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Australia Belgium Canada France Germany Japan Kuwait / Portugal Netherlands Switzerland UK USA
YOSHIO TANIGUCHI D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa | MoMA Redesign
ALLIED WORKS ARCHITECTURE
Clyfford Still Museum
CONTENTS 04 MCGREGOR COXALL • AUSTRALIA 06 SALENS ARCHITECTEN • BELGIUM 08 SIMCIC + UHRICH ARCHITECTS • CANADA 10 DOMINIQUE COULON ET ASSOCIÉS • FRANCE 12 HOLZER KOBLER ARCHITEKTUREN • GERMANY 14 YOSHIO TANIGUCHI, ARCHITECT • JAPAN 18 AAP • KUWAIT / PORTUGAL 20 NEUTELINGS RIEDIJK ARCHITECTS • NETHERLANDS 22 GIGON/GUYER • SWITZERLAND 24 HAWKINS\BROWN • UK 26 ALLIED WORKS ARCHITECTURE • USA Parramatta River Urban Design Strategy
Rijksarchief Bruges
Ridge House
Mediatheque de Thionville
Paläon
D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa | MoMA Redesign
Bin Nisf
Rozet Cultural Center
Würth Haus Rorschach
University of Oxford Biochemistry Building
Clyfford Still Museum
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 Carlos Lüthy - ComputerWorks GmbH Emily Patrick - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Jacqui Smith - Computers Unlimited Julie McClure - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Kazuko Uchida - A&A Co., LTD Lucas Vandersanden - Design Express Moriaki Honma - A&A Co., LTD Pete Hicks - Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Shige Shiozawa - A&A Co., LTD Sue Carr - OzCAD Thierry Beurey - CESYAM EDITORIAL TRANSLATIONS Bertrand Moinault (French) Christoph Köbelin (German) Masami Furuta (Japanese) DESIGN Isabel Oliveira - TechLimits LAYOUT Isabel Oliveira - TechLimits Vanda Querido - TechLimits PRINT Projecção Arte Gráfica, S.A., Portugal CIRCULATION Total circulation - 75 000 English editorial - 28 400 French editorial - 1 600 German editorial - 42 000 Japanese editorial - 3 000 COPYRIGHTS Photo on the top left of page 16 ©Thomas, Schutte/SACEM, 2014 ©Thomas, Schutte/SACEM, 2014 ©2014, Tony Smith/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ©2014, Barnett Newman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo on the top right of page 16 ©David Smith/VAGA, New York/SPA, Lisboa, 2014 ©Donald Judd/VAGA, New York/SPA, Lisboa, 2014 ©2014, Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo on the bottom right of page 16 ©2014, Barnett Newman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ©2014, Willem de Kooning/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo on the top left of page 22 ©2014, Succession Pablo Picasso / SPA (Portugal) ©Fernando Botero, by SIAE 2014 ©René Magritte, Adagp, Paris et SPA 2014 ©Max Beckmann / SPA, 2014. VG Bild-Kunst Photo on the top of page 22, second from the left ©Henry Moore. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2014 ©2014 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 D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa Project by Taniguchi and Associates Photograph ©Toshiharu Kitajima
Editorial Whether we look to exhibition spaces, displays of collective memories, or representative objects, they are all directly associated with — and reference — the cultures to which they belong. Keeping memories alive is one way to respect and pay tribute to cultures, as well as ensure that memories, knowledge, and history are passed on. This is art as a cultural revelation. Service buildings, museums, cultural centers, public and private spaces Memory and culture Meeting points of culture Places of transfer of culture Representative areas of each culture Locations that represent what unites us beyond nationalities and regional differences Points where we encounter reflections of civilizations that reveal the transformation of minds and ideas Interconnected cultural concepts These are ways of expressing respect for past, present, and future generations, with elements of union and reunion. We all have a history and a culture that helps us define what we are, just as cultural spaces allow us to define what we want to show the world! This issue of MODUS news illustrates how different countries and diverse cultures and projects address this universal issue, using design and form as a solution of communication to transmit and realize concepts and ideas — through the use of Vectorworks software. In each issue, we find that the imagination is far from exhausted. Feel part of this world, rich in different cultures, and experience sensations produced by a variety of projected spaces.
