مباني ثقافية جاذبة

The World’s Largest Urban Solar Farm: Master Plan for Expo 2030 in Rome Explores Energy-Sharing

From the Architect Report: TInternational design and innovation office CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, together with architect Italo Rota and urbanist Richard Burdett, is unveiling the master plan for Rome’s bid to host the World Expo in 2030. The project uses renewable energy as the basis for a 21st-century urban commons, with every country contributing to a solar farm that would power the exhibition site and decarbonize the surrounding neighborhoods. All pavilions in the Italian capitalincluding the revamped “Vele” complex by Santiago Calatrava - are designed to be fully reusable, turning the area into an innovation district after the event.

Expo 2030 Roma will take place in Tor Vergata, a vast area in the municipality of Rome that is home to the eponymous university – one of the leading academic hubs in Italy – as well as a densely inhabited residential district. However, the neighborhood has gone through a phase of neglect in recent decades. The master plan aims to reverse that process through sustainable, long-term development. After the 2030 World Expo, all the event pavilions will be used for different functions, giving shape to a new innovation district in the Italian capital. The master plan was developed with several partners, including ARUP for sustainability, infrastructure, and costing, LAND for landscape design, and Systematica for mobility strategy. The master plan’s vision of the Expo Solar Park ensures that the event will not only reinvigorate the neighborhood, but help decarbonize it. The solar farm in Rome covers an area of 150,000 square meters and boasts a production capacity of 36 megawatt-peak, making it the largest urban, publicly accessible solar farm in the world. It is composed of hundreds of unique “energy trees” that open and close their panels throughout the day, harvesting energy while also offering visitors ample shade. From above, this infrastructure gives the entire Expo site a signature mosaic look. This complex energy grid is complemented by the “Eco-system 0.0” pavilion, the tallest building of the Expo, which provides cooling through evaporation.

“Expo 2030 Roma aims to break new ground for World’s Fairs and other large-scale events,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. “Our master plan experiments with collective city-making processes, new energy-sharing strategies, and inclusive urban transformations that go well beyond the temporal and spatial confines of the event.”

“We conceived this project like a feasible utopia – one that aims to be a catalyst for new projects and ideas. The main driver behind this goal is to let natural ecosystems and technological inventions work in sync, just like human and natural energy would make each other more intense,” architect Italo Rota says. “This new approach to temporary events could become the foundation of a new model for urban development.”

The master plan divides the Expo 2030 Roma site into three main areas – the City, the Boulevard, and the Park, in a westto-east layout between the artificial world and the natural world that must exist in harmony if we are to be successful at combating climate change. The layout is characterized by a gradual transition from urban to natural as one moves from west to the east. The City in the West functions as the Expo Village, and will become an extension of the University of Tor Vergata’s campus after the event. The Boulevard, the central pedestrian axis, is a pathway through all of the national pavilions. Finally, the Park in the east is covered with lush vegetation and accentuated by thematic buildings, including “Pale Blue Dot,” a pavilion to disseminating knowledge about the natural world.

Cultural Building Design

New Museum of Ethnography

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

From the Architect Report:The multiple award-winnig new museum building which is part of Europe’s largest urbancultural development called Liget Budapest Project has dynamic yet simple lines simultaneously harmonised with the park environment and communicating with the surrounding urban area. The City Park (Városliget) is a familiar venue for the Museum of Ethnography: its collection debuted here at the 1896 Millennium Exhibition.The collection, which now comprises 250 thousand items from the Carpathian Basin and from every corner of the world, has been hosted by various facilities since its establishment in 1872, but never in its history did it operate in a building designed specifically to cater to its needs. The current location, which once was home to the Hungarian Curia, is far from being suitable to meet the requirements of a museum, and is severely limited in terms of space and opportunities. As a result of the international design competition, successful construction,and completion, the Museum of Ethnography was finally given a new home in a truly modern building of an all-round world-class standard that will satisfy professional requirements, while catering to the needs of the collection and visitors alike. According to the decision of an international jury, the competition was won by the Hungarian architectural studio, Napur Architect,whose building is distinguished by a dynamic yet simple design harmonised with the natural environment of the park while communicating with the urban texture of its surroundings. The gently curving lines enable the building to function as a gateway and a passage linking the city and the park. Sixty percent of the structure is under ground level, and thanks to the landscaped roof and the transparency of the sections over the ground, the new museum is adapted to its environment

