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Architecture Highlights series is a global collection of contemporary architectural design, presenting the most active architects who have emerged on an international platform in recent years, with their forward-looking and groundbreaking work. In volume 5, the works from Architects 49, Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, SAOTA, Henning Larsen Architects, Dominique Coulon et associés, Jean Bocabeille Architecte, Benthem Crouwel Architekten, Hofman Dujardin Architects, ACXT Arquitectos, Baragaño, CASA Sólo Arquitectos, Donaire Arquitectos, Josep Miàs & Partners | MiAS Architects, Damilano Studio Architects, Studio Ricatti, etc. are included. Each architectural work will be extensively illustrated with colour photographs drawings and text explaining their concept of 'good design'. Through this book, we wish to showcase and explore the dynamic trends of architectural design nowadays and as a gallery for designers to exchange their creative ideas and unique designs with each other. 005
CONTENTS
Architects 49
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Royal Archive Center BU Landmark Complex
Frank La Riviere Architects
018
Nebuta-no-ie Warasse
Jackson Clements Burrows Architects
024
Golden Crust Bakery Henley Street Trojan House
Jorge Hernandez de la Garza
036
Smooth Building
SAOTA - Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects
042
Dakar Sow Sow Geneva Victoria 73
Henning Larsen Architects Denmark
056
Harpa - Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre Spiegel HQ Umeå School of Architecture Viborg Town Hall
Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter
078
Fagerborg Kindergarden Trollwall Restaurant
Stein Halvorsen AS
086
Solrosen Kindergarten Viken Skog Headquarter
2020 Liverpool
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The Alsop High School
Teo Hidalgo Nácher
098
Ripolles-Manrique House
Dominique Coulon et associés
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‘Josephine Baker’ Group of Schools in La Courneuve House for déficient persons Library in Anzin Music School and Areas for Culture
Jean Bocabeille Architecte
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Biscornet Picard Nursery
LAN Architecture
138
EDF Archives Centre Student Residence
Tank Architectes
148
Levi Strauss High School
Benthem Crouwel Architekten
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Academic Centre for Dentistry Deutsches Bergbau Museum Elicium RAI
BOETZKES|HELDER Architects
164
Villa DVT
Hofman Dujardin Architects
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Villa Geldrop
Frederico Valsassina Arquitectos
174
Alcatel Head Office
LGLS Arquitectos
180
University Canteen and Restaurant
Nelson Resende Arquiteto
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House in Praia Verde House in Souto
Atelier Nuno Lacerda Lopes
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Gandra School Valongo House
ACXT Arquitectos
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242 Social Housing Units in Salburúa CEIBS Business School IDOM Headquarters Bilbao
Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos
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ABC Museum, Illustration and Design Center
Baragaño
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Metal Foundation [sLAB] Cruise Ship Terminal in Bilbao
CASA Sólo Arquitectos
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C O R & Asociados
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Los Arcos del Mar Menor University Hospital Santa Lucía General University Hospital Funeral Home and Garden in Pinoso Music Hall and House in Algueña MUCA
Donaire Arquitectos
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New Theatre in Almonte Office and Services Building in the Port of Roquetas De Mar Social Center in La Av. De La Paz Warehouse Rehabilitation of Public Library and Music School
EQUIP Xavier Claramunt
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Hotel Acta Mimic Hotel Hospes Palma
Josep Miàs & Partners | MiAS Architects
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Annexa-Joan Puigbert Primary School in Girona iGuzzini Illuminazione Spain Headquarters Rubí Market and Town Hall Offices Topographic House
Larraz Arquitectos
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Nursery School in Pamplona Shelter Home for the Homeless
Luis Machuca & Associates
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Faculty Building, Málaga University
Sol89
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Training Center of Town Hall
Unia Arquitectos
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SPEE Sevilla
Virai Arquitectos
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Institutional Winery “ La Grajera” Secondary School in Miranda de Ebro
Kopper Architektur
344
Research Center for Molecular Medicine
Zechner & Zechner ZTGmbH
350
Stella Zwei Residential Building
CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects
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House R House S
Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten
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Haus der Essener Geschichte Research & Sports Hall of Humboldt University
Pablo Horváth Architekt SIA/SWB
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Apartment Buildings J. Buff Grisons College of Education
Damilano Studio Architects
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Gazoline Petrol Station Oficina Vidre Negre
Studio Marco Piva
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Move Hotel
Markus Scherer
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Winery Nals Margreid
Studio Ricatti
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Diesel Headquarter
Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos Spain
ABC Museum, Illustration and Design Centre Madrid, Spain The ABC Museum appears with the will to become an artistic reference at an international level and also a symbol of the cultural offer in Madrid. Its installation in the building of the old factory in Calle Amaniel, must respond to an intervention that is appropriate for a historical building, without renouncing to express its contemporary centre nature with a wide cultural and artistic offer linked to the most avant garde institutions within the context. The current building provides access from two streets, connecting these with an internal patio. One of these accesses is currently offered under a one-floor high, longitudinal building body closing the internal patio towards the street. The main doors for access to the new ABC Centre are considered on this front. The aforementioned longitudinal body is restructured for this, as a large translucent glass “beam” that works as the lintel of a gap for passage to the internal patio. The cafeteria will be housed inside this, with the basement floor of the new centre receiving light through a glass floor for access to the patio. In order to create a space or “atrium” for the new institution, allowing it to express its contemporary and modern character, the solution presented proposes using the internal patio for this space as a lobby for access to the building, becoming the waiting area before entering. The architectural mechanism used to obtain the aim stated is based on the creation of a “tensioned vacuum”, a “spatial dihedron” formed by the horizontal plane of the floor of the patio and the vertical plane of the internal facade of the old factory. Both planes will be built with the same material, blue annealed steel in a matt grey shade, and both presenting similar triangular gaps, supplying the light inside the spaces served by these. This generates the “weightlessness” between them which are real, imaginary and symbolic. As a “large magnet” , it will attract and transport us, with a certain power of seduction, towards the inside of the new institution, causing combined curiosity, anxiety and pleasure when visiting it. The last operation in the external part of the set consists in creating a “bar of light” over the roof of the old factory. The construction of this intends to provide spaces to house the machinery of the installations, currently located there, to house a well-lit work and reading area over the city and to identify the ABC Foundation as a new “torch in the city” at the Conde Duque centre. Photography: Jesús Granada
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Baragaño Spain
Metal Foundation [sLAB] Avilés, Principado de Asturias, Spain The concept of the new headquarters of Metal Foundation, in Aviles, was born in the first visit and from the memory of the place. The slabs parks of the factory of ArcelorMittal, where placed just by this site and the idea of staring to play with this big piece of steel is presented from the first drawings and working models. Architects start then with the idea of playing with that, the reference of Richard Serra, Chillida and Oteiza, was always in their mind. It´s important to get an alive building, a building to be lived, with walking roofs over the city, the harbour, the sea…a building that can be used much more than the only timetable of the industrial park where is placed, a new space for Aviles, an industrial building that links the old memory, the factory area, the pipes, cranes, etc with the city of Aviles, in an urban explosion period. A set of black volumes, meets with the visitant, opening to the south, to the city. The red colour runs in the accesses to the building and in the circulations, remaining the sensations of the steel production. Inside, the light floods the building, contrasting with the darkness outside. The steel structure and the installations are naked, in order to be shown in the different courses that the Foundation Metal will teach in. Steel is the chosen material and main character on site. Not only because the building is for Metal Foundation, it’s also a material in the memory of the place and of Aviles. The steel structure that forms the building is produced by electrical oven in ArcelorMittal factories, which means that is 100% recycled and 70% coming for recycling. It’s a screwed structure, which allows the removal of the building, if it would be necessary in a near future. The record timing to raise the building structure in 6 weeks is only possible with steel. Photography: Mariela Apollonio
