The Mil .
Fifth year final project | Re-use, from industrial factory to a creative hub | Tel Aviv, Israel Professors: Arch. Pitsou Kedem, Arch. Uri Mazor | Technion | Michal Ziso
"Eyes mark the shape of the city. Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creatureor more, like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms. Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting the old. To the rhythm of its pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and flare up and squirm. Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of activity has indeed passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city's moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises nor falls but is pregnant with foreboding." Haruki Murakami, After Dark.
The city of Tel Aviv is a very intensive, fast paced metropolis and at the same time has qualities of a slow motion mediteranian beach city. Tel Aviv, like every other big city, is always changing and it's streets, it's buildings, it's volumes have to change accordingly. The project deals with the re-use of a working our mill factory in downtown Tel Aviv, turning it into a creative working and showing machine, which brings life to the area, connects the edges of the city to it's core and suggests a new alternative center while answering some current problems and issues in the speciďŹ c urban fabric. The project focuses on maximizing or minimizing the pace of the city to the extreme while placing them side by side like islands.
Florentin Washington Blvd.
Salame Rd. Abulafia
Rabenu Hananel
Alfasi Kibbutz Galuyot Rd.
Site
The site is located in downtown Tel Aviv. The working flour mill on Alfasi st. is a part of the industrial ring of the city which was first planned at the outskirts but became an “island” as the times changed.
Site Analysis
“Cities are informed and imagined by many people at a time. Cities are an open stage for complementary and conflicting encounters. Cities are the backdrops for dreams and desires.” |Petra Kempf You Are Downtown TLV is an attempt to crack the genetical code and to discover the framework of downtown Tel Aviv. A mapping tool based on Arch. Petra Kempf’s diagrams. This mapping tool consists of layers of information. When compiled in different ways, various conclusions can come to mind regarding the nature of the area and what can be done.
boundaies
place of activity
function ties
s l boundaries
place of activity
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Layers
The layers are divided into four groups: cosmological grounds; perceptive boundaries definders; nexus; dreams desires and expectations.
function ties
studio/art/design leisure work-shop the mill
cosmological grounds
cosmological grounds
living inside voids blvd. uses white noise block catalyst work-shop/studio small/medium/large
white noise currents
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departures and arrivals flows block
time zones
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fixed and defined entities, economical or social, which defines human activity in the publi public space
street type
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cosmological grounds
time zones
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living
perceptive boundaries definders
catalyst
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perceptive boundaries definders
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physical or mental boundaries found in the public realm
cosmological grounds
cosmological grounds perceptive boundaries definders
mill knot
nexus
islands
rings made by connection of similar activities in the public realm
loops and connectors loops and connectors
blvd. ring activity factorty living ring work ring activity
l.i.
dreams desires and expectations identifying potentials for urban development
b.r.a. b.i.
f.l.r. m.i. mill knot
w.r.a.
islands
living island mill island blvd. island
dreams desires and expectations
nexus dreams desires and expectations
nexus
street type
living
i.v. b.u. w.s.1
block
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white noise
catalyst
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The mapped layers are: street type|living, inside voids, blvd. uses, white noise, block, catalyst, work-shop/studio, small/medium/large; loops and connectors| blvd. ring activity, factory living ring, work ring activity; boundaries; place of activity; currents| departures and arrivals, ows; time zones| day, night; mill knot; function ties| studio/art/design, leisure, work-shop, the mill; islands| living island, mill island, blvd. island
living inside voids blvd. uses white noise block catalyst work-shop/studio small/medium/large
cosmological grounds
labaling Alfasi. st. as ‘catalyst’ of activity and transforming it into a ‘pedestrian only’ street
closing the activity ring with the western streets
Conclusions
keeping Salame st. as “pace transitioning axe” with Washington blvd. piercing/connecting north to south
exposure of “artistic” functions (in the area) to the street
Creative Hub
The northern neigborhood of Florentin is suffering from gentrification. There is a large number of young artists who came to live in this neigborhood and now will have to find a new place to live. In the mill area there is percolation of artist, designers, architects etc. Together they make up the ‘creative class’ whose most basic need is a stimulating urban environment where and from which they could operate -
creative hub. The re-use of the flour factory and its transformation to a creative hub will consist of working and showing galleries. The top floor 33 meters above ground will be the ‘mill lounge’ - connection and disconnection to the city with a one of a kind view. The mill will be part of a new area with affortable housing, a boutique hotel, cafe’s and restaurants, a book store and a large art store.
using the proximity of the many workshops to the mill and creating a synergy
make workshops area לייצר
ליצור create mill block +alfasi
להציג show the mill
balancing day-night activity to create a 24/7 active area
1 Bedroom 500sqm 2 Bedroom1150sqm 3 Bedroom 500 sqm
Boutique Hotel 2400sqm Be&Make Studio 360sqm Closed Square 290sqm
93.6 sqm 3 Bedroom 56 sqm 1 Bedroom 56 sqm 1 Bedroom 72 sqm 2Bedroom 86 sqm 3 Bedroom 80 sqm 2 Bedroom 66 sqm Be&Make 57 sqm 1 Bedroom 85 sqm 3 Bedroom
The Nill 3500sqm Glass Garden 600sqm
Main Piazza Cafe’ Restaurant
Eat.Drink. 400sqm Bakery Cafe’ 130sqm Art Store 200sqm Book Shop 150sqm Mill Lounge 230sqm ‘Bring Your Own Chair’ Screening Area
Existing Section Existing Plan
The flour factory (built in 1950) consists of two main functional parts: the grain silos volume based on a 2.5m*2.5m grid of 40/40cm concrete columns which rise up to 25m-38m, creating elongated shafts in which are the silos; the flour sifting machine rooms, divded into 6 floors (the process is from top to bottom).
