THE AMBIENT EXCHANGE BY SYNTHETIQUES AND MINUS ARCHITECTURE STUDIO {MAS}

Libraries are increasingly the places in which culture is produced as well as collected and disseminated.  The Ambient Exchange promotes a culture of collaboration, creative inquiry and community engagement through provision of functional and exuberant spaces that engage the strong cultural and craft traditions of the Finnish built environment.

The Ambient Exchange engages its incredible site, and the broader city, by placing its cultural and shared amenities at the level of the park and the street.  The building is treated as an extension of the site topography, pulling people up into the spaces that encourage interaction and collaboration among the various users. 

Views of the Parliament and cultural amenities of the city drive the library’s formal and functional arrangements. The proposed structural system is predominantly cross-laminated timber panels.  These panels are milled to both exude the inherent warmth of wood, and to absorb and translate the varying patterns of weather systems. 

The result is a continuously changing interior luminous environment that responds to both the activities of the users in the various collaborative spaces and the daylighted quiet spaces for reading and study that animate the perimeter. Ramping floors with platforms for meeting rooms, collection, and other programmatic spaces promote easy circulation for both the patrons and library materials. 

The open plan spaces, accentuated by nodes for meeting, teaching, learning and interaction, reinforce the library as a space for collaboration and the development of new ideas.  Visitors to the library will easily navigate the project, discovering the programs and opportunities provided by this most public of cultural institutions.

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Architect: Synthetiques and minus Architecture studio {MAS}

Principals: Joshua M. Taron (Synthetiques), Jason S. Johnson (minusArchitecture Studio)

Project Team: Jodi James, Matthew Parker, Mahdiar Gaffarian, Erin Faulkner de Gordillo, Bahareh Fathi

Year: 2012

Competition: Helsinki Public Library

CASABLANCA MARKET SQUARE BY TOMDAVID ARCHITECTEN

November 2012 First Prize winner [AC-CA] international architectural competition which aims at designing a New Sustainable Market Square in Casablanca, Morocco.

We combine indigenous techniques for shelter and heat control, the accountability of it’s residence and innovative low-maintenance materials. In this way, we create an efficient and pragmatic icon for the next generation market which serves as a catalyst for improvement.

The shape of the canopy refers to nature, providing shade and shelter like a tree. The overlapping of the canopy-leaves ensures the cascading drain of the rainwater and allows air circulation.

The curved concrete forms of the design are both a tribute to modern Casablanca architecture from the 50s as an endorsement of the beauty of the female form, as a nod to the dominant male culture on the street.

How to define sustainability in the broader context of the reality of Casablanca?
 
Besides solely as a design-tool, in this case sustainability should be a societal journey. This journey brought about by acquiring new awareness and perceptions, by generating new solutions, activating new behavioural patterns and, hence, cultural change. This process must be seen as a positive development under the responsibility of the local residents to increase economic, social and ecological capital.

In our design proposal therefore, our sustainable contribution is twofold. First by using low-tech techniques to collect and reuse rainwater to flush the toilets, clean the market-floor and applying evaporate cooling by using the heat of the sun and the wind to freshen the air under the roof.

Second, to be sure sustainability will be a collective agenda, negative environmental impact must be eliminated. By implementing a refuse and waste handling system for the market and using low-maintenance materials, liveability and durability will be improved.

Location: Casablanca, Morocco
Architect: Tom Van Odijk, Alexine Sammut, David Baars
Year: 2012
Award: First Prize Competition [AC-CA]

SKATING TRAIL PAVILION BY LATERAL OFFICE

The Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail is a Guinness World Record-holding longest naturally frozen skating trail in the world. It begins at the heart of the city, The Forks and managed by the Festival du Voyageur, the river trail is a winter family tradition.

Concept/Strategy
This “warming hut” for the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail is inspired by snow- fences as a northern landscape management structure. However, rather than a barrier, this interpretation of the snow-fence is manipulated to be both a protective space and a playful passage.

The linear fence is splayed, warped, and wrapped to create a threshold to the river trail. It serves as a transition from snow and boots to ice and skates. Drift-Pass maintains a powerful dialogue with its environment and its visitors, with snowdrift leaving a trace of its figure on the snow and ice.