Isabel Albuquerque
ISBN 978-989-8623-35-5
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Group photograph by Mitch Pearson-Goff Photography, all renderings and image by McGregor Coxall
McGregor Coxall merges the traditional boundaries of urbanism, landscape architecture, and ecology to create integrated design and planning solutions. Their work often brings developers, government, and community together to create mutually beneficial results. With an internationally experienced team of urban designers, landscape architects, architects, graphic designers, and a talented and a committed support group, they create a collaborative and ethical workplace with projects located across Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. www.mcgregorcoxall.com
Parramatta River Urban Design Strategy Parramatta’s name is commonly translated as “the place where the eels lie down” or “head of waters.” It is derived from the Aboriginal word Baramada or Burramatta (Burra meaning place and matta meaning eels). Evidence of Aboriginal occupation exists within the Parramatta local government area, with significant sites including Parramatta Park along the ridgeline of the crescent and around Domain Creek. Modern Parramatta was founded in 1788, the same year as Sydney. British colonists arrived at Sydney Cove in January 1788 with enough food to support themselves only for a short time. The soil around Sydney Cove proved too poor to grow the amount of food required to support the settlers, so after reconnaissance missions, Governor Arthur Phillip chose Parramatta as the most likely place for a successful, large farm. Parramatta was the furthest navigable point inland on the Parramatta River and the point at which the river became freshwater and suitable for agriculture. This urban design strategy for the regeneration of Sydney’s second largest central business district encompasses 31 hectares on the Parramatta River foreshore. The project analyzed key
development sites, heritage items, ecologically sustainable development, open space, and water and cultural assets as a basis for building a new waterfront that rebrands the city. The meeting point of the harbor and river was used for a brand proposition titled, “Where the Waters Meet.” The design reorients the city back toward the river and proposes four new, vibrant, mixed-use river quarters. Parramatta Quay was conceived as a new water arrival point, connecting the business district to Circular Quay by ferry and creating a public and private domain of international quality. The urban strategy will be refined into a master plan and business case for the government to partner with the private sector for delivery. In 2011, the project received the Award for Urban Design from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ New South Wales Chapter. A year later, it won the Planning Institute of Australia’s National Award for Urban Design and was recognized as the Australia Award for Urban Design Winner: Policies, Programs and Concepts — Small Scale. The project was also recognized with the Prime Minister’s Australia Award for Urban Design.
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RIJKS ARCHIEF BRUGES The Rijksarchief is the result of a Design, Build, Finance, and Maintain (DBFM) competition for a new state archives building in Bruges. It needed to bring a new and strong meaning to the idea of an archive. The location at hand, a former Dominican convent, is a Unesco World Heritage site. Therefore, it needed to be handled with care and consideration. The project consists of a newly built public library with a reading room and archives, as well as the restored convent with offices, and meeting and conference rooms. Both structures are connected via a glass corridor with astonishing views of the new courtyard and the towers of Bruges. The optimal housing for archives is a closed box, restricted from the general public. But as the memory of a region, a state archive contains its heritage, so it requires a deep connection to the city and its people. This concept doesn’t hide the archives; on the contrary, it tries to visualize these memories through architecture. The new building is a translation of the
idea of an archive as a pack of stacked, old paper. In the architecture, the layering of papers has been marked in the use of a very long brick that sticks out in a pattern of lines. The roof is a reflection of this idea as the last piece of wrinkled paper that lays loose on the stack. This idea not only underlines the program of the building, but the wrinkles also create a pattern of small, gabled roofs where the copper roof perfectly integrates into the typical, reddish roof pattern of the city. A miniature of the roof became the new logo on the building’s façade. Through the use of classic materials such as brick, copper, and glass, the project blends in perfectly with its valuable surroundings. The new building is a powerful, yet serene landmark in the urban context, forming a new typology of an urban repository. It combines the logic of a warehouse with the qualities of a municipal building. The Rijksarchief is a contemporary structure with a strong identity, but it is also modest and well connected to the city’s unique history.
