MODUS news 2

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Belgium Canada France Germany Italy Japan Netherlands Portugal Switzerland UK USA

WIEL ARETS ARCHITECTS De Nieuwe Liefde | UBU | B Tower | Allianz Suisse Headquarters

MATTEO THUN & PARTNERS Binder Woodcenter

JUNYA.ISHIGAMI +ASSOCIATES KAIT Workshop

CONTENTS 04 BOGDAN & VAN BROECK ARCHITECTS • BELGIUM 06 PLANT ARCHITECT • CANADA 08 RUDY RICCIOTTI • FRANCE 10 AUER+WEBER+ASSOZIIERTE • GERMANY 12 MATTEO THUN & PARTNERS • ITALY 14 JUNYA.ISHIGAMI+ASSOCIATES • JAPAN 16 WIEL ARETS ARCHITECTS • NETHERLANDS 20 PEDRO RODRIGUES ARQUITECTURA GLOBAL • PORTUGAL 22 BEARTH & DEPLAZES ARCHITEKTEN VALENTIN BEARTH - ANDREA DEPLAZES - DANIEL LADNER • SWITZERLAND 24 ARCA ARCHITECTS • UK 26 LEVENBETTS • USA Kanaal Wijnegem

Agora Theatre

Musée Jean Cocteau

Grandes Combes Courchevel

Binder Woodcenter

KAIT Workshop

De Nieuwe Liefde | UBU | B Tower | Allianz Suisse Headquarters

Fundação António Sardinha

Monte Rosa Hut

Silver Café

CC01 House

PUBLISHING COMPANY TechLimits Avenida das Acácias 175, C 2775-342 Parede Portugal +351 21 465 8267 info@modusnews.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Isabel Albuquerque MANAGING EDITOR Jorge Matos CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Shelly Ginenthal CONTRIBUTORS Andreas Thierer - ComputerWorks GmbH Andreas Kling - ComputerWorks AG Bart Rammeloo - Design Express Christoph Köbelin - ComputerWorks AG Geoff McBeath - Resolve Software Solutions Inc. Julie McClure - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Kazuko Uchida - A&A Co., LTD Lisa Lance - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Lucas Vandersanden - Design Express Nicole Hartman - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Thierry Beurey - CESYAM EDITORIAL TRANSLATIONS Bart Rammeloo (Dutch and French) Christoph Köbelin (German) Isabel Albuquerque (Portuguese) Juan Almansa (Spanish) Pier Luigi Antonini (Italian) Yuhiko Izumi (Japanese) DESIGN Isabel Oliveira - TechLimits LAYOUT Isabel Oliveira - TechLimits Vanda Querido - TechLimits PRINT Multitema, Portugal CIRCULATION Total circulation - 27 100 Dutch and French editorial - 11 000 English editorial - 6 000 French editorial - 1 800 German editorial - 4 000 Italian editorial - 200 Japanese editorial - 3 000 Portuguese editorial - 500 Spanish editorial - 600 ©2012 TechLimits and Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of TechLimits or Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Vectorworks is a registered trademark of Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. FRONT PAGE De Nieuwe Liefde - Project by Wiel Arets Architects and photograph by Jan Bitter

Editorial We’re proud to announce the second issue of MODUS news, after its premier last year with a distribution of 20 000 copies in more than 20 countries.

MODUS news in print format offers our readers a pause from the computer and the pleasure of holding and reading a publication. In this issue, we offer you the captivating and stimulating designs of 11 architects representing 11 countries.

In a world dominated by standardization, it’s worth our attention to study how a variety of architects interact with different construction sites and produce unique solutions using one tool in common – Vectorworks® software.

Each architect has his or her “Modus Operandi,” or way of operating, and what we want to present to you is the best in design today. Of course, we talk about buildings and spaces, but it’s mostly about feelings and dreams - dreams of a better planet, a planet with a more sustainable approach to the way we design. Sustainability and integration with the location are the primary focuses of each design presented.

It’s about experimentation. It’s about ecological solutions. It’s about inspiration.

Keep dreaming!

Isabel Albuquerque

ISBN 978-989-97496-8-9

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Kanaal Wijnegem

The Kanaal project in Wijnegem involved transforming the derelict industrial site of a large, old maltery and distillery with silos and warehouses into a mixed-use housing project. The overall target was to create a fully sustainable and functionally balanced new fragment of urban fabric.

