange dominate the site and lend inspiration to the design as well as the name. Hybrid structure is employed in this project. All bricks from the dismantled pigpen are recycled to build the new walls in various laying patterns. A moderate yard is created around the trees by leaving an oval void in the slightly sloping concrete roof paralleling the graveled ground in original situation.

drawing

This is an open pavilion with a mixing artificial and natural atmosphere. The exterior is painted into white to meet the historical preservation requirement while the interior keeps the natural appearance of the building materials.

© Lindman Photography

Architects: Claesson Koivisto Rune Architect
Location: Sandvik, Öland, Sweden
Design Team: Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, Ola Rune, Deta Gemzell, Kumi Nakagaki, Kia Larsdotter, Lotti Engstrand
Client: Karin Meindner and Jan Widlund
Completion: 2011
Builder: Folke Nilsson AB and Finja (precast concrete)
Construction/Material: Solid White Precast Concrete
Building Area: 220 sqm
Photographs: Lindman Photography

© Lindman Photography

This house is like a funnel of light, space and sea views. The location is the west coast of the Baltic island of Öland. The white concrete box is “corsetted” in the middle, creating slightly sheared wall and roof angles. This gives the house both its direction and character, while also marking the difference between the rear private two-storey bedroom part and the communal double ceiling-height front part.

© Lindman Photography

Precast concrete is perhaps not the most common choice for a private house at this scale, but was ideal for achieving the ultimate precision in manufacturing tolerance and colour/finish. The concrete is not painted or surface-pigmented but solid white, which gives it a wonderful glow.

elevations 01

The joints between the concrete elements are carefully designed and positioned so that – instead of interfering with – they become part of the building’s geometry and expression. The sealant in between is gray to enhance the graphic effect rather than matching the concrete surface.

© Nick Kane

Five great healthcare projects published early 2011 for our 9th selection! Waldron Health Centre was designed by Henley Halebrown Rorrison in London and was completed in 2010. The Moerkerke Medicare And Neighborhood Facility by Krill Architecture answers the following question: How to implement a necessary, but impopular program in a run down neighbourhood? You can’t miss the beautiful Fonderie, designed by Atelier Zündel & Cristea in France. And to finish this one, we have two dental clinics: Smile Designer Dental Office Interiors by Antonio Sofan and Dental INN by Stasek.

© Yao Li

Architects: Mochen Architects & Engineers
Location: Tianjin, China
Completion: 2011
Project Area: 1,245 sqm
Client: Tianjin Eco-City Wantuo Properties Limited
Photographs: Yao Li

Project Introduction:
The aim of the project is to achieve zero-energy building, by significantly reducing energy consumption through design, as well as utilizing clean energy – wind, solar and geothermal in replace of conventional sources such as fossil fuels, to meet the needs of the building. To reach its ideal state, the building does not require municipal utilities to supply its heat and electricity. This is a comprehensive effort to design low energy architecture.

© Yao Li

To reach this goal, when contriving the building’s layout and form, designers have taken into full account of various energy-saving technologies, striven to combine form with technology. For example, install volt power panels on the roof to cope with a tight site area, layout air vents for natural ventilation in accordance with simulated data based on the building site and wind environment, and use natural ventilation to reduce air conditioning energy consumption in the spring and autumn.

© Yao Li

When doing energy-saving design for a building, shape coefficient should be considered in the initial stages. After taking into account a number of external constraints and smooth implementation of related green technologies & strategies, the shape coefficient of the building is 0.28, less than the 0.4 limit set by the Tianjin Public Buildings Energy Efficiency Design Standards. The facades also feel more “solid” than “void”, mainly result of high standards of the building insulation performance requirements. Windows are only opened in a few key positions required by function to avoid additional heat loss.

© Yao Li

At the beginning of the design program, we propose a co-ordinated planning and design method for the building envelope. The functional divisions of the envelope are based on full consideration of the external resources such as wind, light, vision, indoor functional requirements, architectural effect and other factors. This co-ordination of planning and design approach is actually a system integration of the existing resources. While ensuring that green technologies & strategies are fully employed, architectural aesthetics and technologies & strategies can have a perfect fusion.

© Yao Li

High-performance building envelope is not only realized through choice of materials, but also structural design. Breathing curtain wall system is installed where the building needs large opening with better vision and lighting. In different seasons, through flexible use of breathing curtain wall air space and sun blinds, overall thermal performance of the curtain wall system is enhanced significantly. Overall heat transfer coefficient of the curtain wall system measures about 1.0.