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BaragaĂąo Spain
Cruise Ship Terminal in Bilbao Getxo, Bilbao Port , Vizacaya, Spain The Port of Bilbao launches a competition at the end of 2009 in order to build the new Terminal of Cruise ships in Bilbao, a damp city, with a metallic memory of shipyards, cranes, postindustrial areas, and the suspension bridge of Portugalete. Architects start from a metallic orthogonal prism, working in it, as if it was a sculpture. The building starts to open to the sea, with a big crystal facade. To the south, to the city, enclosure is much more opaque, framing the arrival square and attracting the northern light that comes in the building through the big skylights. The project starts to be structured in several containers with different volumes and length. The new Terminal runs in one floor, but its section is shaped by big skylights picking up northern light. Architects start to play with the idea of full and empty, by reference to the Basque sculptors, introducing the programme for the Terminal in some of the containers, and keeping the empty space. Spaces where you can wait ship arrival. Architects propose different spaces for different waiting forms. Outside they ordered the arrival space, the big parking, where several light lines illuminate the building, making it a reference to the city. In order to reduce construction time, architects decide to make steel industrialized construction, building most part of the building in a factory, and transporting it by road from Asturias to Bilbao, where the building was assembled. There are some characteristics that can define this project: factory construction (Industrialisation), transportation and assembled on site, rational sustainability, light architecture, steel 100% recyclable and 70% recycling, removable building and enlarged ongoing. Photography: Mariela Apollonio
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CASA Sólo Arquitectos Spain
Los Arcos del Mar Menor University Hospital San Javier, Murcia, Spain The main facade, looking south, has two of the building’s main innovations: a brise-soleil protecting the administration departments, designed with transparent photovoltaic cell panels, and a 120m long information panel (the longest in Europe, so far) which penetrates into the main hall, allowing to participate its messages also inside the building. The implantation of the building follows the SE-NW axis of the plot. There are two levels of access to the building, with a floor between them. The hospital is laid out on four floors (ground+3), with the two highest (second and third) occupied by the inpatient units together with outpatient areas and consulting rooms and department offices. This layout (which is unusual in its sitting of outpatient services) enables each department’s patient care and work areas to be grouped together, optimizing staff effectiveness and minimizing circulation. The “open” scheme on the NW side allows the addition of a series of new modules: inpatient, logistics, central services, outpatient consultations and services, etc. Good exposure to natural light is a factor of great importance in this type of building, and the design thus incorporates a system generously sized patios, fully incorporated into the structural grid, to provide the different departments with fresh air and sunlight.
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CASA SĂłlo Arquitectos Spain
Santa LucĂa General University Hospital Cartagena, Murcia, Spain The programme of new Santa LucĂa Teaching Hospital includes not only health related activities, such as sports, leisure and commercial areas. Its objective is to get a stronger integration of the community into the hospital building area, and to develop a better sense of health prevention. This University General Hospital with a maximum capacity of 656 beds has all of the medical services for its category in the Cartagena health area. The building is developed longitudinally on its first floor below ground, ground and the first floor, following the main access concourse, parallel to the expressway (north-south). This general access concourse is an unheated umbraculum providing a transition between exterior and interior that extends to the roof where the shops, leisure and sports facilities are located. From the second floor the configuration of the building changes, with the inpatient units arrayed along a vertebral axis, looking south across the port and the city. These units are positioned over the twolevel roof-garden on top of the diagnostic and outpatient units. A linear block to the rear houses the logistical support units. Good exposure to natural light is a factor of great importance in this type of building, and the design thus incorporates a system generously sized patios, for the use of both staff and patients, to provide the various departments with fresh air and sunlight.
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C O R & Asociados Spain
Funeral Home and Garden in Pinoso Alicante, Spain The plot is situated on the outskirts of town, at the end of a cul-de-sac, close to the municipal sports centre and behind a cultural centre, both with great activity. This creates certain urban tension, since the building is in the middle of various incompatible activities. In this situation we proposed to arrange the ensemble generating a vegetation mattress with enough identity to establish itself as the “centre” of all these public buildings and activities. We have created a forest of 29 Japanese maples, able to articulate, differentiate and limit the variety of uses, where the new building can be apart of all the other activities. Additionally, the back of the building is buried and, as if it was a cave, its main facade emerges from the fields forward. The vegetal roofs composed exactly the same as its surroundings emphasize this and prevent glances from the adjacent sports facilities used daily by school children for several activities. It is for this reason that the building is arranged around six hollows formed as courtyards or “bitten spaces”, they allow a controlled relationship with the exterior avoiding interaction. From the interior rooms you are only able to see the sky and the inside. And this interior-exterior permeability becomes very important in this new town site. We shouldn't forget the effort that this building means for its citizens: the project has 495 square meters and a budget of €431,583, this situation forced us to find material solutions and building techniques, systems of maintenance that reduce that effort. Not forgetting, maximum degree of ecological adaptation and sustainability at the landscape level. This is an intervention that gives more for less. Photography: David Frutos
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C O R & Asociados Spain
Music Hall and House in Algueña MUCA Algueña, Alicante, Spain Algueña is a small village in the interior of Alicante County, with a population of two thousand and an economy based on agriculture and marble industries. We were asked for a building able to bring together all the activities related to music and culture that took place in the village, and also promote its cultural future. We proposed in the first phase the rehabilitation of old Guardia Civil’s quarter that was in disuse since the 80s. That allowed us to have a surface area of 670 m2 that we only had to adequate, and the construction on a new Auditorium of 350 m2 and 230 seats. In the second phase, we proposed the construction of a park with an open-air auditorium that will join the village and its zone of future urban development. The intervention is located in the west entrance to the village, near from classical local wineries, in a city limit that the new urbanistic plan will develop around this plot. We reserve a green zone beside the building, to develop in second phase an open-air auditorium and a garden with jacarandas, that will have enough entity to separate the new urbanistic development from the existing one, generating a joining place and giving it ambiental quality. Besides, in the plot exits a building of the 60s, an old Guardia Civil quarters, that is in disuse from years and that has a load-bearing wall structure in good state of maintenance. And it’s shaped in U with an interesting central courtyard for this architectural programme. We propose to rehabilitate it for developing that programme. The new construction is separated from the old by new adapted stairs that are enclosed in glass boxes lighted from overhead, which try to add fragility to the rotundness of the whole. The central courtyard is designed to house the rehearsals of the music band in open-air, or any other kind of functions as award-giving parties, etc. without any fixed element. Moreover, it’s designed together with the back courtyard, in which we propose to develop another open-air hall. In the existing building we propose the rehabilitation without formal changes. Simply recovering all the old constructive techniques and turning them white with different grades of shine with the intention of generating tension between what the users remember about the building and what it is now, we search for surprise perceptions and the generation of a new surface. Instead the new hall is a blind box, a strange element because of its shape and dimensions. To emphasize this sensation we propose a cladding that vibrates and shines with a pearly-iridescent material. Politicians demanded the generation of a building that could be used as a brand, able to arise as a recognizable landmark in the village, where there doesn’t exist any exempt contemporary building able to act as a brand. This project generates this landmark with a low cost solution relying on two concepts, one concerns “psychology of perception” and uses vibration and brightness, and the other concerns shape and uses the rotund appearance with proportions similar to its industrial landscape. The use of a ceramic surfacing with pearly and iridescent finishing responds the intention of generating a vibrant volume in constant change, due to lighting changes or observatory movements, this solution makes the building vibrate, changing its colour, saturation and profundity. Photography: David Frutos 262