Response / Occupation

In homage to the snow fence, a lattice of CNC-milled plywood is finished in a bright orange, which signals both safety and warmth. The structure is partially wrapped in industrial grade felt, recycled from woolen fabrics. The felt envelopes the interior of spaces to block out wind and to create a soft, warm space of rest and transition.

Segments of the fence are cupped to face east or west privileging morning or evening sun exposure or protection from wind to create micro-climates within it. Benches line the interior pocket spaces, as well as some exteriors of structures to make Drift-Pass ideal for warming up, winter play and people-watching.

Drift-Pass has a deceptive, shape-shifting reading, it can seem at once as a closed or permeable figure. In plan, it is open and inviting to slalom through and within. In elevation it is more closed and intimate, with a series of small-scale interlocked spaces.

Construction

Drift-Pass is comprised of two materials: 1⁄2” thick industrial felt, and 1⁄2” thick plywood. The inter- locked plywood structure gives the pavilion its rigidity, while the felt lends it warmth and intimacy.

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Architects: Lateral Officewith Kristiina Lahde

Project Team: Mason White, Lola Sheppard, Kristiina Lahde, Matthew Spremulli, Sophia Panova

Year: 2012-13

Competition: International Warming Hut v.2013

HOUSE OF THE FUTURE - HAUS DER ZUKUNFT

The proposal for the “House Of The Future / Haus der Zukunft” in Berlin responds to Berlin’s strict urban context: the concept of the “urban block” is touched upon and developed further. The building is partially lifted off the ground, and takes up the general building height of common Berlin housing.

The ground floor level is characterized by large open spaces allowing for direct and dynamic circulation. The ground floor area of ​​the building acts as an buffer zone between the neighboring hospital, the harbor and the river Spree. The landscaping and shaped pathways offer a manifold experience of the green zone, which is an integral part of the building’s appearance. The outdoor areas invite people to stay - a small open-air stage offers additional possibilities for spatial programming.

The fluid ground floor concept takes users into the open and dynamic spaces of the building’s inside. The urban block features three-dimensional cuts on the side facing the park, which creates a contemporary, clear structure, blurring the boundaries between exterior and interior. The cuts draw the user into the interior of the building, both to revive the city space and to create naturally emerging entrance situations.

The ground floor is divided into three regions: First the lobby providing the main entrance, orientated towards the Alexanderufer street, from where all areas of the building can be accessed. Second the café which is interwoven with the park space and third the staff and delivery zone towards the busy Margarete-Steffin Street. Upon entering the lobby the spatial program opens up in a natural way: the building-high atrium space provides clarity, visual connections and guidance.

It allows for reaching the floor above, where the event area, a special exhibition and the internal office area are located. The top floor houses the main show, the gallery spaces and theme islands. Here, an additional lighting through skylights in the ceiling area is provided. The floor plan provides flexible spaces for different types of use. The perforation of the wall creates vistas and offers a fantastic view over the city.The facade of the building consists of a metal skin, which gives the building’s form a homogeneous appearance.

The spaces within the wall are filled with glass and solar modules, which feed the household energy system - a link in a regional smart grid system is possible, which is a urban energy storage offering the possibility to deliver and to store on the fly. Therewith the HdZ acts as didactic interface for a futuristic smart grid technology. The spherical shaped bottom side of the building consists of a fully mirrored surface to lead bright daylight into the covered parts of the open ground floor. Exposed to the harsh weather conditions on the river, the metal facade will develoop a fascinating patina over time.

Location: Berlin, Germany

Architects: Dietmar Köring, Simon Takasaki, EyeTry

Area: 10.000 m²

Status: Competition

Client: Ministry of Building and Spatial Planning Germany

Photo: all images and drawings by Dietmar Köring, Simon Takasaki, EyeTry

ISTANBUL’S YENIKAPI DESIGN COMPETITION WINNERS

Ecco i tre progetti selezionati, su 9 partecipanti, che accedono a fase finale del concorso per “Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area” a Istambul, un’area urbana di 22,7 ha dove realizzare un Parco Archeologico di 36.000 mq. e  un importante hub, ferroviario e marittimo, di 52.000 metriquadri.