BOGDAN & VAN BROECK ARCHITECTS designed 11 000 square meters of underground parking and storage rooms, 8 000 square meters of residential units, the new workshops of Axel Vervoordt, a Belgian leader in art, antiques and interior design, as well as 1 000 square meters of refurbished industrial buildings (showrooms of Axel Vervoordt, a museum, an art foundation, a spa, and a brasserie).

The residential part is structured as a continuous sequence of outdoor rooms—“rooms with a view”—that merge into an articulated landscape that connects the site to the adjacent Albert Canal.

The residential units are housed in four cubical volumes (“the cubes”).

Inspired by the qualities of the individual house, all units have two floors and two or three façades. The façades in all of the zones that have particular qualities or disadvantages have been identified: sunshine, views of greenery, privacy conflicts, views of the canal, acoustic quality, etc. This matrix yields a complex stack of residential units.

BOGDAN & VAN BROECK ARCHITECTS’ projects are framed in a fundamentally ecological perspective: how to design built spaces and urban developments while taking into account the increasing scarcity of open space and the growing environmental impact of the human presence on earth. Their work focuses on densification, urban design, the redevelopment of brownfields and urban voids, and reducing the footprint of our built environment. When approaching a design, their main question is: what can a project give back to nature and to society? www.bvbarchitects.com

All dwellings are fully flexible in order to allow different layouts of plans and interior designs. In addition, each unit features a large, double-high indoor loggia with a big folding window frame, which provides a strong relationship between the dwelling and the exterior.

The entire project was designed and tested in 3D using Vectorworks software, which proved itself as the only way to verify the feasibility of such a complex, spatial puzzle. It is thanks to the success of this stacked housing morphology that the project has managed to combine high density and quality of life with a unique identity of each property, thus achieving the firm’s true ecological goals.

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Agora Theatre

All photographs and image by ©PLANT Architect Inc.

PLANT Architect Inc. was founded in 1997 by partners Lisa Rapoport, Chris Pommer, and Mary Tremain. This awardwinning, collaborative firm branches into the domains of architecture, landscape, ecology, furniture, art, and graphic design. Synthesizing its expertise in these disciplines, PLANT integrates architectural, sculptural, and landscape interventions to articulate new meanings, create visceral experiences, and form critical, interdisciplinary dialogues about place, memory, ecology, history, art, and culture. www.branchplant.com

In 2007, PLANT Architect Inc. won the international competition to redesign the iconic Nathan Phillips Square at the Toronto City Hall, in collaboration with Perkins+Will Canada and Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects. As part of this revitalization initiative, the team drew inspiration from the two main spaces of Athenian democracy: the Agora and the Theatre. The project clearly defines the interior space of theatre and square—a theatre for the city in which both planned and unforeseen events are encouraged against a vast, forested perimeter of intimate, programmed green rooms.

Agora Theatre includes a series of newly built and planted elements including a theatre, terrace, restaurant, skate pavilion, the Peace Garden, and a bike and visitor kiosk connected to the revitalized elevated walkways. The stage is reconceived as a permanent public landscape, acting as a stair and terrace, connecting the walkways to Nathan Phillips Square, and serving as bleachers for small performances and as a fully equipped stage for larger ones.

The first completed phase in the scheme is the Podium Roof Garden. This three-acre, upper-level park transforms the 1965 iconic City Hall into a modernist heritage site, that is now the largest publicly accessible green roof garden in Canada. The Podium is organized with a sparkling, black-granite paved courtyard that frames the Council Chamber, a striped café that occupies the prow, a perimeter walk with pre-cast concrete pavers, custom furniture and lighting, a walk bordering the towers, and a vast garden.

Inspired by Paul Klee’s “Polyphony,” the new garden features a complex mosaic of 23 sedum species inter-planted with 42 species of grasses, alliums, and bulbs-the colors progressing from brighter yellows and oranges in the southwest to reds and purples in the northeast, responding to shade and wind conditions created by the towers.

Sustainability strategies and technologies designed to meet the LEED Gold certification include the reduction of tower-lighting energy from 110 000 watts to 7 000 watts when LED lights are at full intensity. Twelve percent of the vast City Hall block has been transformed from concrete to planting, providing the city center with an additional 4 000 square meters of space for oxygen production, storm water retention, and bee and butterfly habitat, setting a standard for open space development in Toronto.

BRICKS & BRICK SOLUTIONS

TRADITIONAL BRICKWORK, JOINT-FREE RESULT. Read all about it on www.zerobrick.com

A different perspective on brickwork.

Architects can develop seamless, monolithic projects with this new brick.

Contractors can simply start bricklaying using mortar and a normal trowel.