© Yao Li

In order to reduce air conditioning energy consumption, in the spring and autumn seasons, natural ventilation, as a free air conditioning method, keeps the indoor environment fresh and comfortable. All this depends on simulation analysis of the wind environment around the building. Through adjusting the building size and window positions, positive and negative pressure around the building are fully used to guide indoor air flow. In interior design, full-height lobby, recessed floors and sloped roof work together to guide the movement of indoor air in an orderly manner.

Courtesy of Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Today, Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) broke ground on yet another supertall building in China. The 96-story-tall CTF Tianjin Tower is subtly defined by undulating curves that shape its three programmatic elements while presenting a bold monolithic presence on the TEDA district skyline outside Tianjin. The 1,740-feet (530-meter) tall tower houses offices, 300 service apartments and a 350-room, 5-star hotel beneath its boldly arched top.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the CTF Tianjin Tower will be the fourteenth tallest skyscraper built by 2020.  Continue reading for more.

The gently curving glass skin conceals eight sloping columns that lie behind the primary bends of the elevation. Integral to resolving gravity and lateral loads, these sloping columns increase the structure’s stiffness in response to seismic concerns. Strategically placed, multi-story wind vents combined with the aerodynamic shape of the tower dramatically reduce wind forces by reducing vortex shedding.

“The single most important structural parameter of a tall building is the architecture,” says SOM Structural and Civil Engineering Partner William Baker. “The CTF Tianjin Tower will be significantly quieter, with less movement than other tall buildings. We tested 18 schemes in the wind tunnel before finalizing the design.”

The 4.2-million-square-feet (389,980-square-meters) project has been designed to LEED® gold standards with a high performance envelope, optimized daylighting and landscaped green site areas among its sustainable strategies. If completed today, The CTF Tianjin Tower would only be shorter than the SOM-designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Reference: SOM

Southeast Elevation - Courtesy of Skidmore Owings & Merrill

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Steven Holl Architects
Location: Seoul, Korea
Area: 1,760 sqm
Completion: 2012
Photographs: Iwan Baan, Inho Lee – Erae

© Inho Lee - Erae

The private gallery and house is sited in the hills of the Kangbuk section of Seoul, Korea. The project was designed as an experiment parallel to a research studio on “the architectonics of music.” The basic geometry of the building is inspired by a 1967 sketch for a music score by the composer Istvan Anhalt, “Symphony of Modules,” which was discovered in a book by John Cage titled “Notations.”

Three pavilions; one for entry, one residence, and one event space, appear to push upward from a continuous gallery level below. A sheet of water establishes the plane of reference from above and below. The idea of space as silent until activated by light is realized in the cutting of 55 skylight strips in the roofs of the three pavilions.

© Iwan Baan

In each of the pavilions, 5 strips of clear glass allow the sunlight to turn and bend around the inner spaces, animating them according to the time of day and season. Proportions are organized around the series 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55. Views from within the pavilions are framed by the reflecting pool, which is bracketed by gardens that run perpendicular to the skylight strips.

© Iwan Baan

In the base of the reflecting pool, strips of glass lenses bring dappled light to the white plaster walls and white granite floor of the gallery below. A visitor arrives through a bamboo formed garden wall at the entry court, after opening the front door and ascending a low stair.

elevation 01

He or she can turn to see the central pond at eye level and take in the whole of the three pavilions, floating on their own reflections. The interiors of the pavilions are red and charcoal stained wood with the skylights cutting through the wood ceiling. Exteriors are a rain screen of custom patinated copper which ages naturally within the landscape.

Courtesy of Aedas

Architects: Aedas
Location: Chongqing, China
Year: 2012
Photographs: Courtesy of Aedas

Courtesy of Aedas

Aedas Designed Destination Mall Officially Opened
Starlight Place, the latest shopping mall designed by Aedas, officially opened its doors to its customers in Chongqing, PRC last month. With its unusual and dynamic angular forms, the iconic mall has become one of the few landmarks in the city since completion that is picking up speed in its development. Chairman Keith Griffiths, General Manager in Greater China Ken Wai, Executive Director Ping Xu and others were in this booming city to join the grand opening ceremony graced by government officials and celebrities.

Leveraging on the prominent site location adjacent to the newly built metro monorail line, Starlight Place onJiang Nan Avenue was designed to become a landmark building that celebrates Nanping district as the southern gateway to the city centre and enhance its status as a commercial and business hub within Chongqing. The design of the shopping mall uses dynamic lines and stretched forms to create a powerful and iconic architectural statement which dominates the length of Jiang Nan Avenue.