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Donaire Arquitectos Spain
New Theatre in Almonte Huelva, Spain The building is located on the site of an old winery. It has the challenge of integrating the existing old buildings, declaring as cultural interest, and being part of a cultural complex of a total of three buildings and a common space. This space turns into the main place of the town and an important meeting area. It’s an opportunity to work on light, material and space. The path chosen to work on these concepts, is the contrast. It’s the contrast between outside and inside, between old and new, including a monumental scale and human scale. And the journey is taken as the thread that sews and explains the intervention. A large area covered with large proportions and controlled height works as a high threshold. A monumental scale lobby welcomes the visitor showing the scale of a public building. It is situated in the “Culture City” in Almonte, south of Spain, next to the Rehabiltation of the Warehouse for use as a public library, and School of Arts (Music, Dance and Art) and enclosed within a public square. The intervention rigorously respected and maintained the different morphologies of each of the next buildings and this itself constitutes a strong characteristic of the project. The materials are very important in the building, an opportunity to have a large experience working in innovated architecture with traditional and new materials. The concrete was used as the main material to contrast with the wood and this established the main line of work. The traditional Warehouse image contrasts with the contemporary Theatre image, as a focal point for the public space. The brick contrasts with the white concrete. Photography: Fernando Alda, Kavi Sanchez
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Donaire Arquitectos Spain
Office and Services Building in the Port of Roquetas De Mar Almería, Spain The project’s objectives were to integrate the building into the surroundings and creat a new area the responds to a landscape dominated by different levels and materials. It’s a landscape of great value with the Mediterranean as the background. The Port’s concrete was used as the main material to contrast with the Board’s wood and this established the main line of work. A fragmented building that responds to the different uses is required. A part for services opens all day, between an administration area and reception, there is a covered area leading to the end of the quay. On the upper floor there is a private area from which the port can be controlled. A band of white concrete wraps around the exterior spaces and unifies the different areas to create a focal point for the port. Photography: Fernando Alda, Enrique Bejines M.
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Donaire Arquitectos Spain
Social Centre in La Avenida De La Paz Sevilla, Spain The building is located in the south of Sevilla, next to the Litany Health Centre and on the corner of Avenida de la Paz. The site has dimensions of 24.85m x 35.60m and an area of 884.66 m². The project is within a plot aiming at being an urban infrastructure, so that the building’s projection is conditioned by the existence of the adjacent Health Centre located to the north. With access to the underground parking a shared space between both buildings is created. The Social Services building is organized around a central open space on all floors and crowned by a skylight which is placed around the access paths to each of the rooms. In addition to the common open space there is a core on each floor in which the toilets, elevators, stairs and archives are located. Around the central space the care rooms, work rooms and equipment rooms are spread over three floors, with the administration and management zone on the top floor. The ground floor is prepared for exhibitions and is finished with the assembly hall with its own access from the shared outdoor space. Some of the rooms are separated by movable partitions allowing greater versatility in use. And they all have natural lighting holes protected from direct sunlight with a lattice that homogenizes its external image. Photography: Fernando Alda
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Donaire Arquitectos Spain
Warehouse Rehabilitation of Public Library and Music School Almonte, Huelva, Spain Rehabilitation of the “Los Reales de Almonte” Warehouse is for use as a public library, and School of Arts. The project is centred on a warehouse registered as being of Cultural Interest. It is situated in the “Culture City” in Almonte, next to the town’s new Theatre and enclosed within a public square. Specifically, the library is located in a wine cellar, typical of the local area. The building is 78m long and 10.5m wide; with a total area of 821 m², the building is open on 3 sides. The work carried included the construction of a gallery with a new structure and foundations without a lerting the original structure of the building to maintain and incorporate the original features. The library occupies 14 of the 17 modules, the 3 remaining modules in the East Wing house of the Arts Schools. The main entrance is in the south-east of the building, in such a way that gives it a spacious feel. Book control / loading / administration is the first area encountered, which has a controlled height. This is followed by press and reading room using the full height of the Warehouse. The last area is the children’s area lit by large and diffuse light sources, with a small storage area and a second flight of stairs. On the upper floor there is a reading room and some audio-visuals. The project accentuates the original features of the building, as a Warehouse, creating different spaces each adapted to its new use. The interior design and furnitures form a fundamental part of the work, with simple designs easily repeatable within the different needs and varied programme of the library and public services offered in this space. photography: Fernanado Alda
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EQUIP Xavier Claramunt Spain
Hotel Acta Mimic Barcelona, Spain Struggling insolently with the prevailing imperative of sobriety and economy of resources, we are presenting an outrageous and exhibitionist building. This building, greatly frequented by the public, has made it this far in the form of a decrepit ruin that now spends its days precariously propping up a facade and the occasional, and by-now forgotten wall, doubling as a den of unseemly and unhealthy, albeit utterly natural-looking, activities. Not completely unexpected, its apparent uselessness, immorality or problem, has been seen as the opportunity to build a new hotel which is not clear whether it is supposed to entice or house the tourists, necessarily or inevitably, that arrive in the city of Barcelona. A historic facade was preserved, and the building was inserted between it and the party wall of the adjacent building. The new building treats the rooms as if they were shelves, using wells, a resource borrowed from the selfsame historic buildings of the highly compact old district to afford a dramatic ambience to the common spaces, which are located below street level. The relationship of the neat and static facade which would yield, and does yield, a programme of conventional rooms, with the other facades in the area is imbued with a certain complexity and change, using a huge wrap that reflects the changing light of day on the facade of the new building. The facade is conserved as a memory of the building that once stood there, but also as a tool for negotiating with the regulations and securing permission, making it possible to recess the building on the ground floor, form a porch and open up an inner patio inside the utterly dense maze of streets in the area. This makes it possible to locate rooms on the ground floor, in turn solving the conditions of privacy with peculiar clustering systems, with light entering radically and split-level floors. The aim of the huge wrap covering the facade is for the building’s appearance to change during the day both from inside the rooms and from the street, while lighting conditions also vary on the inside and on the outside. It is a commitment to integrate with the variety of the surrounding buildings. The sobriety and seriation called for by economy of resources applied in the construction of this building is granted a degree of variety by this huge wrap, which will change with the seasons and will filter the natural light of day differently to the artificial night-time light. Photography: Adrià Goula
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EQUIP Xavier Claramunt Spain