The client is delighted by a pure brick facade with a joint-free look.

Elegant in its simplicity.

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Rudy Ricciotti photograph and image © Agence Rudy Ricciotti, all other photographs © Olivier Amsellem

Musée Jean

Cocteau

Jean Cocteau visited the town of Menton in southeastern France for the first time in 1955. He returned there many times and became an honorary citizen after completing the redecoration of the Salle des Mariages in the City Hall. When Séverin Wunderman, avid art collector and owner of Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Corum, decided to look for a city to house his Jean Cocteau collection, Menton was a natural fit. In June 2008, Rudy Ricciotti won the architectural competition for the design of the museum, and construction took place from December 2008 until November 2011, when the museum opened to the public as the Musée Jean Cocteau.

With a total area of 2 700 square meters, the museum includes 700 square meters of permanent exhibition space with drawings, photographs, slideshows, and film screenings, as well as 275 square meters for temporary exhibitions, allowing the works of Jean Cocteau to be displayed while highlighting the diversity of the creative process between drawing, painting, sculpture, and video. The museum also includes an educational workshop area to promote the arts to school groups, a print room visitors can use by appointment to view the works of artists not on display, a documentation center, and a café.

Menton, located in the French Riviera between Monaco and the Italian border, is a well-known tourist destination, so the new building had to demonstrate an important relationship with the urban fabric and the seafront. The building, exterior spaces, and green areas are enjoyed by pedestrians, providing a semi-transparency between interior and exterior.

As Ricciotti states, the design reflects the shadows and lights of Cocteau’s imagination. “The choice of architectural materials for this project, and especially its black and white aesthetic, was unavoidable,” says Ricciotti.

“The realm of dreams and mystery, the starkness of contrasts and the interweaving of shadows ultimately reflect the contradictions in Cocteau’s life and work. Black and white no longer serve as colors here. Rather, they create an interplay of structural forces, calling to mind Cocteau’s artistic works on paper and his literary personality, his zones of light and darkness, and his enigmatic self-mythology fueled by contrasts.”

Rudy Ricciotti is both an architect and an engineer, combining creativity with construction. Internationally recognized, he received France’s Grand Prix National d’Architecture in 2006. Ricciotti is an officer of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and The National Order of Merit, as well as a knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor. His works include The Footbridge of Peace, which connects Seoul to Sunyodo Island; the Nuovo Palazzo del Cinema in Venice; and the Islamic art collection of the Musée du Louvre, which is due to open to the public in September 2012. www.rudyricciotti.com

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All photographs, renderings, and images by Auer+Weber+Assoziierte GmbH

Auer+Weber+Assoziierte GmbH With offices in Munich and Stuttgart, Auer+Weber has been increasingly involved in the design and realization of international projects. With an average staff of 100 people, Auer+Weber has designed administrative, cultural, educational, research, and residential buildings, hotels, and sports and transportation facilities. The firm also works in urban development and master planning. The common characteristic of its projects lies in the distinctive and coherent development of architecture, which emerges from each specific brief and unique site conditions. www.auer-weber.de

Grandes Combes

Courchevel

Auer+Weber’s architecture draws its unique character from an exhaustive examination of a building’s function, as well as from the conditions and potential offered by the site. The design process encompasses finding appropriate means of formal expression with the collaboration of all parties involved in the conception and realization.

This open process leads to individual and customized solutions that cannot be categorized into a defined style. The range of architectural conception extends from sculpturally defined volumes to structurally open landscapes.

The common denominator of the architecture generated is openness and accessibility for the mind and senses. The clarity of the design provides orientation and enables various occupancy and interpretation possibilities for both the user and observer. Auer+Weber views its work as a social and cultural service of a highly artistic, functional, and technological standard, whose architectural quality and sustainability must be measured by how open and flexible it is for the diverse forms of living for which it creates a setting.

Auer+Weber’s open concept approach to design is reflected in The Grandes Combes Courchevel, a recreational resort that will be located prominently between two mountain peaks. The building, therefore, functions as both a connection and gateway. A connecting bridge ties together the two fringes of the accompanying building areas, allows pedestrians to walk around unaffected by entering traffic, and acts as a gateway on the journey up to higher skiing areas.

A square on the street level widens the space, inviting passersby to linger in an urban center for many important facilities, including the aquatic center, indoor sports halls, hotel, and lobby.

The design acknowledges the prominence and visibility of the site. A considerate treatment to the surrounding wilderness is one of its crucial elements. The image of the “fifth façade,” the landscape-like roofs and their integration into the surroundings, is most influential to the design of this large complex.