“Yenikapi Transfer Center is one of the most important points of the transportation system of Istanbul. Once having arrived in Yenikapi, one will able to reach every point of our city by rail and public transportation systems.

Being an area which will include a multitude of rich functions and relationships, Yenikapi will serve as the “new gateway” of the metropolis in the exact sense of the word. It is for this purpose, through a Pre-Selective-Invitational project procurement process, that we welcome the opportunity in opening the project to both national and international highly experienced urban designers and architects” says Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

EISENMAN ARCHITECTS & AYTAÇ ARCHITECTS

Architecture: Eisenman Arch. (Peter Eisenman, Sandra Hemingway), Aytac Mim. (Alper Aytac)

Landscape Architecture: Jencks (Charles Jencks, Lily Jencks), Çevsa Peyzaj (Prof. Dr. Ahmet Cengiz Yildizci, Asst. Prof. Dr. Gulsen Guler)

Transportation Planning: ARUP

Structural Engineering: ARUP

Mechanical Engineering: ARUP

Electrical Engineering: ARUP

Mechanical Engineering: TRANSSOLAR (Erik Olsen)

Process Engineering: TRANSSOLAR (Thomas Auer)

Consultants:

Art History: Prof. Ayla Odekan

Conservation Specialist: Prof. Nur Akin

Urban Conservation Specialist: Prof. Nuran Zeren Gulersoy

Archaeology: Prof. Mehmet Ozdogan

Transportation Engineering: Prof. Mustafa Ilicali

Economics: Mesut Pektas

Civil Engineering & Mining Engineering: Prof. Mahir Vardar

Seismic Engineer: Niyazi Parlar

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ATELYE 70 & FRANCESCO CELLINI & INSULA ARCHITETTURA E INGEGNERIA  

Architecture: Cellini Francesco (Prof. Francesco Cellini)

Architecture & Urban Planning: ATELYE 70 (Prof. Hüseyin Kaptan)

Architecture & Landscape: INSULA Architettura e Ingegneria

Consultants:

Structural & Earthquake Engineering, Sustainability & Building

Performance: BOLLIGER+GROHMAN INGENIEURE (Prof. Klaus e, Prof. Manfred Grohman, Ulrich Storck)

Traffic & Transportation Planning: Dr. H. Murat Celik

Architecture History: Prof. Maria Margarita Segarra Lagunes

Museology: Prof. Giovanni Longobardi

Achaeology: Prof. Grazia Semeraro

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CAFER BOZKURT ARCHITECTS & MECANOO ARCHITECTS  

Architecture: CAFER BOZKURT Architecture (Cafer BOZKURT, Hasan Yirmibesoglu, Defne Bozkurt), MECANOO Arch. (Francine Houben, Francesco Veenstra, Nuno Gonçalvez Fontarra, Kerem Masaraci)

Urban Planning: Dr. Emre Aysu, MECANOO Arch.(Magnus Weightman)

Landscape Architecture: MECANOO Arch. (Joost Verlaan, Reem Saouma)

Architecture & Archaeology: Assoc. Prof. Sevket Donmez

Art History-Byzantologist: Assoc. Prof. Ferudun Ozgumus

Consultants:

Civil Engineering & Transportation: ARUP

Urban Design & Planning: ARUP

Lighting Designer: ARUP

Architecture, Sustainability: ARUP

Electrical Engineering: ARUP

Mechanical Engineering: ARUP

Tutte le immagini sono state gentilmente concesse da:

Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area competition.

VENICE CITYVISION PRIZE

VENICE CITYIVISION competition: Nature and purpose of the competition
If the future is gone, what past is expecting us?
Try to imagine New York in its future if the manipulation of the urban context and its architectural objects, joined with its inhabitants, will be influenced by SPACE and TIME.

FIRST PRIZE  - A. Bottero, S. Della Rocca, V. Bruni – G8U3F7

Venice is stolen from the lagoon. A constant struggle of men stealing fragments of ground from the water. Venetian buildings were built by establishing a precise relationship with the water: they faced the canals showing their splendor and wealth.