The re-use of the mill includes preserving the concrete facade and the construction of the building, all of the 148 concrete columns, creating a large and very intense space, streching to 847sqm, rising to 25m-38m. The preservation of the facade and the columns maintains the building’s vertical qualities.
Lobby Rings
Inspired by REX’s* interpretation of the relationship between the museum’s lobby to its galleries (two left images), the sectional lobby, ring (completed with elevators) creates autonomic galleries (right image).
the classic museum with a gallery loop from and to the lobby *REX - Munch Museum
REX’s new arrangement of a lobby ring with a gallery core
The Mill’s sectional lobby ring completed with elevators
Circulation | section A-A
The main circulation in the mill is by seven standalone elevators, maintains the vertical qualities and creates a machine-like operating building. The secondery circulation is by stairs, once between each vertical core, which is completed by a full outer staircase. The cores consists of an elevator and 5-8 independent platforms.
+38.00
+32.20
+29.10
+25.00
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joints detail
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+8.20
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Lower Lobby - concrete and steel vs. black marble
Upper Lobby - concrete and steel vs. wood
Platforms
basement plan (-3..20)
The horizontal surfaces are added in the form of light platforms supported by the existing columns which are reinforced accordingly. These platforms are grouped into four free-standing cores. At the ground oor all of the columns are found, as we go higher in the building there are less columns and larger platforms so the space balance is kept. The platforms vary from gallery platforms to transitioning platforms.
lower lobby | ground floor plan (+0. - 00)
A
B B
local section| secondery enterance A
A
B
B
A
second floor plan (+8.20)
third floor plan (+12.30)
fifth floor plan (+20.50)
upper lobby | sixth floor plan (+25.00)
seventh floor plan (+29.10)
eighth floor plan (+33.20)
Galleries
The galleries have to hold any kind of artistic expression, they have to vary in size, lighting and acuostical conditions. The Mill galleries are divided into three typologies: open space divided by portable patitions; closed spaces which have autonomic control of its lighting and acoustics; and aquarium galleries consisting of a glass box which can hold an art display or be a working space which then becomes the (living) art.
Path Intersection Continuation Stop ge
Dead End Stop un
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Ga lle
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Inside Stair Connection Skin Stair Connection Roof tops Connection
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Main Paths via elevators
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M Ro eet Gall ery of ing 8 1M
M Ro eet lle of ing ry3 8 M
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Platform Layout Connections
G-1L
Mill Lounge
G-8M
Meeting-R25
Platform Volumes
G-7M
Meeting-R8-E2
G-6M
Meeting-R8-E1
G-5M
Meeting-E7
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Meeting-G-E6
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Main entrance | section B-B
+25.00
joints detail
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Secondary circulation | the Skin
The stair circulation inside the Mill is completed by the ‘fire-escape’ like staircase on the outer eastern facade of the building. This staircase is sheltered by a perforated metal skin, which creates a usable outer space in the form of elongated balconies which stretches along side the whole facade. This staircase connects the cores and also brings in screened light into the interior of the Mill while creating an interesting sisplay of light and shadow. The skin, seperated from the concrete wall by 2.5m (module), also creates a cooling shaft which helps the ventilation of the space.
Seconday entrance
The main entrance to the mill, from the glass garden into the lower lobby, reveals the whole building at once. Since the platforms grow bigger as we go up the floors, the visitor can get a full grasp of the space from the first step. The seconday entrance is by a small staircase, carved into the southern conrete wall, almost unvisible from the street since it is lower than eye level. The visitor then experiances several volume transformations - from the open street, down to the the mill’s basement, from there up to ‘roof-25’ by elevator, from which he gets a great vista of the city, and then down to the platforms, each one revealed as he goes down | the flour experience.
Minimalism vs. Industrialism
The vision of ‘the pace and the islands’ recieve it’s translation in different scales: from the urban scale of finding an island of different kind of activity in the existing fabric of the area, to the smaller scale of the site and the building, and down to the selection of materials - rough materials next to soft materials such as wood and light | minimalism vs. indsustrialism.
platform to column joint detail
apoxy floor wood beams
The architecture of the building is it’s structure and it’s structure is the achitecture, therefor the structure of the platforms remained bare and exposed. All the floors and platforms of the Mill are seperated by a narrow gap from the concrete walls which defines the diffrences betweein the materials, the old and the new, and the verticallity.
pipes
rail concrete column vertical beam
‘Bring your own chair’ Screening Area | Epilogue
|The flour factory is not here anymore. It was moved out of the city. The building in which the machinces once worked and the grains were storaged is still here, and inside - a whole new life. The new Mill is a huge building which holds galleries, show-rooms and work-rooms. Each space is different. The young artists that live right here, can use the aquarium spaces for creating their art, while they become the living art themsleves. When they are finished they can use the many work-shops nearby in order to execute their creations or just leave their work for show in the aquarium or any of the other 23 spaces for show. The Mill is also the space used to showcase the products of the many design offices and studios in the area. The versatility of the spaces enables different kinds of events to take place, from small events in the closed platforms to a very large gala in the top or bottom lobby, or even in the glass garden foyer. The Mill is full of acticity 24/7, people are always coming in and out. Since the street is for pedestrians only, the buildings near the Mill create different kinds of squares, like the one infront of the big south facade which became place for screening movies and video-art. From all the houses near-by people always bring out chairs and enjoy what’s going-on on the wall. You can always find a few chairs in the morning where you can sit and have your usual morning coffee.|