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Woodcenter Internationally recognized, Matteo Thun was awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro prize three times. He has also won Good Design and Green Good Design Awards, as well as several Red Dot Awards, along many others.

The work of Matteo Thun & Partners focuses on sustainability, a selfsupporting architecture, respecting the genius loci: an architecture combining long-lasting solutions, tradition, and new technologies; an architecture saving resources and generating measurable economic results, while contributing to beauty.

Binder is one of the leading European companies in the wood industry. The clean-cut and precisely designed new executive pavilion of the Kösching wood mill to the north of Munich, Bavaria, is surrounded by warehouses: an all-glass central section (the entrance hall) and four lateral constructions, made of alternating glass and wooden panels, wedged into the former to create a clean-cut H-shaped base and two inner courtyards, resulting in two quiet, dry gardens on either side of the foyer.

The first courtyard serves as a reception site; the second is more private.

Together with the entrance structure, they form a transparent sequence, an axis of visibility opening onto the surrounding countryside. Another

axis perpendicular to the first runs lengthways right across the central section: a sort of crossroads for the eyes with visual trajectories melding the transition between the inside and outside into a seamless flow of space. Everything is set beneath a large flat roof, a big wooden sheet with powerful overhangs, projecting over the courtyards like a wide-brimmed hat.

The building’s functionality is equally clear. Administration offices and spaces for holding conferences and seminars are contained in a single story office building that exploits, to the very last millimeter, the constructionperceptual properties of a very innovative kind of wood.

The entire building is actually made of BBS panels (Binder-Brettsperrholz), one of the leading products in the Binder catalog. The panels are large and very thick (27 cm) prefabricated sheets of multi-layered structural plywood (spruce and larch) made entirely of wood and geometrically combined in the least laborious way possible to form a versatile “raw material” for building.

Full-height coplanar glass panels alternate with BBS panels of the same size on the façade to form a lively pattern that frames the surrounding landscape: transparency and material combine to create an idea of contrast.

Matteo Thun & Partners Architect and designer Matteo Thun was born in Bolzano (1952). He studied at the Academy of Salzburg before earning his degree in architecture in Florence in 1975. He was a co-founder of the Memphis group, the design movement that shaped events in the 1980s, and a partner of Sottsass Associati from 1980 to 1984.

From 1983 to 2000, he taught design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and from 1990 to 1993, he served as creative director at Swatch. In 1984, he founded the studio Matteo Thun & Partners in Milan. www.matteothun.com

Matteo Thun Photograph by ©Francesca Lotti, plan by Matteo Thun & Partners, all other photographs by Jens Weber

“OUR DESIGN IS BASED ON THE PHILOSOPHY ZERO DESIGN AND A HOLISTIC APPROACH: BUILDINGS NEED INTERIORS, INTERIORS NEED PRODUCTS, PRODUCTS NEED DESIGNERS, MANUFACTURERS, AND USERS. A DESIGN REVEALING LESS WEIGHT AND MORE LIGHT; PURE FORM AND FUNCTION.”

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Workshop Junya Ishigami Born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1974, Junya Ishigami later earned his master’s of fine arts in architecture from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. After earning his degree in 2000, he spent the next four years at Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, before establishing junya.ishigami+associates in 2004. Five years later, he was a lecturer at the Tokyo University of Science, and in 2010, he was an associate professor at the Tohoku University. That same year, this award-winning architect received a Lion Award at the Leone d’oro International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. www.jnyi.jp

Kanagawa Institute of Technology (KAIT) is located in the city of Atsugi, located approximately 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. It’s known both as a “campus city” because of its eight universities, as well as a “techno city” because it includes the main offices and research centers of companies like Canon, Nissan, and Sony. With 5 000 students in engineering, engineering creativity, applied bio-science, and information technology, KAIT now also features a new facility for students to visit whenever they want—the KAIT Workshop.

Completed in 2008, following a three-year design process, the 2 000-square-meter building extends five meters high, and merges the exterior and interior. As a matter of fact, using Google’s Street View, one can enter the building as if it’s part of the campus’ outdoors. KAIT Workshop’s glass, translucent façade reflects the trees outside. Inside the building, the white structure interacts with the trees planted indoors that spread in space, creating a continuous view between the interior and exterior space. The carefully designed façade—with its strict order—contrasts with the organic appearance of the interior space, “seeking ambiguity in architecture,” as Ishigami describes this project.