Courtesy of Aedas

The external forms were inspired by the undulating mountainous topography of Chongqing and the dynamic, enthusiastic energyso evident in itsresidents.The eye-catching forms are accentuated by the bold contrast of materials – polished black granite, grey aluminium and copper-toned cladding. The fenestration and cladding patterns are not applied in the conventional vertical / horizontal manner, but rather in a clashing manner of angles that further compliment the dynamism of the forms.

The architectural design also responds to the distinct climatic conditions of Chongqing which were thoroughly analysed and considered. For example, unlike other Chinese cities, Chongqing has very little direct sunlight and so Starlight Place is able to have a generous glass atrium skylight to bring natural daylight deep into the shopping mall public spaces. The landscape design is strongly influenced by the shopping mall architecture and thereby takes on many of the sameinspired angular forms and patterns. Paving patterns, signage and sculptural works of art all display the theme. As an interesting contrast, the Interior design concept by Aedas Interiors is a reaction to the angular boldness of the external architecture.

plan 04

The concept is ‘opposites’ – the mall interior compliments the strong angular design of the exterior by choosing soft and curvaceous forms, deliberately avoiding sharp edge. It also represents the softer, tender side of Chongqing people’s personality and nature. The colour palette is also softer and less striking than the exterior. The quality of design is complimented by the list of tenants at Starlight Place which has established it as the premier interior shoppers’ destination in the south western district of Chongqing, and together with the 4000sq m glass skylight and nearly 3000 parking spaces, Starlight Place has been hailed as the most anticipated mall in Chongqing.

site plan

The landmark mall has already attracted nearly 250 renowned local and international brands. Notable tenants include CRC Vanguard, H&M, Max & Co., DKNY, Juicy Couture, Armani Jeans, Miss Sixty, Adidas Originals, MUJI, Jinyi IMAX cinema, and many distinguished restaurants such as South Beauty.Of particular accomplishment is that Starlight Place has the largest Apple Retailer and flagship Zara store in Chongqing, the very first Costa Coffee in Chongqing and has the very first GAP store in the whole of southwest China. Aedas was responsible for the architecture, interiors, landscape and graphics and branding strategy of the project.

Courtesy of Andrew Maynard Architects

Australian architect Andrew Maynard, co-director of Andrew Maynard Architects, has shared with us his article “Work/life/work balance”, published first on Parlour. “Many women leave the profession due to the difficult combination of poor work cultures, long hours and low pay. But these conditions affect everyone – women and men – as well as the viability of the profession as a whole. Andrew Maynard sets out the issues and challenges the profession to end exploitative and exclusionary working practices.”

It is time for architectural work practices to grow up. We must stop deluding ourselves that architectural employees are anything other than a contemporary exploited labor force.

Epicurus argued that humans needed only three things in life to be happy – friends, freedom and an analyzed life. All evidence indicates that Epicurus had a rather good time while he was around. Now he is dead. I wonder if Epicurus became a senior associate at Philosopher & Associates Pty Ltd before he died? Surely this was a priority. Does contemporary architectural employment deny us our happiness; our friends, freedom and the opportunity for an analyzed life? Many would argue that being employed in architecture and the pursuit of happiness are irreconcilable. It can reasonably be argued that most architects, and almost all recent graduates, are working in conditions that are unhealthy, unsustainable and exploitative.

Continue reading after the break. 

At 27, like a surprising number of architecture graduates, I cut and ran from commercial architecture. A number of my peers disappeared into graphic design, 3D rendering, fashion and retail. I did my time and mused that, “Life’s too short. I’ll start my own practice. I won’t work for another architect again.” What I didn’t know at 27 years old was how unlikely it would be that my practice would survive. (It was more luck than anything else, by far, that it did).

We all imagine working for ourselves. We become the authors of our own work, we get the credit for our work and, most importantly, we gain full control of our working conditions. After ten years I now have what could be described as a good work/life balance. My office is an old shop front on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. I live upstairs with my eight-year-old son and my partner. At 5.30pm all staff leave the office, including myself. On some nights I will return to the office after my son has gone to sleep to play video games (mostly COD, SWTOR and BF3). On very rare occasions (perhaps six times a year) I work at night, however, this is done under very specific conditions: Firstly, I am inspired and, secondly, I want to work.