Hotel Hospes Palma Carretera d´Andratx 11, Calvià, Spain Along the different stages for refurbishing and extending the Maricel Hotel, we have been pursuing a recovering of memorable and desirable original scenarios. On the first intervention we tried to make clear that the sea was there. Now, with this extension, the aim is to regain the trees and dry stonewalls that have been part of the environmental history of Majorca. Regain the sea Maricel Hotel was built in 1948 as one of the first hotels specially designed for tourists. Thanks to his privileged situation, it was easy to extend its facilities towards the sea with terraces as a giant’s stair to the water. On this stage, the building first opened itself over areas more related to these terraces and the sea, using a series of arcades to enlarge the basement and focus it on the rocky seashore. Once you enter the hotel, you will find yourself intertwined with a scenography of sliding doors and evading walls, rhythmically placed to allure the sea into the building. This new arrangement treats the sunlight in a way that triggers you to walk with increasing intensity towards the sea. This first aim was to recreate an atmosphere not far from the little caves and rocky shelters that are easily found all over the Mediterranean coast. Make clear that the Mediterranean is there, through filters, terraces and the new orientation for the swimming pool. Regain the forest The extension is to be built on two plots placed just in front of the original building. The main issues are how to connect, across the public street, and how to deal with the urban surroundings. In that direction, the extension seeks to stress the importance of the original building as main entrance and to establish an access to the new areas capable of generating an alternative context to the existing urban development. The new situation is rearranged as a valley that makes its way recovering the technique of the so-called marjades, the terraces used on traditional agriculture activities in Majorca. Creating these new marjades, the valley moves ahead connecting the new areas to the main building. Dry stonewalls deal with the soil on how to settle on the new areas. Sometimes, they both agree simply with slopes, sometimes, likewise the terraces that the main building uses are taken as a solarium on its way to the sea, the valley sculpts the soil with marjades. Solid and vernacular dry stonewalls that give a desirable environment, are detached from the constructions neighbouring the extensions. Finally, we manage to stay just aware of trees and sky. Recovering the forest, the forest grows along a dreamed brook driving us away from the sea. As a casual path, we walk on a winding course that turns here and there carving the soil to allow entrance to the new buildings. We enter close to the ground but immediately we climb up those buildings conceived as vantage points where to place the rooms oriented to the sea. Photography: Adrià Goula
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Josep MiĂ s & Partners | MiAS Architects Spain
Annexa-Joan Puigbert Primary School in Girona Girona, Spain Annexa-Joan Puigbert is the name of the school that occupies a T-shaped building from the 50s of the 20th century. Its main building lies along the main street, and in the middle point there is another building which is perpendicular. The building’s topographical position is strange, due to the steep hill where the school was built. The project proposes the demolition of the perpendicular building in order to achieve a complete continuity of the exterior space, from the pine forest in a higher level to the playground in the lowest area. The multipurpose room is integrated in this topography, in its longitudinal section. The coincidence of this added space on the terrain section with the main vertical access (interior stairs) allows to define and to discover a new space of visual connection between the existing building, the new gym and the outdoor playground. The stairs are left hanging, free of the surrounding concrete slabs, and are connected to a new vertical space, linked at the same time with the multipurpose room and the playground. Instead of putting the entire necessary programme in a new building, the existing building is refurbished with only normal classrooms, while the new one has the special ones. In this new building, there is space for technology classes, the library, IT and music classes, etc. It is attached to the neighbour wall, and not to the existing building, in order not to take out its personality. It gets connected to the old building in a single point. The new volume will be the new entrance of the centre, with stairs and lifts, apart from a natural access to the playground. A small tree covered outdoor space enhances the idea of the access. By moving the access to this point, it eases the routine of taking the children to school and picking them up. On the other hand, this new building can operate independently from the rest of the centre. Thus, it can offer night service or a more general public service. Both buildings are designed with a clear metallic skeleton. It is covered with industrial systems and materials. Indeed, this type of structure combined with prefabricated metallic panels (opaque or transparent) makes its construction a very agile process. Somehow, we can talk about the surgery in two cases. The first operation is to cut the existing perpendicular building in the most fragile section (the stairs) and to build the multipurpose room volume. The second operation is the physical relationship between the special classroom building and the existing one.
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Josep Miàs & Partners | MiAS Architects Spain
iGuzzini Illuminazione Spain Headquarters Barcelona, Spain iGuzzini does not belong to the ground on which it sits. Like a balloon, Leonidov’s aerostat, it will attempt to escape from this world, seeking a new sky. It will describe the conditions of the light, natural and artificial, in its interior, it will refer to its origins, recognizing a geometric order, but above all it will want to speak to us of aspirations. Moored to the ground, it belongs to this place, and to all other places. In reality there are forms that can only be drawn once, and buildings that can only be built once. The second time is a replica. We believe in this opportunity for iGuzzini. Because this form, imperfect, slightly deformed, belongs to the world of iGuzzini; its identification is easy, and not everyone can, with authority, appropriate this profile, this geometry. A light, a big world, a big atrium around a shared central court... where the sense of belonging is proudly made explicit. iGuzzini does not seek to boast of explicit technological innovation, since that would soon date it as new technologies rapidly superseded its own content. But it does seek to be an example of current development towards well-understood sustainability in both technological and energy terms. Our proposal seeks to exemplify, in architecture, the conditions closest to humankind, of collectivity, of ambition, of excellence... and to survive the passage of time because its origin is in the formal search that expresses such conditions. iGuzzini is located by one of the roadway hubs of Barcelona, in a fragile condition of stability on the site where it sits. Without modifying the topography, a large underground space is previously delimited, regular in form, providing for storage, parking, showroom, auditorium, technical services. Its roof is proposed as an exterior technical floor such that it works like an outdoor showroom. Atop this underground container emerges the company building, spherical in form though slightly deformed on the south side. A large central void, occupied by the single column from which the entire building is suspended, permits greater light and energy control inside. The spaces within the sphere are offices and, on the upper floors, research facilities. Photography: Adrià Goula
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Josep Miàs & Partners | MiAS Architects Spain
Rubí Market and Town Hall Offices Barcelona, Spain Rubí local market is in a central urban position. It is in a triangular plot, which gives the market the same shape. In the northern side, before the intervention, there was an excavated unbuilt and residual space which was not used. The project proposes building an underground two-storey parking, connected to the existing one. Over the new parking, the enlargement of the market is built. The project includes the refurbishment of the lower floors in order to integrate them into the parking, installing refrigerators and waste processors. This new square, over the underground parking, will be the new outdoors hall of the market. Its geometry tries to make the slope walkable and suitable as a public space. In addition, it is an extension of the commercial activities inside the market, giving enough space for fairs and occasional outdoor commercial events. With this project the market changes its orientation, having the main entrance in the square. So then, this extension is almost like a facade-building, with new city hall and market administration offices, which lies on the northern side of the plot. This building, then, occupies the frontal area, growing higher than the existing market so that it becomes something like a three level placard. On the ground floor, the building has commercial spaces related to the existent market activity, and the main access to the market and the underground parking. We have built a sort of urban beach, where people would lie and sunbathe, wander, play… It is a new topography made of sand and pavement that landmark a water building, something like a wavy front. This is a transparent blue building, where foam is still shining. It is almost a marine landscape, made of blue and grey, like the roof of the market, where water would be the main character too. Photography: Adrià Goula
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Josep Miàs & Partners | MiAS Architects Spain