As in nature, where no tree is equal to another, none of the building’s 305 columns are identical in cross section, shape, or angle. Subtle differences in the shape of the columns are defined by their structural purpose and the role of the spaces they create. Groups of columns ambiguously divide the area to create 12 different spaces, which can be changed as the space needs of its inhabitants fluctuate. Columns play two distinct structural roles, with some bearing vertical forces and others bearing horizontal forces. With no walls, no defined corridors, and no apparent rules, columns are arranged within the interior space like trees placed on a landscape, resulting in a comfortable space that emulates a forest.

Ishigami’s work reflects a new thinking of ambiguity in architecture with a new comfort in the relation of the natural and the constructed environments. “In the KAIT Workshop, many spaces overlap to make one space—a road for cars to pass, the workshop, offices, print shop, an entrance, and so on,” he says. “Various types of spaces are planned, but the boundaries between these spaces are fuzzy and ambiguous. With this ambiguity, we are trying to create a new flexibility of design through all projects. I aim to expose a new environment that we can only see through architecture.”

Junya Ishigami photograph by Kenshu Shintsubo, all other photographs and images by junya.ishigami+associates

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De Nieuwe Liefde

De Nieuwe Liefde (“The New Love”) is a theatre and community center located in a monumental white building on Amsterdam’s Da Costakade, originally constructed in 1904 as storage space for a local wine company.

After falling into disrepair, and in accordance with the last tenants leaving the property in 2007, the De Nieuwe Liefde was completely rebuilt and given its current name. The reconstruction process transformed the existing building into a series of new spaces, including a main hall with seating for 230 people, a conference room with space for 60, a choir space for 50, a library, a separate restaurant-café, and a grand foyer that decompresses into a central circulation void.

Wiel Arets Architects was founded by Wiel Arets in 1983. Today the office has studios in Amsterdam, Berlin, Maastricht, and Zürich–with an international team of architects and administrators globally engaged in architecture, education, product design, publishing, research, and urbanism. Wiel Arets Architects’ output is acclaimed for its craftsmanship and hybrid-solutions, both achieved through extensive research. www.wielaretsarchitects.com

Prior to the renovation, the building retained many of its original NeoRenaissance and Art Nouveau features. Therefore, the design approach was to use these assets, as well as the existing main staircase and extensive stained glass windows throughout. The depth of the building totals about 30 meters, reflecting its former use as a wine storage space. This depth, alongside numerous renovations by successive owners, created a series of oddly divided spaces and rooms, with few receiving natural light.

In order to introduce vast amounts of natural light, an expansive skylight was created above the central circulation void, allowing daylight to pour into the building and flood all principal spaces. The central circulation void spans from the front to the back façade. It is composed of a crisscross of steps and ramps that challenge the traditional idea of “floors” and instead allow concise routing and direct visual connections to all important spaces.

In the café, large skylights and a wall of ivy enliven an otherwise enclosed space.

All photographs by Jan Bitter and renderings by Wiel Arets Architects

UBU The UBU is a library located on the campus of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Comparable to a data recorder, it is more than a place where people can consult books; it is a place where they can work in a concentrated fashion, as well as meet other people without needing any stimulation other than the atmosphere that the building radiates.

The book depots, which seem to float, divide the space into zones that are interconnected by stairs and slopes, composed of black, figured concrete with a partly double-glazed façade onto which a silk-screened figurative pattern has been applied. This feature lets natural light into the building. The glass façade also encloses the car parking area like a smooth skin, thereby making it an integral part of the complex.

Based on the idea that silent communication is important in a building where there is hardly any talking, the atmosphere is determined with an emphasis on creating a sense of security. That was essential for the choice of a black interior. A light, shiny floor provides enough reflection of natural or artificial light to illuminate some of the 42 million books placed on open shelves, while the long, white tables make it possible to read a book or to consult electronic information without too much effort. The individual workplace area with full facilities is a key element to the design, and is positioned in such a way that the user’s choice of a workplace also determines the degree of communication with other users.

Absorption versus confrontation, working in a concentrated way versus communication, is the main premise in this library where the infrastructure has more than one function.

The route is also programmed by it, since the bar, lounge, reception corner, auditorium, and desks are all fitted with red rubber. Other spaces, such as shops, add an extra dimension to the route, thereby breaking down the mono-functionality of the library.

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B Tower The B Tower is located in the center of Rotterdam, immediately adjacent to the Bijenkorf department store designed by Marcel Breuer in the late 1950s. Because of its commercial context, the site below Bijenkorf’s roofline is to be fully occupied, while above it, just 30 percent of the lot toward the sunken shopping mall, Beurstraverse, has been released to build a high-rise tower. In order to avoid splitting the project into a basement and a tower, the design stacks three volumes of similar height. The ground level contains a clothing store, The Sting, and a car parking facility; the two upper levels contain apartments.