Most importantly, through planning, management and the ability to turn away bad projects, I never allow myself to be in a position where I need to work after hours. I have manufactured this situation with great difficulty over the years and outside of the norms of architectural practice. To generate this work/life balance I have opted out of the overly competitive and patriarchal environment that contemporary architectural working culture demands. My practice fills a tiny niche and I recognize that it is not financially viable for the profession as a whole to do as I do.

After all, the entire profession cannot relegate itself to working almost exclusively on renos and extensions as I do. Commercial architectural firms are the biggest employers of architects and their slice of the pie continues to increase as we see mid-size practices morph and compress. The vast majority of architects will continue to be employees rather than employers.

There is a strange unspoken, yet ubiquitous, competitiveness within architecture offices. Who will leave first? Who has put in the most hours? Who looks busiest? Who gets along best with the boss? Whose timesheet is full of ‘office’ and ‘admin’ hours?

When I worked for one of Australia’s largest commercial architectural firms I deliberately ignored this internal scrutiny. I did not want to compete with my fellow employees and I did not want to be exploited by my employer. I dedicated myself to producing the best work I could within the constraints of my employment agreement.

I would arrive no earlier than 8.30am. I would have a morning tea break daily. I would never work through lunch. I would try to leave at 5.30pm, ensuring that I was gone before 6pm. I would never work on weekends or public holidays.

This attitude, as expected, put me on a crash course with management. When it was clear that I was going to be uncompromising my employer became passive aggressive and easily rallied a handful of fellow employees against me. I was accused of not being a team player. I was accused of not being committed to my projects. The quiet hostility got to the point where I found it necessary to have my employment agreement front-and-centre on my desk, conveniently flipped to the page stating that my work day ceased at 5.30pm and my right to paid overtime should I work beyond this.

Eventually I surrendered to the realization that I was very much alone in exercising my rights. At no point during informal reviews of my work and attitude was the quality or quantity of the work I produced in question. I performed my contracted task well and received compliments from fellow employees about the care and rigor of my work. There was no evidence that I did any less work than other employees. However, it became obvious that one idealistic graduate commie upstart like myself was not going to change the exploitative office culture of one of Australia’s biggest firms. So I left.

Courtesy of Andrew Maynard Architects

But why was my insistence to work within the time limits, protected by my employment agreement, so confronting and provocative to my employer and so threatening to a handful of fellow employees?

“Working overtime for extended periods indicates a fundamental failure in planning or communication.” – Valve Software employee manual

A number of unique conditions, and abundant false logic, leaves young architects exposed to exploitation. Perhaps it’s our left-of-centre university indoctrination to be egalitarian, generous and servants of society and the city? Could it be that ‘all-nighters’ are considered the norm and time management is seen as the enemy of creativity at university? It could be the illusion that one must suffer for their art. Is it simply the need to conform to an office culture?

Regardless, there is the belief that architecture is a profession that demands all or nothing. We are even led to believe that we are working in an industry whose margins are so tight that its very survival is reliant on donated time of architectural employees.

These factors contribute to the ongoing exclusion of many parts of our diverse community; there are many individuals within our community who cannot donate their time due to family or other external commitments. Inclusion of these individuals outside of the architectural norm would no doubt enrich the architectural profession.

Arguably the most pervasive element enabling exploitative office culture is the postmodern trickery of the contemporary working environment. Slavoj Žižek argues that modern employment tactics create the illusion that our employer is our friend. This fabrication empowers the employer while denying the employed the right to vocalize and protest dissatisfaction of their working conditions. “You’re not going to stick around and help out? I thought we were a team? I thought we were friends?”

Žižek suggests that the environment of the workplace has been twisted, using architectural devices, to manipulate employees. Kitchens, ‘break-out spaces’, lounges, free food, free coffee – he postulates that this is a postmodern sleight of hand designed to manipulate and disarm staff. By fabricating the illusion of employer as friend, the employed is denied the opportunity to protest, argue, fight, be adversarial and demand more of their working conditions. These informal spaces are political spaces of control, surveillance and manipulation.

Architectural employees operate within a specific set of broken logic principles that leave them open to exploitation. We tell ourselves;

If I work longer hours I will get promoted and paid better.
Architects are often the lowest paid person on the building site and the only ones willing to donate their leisure time for free.

I will one day start my own practice.
The proliferation of small practices and their significant cull rate illustrates a pathology unsupported by economic logic.

I’ll rise through the ranks of management.
Architects are a labor force, not a set of managers. The most insidious trick in the corporate world was to begin calling everyone a manager, executive or senior something or other. This created the illusion that everyone was on a relatively even plane with their employer.