Topographic House Barcelona, Spain The house lays along its longitudinal axis: the view on the landscape, towards the sea, is one of the most important values for the project, which unfolds itself and gets mixed with topography. The building is horizontal, elongated, sinuous, catching the landscape, moving delicately in order to obtain the best views, without shutting spaces. The project begins from the topographical understanding of the place. By re-drawing the countour lines, possible spaces to occupy appear, from the underground parking to the hanging planes of the studio. These curves, rising from the concrete retaining walls, lose weight, but still get visible and construct spaces through long overlaid metal beams. When beams are coincident, they build the horizontal structure, and through them, light is allowed to have a complete topographical perception. Curves flow all along the site, and get blurred in its limits. They get blended with topography. This house will be like a great window to frame the place, the sea and the village: a thin panoramic space where a more built arquitecture can be seen above, the studio. It has the most privileged views and it occupies the upper zone of the house. This big “skeleton” is coated of zinc, a very fabric-like material, that can be used in such zigzag shapes, on the stone areas and on walls which surround other spaces of the house. Photography: Adrià Goula, Jordi Anguera
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Larraz Arquitectos Spain
Nursery School in Pamplona Pamplona, Navarra, Spain The building is located at the NW side of the new neighborhood of Buztintxuri in Pamplona, within an area including three additional public buildings. The main axis of the plot is on a north-south direction. West orientation, where the main entrance is placed, is disturbed by the loud traffic noise generated in the nearby heavily used outer ring. The west facade acts as a boundary with the adjacent plot. Based upon these circumstances we decided to organize the building as a series of four parallel bodies in which fully built and empty areas are alternated. - A first body, accommodating administration and services, is placed at the outer public west side, and it accomplishes a filtering role against external noise. Access to the building through the main entrance takes place at one of the edges of this first body; a roofed conservatory and a small garden are sited in this area for the purpose of dignifying the way in. - The empty central space has an intense natural illumination through a skylight clearly emerging over the rest of the building. This generates a double height space that vertebrates the building as a whole: the corridor or meeting point that provides access to the various learning modules. Linearity of this space is interrupted by the kitchen and the central workshop that will try to catch the attention of the children. - A third body contents the infantile areas, grouped into four modules according to the children’s ages. In each module, optimum integration between classrooms, workshops, refectories, toilettes and bedrooms is searched in order to guarantee both proper and natural ventilation and illumination in every room. - Lastly, the external backyard is thought as a prolongation of the space of the classrooms through the opening of large windows. A two meters eaves allows the covered circulation at the same time so that it protects the classrooms from the summer sun. The orientation of the backyard guarantees not only the presence of the sun inside the building but also the desired privacy trying to avoid the external traffic. The use of different colours and textures (concrete, rubber, rolling stones, grass and wooded area) lets us create suggestive and varied playing spaces for children. The organization of the inner space of the classrooms as well as the design of the furniture has been planned taking into account both children’s and their educators’ different perceptions of spaces. On one hand, children’s activities are organized based upon several series of thematic “corners” perfectly adapted to their scale where they can develop different activities in a flexible way. As a result of this, massive and maladjusted spaces to work by groups of different sizes are avoided. On the other hand, educators must have children under visual control from any point of the classroom. Photography: Iñaki Bergera, José Manuel Cutillas
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Larraz Arquitectos Spain
Shelter Home for the Homeless Pamplona, Navarra, Spain The proposal defines a sound volume, able to assume with personality the intensity of use to which it is going to be subjected to, and being at the same time flexible in its functioning, where the interior configuration facilitates the coexistence among the different groups of users and allows for undertaking the different needs that are found in a relatively complex programme in spite of its limited space: bedrooms, dining rooms, occupational workshops, leisure rooms, etc.. A silent box is proposed, that protects its contents from the curiosity of the onlookers, and that adequately integrates its reduced scale in a semi-urban, bleak environment. The project has undertaken an exercise of careful contention in various levels: - Spatial: an extremely rational distribution is disposed, modulated and adjusted, where the programme of needs exhausts the meagre area at our disposal. - Formal: a discreet, sensible and contained architecture is proposed, with no room for fancies. - Economic and Temporal: the construction works where undertaken in the adjusted period of 6 months, at an amount of ₏870/m2. - Energetic: the building holds an A level energetic qualification. A central volume hosts the building’s services and installations. The distribution spaces surround this nucleus, and take to the centre’s living spaces, which are disposed in the exterior perimeter with the aim of benefiting from natural light and ventilation: bedrooms, workshops, dining rooms and leisure rooms. An exterior lattice conformed by aluminum profiles guarantees the desirable privacy of the users, and at the same time resolves the possible intrusion problems that may occur in such a centre, and configures an homogeneous and unitary exterior image, adapting the scale of the building to its environment. The building integrates two different uses: a user hostage service and a medium stay centre for stable homeless persons in the city. Although both groups live together in the same volume, the project must avoid interferences amongst both programmes, facilitating its functional independence. For this reason two independent accesses are proposed, through each of two opposed longitudinal facades.
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Luis Machuca & Associates Spain
Faculty Building, Málaga University Málaga, Spain We considered the project and its place as a part of the whole landscape. Looking north we find the skyline of the Málaga Mountains while on the south side the most diffuse city areas and the seashore can be seen. As the programme described a building – a complex for the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences – that includes both the School of Business and the School of Social Science and Labour, became evident that we would have to deal with big proportions. In spite of all this we wanted to design a building that can be read as a part of the topography. We treated the planning as an urban project, with the intention of creating a “place” within the university campus. The programme suggested a small city in which the continuity of the public spaces remains permanent once we have entered the complex. Streets, different volumes and environment, mixture of uses... we will find them all inside by discovering the building. The whole complex consists of three large rectangular blocks. This composition allows establishing pedestrian streets among them, which are parallel to the building and the campus roads as well. These interior streets have different roles, depending on the use of the blocks. The main passage is covered by the computer classrooms. This space becomes a part of the entrance hall as well, as it includes all the modules that integrate general services: lecture hall, library, cafeteria, rooms for group work, direction, management, and classrooms at different heights. The block of the departments enjoys the biggest independence; however, although the longitudinal way is the most prevailing, the block also helps the transversal communication by shortening the distance between different special volumes. The landscape, its topography with a north-to-south slope, and the inclined campus streets were determined from the beginning. This also made it possible that we can enter the building without having to pass the lower level. The result has a double advantage: from the main entrance the space dominates everything, furthermore allows the easy mobility of the users at this level of access where the activity of the complex is much higher. On the whole, three floors over the ground and one under it. The exterior appearance of the complex consists of rectangular pieces in which the horizontal component dominates the vertical one. Each part expresses outwardly the function that fulfils inside. The light in our city is so intense that the architecture does not require colours to identify itself; on the contrary, its control has to be one of the most important objectives in any project. The dominating colours of the project, gray and white, allow integrating the building into the landscape despite its huge dimensions. In the interior, the control of the light is important. This helps to create comfortable spaces that fit to the designated use. The classrooms receive light from the north; meanwhile both the library and the computer classrooms have skylights.