Accordingly, the entrance to the store faces the pedestrian precinct, whereas the private and service parts of the building can be accessed from the side road. The minimized core of the high-rise can access up to six apartments per floor so as to keep up with changing market demands. The shifting of volumes in and out of alignment defines two areas of different depth in relation to the central circulation, resulting in two principal layouts for the apartments. In the less-deep ones, the bathroom gives a view of the city.

Analogous to Breuer’s building, the façade is not related to the separate levels but to the respective volumes. The skin, which consists of alternating glazed and aluminum panels, is an extrusion of the bottom plan. A series of cantilevered balconies clustered in a few lines takes care of the larger scale.

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Currently under construction, the new Allianz Suisse Headquarters complex consists of a high-rise, as well as a five-story, mixed-use building. It defines the edges of the block within the contours defined by an urban plan set by Vittorio Lampugnani. Both buildings are connected to each other through a series of bridges, enabling the various office, dining, and retail facilities to interact effortlessly.

Literally taking the concept of “interiority,” the buildings produce a spatial, programmatic, and atmospheric variety within. The pure layering of floors is broken through a series of voids that link individual floors both visually and physically. These voids create shortcuts between floors using open stairways, producing new and unexpected visual and spatial relations. Because these voids were planned as an option in the structure, the buildings become more adaptable to individual use, and create the possibility of a more vertical rental arrangement for the respective tenants.

At the same time, the diversity enables different atmospheres within a homogeneous frame. The lobby, similar to a hotel reception area, can be used for different activities. It could, for instance, become a foyer for a lecture hosted by the local university and held in the auditorium. A multitude of conditions were developed that allow flexible working and lounge areas to be situated next to individual workstations for informal working.

Structural glazing, partially printed using silkscreen techniques, envelops both buildings. A silver curtain acts as sun protection within the façade void by means of a central control; the building envelope can thus react to changing light conditions. Structural elements were, when possible, integrated into other building components to secure a high grade of flexibility in support-free areas.

Realize Your Most Inspired Visions Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. builds software solutions for design professionals around the world that are intuitive, flexible, and practical. Using the most powerful technology, our products give designers the freedom to model anything they can imagine, while presenting it with precision. To locate your country’s distributor, visit www.vectorworks.net/international.

Vectorworks is a registered trademark of Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. All rights reserved.

Courtesy of Architekt Daniel Libeskind AG, photo by Š bitterbredt

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All photographs, renderings, and images by Pedro Rodrigues Arquitectura Global

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António Sardinha

A main objective of the António Sardinha Foundation is social care, and this complex was designed to hold both the Maria Isabel Sardinha Nursing Home and the Casa do Sagrado Coração de Jesus Continued Care Hospital.

The design establishes a system of relationships between place, landscape, and the proposed new architectural object. The volume was positioned by taking into consideration the landscape, appreciating the framing and viewing of the surrounding pine forest, and maintaining the line of the valley virtually unchanged. The volume is suspended over the landscape, affirming the concept of a “bridge building,” which frees the lower space, allowing the flow of the natural context.

The building is oriented east/west, ensuring that the large façades, room fenestrations, and common areas receive the benefits of sunlight.

Constructive options were associated with the intense south sunlight, while framing the natural landscape with an exterior box-shaped building.

The building is composed of a transparent body that is marked by a glass façade and framed by a large concrete plan in a natural gray color, containing internal spaces of distinct materiality.

As to the internal organization, a longitudinal distribution line was emphasized. Along two parallel axes, the space in between confines a central core as the motor of the building, serving all spaces. The building is organized to provide a rich sensory experience due to the rhythmic placement of empty intervals along the axis, formalizing “living spaces.”

The final design represents the symbiosis between place and the introduction of a new contemporary repertoire appropriate to the duties of perceptual/emotional, space/time, and aesthetic/functional. The resulting structure links accuracy and ethics, soul and landscape, and the place and the programmatic idea, with materiality, with sustainability, and with the client.

