ACTIVITY AND OUTDOOR CENTRE BY AART

The activity and outdoor centre is located at Hindsgavl Nature Reserve in Denmark and is designed as an inspiring site for a wide range of outdoor activities.

The design of the building supports the outdoor community spirit in all kinds of weather and all hours of the day, and the intention is to create an inspiring activity spot for the many aspects of outdoor life by reinforcing the relation between inside and outside and creating a significant architecture that interacts with the surrounding landscape.

The building reinforces the relation between inside and outside by using large window sections and decorating the inner walls with plywood.

The floor is made of planks made of solid wood and the same applies for the outer walls which are made of planks made of solid wood and milled in difference length to create a varied and natural expression.

To underline the scenic context the building has a captivating vantage point on the roof which is covered with vegetation and grass, planted over a waterproofing membrane.

The building is a result of a close collaboration with the organization Miljøforum Fyn which is specialized in environmental issues and sustainable development.

In this way, the building is designed as a visionary project in sustainable construction and is designed according to the passive house standard, reducing its CO2 footprint.

In other words, sustainability permeates the activity and outdoor centre which frames the outdoor life of the peninsula of Hindsgavl and contributes to merge social relations with outdoor recreation.

 

Location: Gals Klint Vej, Hindsgavl, Middelfart, Denmark

Architect: aart

Engineer: Rønslev Andersen A/S

Consultant: Miljøforum Fyn

Size: 500 m2

Year: 2012

Client: Middelfart Municipality

VISITOR CENTER BY HHD_FUN ARCHITECTS

Visitor Center was located on the North part of the 2km long Shanhaitian beach park in Rizhao, east China. 

Designed by beijing-based HHD_FUN Vistor Center is adjacent to a plaza which will attract massive tourists during the high season. The Vistor Center consists of two floors.

The form of the building above ground was minimized in order to fit into the natrual environment while at the same time the underground part of the building offers various functions for the park.

For instance, shops, cinemas, resturants, leisure facilities, public showerrooms etc.

Pedestrains will mainly enter the plaza from the east side, either through 3 open stairs into the building or 4 different pathways towards the sea.

All 19 individual buildings were developed out of one prototype. Each building is site specific; being varies in sizes and different orientations to accommodate different function requirements.

Together a group of them generate a new configuration that has the emphasis on the varieties of the indoor and outdoor spaces.

Special steel structure was designed to fit the complex building form at the same time create big span column free space.

Parametric design technique has been adopted throughout all design process i.e. form finding, structure optimization, facade penalization and construction documentation.

“Low Technology Parametric Design” was the strategy to face China’s current construction situation.

 

 

Location: Rizhao, China

Architect: HHD_FUN Architects

Year: 2012

GIANT’S CAUSEWAY VISITOR CENTRE BY HENEGHAN PENG ARCHITECTS

 

The Giant’s Causeway lies in Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast World Heritage Site, a landscape of cliffs formed by hexagonal basalt stones, agricultural landscapes and cliffside walks.

 

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns , the result of an ancient volcanic eruption, is home to peregrine falcons, seals and other wildlife.

 

 

It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Timesreaders, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.

The site is one of Northern Ireland’s most popular tourist spots, so Heneghan Peng sought to create a visitor center that was informational, accessible, and respectful of the surrounding environment.

Utilising the large difference in level across the site, two folds are created in the landscape. One, extending the line of the ridge, accommodates the building. The second, extending the level of the road, screens the car park from view.

The 1,800-square-meter facility consists of two levels, and its layout blocks the parking lot from most scenic views. The main building is made from the same quarried basalt material found nearby to seamlessly intertwine the building with its surroundings.

The aspirations for this project in every way are of the highest order as befits its location, excellence in architectural and landscape design, excellence in sustainable practices and construction.

The visitor center’s BREEAM Excellent Rating (a British environmental assessment system similar to LEED) is due mainly to its strategically deployed systems.

A geothermal heating system is installed throughout the parking lot, while a meter of earth pipes next to the main building helps to cool the center. The center’s recycled concrete walls also insulate the building, while rainwater recovery and a green roof make the best use of Ireland’s heavy rainfall.

Internally the building can be understood as a series of stepping floor plates which are linked by a series of ramps. These floor plates allow the different activities of the building to flow into each other creating a fluid movement through the building for the visitor.

The cafe has been situated close to the main building entrance with a long view to the coastline. The visitor ends the route through the building by exiting onto the access road to the stones.

 

Location: Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Architects: Heneghan PengArchitects

Design Team: Monika Arczynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio

Structures: Arup

Area: 1,800 sqm

Client: National Trust

Year: 2012

HETEROJUNCTIONAL BARRIER BY URBAN PLAYGROUND

“This project considers the central park in which the building is located as a significant contextual reference. The large park is sitting in the middle of a huge size of apartment complexes 2 hours far from Seoul metropolitan area.

This type of development is very typical in Korea to build a suburban satellite city. This unique type of construction—building and selling ten thousands of housing units at the same time, is almost like creating a new city in a second.

Although this type of development contains some of potential bad effects in the future, the landscape is more positively designed than the apartment complexes to preserve the natural wetland which is left as the original entity in the park.

The design focus is on the conflict created between the pedestrian bridge and the original topographical relationship. It was like an inevitable assignment to precisely fabricate the connection from the bridge to an “almost occasionally given” site for the building.

It is another type of contextual matter within the “tabula rasa” situation. Through visualizing this conflict, the dissonant relationship paradoxically becomes a clue for positioning the building. This pavilion functions mainly for the exhibition and the administrative office as a park facility.

Considering the pedestrian accesses and the functional use, the radii of the arcs which are casted on different levels formalize the hidden tension of two contrast entities—the linear pedestrian bridge and the natural topography.

From the tensional relationship, the front façade wall visualizes a physical “barrier” containing the functional occupancy. Having gradually changing widths based on the functional needs—exhibition space to office corridor, the hallway along with the front curved wall is continuous until the westward office which is blocked in sake of separate privacy.

The inner layer behind the hallway has a series of rooms, a staircase, restrooms and a sunken garden. Using the different access levels between the front and backside entries, the curved wall controls the degree of visual continuity toward the opened park view.

Visitors on the roof can look down to the hallway and the park through the clearstory. On the contrary to the pedestrian bridge giving an open wide view to the park, they rather actively relate the inner side of the building on the roof. 

The windows on the curved wall are carved out from the cylindrical intersections to have a series of segmental flat surfaces. Since the large sizes of front concave windows are northward, the clearstory supplies natural light during the entire daytime.” Descriprion of Urban Playground.

Location: Central Park in Paju Eunjung New Town, Korea

Architect: UrbanPlayground

Project Team: Urban Playground, Yagatoo Architects

Photo: Kyungsub Shin