Salens Architecten is a medium-sized office of 15 in Bruges, Belgium. They design different types of buildings, ranging from residential projects, like flats and single-family homes, to offices, commercial buildings, and cultural sites. With every assignment, however big or small, they work hard to create an intriguing identity. As Olivier Salens mentions, “We never take the path of least resistance. We strive to do a fulfilling job.� www.salensarchitecten.be
All photographs and image by Salens Architecten
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All photographs and image by Simcic + Uhrich Architects
Ridge House This family weekend retreat is located on South Pender Island, British Columbia. The building is approximately 230 square meters and contains a simple program — an open social space for cooking, dining, and living, as well as more contained spaces for the study, main bedroom suite, and guest accommodations.
Although well connected by view, the one-hectare site is high above and inland from the surrounding ocean. It is entirely made up of an east-west trending ridge and attendant slopes. The building occupies the top of the ridge, providing a strong relationship to the northern and southern orientations, which are characterized by openness and distance. The site’s east and west sides remain treed and protected. These conditions, together with steeply falling grades to the north and south, give the site and the project a fulcrum. To respond to the highly exposed site conditions, the building form developed through a series of roof studies. The result is a form that orients and opens up to the north and south for light while closing to the east and west for solar shading and privacy. The intermittent vertical drops in the roof provide structure and shading from the summer afternoon and evening sun angles. Inside the house, these same forms provide the dynamic acoustic qualities in the main space required by the clients for their flute and piano rehearsals and performances. In the absence of trees to the south, the roof extends a large overhang to shade and protect against rain, wind, and summer sun. It also captures reflected light from the ocean while providing protected outdoor social spaces. By contrast, the shorter overhang on the north side exposes the sky vault with daylight reflecting off roof water collected on the north terrace.
Simcic + Uhrich Architects is a Vancouver-based firm that approaches projects as highly involved explorations that result from close interactions with their clients. The projects begin without design preconceptions and evolve through the investigative, collaborative process. In place of one distinct architectural style, their work is distinguished by a commitment to an open and collaborative approach — one that is evidenced by the highly diverse nature of the firm’s past projects. The Ridge House was completed by the predecessor firm Marko Simcic Architect. Project team: Brian Broster (left) and Marko Simcic (right). www.simcicuhrich.com
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Dominique Coulon et Associés The company was founded by Dominique Coulon, an award-winning professor at the L’ecole d’Architecture de Strasbourg, and is composed of around 20 people, including four partners. The office has a long tradition of receiving prestigious awards, like the Chicago Athenaeum 2010 Architectural Award for the Conservatoire de Musique à Maizières-les-Metz and the Chicago Athenaeum 2011 Architectural Award for the Groupe Scolaire Joséphine Baker and the Maison d’Accueil Spécialisé at Mattaincourt. www.coulon-architecte.fr
Photograph, renderings, and image by Dominique Coulon et Associés
Mediatheque
de Thionville The symbiosis between plants and minerals, an organic concept that emerges as a concrete level called “urban glade,” leaves an urban, architectural promenade close to nature. The sinuous and undulating lines and volumes of this library have many points of contact with the outside. They act upon the user as visual filters, where different perspectives can be observed that help to build individual, spatial identities. Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined a concept for this type of building, defining a space for informal sociability in the city called the “third place.” This stands out from the “first place” (home) and “second place” (work). Inspired by the Greek agora and the Roman forum, this library is a friendly and welcoming source of multiple experiments. It does not hesitate to mix functions; instead, it weaves them together, enabling relaxation, local democracy, interaction, and a third place between individual links and interactions. The library itself evolves and reinvents itself, maybe as a generator of a new type of typology.