in its scale too. The grass-covered roof area will be a pleasant community space awaiting visitors to Városliget.The spectacular trademark of the building is the glass curtainwall surrounding the landscaped roof garden, reminiscent of two intertwined hillsides, with a unique characteristic, consisting of nearly half a million pixels, a raster made by metal grid based on ethnographic motifs selected from the museum’s Hungarian and international collections. The pixels were inserted into a laser-cut aluminum grid by a special robot, more than 2,000 of which are attached to the building. The small cubes were made up of 20 Hungarian and 20 international contemporary reinterpretations of ethnographic motifs.The Museum of Ethnography is already recognized as one of the most exciting contemporary building in the continent. The new functions and flexible spaces of the modern and stateof-the-art museum building will facilitate the understanding of the historical heritage embodied by the collection as well as the various aspects of contemporary society. Besides passing down this historical heritage, the realisation of more recent professional and research themes and perspectives continues to be among the priority objectives of the museum, as confirmed by its mission. The creatively built spaces will open up new opportunities to communicate with visitors, enabling the presentation of the everyday objects, phenomena and ideas of the past and the present side by side. The purposebuilt museum was designed with maximum consideration for the required functions, and thus facilitates the large-scale, modern, user-friendly operation of the institution to a significant degree, along with the visually enticing and diverse display of mankind’s material and spiritual heritage, as well as the collection comprising Hungarian and international material.

حطسلا

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Palkó György

© Zhu Runzi © Zhu Runzi

The Urban Monument

Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts Extension

© Zhu Runzi

© Zhu Runzi

From the Architect Report: The Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts is located at the beginning section of Xi’an’s Datang Everbright City, south of the famed Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The client asked for a new architectural icon at the East Entry of the museum. In response to the brief, Neri&Hu’s proposal takes the idea of a monolithic urban monument as the guiding concept to not only satisfy the museum’s newly expanded cultural and commercial functions, but to also serve as an anchor and a durable symbol of social history for the surrounding urban fabric. Since the vicinity of the site is occupied by existing galleries, the design intervention minimizes the impact of the new building through careful consideration for the architectural massing and detailing. The building is composed of four parts: the partially sunken Base, the Sculptural Walk circulation enclosure, the elevated podium Platform, and lastly the Monument. The entire base is finished with cast-in-place concrete. Partially sunken from the level of the existing plaza, the base is conceived as a continuous ground for the public. At the entry to the first floor, Neri&Hu has partially retained the original wide steps. The steps descend down to connect to a sunken piazza. The solid concrete base contains the former museum spaces and restaurant which have been retained, along with newly inserted functions such as retail spaces and public restrooms. These inserted functions complement the activities of the adjacent pedestrian street. From the ground level plaza, a series of escalators lead to the underground museum on the B2 level. The escalators are concealed within a sculptural form, featuring spaces of sectional play between compression and expansion, capped with a triplestory light well at the base of the sunken piazza, providing a sense of drama and intrigue. Hovering just above the sunken base, is the Platform which is expressed as a post and lintel construction; a grid of stone columns and glass curtain walls supporting a floating roof house retail spaces. This retail level is intentionally expressed as a curtain wall to highlight the separation between the carved language of the base, and the circular sculpted massing of the civic potency above.Capping the new building is the Monument, which housesa lounge on the second floor and an outdoor amphitheater above. The elevation is composed of diamondshaped red travertine masonry units arranged at intervals to accentuate the transmissivity of light. On the northwest end of the existing museum building, a passage leads directly to the second-floor outdoor terrace, conceived as a hollowedout bowl shaped amphitheater. The terrace acts as a grand extension to the dining and entertainment programs of the lounge. This space acts as a forum which is open to the public as a venue for various activities, while also serving as a platform for private performances and catwalks.

© Zhu Runzi

© Zhu Runzi

© Zhu Runzi

© Zhu Runzi

© Zhu Runzi

© STUDIO FANG

Hong Kong Palace Museum

From the Architect Report:RDA’s Hong Kong Palace Museum, a flagship project of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) development, has officially opened. As a new centre for Chinese art and antiquities in Hong Kong, the building will be home to more than 900 objects from the Beijing Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, including 160 Class A artefacts considered national treasures. The building is conceived as a civic hub and new landmark for Hong Kong, as well as a platform to connect new generations with China’s cultural history. It will host interactive and experiential exhibitions, casting new light on antiquities.

The 30,000-square-metre building sits at the western tip of WKCD adjacent to the Art Park, where it commands sweeping views over Victoria Harbour. The design embraces the spirit of bringing Chinese heritage to modern audiences, reinterpreting ancient Chinese spatial concepts in a contemporary architectural language. Based on the notion of spatial exploration through sequential courtyards in the Beijing Palace itself, HKPM stacks three atria that draw visitors up through the building. The vertical stacking references Hong Kong’s dense and compact urban fabric, and also preserves as much open space and landscaped areas on the ground level as possible.