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Sol89 Spain
Training Centre of Town Hall Seville, Spain We could see the suburban blocks that originate in the neighborhood where the Training Centre is located as if they were a single constructive fact. We would discover then a labyrinth of unexpected and surprising spaces that have been adhering to one another in a hazardous way over time. Setbacks that blur the line between the public and the private, linked patios hollowing out the block, intermediate floor plans, spontaneous gardens, ambiguous places between the exterior and the interior, winding paths, condensed urban events on the built mass that have arisen from the unplanned accumulation. In our case, the existing gap and the obligation to adapt to the morphology of the block allow us to explore this resource where the floor plan notion is diluted by a continuous path that links the different theoretical spaces, related to facade, with the perched workshops around the interior void. As if we could plot the possible section that the picture of the House of Mirrors at Clarence Schmidt at Woodstock hides or the path that Monsieur Hulot describes walking around his house in Mon Oncle from Jacques Tati, broken sections appear where each space is where it must be beyond structural efficiencies or regulatory limits. The Training Centre offers a labyrinth of spaces that face each other joined by a continuous path, diagonal views, places that involve other places, diluting the relationship between the interior and the exterior, situations of density, which like in the unplanned plot, accumulate spatial events and mix uses. Photography: Fernando Alda
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Unia Arquitectos Spain
SPEE Sevilla Sevilla, Spain The new building for the Service of State Employment in Sevilla is located north of the city within San Jeronimo district. The site has an area of 3226 m² and is bounded by streets recently executed by the current planning, and the rear of the houses in the streets behind. The new building completes the block of suburban housing in the area, and is inserted into the industrial surrounding. This tissue is made up of factory buildings from previous decades, and new warehouses currently under construction. This part of the city is in a frantic development. The imminent opening of the north access highway Sevilla-la Rinconada will connect the building to the rest of the city. The program develops an administrative surface of 3,200 m² approximately. This surface is divided into three main areas for Provincial Management, Benefits and Provincial Secretary. Benefits and Provincial Secretary areas are located on ground floor and first floor respectively, and they form a transparent container which is the main volume of the building. The rest of the ground floor contains the rooms for the Provincial Secretary, public service spaces and Syndicates, all are around a small courtyard. The scheme of circulation and operation of the building poses easily with clearly differentiated spaces. The setback of the stainless steel facade on the ground floor protects the access of the visitors to the building. Once inside, the entrace hall opens into a courtyard which organizes the circulation of the groundfloor around itself. The connections among different areas are generated in that way. The waiting areas are located on top of each other connected by the main staircase. The staircase opens into a double height that accompanies the inclination of the roof. The entire project is built with prefabricated materials, which require less energy cost for their production, shorten lead times and minimize solid waste on site. Structure, walls and floors are made of reinforced concrete with larger thermal inertia, becoming natural accumulators and heat radiators. The courtyards in the development of the building allow all the spaces have cross ventilation and natural lighting.
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Virai Arquitectos Spain
Institutional Winery “La Grajera” Logroño, La Rioja, Spain The project seeks an equilibrium between the need to announce the presence of the winery and the desire to merge with the landscape: the volumes follow the deformations of the land and are interrupted, moving towards the forest, remaining close to its border and thus respecting the existing vegetation. A large semi-basement foundation in sandstone, which houses the production area of the winery, bends and rises to become an element of the building and to turn into an element of the landscape. Before this massive construction, the institutional part of the winery is materialized in a light, amplified body in glass and dark ceramic. The third volume, a small tower housing offices, completes and closes the building, helping to create the pedestrian square that gives access to the different areas: a piazza that is open to the forest, to the landscape and to the panorama. The presence of two entrances on different heights makes it possible for the winery to remain partly below ground, exploiting the slope of the land; this favours many aspects of the manufacturing process, as for instance the constant temperature of the ground and the use of gravity or natural ventilation. The materials chosen change from the bright exterior to the interior in dark stone, in a didactic itinerary along which it is possible to participate in all the phases of wine brewing, from the growing of grapes to the tasting of the product. The building aims to find simple bioclimatic solutions that harmonize with the climate and with the location. The inhabitable areas face south, and protect the areas dedicated to production and fermentation, which remain underground and covered by the hill, thus reducing the need for air conditioning. The inclined roof is covered by vegetation which, apart from helping the building merge with the landscape, increases the thermal insulation. The orientation and section of the winery make it possible to guarantee a natural ventilation of the building, and reduce the need of mechanical ventilation for the industrial process. Photography: José Manuel Cutillas
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Virai Arquitectos Spain
Secondary School in Miranda de Ebro Burgos, Spain The project extends and completes an existing school building in Miranda de Ebro. The school is located in the outskirts of the city of Burgos, adopting the L-form inside a squared plot. The new proposal extends the continuity of the existing form. The overall project is therefore understood as a unity created in two parts. Continuity, versatility and communication are the key words of the proposal. A lightweight body that contains the stairs connects both parts. The overall proposal closes with a U-form around the courtyard, and opens into the main street. The fourth side of the parcel opens to the city and protecting itself by a row of trees. The project brings spaces together according to the needs and uses of each moment. Therefore the existing spaces are reorganized and related directly to the new areas.
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Kopper Architektur Austria
Research Centre for Molecular Medicine Vienna, Austria After the construction of the first research lab located outside of the main building in the 1980s, the Anna Spiegel Research Building, together with the Centre of Translational Research of Med Uni Wien, the Medical University of Vienna, and CeMM of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, located on the premises of AKH, Vienna General Hospital, is, for the time being, the culmination of urban development in the eastern part of the site. The site, which is now used for the Anna Spiegel Research Building, has for many years been designated for the construction of a new dentistry clinic. It was not until the rehabilitation and extension of the dentistry clinic on the existing premises was officially agreed that the area was becoming available for new types of use in the late 1990s. After that, studies were carried out in order to determine the actual type of use, with approximately two thirds of the land being assigned to MUW, the Medical University of Vienna, and one third being assigned to OAW, the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The aim in this context was to accommodate the two functions in two independent and autonomous buildings while at the same time emphasizing the synergies generated by the use of joint structures. The original starting point was a joint lab structure based on a totally symmetrical triple-hipped formula; yet in the course of the development and of the definitions of use, the two buildings each developed in their own direction. Due to the urban-development location right at the hub of the exactly-arranged axis system of AKH and Spitalgasse, a street heading north-east with a slant, to which the entire eastern area with its 1910 buildings bears reference, the eastern facade of CeMM has seen consistent moulding-intoshape, further emphasized by the superstructure imposed on an existing air-intake building. This eastern facade which, in architectural terms, was always designed as a membrane to which the longitudinal facades are adjacent, has seen the realization of a work of art by Peter Kogler which is totally in line with the architectural contents, i.e. the design of appr. 400 sqm of facade area provided with cellular structures. With its terraces and inclined facades, the implementation of the top facilities as a seminar and communication zone provides a clear-cut reference to the inherent functions, meaning that any formal focus remains firmly rooted in the functional aspect at all times. Photography: Bruno Klomfar, Sebastian Schubert
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Zechner & Zechner ZTGmbH Austria