Pedro Rodrigues Arquitectura Global Pedro Rodrigues connects his more than 25 years of professional architecture experience with teaching as a professor and international affairs coordinator at the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. He thinks of architecture as a demand for a system of relations between a place and the architectural object. Place is thought of as the strategic interpretation of his team’s projects, which is the guiding principle of all their work, taking advantage of weaknesses and pathologies of places, and of the pre-existing buildings, and turning them into opportunities. www.pr-arquitecturaglobal.com

BEARTH & DEPLAZES ARCHITEKTEN

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Monte Rosa Hut Bearth & Deplazes Architekten Valentin Bearth - Andrea Deplazes - Daniel Ladner Founded in 1988, Bearth & Deplazes Architekten is an architecture firm based in Chur, Switzerland that has won numerous awards, including the Balthasar-Neumann Prize in 2008. The firm’s work for the Monte Rosa Hut, in conjunction with the ETH Zürich, garnered international attention for its striking, cutting-edge design and 90% self-sufficiency. www.bearth-deplazes.ch

Studio Monte Rosa Prof. Andrea Deplazes ETH Zürich Project Management: Marcel Baumgartner, Kai Hellat Construction Management: Hans Zurniwen

At the pinnacle of technology and nature, the Monte Rosa Hut sits 2 883 meters high in the Swiss alpine sky between the Gorner, Monte Rosa, and Grenz glaciers near Zermatt. The Monte Rosa Hut was conceived as one of 50 projects undertaken to commemorate ETH Zürich’s 150th anniversary.

The structure would serve two important purposes: 1) to provide alpinists and hikers with protection from the elements, as well as a comfortable, clean space to eat, rest, and commune with fellow travelers; and 2) to provide ETH Zürich with valuable research on effective sustainable practices.

The design and construction of the Monte Rosa Hut was realized through constant collaboration among the ETH students, the Swiss architecture firm Bearth & Deplazes Architekten, and the Studio Monte Rosa, a combined group of selected ETH students and Bearth & Deplazes architects. In conjunction with the Studio Monte Rosa, the ETH students handled the concept, design, and research phases for the project per the requirements and budget set by the Swiss Alpine Club while the architecture firm implemented the project. The students were challenged to create a building that could be constructed far from public power and water supply grids, yet provide enough energy and water to serve almost all of its lodgers’ needs while weathering the extreme wind, snow, and earthquakes that plague the area.

The design team used Vectorworks Architect software to create the complex geometry of the Monte Rosa Hut, designing 420 different wall and ceiling elements that were pieced together. The software also provided the basis for calculating project costs according to Swiss standards. Further, it enabled the students to employ a “digital chain” methodology to fine-tune the hut’s components at each step of the project and move their data seamlessly from concept to design, to development, to fabrication, and finally to construction. The end result included precisely-manufactured building elements that reduced the number of building elements by 30% and the weight by 40%.

The Studio Monte Rosa and the ETH students designed everything through the lens of self-sufficiency and sustainability. This goal dovetailed with the Swiss Alpine Club’s mission, which continues to be exceedingly concerned with protecting the Swiss Alps for future generations. A sustainable hut that produces its own energy represents the next generation of technology and eco-friendly practices.

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All photographs by Tonatiuh Ambrosetti and image by Bearth & Deplazes Architekten Valentin Bearth - Andrea Deplazes - Daniel Ladner 6.00

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ARCA ARCHITECTS U

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“USING VECTORWORKS SOFTWARE’S HIGHQUALITY 3D AND RENDERING CAPABILITIES TO PRODUCE VISUALIZATIONS, ARCA ARCHITECTS GAINED COMMUNITY SUPPORT TO CREATE AN UNORTHODOX CAFÉ WITH SPECTACULAR VIEWS.”

Image by ©Arca, and all photographs by Timothy Soar (©Arca)

Silver Café Arca Architects In 1998, John Lee, a former associate at Grimshaw Architects in London, formed Arca Architects, a fluid team that he tailors for each architectural project. Arca designs private, as well as public spaces, including hotels, infrastructure, art galleries, recreational facilities, and multi-family and single family homes.

Lee strongly believes that “designs should be intellectually satisfying,” so his work incorporates various tactile, graphic, and sensory components to truly stimulate the mind. www.arca.co.uk

Around the middle of the 20th century, Morecambe, England was a vibrant and thriving seaside resort. With the rise of the cheap package holiday and the collapse of the manufacturing industry, however, the area suffered a serious slowdown. Starting in the spring of 2006, the town made great strides toward reclaiming its glorious past, most notably with the restoration of the art deco styled Midland Hotel. One year later, the Lancaster City Council and its regeneration team, called “Winning Back Morecambe,” sought a landmark design to fill the open space between the sea and the promenade. Entrants were encouraged to design a small café that could redefine an area alongside several weathered and worn seaside buildings.

