Studio Gang: Architecture

Studio Gang Architecture

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Studio Gang: The Architecture of Ingenuity Mohsen Mostafavi

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Introduction Jeanne Gang

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Interview: Jeanne Gang and Ann Lui

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Project Credits

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Index

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Biographies

RHYTHM

FLOW

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Chicago River Boathouses

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City Hyde Park

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Campus North Residential Commons

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MIRA (280 Spear Street)

UP IN THE CANOPY 160

Writers Theatre

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Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre

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University of Chicago Center in Paris

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TOWARD TERRESTRIAL Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History Lavezzorio Community Center

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Aqua Tower

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Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

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Global Terminal at O’Hare International Airport

WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF?

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Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo

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Arkansas Arts Center

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Ford Calumet Environmental Center

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New Academic Building at Kresge College

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Studio Gang Rooftop Ecosystem

BEYOND TRANSPARENT 216

Solstice on the Park

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Marble Curtain for Masonry Variations

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Stage Buoys for Here Hear Chicago

Solar Carve (40 Tenth Avenue)

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Tour Montparnasse

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Hive for Summer Block Party

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Vista Tower

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Stone Stories for Dimensions of Citizenship

Divided into a hotel, apartments, and condominiums, the tower’s lively mixed-use function continues in the podium, which includes lobbies, retail space, a hotel ballroom, and offices. The building’s social hub is at the third level, where indoor amenity spaces open onto large outdoor gardens atop the podium. At street level, elevators and two large stairways connect pedestrians to a 6-acre (2.4-hectare) public park and the riverfront and lake beyond.

In a city known for high-rise innovation, Aqua makes a new contribution: taking up the traditional means of structure and rationally derived form to demonstrate the urban potential of sinuous, luminous curves.

Below and opposite: Ripples in sand demonstrate the physics of flow (below). Their wavy pattern, generated by wind and water acting on grains of sand, initiates with irregularities in the sediment that cause small dune formations to grow. As the mini dunes build up, their opposite sides become increasingly sheltered, thereby suppressing the form. This balance between initiation and suppression creates the regular distance between the ridges—determining the overall pattern.

Aqua’s rippling facade (opposite) makes the physical flow of concrete visible, but the tower’s patterns are informed by the qualitative criteria of human desire, such as access to sunlight and views, not just pure physics. The design first translated these desires into a topography of peaks and valleys across the building’s face, then layered them over the individual floor slabs at regular intervals before smoothing, bifurcating, and migrating the forms to create the final, expressive pattern.

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FLOW

Aqua Tower

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These new connections are emphasized by the flowing lines of the addition’s folded-plate roof structure and wood ceiling. At its south end, paths branch out from a new outdoor terrace to continue the architecture’s geometry, leading visitors through a sculpture garden and large meadow planted with native vegetation. Over time, new trees will bring more shade and lushness to the site, merging with the existing canopy to form a parkland forest. Rain will reveal an additional connection between building and ecosystem, when stormwater channeled by the roof’s pleats will cascade into bioswale gardens and flow into the landscape beyond.

Opposite: The roof form uses clerestories, cascading levels, and a folded structure to bring light into the building and channel rainwater. Inside, the roof’s flowing directionality guides visitors into new galleries for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions on the second level and into education and theater spaces on the ground floor.

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TOWARD TERRESTRIAL

CULTURAL LIVING ROOM

Below: As shown in this section cut through the central spine, the building steps down with the slope of the site. The roof elements and their deep overhangs shelter people and spaces from the sun’s direct heat. At the building’s north end, the roof lifts upward to announce a transparent “Cultural Living Room,” a gathering space on the second floor. The new entry below reveals and revives the museum’s original 1937 facade. At the south end of the building, the roof greets visitors arriving to the new park-side entry.

COURTYARD

1937 BUILDING

Arkansas Arts Center

LECTURE

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THEATER

RESTAURANT

Writers Theatre

LOCATION Glencoe, Illinois, USA COMPLETION 2016

The design of this professional theater responds both to its site among giant oak trees in a sleepy, Tudor-style village, and the desire of its contemporary theater company to play an active role in the life of the community. Drawing on the traditions of street theater and the open-air courtyards that hosted plays during the time of Shakespeare in the late sixteenth century, the building is conceived as an atmospheric hub where new encounters occur and urban drama is drawn out of the leafy setting.

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SIZE 36,000 sq ft (3,345 m2) CLIENT Writers Theatre

UP IN THE CANOPY

Opposite: Located between two parks on a primary street that borders the village’s downtown, the theater is oriented to be visible from all major approaches. It is also designed to complement the scale and materiality of its context—in particular, the forested area’s many timber and plaster homes and commercial buildings.

Writers Theatre

Below: The modern thrust stage evolved from the informal, intimate setting of medieval performances in urban streets and, later, openair courtyards of inns (bottom).

Writers Theatre is designed to bring that urban energy to its lobby (top), which doubles as a civic gathering space.

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Left: A concept model experimented with how the Memphis cobblestones could enter and transform the space of the U.S. Pavilion, creating a tactile topography where visitors could feel the city’s materiality beneath their feet while discovering its stories.

Below: Conversations and hands-on working sessions with stone carvers and masons led to the final set of techniques used to transfigure the cobblestones.

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WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF?

To test the potential of the landing to perform in this way, the project team interviewed a diverse group of Memphis citizen leaders to learn about their stories and visions for the city’s future. A set of cobblestones was then transformed using various techniques, both high- and low-tech, to interpret the core message of each person and to assemble a range of material strategies that could be used on a larger scale to modify the landing in the future. Simultaneously, hundreds of cobblestones were transported to the pavilion in Venice, where they formed a sloping platform that Biennale visitors could walk across as they viewed the transfigured stones and other exhibit materials.

All of the cobblestones have now returned to Memphis.

Carrying with them new meaning and global awareness, they are ready to be used by Memphians to craft the next phase in the life of their city.

Stone Stories for Dimensions of Citizenship

Above: The nine transformed stones reveal unexpected material potential as they embody the unique stories of the citizens they represent.

The techniques used range from simple, low-tech treatments to advanced digital fabrication, including hand carving, fracturing, sandblasting, robotic milling, and pigmented-limewash application.

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Vista Tower

LOCATION Chicago, Illinois, USA COMPLETION Estimated 2020

When complete, Vista will be the third-tallest building in Chicago—but this mixed-use tower is designed to achieve more than altitude. Conceived as urban infrastructure as well as dwelling space, its architecture defines a new edge of the city along the Chicago River and creates pedestrian connections that open up public access to the revitalized waterfront.

Three interconnected volumes make up the tower. These “stems” are offset in plan and move rhythmically in and out of plane to achieve the alternating geometry that lends Vista its overall flowing appearance. Composed of stacked, twelve-story frustums (or truncated pyramids), the stems nest together, which results in a tall building with eight corners instead of four, providing inhabitants with daylight, fresh air, and views from multiple orientations.

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SIZE 1,900,000 sq ft (176,510 m2) CLIENT Wanda Group and Magellan Development Group

Below: Two sketches compare form and texture. Vista Tower’s stepping tapers and swells are accentuated by tonality (left); and the bark texture pattern of a coconut palm (Cocos nucifera, right) yields to and expresses its growth and form.

Opposite: The tower during construction, seen from the bank of the Chicago River.

BEYOND TRANSPARENT

Vista Tower

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