BATUMI AQUARIUM BY HENNING LARSEN

Batumi Aquarium, located in Batumi, Georgia, Designed by Henning Larsen Architects is inspired by the characteristic pebbles of the Batumi beach, continually shaped by the wash of the waves throughout millennia. The building will be situated in the Georgian seaport of Batumi and will stand out as an iconic rock formation – visible from both land and sea.

The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype – the Aegean Sea & the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea & the Red Sea and finally the more interactive exhibition space for teaching and education.

The four dispersed aquarium exhibitions are connected by a central, multipurpose space including café, auditorium and retail functions with views of the black sea and Batumi beach as scenic backdrop. Visitors gather in the central space to convene, play, eat, shop and relax before continuing their adventures through the exhibitions.

Batumi Aquarium will become a modern, cultural aquarium offering visitors an educational, entertaining and visually stimulating journey through the different seas. Unfolding around the aquarium, a landscape of different sea archipelagos provides attractive opportunities for innovative outdoor research and learning, public space and meeting places along the beach.

The building's significant expression inspired by nature will not only make Batumi Aquarium a spectacular new landmark in Georgia but also a state-of-the-art contribution to exploring life underneath the sea surface.

 

 

video: A As Architecture production
info:    www.henninglarsen.com

“FIRENZE ARCHITETTURA”

Recensione pubblicata in “Firenze Architettura”, 

XV, n.1, 1° semestre 2011, p. 157


Architectures et architectes italiens au Maghreb
Ezio Godoli, Silvia Finzi, Milva Giacomelli, Ahmed Saadaoui, a cura di
Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2011 ISBN 978-88-596-0726-7
 

A coloro che vogliano avere sui rapporti dell’Italia con i paesi dell’Africa settentrionale un punto di vista diverso da quello offerto dalle cronache degli ultimi mesi, va consigliata la lettura di Architectures et Architectes italiens au Maghreb, atti del convegno internazionale svoltosi a Tunisi (dicembre 2009).
Il volume si inserisce nel quadro di un pluriennale programma di ricerca sul contributo italiano all’architettura dei paesi della riva meridionale del Mediterraneo nell’Ottocento e nel Novecento e tratta soprattutto della presenza italiana in Tunisia e in Libia nella prima metà del Novecento.
Un saggio di Godoli traccia le coordinate del dibattito sulla «architettura coloniale» nel quale si distinguono in particolare le fi gure di Carlo Enrico Rava e Luigi Piccinato, che traggono dalle proprie esperienze professionali africane alimento per una rifl essione più ampia sui caratteri della «mediterraneità» che coinvolge direttamente il dibattito sul Moderno nell’Italia degli anni Trenta.
L’attività di progettisti, impresari e decoratori è esaminata nei contributi che, disegnando il mosaico di vicende professionali individuali e familiari o di imprese di diverse dimensioni, documentano la diffusione di motivi per lo più generati dalla replica di modelli occidentali (dal tardivo storicismo orientalista all’art déco e al novecentismo), che in Tunisia, Marocco e Algeria devono in molte occasioni confrontarsi con le tipologie, la tecnologia e i repertori stilistici importati dall’amministrazione francese.
Il saggio di Giacomelli sull’Ospedale italiano a Tunisi di Cesare Valle è un’importante testimonianza sulla qualità professionale di un raffinato interprete della poetica novecentista-razionalista.
Altri saggi esaminano le relazioni tra forme autoctone e modelli europei in alcuni insediamenti in Tunisia, Libia e Algeria, un tema che vede convergere la politica economica con gli obiettivi della «europeizzazione» che è stata anche ideologia dei fl ussi d’immigrazione delle fasce più disagiate della popolazione metropolitana indotte a trasferirsi nei territori coloniali.
Alcuni contributi segnalano infi ne l’esistenza e l’estensione di archivi pubblici e privati, delineando possibili percorsi di ricerca a partire da una più attenta valutazione di un materiale archivistico ingente che attende in gran parte di essere ulteriormente esplorato, adeguatamente ordinato e soprattutto interpretato.
Rosario De Simone

DESIGN AWARDS 2012 HOUSE

Wallpaper announced the winners of their 2012 Design Awards. The international panel of judges, this year comprising Grayson Perry, Rafael Vinoly, Simon de Pury, Gerd Bulthaup, and Jean-Paul Goude, selected the top entries in eleven major design categories. Many more awards in highly specialized design categories were chosen by Wallpaper* editors and contributors.

Below are the winners and shortlist candidates in the architectural categorie: Best New Private House.
This is the eighth annual design awards form the British design, fashion, and all things material publication. In their words, the issue is “a celebration of the people, places and products that have lifted our spirits and made us realise that despite all the economic and political chaos around us”.

SHORTLIST - BEST PRIVATE HOUSE 2012

1 - HAUS AM BERG ISEL BY ELMAR LUDESCHER ARCHITECTS
2 - PRINGIERS HOUSE BY TADAO ANDO
3 - 77E77 BY DAVID ADJAYE ASSOCIATES
4 - W HOUSES BY BARCLAY & CROUSSE
5 - PADDINGTON HOUSE BY ANTHONY GILL ARCHITECTS

HAUS AM BERG ISEL BY ELMAR LUDESCHER ARCHITECTS

Boldly going forward from the classic Mitteleuropean box, Elmar Ludescher's Bregenz house is an instant-classic slice of wooden-clad Austrian architecture. Clean lines and seamless carpentry kit out the slender concrete frame to perfection. A top-hung slatted façade can be slid back like a giant pocket door to expose the road-side elevation, or put back in place to restore the private enclosed terrace.