We must suffer for our art.
We are suffering for our employers’ profit. After all, how much of your time is spent being the ‘artist’? I spend around 7% of my time being the ‘artist’. I refuse to suffer and sacrifice for all the other stuff.

Long hours make the project better.
Long hours may produce a greater quantity of information, but corporate research suggests that working long hours drastically reduces quality and soon becomes a liability.

My employer is suffering equally for the good of the project.
Each unpaid hour of overtime you work is profit to your employer. Though an employer may articulate otherwise, profit plays a fundamental role in encouraging an environment of extended working hours. If one of my team did an extra hour I could only think “thanks for that extra $210 you just gave me”.

Architectural practices cannot afford to pay overtime.
Like so many other professions, the architectural profession would adapt. It would remodel its spreadsheets. So is the nature of capitalism.

Other professions, such as law, demand extended hours – why not architecture?
Law is one of a handful of professions that has a cultural predilection for extended hours. The fundamental difference between law and architecture is that lawyers are typically paid very well.

Creativity doesn’t necessarily happen between 9am to 5pm.
How creative are you between 5.30pm and 8.30pm? Let me answer that for you; you are not creative at all, you are in fact tired, hungry and keen for a beer. You may get a burst of creative energy at 2am, but those moments are rare and fleeting and they don’t need you to be sitting in your employer’s office for them to emerge.

Once you allow yourself and the staff around you to work past your contracted period of employment you are enabling a culture of exploitation. A commercial office is an instrument to make money not art. There is a hint that gives this fact away – it’s the word ‘commercial’. Yet it is within the practice of commercial architecture that we see the greatest amount of unpaid work and we see the greatest donation of leisure time to an employer.

Courtesy of Andrew Maynard Architects

Deferred Happiness Syndrome and a shift to an Epicurian mode of thinking.

During my time at a commercial architecture office I anecdotally noticed specific behavioral shifts among new young employees.

• As employees worked longer hours their friends became those that they were working with. Is this because they saw their other friends less? This overlay between colleague and friend helps reinforce an office culture of extended working hours.
• Most employees trade their freedom either through a competitive desire to rise through the ranks or a conformity to office culture and the fear of being seen as an uncommitted team member.
• An analyzed life. Clive Hamilton writes of the endemic nature of deferred happiness now ingrained within Australian culture: “(a) widespread propensity of Australians to persist with life situations that are difficult, stressful and exhausting in the belief that the sacrifice will pay off in the longer term”. If one worked fewer hours then perhaps one could spend more time exploring an Epicurian ‘analyzed life’.

Hamilton argues that the motivations for deferring happiness are various.

• Growing aspirations for more expensive lifestyles, reflected in rapidly increasing house prices, are dominating some people’s lives. The desire to stay in this race leads many to work longer and harder, often at the cost of other aspects of their wellbeing.
• Some workers feel a powerful need to accumulate as much as they can in preparation for their retirement. This is especially prevalent among men in their forties and fifties.
• Some workers are stuck in demanding jobs because they are fearful of the consequences should they change. They become habituated to the stresses and pressures, perhaps until a health problem or some crisis at work or home forces them to consider alternatives.

Within architecture, we should be attempting to erode the competitive aspirational illusion of grinding our way through the ranks or aspiring to all working for ourselves.

Instead we collectively need to start concentrating on securing fair and reasonable working conditions that support a healthy, rewarding and creative lifestyle. One can and should argue that selling one’s daylight hours to an employer must be fully rewarded and no part should be offered for free.

Currently architectural employees appear to have two options of attaining a good work/life balance:

(1) work for oneself and take the very real risk that one may go broke at anytime

(2) leave the profession.

These issues obviously threaten the long-term relevance of the profession. Unsustainable work practices and poor working conditions are a significant part of the overall viability of the profession into the future.

Quite simply, if you are paid to work until 5.30pm then stop work at 5.30pm. You may be able to work for much longer, you may be keen to work longer, you may dream of becoming an associate or one day a director, but along the way you are contributing to an exploitative and exclusive work environment.

Written by Andrew Maynard, Director and Architect of Andrew Maynard Architects

With the forthcoming release of Rhino 5.0, RhinoScript will be moving to a new syntax: Python.  The new, more intuitive interface for manipulating Rhino from the inside gives us the opportunity to quickly and easily create a wide variety of complex systems based on simple rules that are easily implemented with no prior programming experience.