With delivery scheduled for 2014, the library is a one-story building of 4 519 square meters with a remarkable architecture that supports various services, including a space for books, a viewing room, a showroom, design studios, a tourist office, and a cafe-bar. It is not a solution of simply juxtaposing services. Instead, it creates a synergy between them and around socio-cultural phenomena. The firm’s founder, Dominique Coulon, “remains open to the initial ‘game’ of architecture, allowing one to intellectually confront, to spatially organize, and to technically support multiple evolutions and transformations of our environment in order to qualify as much as possible to new environments, always with richer complexity.” The notion of “fold,” seen in several of Dominique COULON & Associés’ projects, sets the boundaries between public and interior spaces. The space complexity has many different logics, like the elements that overlap each other in the entrance lobby. These different logics, created with both natural and artificial lightening, contradict themselves, overlapping and giving a rich, spatial complexity to the building. The work done with the curves and bends brings forward the transition between landscape and building. This is what allows us to see and think the volume, the mass of the building.
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PALÄON
Dating back some 300 000 years, the Schöningen Spears are the oldest, completely intact hunting weapons discovered to date. The impressive Paläon Research and Experience Center is located on the major archaeological site where they were discovered, at the edge of an opencast lignite mine. The building forms a landmark in this undulating landscape, which is mirrored in the structure’s reflective exterior. The interactive exhibition of artifacts recovered from Schöningen shows history about our ancestors, Homo erectus, and their everyday lives, as well as how the flora and fauna looked 300 000 years ago. The exhibition also considers current topics like climate change and sustainability. The Paläon was a nominee for the 2013 German Façade Prize, and it won the 2014 Best Design Concept at the AIT International Retail and Presentation Awards. The three-story structure and the angular paths extending from it present interesting views from many perspectives while their vectors partition the landscape. A second, curving path system integrates these features into the surroundings. The building appears as a kind of camouflage, as a hyperrealistic abstraction of the landscape. The Paläon seems almost to be a part of the surrounding meadows, woods, and sky as the trees, grass, and clouds continue seamlessly in its reflective surface – a perfect visual integration. The large, angular openings in the building’s exterior afford extensive and fascinating views over the excavation site and the lignite mine, as well as of the nearby woodland and Przewalski’s horses grazing in the meadow.
Holzer Kobler Architekturen Formed in Zürich in 2004 by Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler, the office operates internationally, covering a broad spectrum of activities from urban planning to architecture and from scenography to exhibition curatorship. A multidisciplinary team comprising architects, designers, graphic artists, and curators shapes its special approach to projects. Close collaboration with clients in both public and private sectors is integral to their projects, as is a tightly knit network encompassing business, academia, research, arts, and culture. www.holzerkobler.com
The expressive architecture reflects on both the surrounding artificial and natural landscape features, making the structure an eloquent landmark for Schöningen. On the inside, the white sculpture inspired by the skeleton of a horse is central to the exhibition’s staging. This enlarged, abstract sculptural element forms an architectural ensemble with the other objects in the room, interacting visually with the juxtaposed theme cabinets and large‑format artwork. The visitors’ laboratory gives laymen the opportunity to solve an archaeological riddle using modern methods while the archaeologists’ own, professional laboratory and workspaces are situated alongside the exhibition route and can be viewed by visitors.
Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler photograph ©Mara Truog, all other photographs ©Jan Bitter and image ©Holzer Kobler Architekturen
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D. T. Suzuki Museum
Daisetsu Teitaro (D.T.) Suzuki was a Buddhist philosopher born in 1870 in Kanazawa, who helped to spread the practice and understanding of Zen Buddhism in the west. Given the importance of his teachings, which included Japanese spirituality, the Zen doctrine of No-Mind, and the Zen and Japanese culture, the city of Kanazawa decided to construct the D.T. Suzuki Museum near his birthplace. Here is what architect Yoshio Taniguchi says about creating this special place. “The design is aimed at creating an environment appropriate to the pursuit of tranquility, nature, and freedom and a place for contemplation, relaxation, and conversation, while making the most of the distinctive qualities of the site. The museum is composed of three interconnected structures (a vestibule, exhibition space, and contemplation space), which are paired with the vestibule garden, the roji garden, and the water mirror garden, respectively. I divided the museum into three structures to avoid monumentality and to give this facility an appearance appropriate to Suzuki’s unassuming character.