The three atriums offer panoramic vistas of the city and surroundings in different directions. The entrance atrium is oriented towards the east, with a vista towards the Xiqu Centre at the eastern end of the West Kowloon Cultural District. The South Atrium and outdoor viewing deck are rotated towards the south, offering visitors commanding views of Hong Kong’s iconic skyline and is set to become one of the museum’s most “Instagrammable” spots. The uppermost Western Atrium is yet again rotated towards the west, with views of Lantau Island and the South China Sea in the distance. The atria make the social heart of the Museum, where guests can gather to discuss the art on display, enjoy views over the surroundings, and contemplate the art they have seen. They can experience the present city in an unparalleled way and envision the future with the Lantau reclamation project now being promoted.

Approaching the building, visitors pass through a grand elevated plaza that can host installations and performances of traditional ceremonies and dance. The Museum’s entrance pavilion frames the plaza, recalling the gates of the Forbidden City. Beyond, guests enter a vast lobby where they can relax, chat, and learn about the exhibitions on view. An undulating bronze ceiling articulates the space, referencing the gold Beijing Palace roofs, unfolding to accompany a circulation spine that extends the full height of the building, enhancing vertical connectivity and bringing natural light streaming down from above. This ceiling acts as an orientating and sculptural element, adding accent to the space’s refined palette of stone and polished concrete walls and floors. The spine winds through three levels of galleries that offer 7,800square-metres of total exhibition space. The galleries will display a collection of objects from as early as the Jin dynasty (AD 226–420) including painting, calligraphy, rare books, and decorative art including gold, bronze, and jade items.

While most of the galleries have displays that are relatively longterm, a double-height thematic gallery on the fourth floor will house displays that are rotated frequently, and may embrace innovative curatorial experiences, including participatory and technologically enhanced exhibitions. This is also a venue where treasures from different countries—including exhibits from the Louvre in the opening exhibition—can be displayed in dialogue with the treasures from Beijing

The Museum also includes a 400-seat lecture theatre that hosts public programs and film screenings, activity rooms, and a ground-floor restaurant and shop that create an active edge on the Art Park and harbourfront walkways.

© Rocco Design

©Hong Kong Palace Museum

©Hong Kong Palace Museum

©Hong Kong Palace Museum

©

© Chen Hao

For Shanghai For the Bund For Pudong

Based on an urban domain, a medium and screens

The Invention of a Large Glass

- Museum of Art Pudong is a domain.

- The domain is Museum of Art Pudong.

- The domain is a medium consisting of four hectares of warm white granite stones.

- The domain is bordered in the west by water, the Huangpu River.

- The domain actually drops straight down to the water, with the stone becoming whiter there.

- In its white sheerness, towering over the water, the domain creates a restaurant loggia as close as possible to the boats for people to be able to further admire the Bund.

- The domain is bordered, surrounded by tall trees that form an undulating landscape and a huge rim, a huge windbreak.

- The domain is separated from the neighbouring towers by this windbreak of trees.

- The windbreak of trees creates a thick dark frame that brings out the bright airiness of the museum domain.

- The undulating landscape, with its large surrounding rim, is a vast V-shaped linear garden approximately 700m long showcasing trees (some of them removed from the clutches of the new museum) – tall trees of different species.

- In the landscape there will be statues and, at the back of the landscape, lights that change from day to night.

- artworks will be positioned in the wooded landscape.

- Because the domain is a museum, there will also be artworks on the stone field, on the forecourt, on the terrace and on the waterfront walkway.

- Because the domain is a museum, the forecourt and terraces will have plinths of the same texture as well as tree planters.

- The domain’s medium will be flamed over the floor (slight non-slip relief) and mixed on the walls (smooth or flamed or very occasionally roughened).

- The stones are essentially large different-size panels with a raindrop pattern.

- The sharps points of the triangles will be lined with metal.

- The windows of the exhibition rooms will be able to be shuttered if necessary.

- The open windows will be hung with a fine sail to filter the light and create fixed shade.

- The rooms on the top floor and the exhibition space in the atrium will be lit with natural overhead lighting provided by micro sheds.

- The screens mark out the domain.

- The two vertical screen-signs, one above the museum and one on top of the ventilation tower, mark off the site and indicate and highlight a break.

- The two screens are linked at night by laser beams creating intersecting lines of light above the museum.