We introduce RhinoScript for absolute beginners, including the basics of programming techniques (variables, flow control, etc.) as well as the working knowledge of how Rhino represents geometrical objects such as points, curves, surfaces and even text. We then move quickly into techniques for automation and generative design which address the specific ways in which each participant can use Rhino.Python.

Students produce a final project that is an exploration of the formal consequences of complex systems. This class is primarily for architects but anyone with a knowledge of Rhino is welcome. You can learn more in our post in ArchDaily.

Answer the following questions in order to participate in a raffle to win a slot for this workshop, good luck!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Courtesy of New York University

Taking place today, May 15th from 6:30-8:00pm is the last event hosted as part of the Vertical Urban Factory: East Asia exhibition at New York University. The exhibition focuses on the impact of global economies on the physical space of industries and aims to stimulate ideas for reintegrating the vertical factory and places of production into the urban fabric both programmatically and economically. This last event features a conversation with LA-based German architect Sebastian Knorr, whose innovative work is featured as part of the exhibition. Some of the works featued on ArchDaily include Inotera Headquarters & Production Facility and Casa Son Vida. With an enviable portfolio of projects in Taiwan, Singapore, and China, Knorr has been building vertical in Asia for the last two decades.

© Juan Sebastian Lama

Architects: SML Arquitectos – Juan Sebastian Lama, Felipe Moreno, Franco Somigli
Location: Maitencillo, Chile
Area: 190 sqm
Constructor: Manuel Arredondo
Years: 2010-2011
Photographs: Juan Sebastian Lama, Franco Somigli

© Franco Somigli

The project consisted of three cabins located in Maitencillo, Chile on a small site 15 mts. wide by 35 mts. deep. The design had to guarantee the independence and ocean view of each unit, keeping at the same time a unitary composition of the three cabins. That is to say, it should function either as one big house or three independent units that could be used by different families. Additionally, the project was restricted by a tight budget and a short construction period that forced the use of cheap materials and efficient constructive systems.

© Franco Somigli

The use of a continuum deck system conformed by ramps and walkways is proposed in order to lead the users to each unit access, this structure uses the access ground level as “level 0”.

Due to the reduced width of the site, two “twin” cabins 60 m2 each, are located at the front, facing the ocean, meanwhile the third 70 m2 unit is located at the back of the site. This last unit and a fraction of one of the smaller ones are elevated from “level 0” in order to reach a clear view to the ocean over nearby constructions.

© Franco Somigli

This sole operation not only allows the cabins to have a clear ocean view, but it also gives each unit some degree of independence between each other due to the different floor levels they reach.

The ramp and walkways system gives continuity to the complex at the same time that allows it to present itself in a unitary form, leaving in the middle a communitary zone that leads to each unit.

© Franco Somigli

Facades were conformed using economic materials, using wood, black painted fiber cement boards and glass displayed vertically with a base module of 60 cms. that surrounds the whole complex.

© Lynette Jackson

According to Spillman Farmer Architects‘ blog “Speaking of Architecture“, Lynette Jackson aka Flickr user Page67_Lynette Jackson uses her iphone to document, design and publish images of the built environment around her through Instagram. Taking a series of images that zoom deeper and deeper into the nuances of architectural form and space, Jackson’s use of pop-art imagery and graphic tools bring out details that otherwise go unnoticed and creates a narrative about each individual work of architecture that she documents.

Follow us after the break for a selection of images from her work.

© Lynette Jackson

Life on Lofi published an interview with Jackson back in January. In it she reveals her inspiration, which shines through in her portfolio of work: She is inspired by monochromatic photography, modern architecture, and International Style graphic design. The combination of these interests creates a collection that is part graphic collage, part architecture manuscript. The images are clean and simple enough to be dissected as practically anything; they speak to architects and designers alike. They have a very graphic quality while depicting the physical reality of material and space in concrete form.

© Lynette Jackson

“Speaking of Architecture” writes, “Architecture resides at the fertile intersection of site, system, material and detail. Lynette exploits all of these vital components in the creation of her images.” The blog compares the various series to construction documents, “each image changing scale, viewpoint and stressing the vital information for the viewer to construct a new world.” For more work by Lynette Jackson see her posts on Instagram as @p67_bylynettejackson or on Flickr as Page67_Lynette Jackson.

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

© Lynette Jackson

Via Speaking of Architecture; Living in the Brownfield by Lynette Jackson and Life on Lofi; Iphoneography Spotlight by Marty Yawnick