“Inside the exhibition space is a gallery of minimal size for displaying items, such as Suzuki’s books, calligraphic works, photographs, and correspondence, as well as a learning space where small lectures can be held. A corner is provided facing the roji garden where books can be read in a quiet atmosphere.
“These three structures are connected by a corridor that combines an interior space and an exterior space. The way to the exhibition space from the vestibule is an enclosed, faintly lit space, while the way back from the exhibition space to the contemplation space is an open-air space. As one moves through these contrasting spaces, the landscape changes in dramatic ways.
hung, an object of art placed, and a seasonal flower arranged, it is an entirely functionless space of nothingness. I believed that the toko, in essence a museum in miniature whose appearance changes with the least adornment, symbolized to a remarkable degree an aspect of Japanese culture and was an appropriate element with which to organize this project.
“I have had experience designing a number of museums dedicated to individuals, many of them artists. Simply displaying works by the artists sufficed to give character to those buildings. However, the individual here was a philosopher, and the few items available for display consisted mainly of books, manuscripts, calligraphic works, and photographs. The biggest task therefore was to search for a spatial organization befitting a building dedicated to a philosopher who had explained the origins of Japanese culture. I sought a model for such an organization in the Japanese space of toko.
“Small spaces arranged at nodes in the path of circulation inside the D.T. Suzuki Museum, each equipped with an item such as a sign bearing the name of the museum or a photographic portrait, were designed with the space of the toko in mind. The exhibition space and the learning space both have actual toko with an upper-frame beam and a corner post. The toko in the exhibition space serves as a display case, and the toko in the learning space, defined by a lacquered floorboard, is used for special exhibitions. The contemplation space is itself a toko space that changes entirely depending on the way it is furnished, and windows frame views that change with the season.
“The space called toko, or tokonoma, has undergone changes over time, but this form of spatial expression unique to Japan continues to be found even in contemporary houses. An alcove whose boundaries are defined by elements such as the corner post (tokobashira), floor frame (tokogamachi), and upper-frame beam (otoshigake), it takes up a portion of an already narrow domestic space, but until a scroll has been
“New leaves appear in spring, and the area turns crimson with foliage in autumn. The water mirror is radiant under a summer sky and clouded by dancing snowflakes in winter. These endlessly repeated changes in season, weather, and time add the colors of nature to the design of nothingness that was my goal.”
D.T. Suzuki Museum photographs ©Toshiharu Kitajima and image by Taniguchi and Associates
Yoshio Taniguchi studied mechanical engineering at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, graduating in 1960, and studied architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, graduating in 1964. From 1964 to 1972, he worked at Kenzo Tange Associates Urbanists-Architects, and in 1979, he opened Taniguchi and Associates. He is the winner of many prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Award and the Praemium Imperiale. Taniguchi has worked on many projects in Japan, from schools to libraries, and is best known for having designed several Japanese museums, as well as the redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). Yoshio Taniguchi photograph ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
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MoMA Redesign Since 1929, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has been a world reference for diplaying modern art. After its early years in temporary locations, MoMA moved to its present location at 11 West 53rd Street in New York. It received several additions since the initial design by architects Philip Goodwin and Edward Durel Stone. Philip Johnson’s addition in 1953 includes the Sculpture Garden, and Cesar Pelli’s third phase was completed in 1984. In 1997, Yoshio Taniguchi won the international limited competition for the MoMA redesign, which opened to the public in 2004. The new, redesigned space of approximately 59 000 square meters almost doubled the museum’s previous area. Taniguchi reaffirmed the modernism of the previous phases while taking into consideration a contemporary approach. The new redesign takes into account the individual aspects of the museum’s different parts and phases, and creates a fluid connection between them. New spaces have been created, surprising the viewer with new perspectives and relations between exhibits, and creating a nonlinear itinerary — an exciting experience thought to the smallest details.