After considering several different firms for the job, the council selected Arca in the fall of 2007. John Lee and his team at Arca met with local neighborhood representatives and discovered that these representatives were far from conservative in their views of the space. In fact, they even supported ideas for unorthodox designs with a commanding presence.

Lee designed the spaces to withstand the elements. It has a steel superstructure, which is wrapped in plywood with a high R-value insulation behind the cladding material. “The stainless steel envelope wraps the space and frames views of the bay,” he explains. To accommodate the raised site, Arca created a ramp that links the café to several redesigned promenade gardens below. The team also expanded the tiered terraces toward the south, creating a protected and intimate dining space with garden views.

Lee, a Vectorworks software user since 1988, used the Vectorworks Architect program’s high-quality 3D and rendering capabilities to produce visualizations that helped the team to build a consensus among the council and the local community. When Arca changed the original material from rubber cladding to stainless steel, it was easy for all stakeholders to see the difference in the elevation drawings and approve the change. Lee’s team also typically works in 3D to better visualize their work, and this capability helped them understand the Silver Café’s more complicated geometry.

“The ability to use a similar toolset for 3D work makes it easier for designers to use the 3D capabilities for communicating complex problems, or for more formal presentations,” he says.

15

1997–2012

2012 ART PROGRAM

David Hockney

Claes Oldenburg

5 | 15 | 2012 >> 9 | 30 | 2012

10 | 30 | 2012 >> 2 | 17 | 2013

Inhabited Architecture

Selections from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection III

A Bigger Picture

9 | 20 | 2012 >> 5 | 19 | 2013

Egon Schiele 10 | 2 | 2012 >> 1 | 6 | 2013

The Sixties

11 | 27 | 2012 >> 2013

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Image by LEVENBETTS and all photographs by Michael Moran

“THE FLEXIBLE WORKFLOWS OF VECTORWORKS SOFTWARE KEEP OUR DESIGN PROCESS ON TRACK. FROM PREPARING INITIAL CONCEPTUAL SKETCHES THROUGH COMPLETING CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS, THE VECTORWORKS PLATFORM HELPS US BEST EXPRESS AND COMMUNICATE OUR UNIQUE IDEAS AND SOLUTIONS.”

CC01 House

David Leven, AIA, partner and founder, LEVENBETTS

LEVENBETTS Founded by David Leven and Stella Betts, LEVENBETTS is an award-winning, New York-based architecture practice that focuses on urban design, public architecture, houses and housing, commercial workspaces, exhibitions, and furniture.

Central to its work is the idea of an architecture that engages its urban and/or natural environment. The resulting design work is inherently social, necessarily sustainable, and devoted to the experience of its users. www.levenbetts.com

The CC01 House is a 185-square-meter, single-family home built in the middle of an agricultural field in upstate New York. It sits amid rolling hills with a distant view of the Berkshire Mountains. Long linear grooves, formed by the dimensions of machinery, the distance between tractor wheels, and the frequency of the blades of a plow, are etched into the hillside from years of farming. These lines that hug the topography were developed into diagrams that inspired the design and all components of the house, from its primary organization and form to the cladding and architectural details. This site-specific focus plays an important role in how LEVENBETTS approaches all of its projects. For the firm’s architects, a design always begins with the site’s context and finishes as a response to that site.

Consequently, two linear volumes make up the CCO1 House. The first volume is narrow and long, featuring the “wet” elements of the laundry, bathrooms, and infrastructure that house the water, gas piping, and heating components. The second volume is wide and long, containing the “dry” elements, such as the living, eating, and sleeping spaces. Bridging these two primary spaces on the ground level is a linear 6-meters-long kitchen counter that is open to the living and dining spaces, enabling the expansive flow of natural light to influence the interior aesthetics. Windows are placed strategically to ensure focused views of the outdoors. On the outside, a long terrace hugs the contour of the land from east to west, and horizontally oriented siding mimics the linear configuration of both the house and the site.

Sustainability also plays an important role in LEVENBETTS’ designs.

The CC01 House’s passive ventilation system, large sliding doors, and a motorized skylight extract heat naturally, while a corrugated gray aluminum exterior and reflective vapor barrier dispel heat from the house.

During cold winters, a highly efficient boiler, along with radiant heat flooring and a wood stove, wrap the house in warmth.

When onlookers gaze upon the CC01 House, they see a thoughtfully cultivated design that engages its inhabitants with the beauty of the outdoors while complementing the site with an efficient, sustainable, and remarkably comfortable solution.

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www.vitra.com/grandrepos