Not merely places of transit, a substantial part of daily life was carried out on the canals and here social interactions and commercial transactions took place. The perception of the reality from water is accelerated and distorted. The meaning of travel on the water is reduced to the fastest way to move from one point to another of the city. Water as a space of transit, a neutral dimension in which to simply migrate from one place to another. In our cities we are accustomed to distinguishing spaces of transit from spaces of standing.

But can a space of transit mutate into a space of standing? How can architecture manage to overturn a relation taken for granted?

The concept develops around this thought and from the intention to build new scenarios of dwelling in the city, discovering a third level, that in balance between the water and the seabed. Rooms open towards the sky that float and move on the water. Rooms from which you can observe Venice from below, as if from a cradle, safe from the din coming from the canal banks.

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SECOND PRIZE - O. Di Manno / L. Catena / F. Cusani / F. Graviglia 

The city appears now still in its past, crystallized in modern postcards like yesterday in Canaletto’s canvasses: not anymore suited, then, to the needs of contemporary life. What Venice misses is efficient services, modern infrastructures and a true labour market; or maybe, the same elements rendered in a version sustainable by the same city lightness. Too quickly, all of this has been sacrificed in favour of the progressive “museumalization” of Venice, without evaluating the risk of the exile of those same persons that made the city’s grandeur: the venetians.

Our vision wants then to be an innocent provocation, an unusual way to re-assign the places to their inhabitants, selecting some celebrated and “sacred” examples and transforming them into contemporary works.

The use of a cover skin, if on one side maintains the fundamental historical-artistic features, on the other conveys a different evocation of a contemporary city, by placing the building in a diverse aesthetic and functional reality.

The only remembering will be tied to the sheer volume, symbol of a new autonomy of the building and also capable of making this new objects (such they have become) different from the their hidden underlying.

info: www.cityvision.com

ROME CITYVISION PRIZE

ROME CITYIVISION competition: Nature and purpose of the competition
If the future is gone, what past is expecting us?
Try to imagine New York in its future if the manipulation of the urban context and its architectural objects, joined with its inhabitants, will be influenced by SPACE and TIME.

FIRST PRIZE - M. Marian / A. cassi – 00583

A cloud of aerostatic balloons is hanging over the city, airships borrowed from a time when dreaming and running after the future were compulsory. Almost a Fellinian dream, a sonnet by a famous composer played on a loose chord. Each balloon has taken off from a dock corresponding to a specific suburb, defining an imaginary circle that takes up the diameter of the Raccordo Anulare, the ring road of Rome, and embraces the city.

The concept consists in creating a sort of fluctuating ring road. A new level that is added to the existing layers of the city. An immaterial level, defined only by the straight and circular trajectories of the balloons that move from one dock to the next, connecting the various Roman outskirts with each other. A system that is placed on the margins of the city that allows to seize the urban environment through new means. Knowledge, combined with the volatileness of a dreamt world, like a circus tent, like the famous travelers’ note books, these are the foundations of our views.

It’s the ideal place to see if the world will end or not.

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SECOND PRIZE - J. Cheon / N. Soe / M. Conway / F. Colin – 00167

‘Rome City Vision’ offers the opportunity to re-conceptualize the relationship between landscape, urban design, and architecture in the context of a historically complex and dynamic city environment. Our proposal creates an integrated urban vision whereby programs, spaces, and typologies are interwoven as a way of producing provocative urban vision.

Unlike works of architecture, the city serves as an icon through patterns from the urban fabric’s form and its public features. Though a city’s plan is seldom visible to the eye from the street, it is still the means an individual’s uses to understand the city as place (through its maps, subway and bus route plans, as well as green space). Thus the plan serves as an important icon for inhabitants of the environment. Creating an urban fabric that is able to conform to deformations of the land, topography, and spatial restrictions. The pattern is stretched and squeezed parametrically, to produce urban spaces, plazas, lawns, urban corridors and streets from the same logical system.

The green space extends nature from the lower hills into the center of the city, becoming part of a green network; serving as an important symbolic central space for Rome (reminiscent of New York City’s ‘Central park’). The landscape serves to create a connection between the place and its geography.  

read more: cityvision