Stella Zwei Residential Building Viertel ZweI, Vienna, Austria Stella Zwei is located near the centre of town in attractive metropolitan surroundings. Alongside great infrastructure and good transport connections, it offers a range of open air spaces. The external form of the building is defined by the non-uniform placement of loggias, some of which are planned to span two storeys. The loggias are bright spaces cut into the anthracite grey box, and this creates a playful and varied facade. Consistently executed reflections of the floor plans, which result in changes in the positioning of the loggias, create an outward illustration of these contrasts on the facade. The facade can be read as a picture of the spatial configurations behind. The entire facade is a game between dark and light, inside and outside. This is expressed in the chosen materials: The facade is in dark-grey eternit, the air spaces and the loggias in white render. This creates an inverted black and white picture between inside and outside, a positive-negative effect. The twists and reflections increase the affinity of the occupants for their living space. In this way, one’s own apartment is understood as an individualised element within a system of apartments. The ground floor design is an inset base that is transparent towards the lake. Along with shared facilities like the waste disposal room, and storage rooms for bikes and children’s buggies, there are offices with modern equipment. A glass lobby that traverses the entire floor provides open vistas and access to the seven residential floors. The top floor is recessed, and will be covered with bright aluminium panels, as an interesting contrast to other floors. This step back reduces the apparent height of the building and creates large terraces for the penthouse apartments. Photography: Thilo Härdtlein
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CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects Germany
House R Karlsruhe, Germany The house is located at the “Stadtgarten� (city park) in the centre of Karlsruhe. The property once was a part of a northern situated villa. A pavilion which belongs to the historic ensemble is part of the wall, which encloses property at three sides. The 4-storey single family house is reached via a forecourt and a ramp. The main entrance on the northern side and a second entrance via the carport lead to the entrance area. The storeys are connected by an open stairway and an elevator. North side ramp and the integration of an elevator refer to demographic development and possible handicap. Entrance area, home office, double-height living room with a kitchen and a dining area are settled on the ground floor; gallery as a more private living area, two children’s rooms with dressing room and bathroom on the first floor; the attic floor with a roof terrace on three sides is reserved for the parents. It is not divided into rooms; the individual functional devices (bed, washbasin, bath tub, bathroom-box and dressing area) are accordingly loft kind arranged. Cross-ventilation is via automatically controlled louver windows. The glass areas are equipped with exterior sun protection, which screens the residents from view at the same time. Because of night cooling and exterior sun protection, it was not necessary to install an air condition system. The thermal mass of the concrete walls functions as a cooling storage and cools the rooms throughout the day. By the employment of triple glazed windows, highly effective insulation and a solar thermal system, an energetically optimized building could be realized. Photography: Thomas Herrmann
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CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects Germany
House S Wiesbaden, Germany This specific construction assignment is a central topic of today’s urban development: the roof area as building site which can be covered with independent buildings – urban compression by utilization of roof areas as valuable building land. Thereby the architect is always confronted with the question of how to handle with the existing building in a contemporary sense. House S, a 60’s bungalow, was built by interior architect Wilfried Hilger for himself and his family. Due to space limitations, the new owners, a family of four, decided to heighten the existing bungalow and furthermore to renovate the basic structure. To keep the bungalow’s typical character, three single boxes were placed on a cantilevered flat roof, which are connected only by a glass corridor. The new structure creates zones with different qualities: in the south-west a meadow with a small apple tree, in the north a stone paved courtyard with a pine tree and in the east a roof terrace with a magnolia. On one of the new boxes the master bedroom, dressing room and bathroom are located. The two other boxes function as personal living room and home office for the landlords. On the first floor nearly all walls and installations were removed, so that a large living room could be created. An open kitchen was placed in the midst of that living area. This floor additionally includes the children’s rooms with dressing room and bathroom. On the ground floor a guest room and an additional apartment is located. By the use of triple glazed windows and highly effective insulation an energetically optimized building could be realized. Photographey: Thomas Herrmann
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Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten Germany
Haus der Essener Geschichte Essen, Germany The project comprises the reconstruction of the listed Luisenschool to be used as a library, an administration and an exhibition area and also the new construction of an archive building. The accurate design of the new building and also the sensitive handling of the old building were of paramount importance. By doing so, the Luisenschool turns into focus of education and history. The overlapping utilization of school-library-archive-exposition demonstrates a special quality and offers new opportunities. The corten steel tables, which cover the new archive, are made of a material that constantly alters and protects itself by corrosion. It communicates the change of time, appears protective and alludes to the background of the City of Essen. Photography: Deimel & Wittmar
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Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten Germany
Research & Sports Hall of Humboldt University Berlin, Germany The Humboldt University (HU) Berlin and the CharitÊ University Medical. Faculty Berlin found the Centre of Sports Science and Sports Medicine. Berlin (CSSB). The CSSB is the only interdisciplinary establishment for sports science and sports medicine in Germany. The CSSB attends to fundamental research and development as well as appliance and teaching. While studying analysis, prevention and training or regeneration and rehabilitation the CSSB stands for interdisciplinary research in an excellent level. Humanities, natural sciences and medicine associate here in direct synergy. The research sports hall of HU is the new core of the applied sports research of the CSSB. The project financed only by an economic stimulus package was handed over to the operator, the Centre of Sports Science and Sports Medicine Berlin (CSSB), in 2011. The faculty researches many facets of general and high-performance sports. Research objective is the improvement of training procedures to an optimum. In addition to a triple sized sports hall, the research facility also contains specifically equipped areas such as rooms for regeneration, rehabilitation, exercise, gymnastics and dance. The highly sensitive measuring and camera technology in every section of the hall requires heavy demands on low-vibration construction, soundproofing, colouring and surface. The horizontal arrangement of the solitary structure and the facade gives information on the interior spatial relation and structures the new building’s mass. An at-grade access, which leads straightforward to the user area, was the premise in the organization. The transparent facade on the ground floor gives visitors an insight into the internal procedure. The locker rooms, the multi-media room and the area of research are reachable through the foyer. The sport area is located on the upper floor. The first floor receives a prefabricated concrete facade, which stands in contrast to the transparent ground floor. By applying high-efficient technology, triple glazing and highly insulated components, the energy demand is minimized to passive house standard. Photography: Rainer Gollmer
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Pablo Horváth Architekt SIA/SWB Switzerland
Apartment Buildings J. Buff St. Moritz, Switzerland What kind of building “style” should be used in the Alps? This question has been persistently answered with a combination of Engdin houses and “jumbo chalets” since the 1960s. However, another alternative tradition, which became popular in Engadin around 1870, after disastrous fires in Zernez and Lavin, has a more contemporary appeal. Builders from the south imported tall houses with elegant proportions, upright window shapes, and flat roofs to the high valley. The two new tower-like houses on the western periphery of St. Moritz have been constructed according to this tradition. Here, they are able to resist the architectural carrying to a supposedly foreign taste. The two houses are slightly staggered, relative to one another, so that neither block the other one’s sunlight, nor obstruct the view. Combined with the warm grey plaster of the facades, the French windows, with white metal frames and aluminium blinds, conspire to lend the houses a reserved appearance. The prominent, large-scale panorama windows on the corners of the building also bear witness to a historical tradition. They represent the contemporary interpretation of the socalled “balcun tort”, the false balcony, in the language of modern architecture. One enters the building via an entrance hall in the foundation plinth, which spans both towers; the hall also acts as an expansive foyer. The funnel-shaped skylights spread daylight around the entrance hall, while the parking lots are illuminated by artificial light from the showcases on the walls. The diversive apartments always span an entire floor, and are aligned to all four points of the compass. Thus, every apartment offers an unhindered view of the village, the lake, the French Church and the Margna.
