A few days ago, we featured Cheungvogl‘s Nunnmps project, and today we bring you their KAT-Ohno master plan, recently awarded first prize. The plan includes a development site with 4 office buildings and an extension of a new forum to provide flexible spaces for training seminars, lectures, exhibitions, film screening. The project focuses on an architecture that is less about mass and structure, “so more can happen.” The architecture becomes less visible and less defined so in a symposium setting, speakers and audience can have spontaneous intellectual dialogue in one space.
More about the project after the break.
To make the primary volume less visible, its neutral white space forms a visual disconnect from the outside to avoid any unwanted visual obstructions or changing quality of natural light. The white rooms act as neutral backdrop so different activities such as presentations, exhibitions, film screenings can become the focus. “Here, architecture seamlessly integrates into the environment to enable endless possibilities to happen; collecting opinions and engaging thoughts within these unobstructed white rooms.”
In terms of structure, a simple structural grid allows movable walls to act as divisions between rooms, enabling more flexibility to play with smaller volumes inside the big white room.
The roof is one big volume with 900sqm of empty space. The volume of air is lifted up above the ground, creating a permeable open sheltered space for the public on the ground floor that becomes more of an outdoor meeting room, which can foster creative and communicative togetherness during lunch breaks, in between meetings or exhibitions. This simple gesture of lifting the building simplifies the connections between people and places.
A roof terrace allows users to discover a contemplative space defined by the cityscape. “From the ground, the white volume is seen as an invisible layer, a seamless extension to the current situation – a timeless non-space.”