-The western side screen on the Bund will be a major event.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be mutating.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be a twin façade of glass.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be mirrors.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be unpredictable.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be images.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be reflections.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be a big long box.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be a gallery of large-scale mirrors over two superimposed floors.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be programmed.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be installation spaces o- performance spaces, during the day.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be programmed as a video space, during the evening and at night.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be a machine for surveying the Bund, a twin panorama.

- this twin panorama, depending on the lighting used.

- The western side screen on the Bund will be a reflection of the artworks superimposed periodically over the view of the Bund, depending on the lighting used.

- excitement and the museum’s visitors.

- The western side screen seen from the Bund will be an incredible tool for image artists and installation artists, especially for Chinese artists who like large dimensions.

- The western side screen seen from the Bund will impose its presence through its various shades of white:

1. The white of the sail between the two façades, a fine patterned sail that gently texturizes the landscape to make it easier for people to seize.

© Chen Hao

© Chen Hao

© Chen Hao

2. A total or partial white that provides an unobstructed view over the first two or three metres.

3. The white of the various lights, of the LEDs behind the mirrors.

4. The white of the installations or artworks.

5. The white of the background which is designed to show images and visitors most effectively.

- The western side screen on the Bund side, starting at the walkway, is an actual vision of the Large Glass.

- The western side screen on the Bund side, starting at the walkway, is a joker designed to fascinate the crowd through fresh new images that disrupt the view of Shanghai and the Bund.

- The western side screen on the Bund side is a testament to the art of the 21st century.

Jean Nouvel

From the Architect Report: MVRDV has won the competition to design a new central library for Wuhan, China. Poised to become one of the largest libraries in China, the 140,000-square-metre project combines traditional and non-traditional functions with diverse study, living room, reading, and studio spaces. The building connects to its surroundings via three large openings that will act as visual displays of life inside the building, sparking curiosity and intrigue. This distinctive, three-faced flowing shape celebrates the position of the “city of 100 lakes” at the confluence of two rivers, and will become a new recognisable landmark for Wuhan.Located at a highly visible site next to the Baofeng overpass in Wuhan’s Central Business District, the Wuhan Library will integrate literature, information services, as well as scientific and technological innovation and research resources.

The new library will improve Wuhan’s public information service system, and meet functional needs in terms of reading, learning, communication, and innovation, while enhancing the city’s urban economy.The building concept takes its cues from the geography of Wuhan, celebrating the sculptural force of the rivers not only in its form but also in its interior character, spatial qualities, and materials. It references the different heights of the surrounding buildings in its form, with three dramatic picture windows facing the city at different vantage points. Each opening addresses a discrete view: the tallest of the three windows faces the CBD’s skyline; a low, wide window offers panoramic views of the park opposite; and a long, curving window embraces the adjacent plaza, offering passers-by a glimpse of the vibrancy inside.

The interior concept further reinforces the notion of Wuhan’s position at the confluence of rivers, surrounded by the city landscape. The stepped terraces of books invoke the sculptural lines of a canyon, with a broad ground-floor public space that visitors can enjoy throughout the day. Pavilion-like spaces on the terraces contain the library’s different programme and the canyon gives shape to different zones and interior experiences, with quiet reading areas, group work areas, and bookshelves as part of its topography. The reading canyon is a pivotal space, and represents a confluence of knowledge coming together inside the building.

“Going inside, certain landscape elements come together,” says Jacob van Rijs, founding partner of MVRDV. “There is a series of plateaus that can be used for studying. The biggest one will be for the more popular areas. The higher up you go, the quieter the study and reading spaces will be, serving the needs of visitors. The topography of Wuhan was an important source of inspiration: we have this idea of a horizontal view towards the lakes and on the other hand, we have this more vertical view towards the city with the high rises. This is nature versus the city, and the building is somehow focusing on this. I think this makes it an exciting place to gather.”At an urban level, the grand interior canyon draws visitors inside. In the surrounding park, planting will complement Wuhan’s climate conditions to ensure long-term sustainable maintenance. Tall trees provide cooling in areas that experience intense sunlight, while the main public areas are shaded by the northwest corner of the building. Native vegetation requires little maintenance and maintains a year-round vibrancy, while filtering the water in the rainy season and reducing the heat island effect during hot summer months.The building’s façade incorporates louvres in a bookshelflike pattern, communicating the building’s function as they shade the interior. These louvres are more densely packed in the places that need the most shade from the sun; meanwhile, the building’s plinth is set back to create large cantilevers that offer shade. Openable elements for natural ventilation, combined with the use of smart devices and an efficient lighting system further reduce the building’s energy demands, while solar panels incorporated into the library’s flowing roof shapes provide the building with renewable energy.