All photographs ©Timothy Hursley and image by Taniguchi and Associates
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Nate Kipnis, AIA, LEED BD+C Kipnis Architecture + Planning
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Photographs, renderings, and image by The Associated Architects Partnership
The Associated Architects Partnership (AAP) Capitalizing on multidisciplinary and multicultural research, design, and technical teams, AAP strives to evolve the possible interventions available within contemporary, territorial contexts. Based in Kuwait and Portugal, and operating in several other countries, the burgeoning practice brings together a manifold team to innovatively collaborate on multi-scalar programs and projects.
BIN NISF
Bin Nisf Group Co. Headquarters, Kuwait Occupying a 5 000 square meter plot, this new building will provide the Bin Nisf Group Co. with a headquarters, consisting of the company’s main offices, large hardware and heavy equipment showrooms, and merchandise warehouses. The site is located in the rapidly transforming industrial district of Shuwaikh, Kuwait, where commercial and administrative facilities are replacing many of the country’s earlier industrial complexes. The design intent was to provide a facility tailored to fit the company’s industrial and corporate administrative needs. The showroom component was to be developed into a multi-faceted retail facility that catered to a diverse customer base, ranging from individuals involved in smaller do-it-yourself projects who are mainly interested in the hardware store component of the facility, to technically advanced corporate clients needing advanced, heavy equipment and project solutions. Congruently, the facility provides the transformed headquarters of the Bin Nisf Group from where the company will be operating and managing all its other subsidiaries, sister companies, and industrial facilities.
With the intent of showcasing the company’s evolving brand values and line of products, and inherently being part of the new Shuwaikh redeveloping milieu, the architects proposed a facility that urbanistically and architecturally resides in correspondence and contrast to its adjacencies. The proposed building is placed on site with generous setbacks all around to provide diverse references of entries to the facility (i.e., separate entries to the different program components) and most importantly, to create an inviting environment for passersby to interact with the building that culminates under a large, shaded area that serves as the entrance to the main showroom, a point of rest, and an urban point of reference. Coupled with the undulating administrative component on the first floor that shies away from the sidewalk, these strategic, urban moves ensure the “light‑presence” of the building on the street in comparison to the multistory, newly constructed buildings in its peripheries while, at the same time, prominently defining an important corner of a main intersection in the area as all buildings aim to do.
www.aapkw.com
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Rozet Cultural Center The Rozet Cultural Center is the new address for various cultural and educational institutions in Arnhem. A mixture of library, heritage center, art center, and community college gives rise to one of the most important public buildings in the city. In volume and articulation, Rozet forms the architectonic transition between the historic and the post-war city fabric of Arnhem. The building lies at the conjunction of the train station area and the church square, which is the central route in the urban plan for the Rijnboog quarter in Arnhem. Rozet, with its cultural and educational program, provides an anchor point on this public route and a catalyst for future urban development.