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PRINGIERS HOUSE BY TADAO ANDO

 

Working the design around the site's best orientation (it offers some breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean), Ando arranged the house over three sections connected by a raised courtyard. The generous bedroom wing, living wing and art studio are clean, minimal and geometric in the architect's signature exposed concrete. A rooftop pool and cantilevered terrace complete the picture.

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77E77 BY DAVID ADJAYE ASSOCIATES

 

First American residential project, the architect Adjaye switched allegiance to collectors, creating a starkly modern private museum that's as visually eccentric as the artworks contained within. Designed for a New York art-world power couple on the Upper East Side, the house's rough concrete carapace and edgy scattering of windows wrap around an even more eclectic interior – the unifying masterpiece in the owners' flamboyant collection.

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W HOUSES BY BARCLAY & CROUSSE

 

 

Located on the edge of a cliff, the two houses share a patio, an architectural idea and a landscape. Two “cracks“ give room for open stairs that lead to a large “artificial beach“, a large open space that has a san patio and a pool. Around it a series of objects of polyvalent use allow a variety of uses throughout day and night.

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Anthony Gill's Paddington House is a prosaic but highly effective refurbishment, combining two existing houses in a conservation area to create one generously proportioned private residence arranged around a central void.
The scheme developed around a central void with the ground floor living areas opening up on to the north facing garden while the views from the upper levels were carefully controlled.

Source: www.wallpaper.com

HOKY MUSEUM BY NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD

The Hoki Museum is dedicated to the permanent display of over 300 Japanese realist artworks collected by the museum owner, Mr. Masao Hoki.

 

Approximately 160 works by around 40 artists are on display at any one time, including 32 paintings that form Japan's largest collection of works by Sousuke Morimoto, and others by artists such as Hiroshi Noda and Tadahiko Nakayama. Special displays feature the works of fifteen artists who have produced large-scale works for the museum's "My Best Work" series.

 

The Museum's building is located next to the verdant Showa-no-Mori Park, Chiba City's largest park, and consists of one above ground and two below ground stories featuring corridor-style galleries comprise 500 meters of exhibition space.

 

The museum's galleries were designed specifically for the optimum display and appreciation of Realist paintings, featuring picture rail-free walls and the latest technology LED lighting that is instrumental in establishing the perfect ambience for immersion in the museum's realist art collection.

The museum features a italian restaurant Hanau, a café, a wine cave, and a chamber music concert hall, all of which are designed to be completely integrated with the museum's gallery space. The steel-structured gallery skillfully balances and harmonizes structural, spatial, and engineering needs while catching the eye with a stunning 30-meter-long cantilevered section of the wider gallery.

Architects: T.Yamanashi + T.Nakamoto + T.Suzuki + M.Yano, Nikken Sekkei Ltd.

Owner: Hoki Museum Co., Ltd.
Location: Chiba, Japan
Site area: 3,862.72 sq.m.
Building area: 1602.39
Total floor: area 3,722.39 sq.m.
Structure: S / Part RC
Construction: Oct 2008 - Aug 2010
Photographs: Noda Gankohsha , Nacasa & Partners

DESIGN AWARDS 2012 PUBLIC BUILDING

Wallpaper announced the winners of their 2012 Design Awards. The international panel of judges, this year comprising Grayson Perry, Rafael Vinoly, Simon de Pury, Gerd Bulthaup, and Jean-Paul Goude, selected the top entries in eleven major design categories. Many more awards in highly specialized design categories were chosen by Wallpaper* editors and contributors. Below are the winners and shortlist candidates in the architectural categories Best New Public Building.

WALLPAPER SHORTLISTED - BEST NEW PUBLIC BUILDING 2012

1 - HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD BY DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS

2 - TESHIMA ART MUSEUM BY RYUE NISHIZAWA

3 - MUSASHINO ART UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BY SOU FUJIMOTO

4 - METROPOL PARASOL BY J MAYER H.

5 - GIANT GROUP CAMPUS BY MORPHOSIS

HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD BY DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS

The Hepworth Wakefield, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opens to the public on Saturday 21 May 2011, putting the spotlight on Yorkshire as a world centre for sculpture, together with Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery.

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TESHIMA ART MUSEUM BY RYUE NISHIZAWA

Teshima Art Museum stands on a hill on the island of Teshima overlooking the Inland Sea. Shaped like a drop of water, the museum lies in a corner of the spacious grounds surrounded by once-fallow rice terraces that have been restored with help from local residents.

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MUSASHINO ART UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BY SOU FUJIMOTO

Evoking the atmosphere of a traditional reading room, this geometry resolved the two conflicting goals common to many libraries. While the labyrinthine paths between book-lined walls inspire the unguided exploration of the library’s sizable collection, the radial organization system cutting through the shelves enables the beeline search for a specific book.

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METROPOL PARASOL BY J MAYER H.

 

"Metropol Parasol" explores the potential of the Plaza de la Encarnacion to become the new contemporary urban center. Its role as a unique urban space within the dense fabric of the medieval inner city of Seville allows for a great variety of activities such as memory, leisure and commerce. A highly developed infrastructure helps to activate the square, making it an attractive destination for tourists and locals alike.

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GIANT GROUP CAMPUS BY MORPHOSIS

 

 

Situated amid existing canals and a new man made lake, the undulating office building interacts with an augmented ground plane, joining architecture to landscape, and environment to site.
The Giant Campus project is a compact village that accommodates diverse functions in a flexible framework of forms that move in and out of a folded landscape plane.

Source: wallpaper.com