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Pablo Horváth Architekt SIA/SWB Switzerland
Grisons College of Education Chur, Switzerland The Grisons College of Education built in 1981 to 1994 was extended by annex building including a library and two lecture halls. The formative characteristic of the building ensemble is a concrete structure in combination with roughly-cut formwork. The same basic principle was followed by the design for the new annex building, which therefore tries to extend the overall ensemble. First was to clarify the so far undefined end of the “parking spaces” in the triangle of the existing buildings and the street. The sculptural form of the new building is a link of different levels of the site. Towards the road, the shape is a one-storey pavilion and with the look and feel of a two- or three-storey building towards the existing structure of other school buildings. Here the buildings form a space alike an inner courtyard, which is serving as a terrace or a small schoolyard. This underlines the tension between these different scales in the architectural language and the different levels of the site. The sculptural form of the building continues down to the level of the small recesses in the facade and the design of the windows. The absence of a surrounding metal roof edge and the finishing of the concrete construction emphasize the impression of a sculptured monolith. The large column-free space of the library is contrast in terms of room height, divided into sections by means of: student work area indirectly lit from elevated windows, the lower location of the bookshelves and the centrally located lending area. The windows function from this perspective as interior decoration features, summarizing the landscape frieze of the nearby Montalin mountain ranges. The smooth white wall surfaces allow the cubic room forms to emerge and reflect the light far into the interior. This white lining surface creates here and in other parts of the complex a neutral light-flooded atmosphere conducive to concentrated work. At the same time the characteristics of this white lining material conform to current standards of insulation and interior space, supporting the simple forms of the spaces. As part of the new building on two terrace levels of the school complex the project also renewed sports fields and the existing lane access route from the street to the main building and the area down to the new road. Along this route are now arrayed with the new mediatheque and the integrated campus facility complex.
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Damilano Studio Architects Italy
Gazoline Petrol Station Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy The design of a service station is a strong reference to the idea of travel, short- or long-distance routes interrupted only by a few stops and then back on the road. A break for refuelling, or just to stretch a bit “legs� before continuing one’s journey. With the same continuity, the service station is separated from the asphalt like a ribbon of road with the engine and wrapping around itself, creating a temporary volume to accommodate travellers. The tape then sinks back into the ground to continue to other destinations. The architecture of the service station, as usually conceived as a mere support function, thus acquires a shape. The architecture, static by definition, becomes closely linked to the concept of continuous flow that envelops and becomes the urban landscape without interruption. The shell reinforced concrete, cast in special molds fluidized is closed by glass walls, distributed within the office manager and a self-service, separate bathrooms from the block in central position. On the rear elevation red steel block is detached from the body and a wolf howling, illuminated at night, draws attention to the urgent needs. Photography: Andrea Martiradonna
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Damilano Studio Architects Italy
Oficina Vidre Negre Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy Oficina Vidre Negre was born as a contemporary sculpture, a symbol of a dynamic and continuous development with the need for strong identification, even in terms of image. In a context of peripheral node of the motorway, the building is set within a park, planted with native species, in which a sort of town square accompanies to the entrance. The dynamism of the client is shown in architecture, volume changing, a prism completely covered in black glass faceted and integrated photovoltaic panels. The structure is reflected in the wide expanse of water over the stage function, and is the reserve of water for fire-fighting system and irrigation of the park. The decomposition of the volume remains in the interior, intersected a sequence of spaces on four staggered levels, illuminated by more than cuts and side windows. In plan the building is on the east-west, in two wings separated by a central block of facilities (stairs, toilets and bars). Operating areas are designed as open-space, while the executive offices, the private sector, are rested in the east of the building, projecting to the outside and suspended in a vacuum. The basement, with conference rooms and parking spaces are lit by large windows to which the green is sucked into chasms of ballast contained in rocks. Photography: Andrea Martiradonna
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Studio Marco Piva Italy
Move Hotel Mogliano, Veneto, Italy Sober elegance, natural materials and inviting spaces set the tone at the new four-star Move Hotel at Mogliano, Veneto. The innovative hotel structure created by DHK in collaboration with Studio Marco Piva is strategically located just a few kilometres from the Mestre by-pass and the airports of Venice and Treviso, immersed in the tranquil countryside of Trevigiano and surrounded by fascinating Venetian villas. It is characterized by a dynamic arc structure naturally encompassing the surrounding area and with only two floors, thereby reducing the impact on the countryside and existing buildings to a minimum. The careful selection of the materials covering the facades, such as grey veined stone and wood and the landscaping which uses plants and indigenous substances, ensures that the architectural structure is in complete harmony with the surrounding environment. The interior design was carried out by the architect Marco Piva, except restaurant and bar developed by Studio Bam Design. The main element of the project was the development of a formal continuity between the structure and the surrounding area, with a focus on light colours and natural materials, in harmony with the surrounding green areas, to create a pleasant, welcoming and elegant environment. Move Hotel has 203 rooms. The rooms located on the ground floor enjoy a small private area around the external part of the hotel or look towards the internal garden, where privacy is ensured by the separating elements in natural wood. In the hotel lobby light plays a leading role: from a height of 12 metres in the imposing entrance way, tubular lamps are suspended in the void with natural light filtering abundantly in from the large glass facades, characterizing the common areas of the ground floor.
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Markus Scherer Italy
Winery Nals Margreid Nals, Bozen, Italy Nals is located at the bottom of the “Sirmianer” hill embedded in scenery of wine and fruit. The porphyry walls of the mountain ridge break through this grape landscape and form a strong contrast to the lovely scenery of wine with their dark browned colour. The desire to merge the two places of production “Margreid” and “Nals” and to expand the wine production in Nals requires an advance in the capacities considering the oenological sophisticated processing of the grapes. The new arrangement of the functions has been put into practice through the realization of a new head end structure for the delivery and cellaring of the grapes with an adjoining vinification tower, a large new underground cellar, as well as a new barrel cellar into the court and a spanning far cantilevering roof panel. The two central parts of the winery open up towards the main court and provide visitors with an insight into the barrel cellar and the vinification tower. The new main building with a socket zone is built up of brown red coloured insulating concrete, which forms a chromatic unit with the bordering cemetery consisting of porphyry stones as well as the porphyry cliff of the Sirmianer hill. The convolution on the bottom side of the shingle follows the static forcelines and creates a braced surface like an origami. The barrel cellar is placed into the court like an oversize case of wine, according to this it is a wooden structure. Inside, the whole winemaking process and the infrastructure that supports it are on display. The concept treats barrique casks, steel reservoirs, and grape presses as equally representative of the process of winemaking. The new materials are left naturally, so they blend harmoniously into the overall setting and thus correspond with the basic ideology of the product manufactured: independent, honest and authentic. Photography: Bruno Klomfar
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Studio Ricatti Italy
Diesel Headquarters Breganze, Vicenza, Italy The new Diesel Headquarters can be defined as a low-rise hybrid building which keeps together different functional programmes: offices, warehouses, exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a kindergarten, a canteen, a fitness centre in addition to covered car parking and technological plants. The result is a small creative town whose community shares working spaces but also common ones, those where emerge the full meaning of working together and sharing different skills. We conceived the intervention as a real urban project, crossed by streets and articulated into several squares: the result is a state of exceptional functional density within the scattered sprawl that characterizes the entire region. The project deals not only with programmatic and formal issues but also with energetic necessities. The building results strongly sustainable thanks to the reduction of energy needs, the use of renewable resources, the recover of energy and the increased efficiency of the technical systems. We followed the same logic for the choice of the cladding: we were looking for a material able to ensure sustainability and superlative esthetic qualities. Copper resulted to be far better than any other. Copper cladding led us to stress the formal abstraction that we used in the volumetric composition. Moreover its reddish vibrant tonality suggests a convincing chromatic dialogue with the surrounding green areas, this simply combining complementary colours. Copper confers elegance, sobriety, and a sense of durability: it is an ancient material, whose gradual aging becomes an additional quality. Finally, the possibility of being recycled and the low emissions of the production process contributed to achieve a highly sustainable cladding solution. Photography: Daniele Domenicali, Aerodata (aerial views)
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