Neutelings Riedijk Architects Since its founding in 1987 by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk, Neutelings Riedijk Architects has established itself internationally as a leading practice that specializes in the design and realization of complex projects for public and cultural buildings, such as museums, theatres, concert halls, city halls, and libraries. The work of Neutelings Riedijk Architects has received many awards, such as the Golden Pyramid, the BNA‑Cube, The Belgian Building Award, the Rotterdam Maaskant Prize, and the Dutch 2014 Heuvelink Award. www.neutelings-riedijk.com
Rozet has been designed as an urban elongation of the central route between the train station area and the church square. The core of Rozet is formed as a glazed interior route that intersects the building on all floors. A lingering public gallery with a sequence of attractive squares, the space functions as entrances for the various institutions and reflects the synergy between them. Occasionally, the interior street takes the shape of an exhibition hall or foyer; at other times, it functions as an auditorium or as an ascending reading room with study sites. The visibility of this interior street from outside, as well as the apparent programming on the inside as shown in the showcase windows, displays,
bookcases, and illuminated billboards, strengthen the public identity of the building on the street and city level. Rozet’s façade is aimed at expressing public identity. It is built out of sandy, vertical concrete elements that display the building as a whole to the city. The elements feature reliefs and rosettes, giving the façade texture and the building meaning in its analogy with knowledge. The mathematical, remarkable thing about the pattern of a rosette or penrose is that it achieves a fivefold symmetry and can be extended to infinity without repeating itself. Its presence on the façade of the building represents the infinite knowledge inside, meaning it’s a cultural building, which houses the different, cultural institutions that share knowledge, and there is an infinite amount of collaboration and knowledge sharing. A combination of choices makes Rozet a sustainable building. The interior street operates as a climateneutral vent based on natural ventilation. The roof is entirely green. It is a combination of vegetation and a water buffer that contributes to the air condition of the building. Birds and insects benefit from this green oasis in an urban setting. Furthermore, the roof accommodates solar panels, which make a substantial contribution to the building’s energy requirements.
Michiel Riedijk photograph ©Hisao Suzuki, Carl Meeusen photograph ©NRA foto Frank Hanswijk, all other photographs and image by scagliolabrakkee / ©Neutelings Riedijk Architects
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Würth Haus Rorschach A greenish crystalline building responds to the unusual location of the site, set between the edge of Lake Constance and Churerstrasse. Walkers and passersby experience a glass structure that oscillates between transparency and shiny, reflective surfaces that multiply the natural beauty of the setting. The interior offers staff and visitors generously proportioned sequences of workspaces, communication areas, and leisure zones, as well as space for product presentations and art exhibitions. The structure responds to the nearby train station building with lower volumes and reacts to the expanses of the park and lake with a higher segment.
Toward the street, the volumes give shape to a range of external spaces through precisely defined projections and setbacks: in the middle is the entrance area, to the east is the vehicle access and workshop zone, and to the west is Bahnhofsplatz, the train station square, which is expanded toward the lake. Maple trees set in a perpendicular configuration characterize this space and also continue as rows along Churerstrasse. Approaching from the station, a broad canopy signals the main entrance. The various user groups — visitors, people attending courses, and company staff — enter the building through a large lobby and are guided from this point to the different parts of the building. On the ground floor and first floor, the public functions — training and conference rooms, as well as the restaurant — are grouped around a foyer with an open courtyard in the center and are linked by a sweeping stairway. Both the conference area and the separate exhibition spaces can be accessed directly from the exterior, allowing the option of using these areas independently from the rest of the building. A double-glass envelope encases the building. The inner layer is made up of triple glazing and metal‑clad thermal insulation. The external, back-ventilated layer is composed of offset greenish glass panes equipped with a fine mesh insert with a metallic luster. This creates a rhythmically articulated curtain wall that provides protection against wind from the lake, noise from the street, and excessive heat and cold. The predominance of glass in the building materials is continued on the roof in the form of CIS photovoltaic panels.
Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer The architectural practice Gigon/Guyer was established in 1989 by its two partners, Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer. Based in Zürich, with approximately 40 employees, the firm has designed various museums and public buildings, alongside high-quality residential and office buildings, both in Switzerland and abroad. The majority of its built work is the result of commissions awarded through competitions. Likewise, the office’s projects have won numerous international awards and have been published worldwide. www.gigon-guyer.ch www.wuerth-haus-rorschach.ch
Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer photograph ŠChristian Scholz, all other photographs by Thies Wachter and plan by Gigon/Guyer
Ground floor plan
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Left photograph ©Keith Collie, all other photographs ©Tim Crocker and image by Hawkins\Brown
University of
Oxford Biochemistry Building
Oxford’s Biochemistry Building, which houses what many consider to be the highest-rated Life Sciences department within a UK university, is internationally known for its research in the areas of DNA, cell growth, and immunity. The new building provides a pioneering model for university research and teaching environments by reversing the accepted “norm” of leaving the areas where researchers monitor their experiments on computers, collect and process data, and then establish their scientific conclusions disassociated with the building’s exterior. Instead, the new 12 000 square meter building promotes a collaborative environment among researchers (postgraduate and undergraduate), academics, technicians, and administrators in an embracing four-story, interactive atrium. The laboratories are wrapped around the outside of the plan to create open views that allow daylight and contact with the busy audience of a university campus. This design helps break down the public’s suspicion of research facilities by making all department activities entirely transparent. “The building is surrounded by a series of colored glass fins that pick up the colors of brick and stone from the surrounding historic structures,” said Russell Brown, partner at Hawkins\Brown. “In turn, the glass casts colored reflections onto the building during the day and outwards, into the public realm, at night.” Morag Morrison, the partner in charge of interior design at Hawkins\Brown, guided this color scheme, as well as the installation of the art objects through a program they dubbed “Salt Bridges.” The Biochemistry Building design won national and local RIBA awards and the WAN Colour in Architecture Award. The “Salt Bridges” installation also earned several awards and is the subject of a monograph. Oxford subsequently appointed Hawkins\Brown to design the masterplan of the core of the Science Area. The project will look to create new, pedestrian-friendly spaces, separating vehicle servicing routes and car parking areas from car-free zones, and establish the envelope for a series of new science buildings.
Hawkins\Brown Since its founding in 1988 by Russell Brown and Roger Hawkins, Hawkins\Brown has grown to include 150 employees and a global portfolio. Working from Shoreditch, London, Hawkins\Brown has been at the cutting edge of British architecture for more than 25 years, always looking to produce design-oriented, user-friendly, and life‑changing environments in each design. Hawkins\Brown doesn’t rely on a “house style” but makes every effort to bring fresh thinking to each project. www.hawkinsbrown.com
ALLIED WORKS ARCHITECTURE U
S
A
Clyfford Still Museum
While the estate and personal works of 20th century Abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still were sealed off from public view for three decades following Still’s death, a Colorado museum breathes fresh life into his collection within a structure that is a piece of art unto itself. The 2 600 square meter building is the latest addition to Denver’s Cultural Arts District and provides an ethereal environment of artistic reflection in the midst of a vibrant, bustling city. Though the solid structure may seem simple at first glance, its depth and complexity allow it to become an extension of Still’s artistic vision. The museum sits inside an insulated grove of deciduous trees. Crafted from concrete, the structure appears to hold visitors to the ground while the details of the building connect them to the sky. Two stories of cantilevered, textured concrete modify and refract light on both the exterior and interior, enabling natural light to illuminate the art displayed throughout nine galleries. Each space responds to the evolving character of Still’s art, changing in scale, proportion, and intensity of light throughout the museum. Overhead, an open lattice of concrete unites the body of the building and offers luminescence and a connection to the atmosphere of the city. Diffusing skylights and shades subtly alter the sunlight as it enters the detailed concrete tracery ceiling, which, when combined with electric lighting, allows the museum’s curators to change the tone of the individual exhibition spaces based on the time of day and the medium of art being displayed. The museum can thus use the beauty of its own design to amplify, rather than distract from, the marvels of the works within.
Allied Works Architecture was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1994, and expanded to include an office in New York City in 2003. Led by Brad Cloepfil, the 40-person firm works to explore and infuse the culture of the environment in which their projects will reside. Working across North America and Europe, Allied Works has completed many critically acclaimed projects, including the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in the Dallas Arts District, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art. www.alliedworks.com
Brad Cloepfil photograph by Adrian Gaut, all other photographs by Jeremy Bittermann and image by Allied Works Architecture
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