One of Grundfos Dormitory’s remarkable characteristics is providing student housings in the heart of Aarhus’ new harbour front development – that is, a low cost residential building on a very attractive site. Like many other industrial harbor fronts, the former container port of Aarhus is being transformed into a dynamic new neighborhood. Grundfos Dormitory is one of the first finished projects in the area that on completion will be home to 7,000 inhabitants and provide 12,000 workplaces. Its total site area amounts to 800,000 m2 making this development one of Europe’s largest harbor front city developments.
Foster + Partners has completed its first project in Latin America with the opening of the Faena Aleph Residences in Buenos Aires, Argentina – part of the reinvention of the former docks of Puerto Madero as a dynamic new urban quarter. Drawing on local architectural traditions, its apartments feature vaulted living spaces and deep, sheltered terraces that exploit the wonderful local climate and maximise views towards the city and Rio de la Plata.
The New Municipal Library of Greve in Chianti, designed by mdu architetti, represents a further step, after the opening of the New Theatre of Montalto di Castro (Italy), in a period of prolific output for this Italian architecture studio, engaged in the realization of several projects inspired by a common thread: architecture as an urban fragment. The Libray of Greve in Chianti interprets the theme, presenting itself as a light sculptural volume in terracotta leaned on a travertine stone plinth. The terracotta facade, with its subtle texturals and graphic variations, is conceived as an abstract representation of the signs and colours in the vineyards of the Chianti region.
The IBC Innovation Factory by schmidt hammer lassen architects is designed to support new ways of learning. The 12,800 square metres educational building has gone through a total refurbishment and will be officially inaugurated by His Royal Highness the Prince Consort of Denmark on 6th December 2012.
Located in Canada’s beautiful Muskoka region, the Carling Residence was built for a young couple looking to leave the city behind. The 3600 square foot home is set into a rustic forest on the shores of the Georgian Bay. The clients’ aspiration for their new permanent residence was to create a comfortable, modern and sustainable home that would respect, and become part of, the terrain of their 26-acre lot.
Consell Kindergarten is the extension of the School Complex “Bartomeu Ordines” in Consell, Mallorca (Spain). The new building is composed of: six classrooms (for children between 3 and 5 years old), one psychomotor classroom and a dining area including kitchen.
Winemaker Charles Smith approached our firm to design a new tasting room and office space that would match his rock and roll style. His approach to wine is captured by his trademark phrase: “It’s just booze – drink it!” The design team, led by Tom Kundig, was inspired by Charles’s in-your-face attitude to create a raw space that highlights the original aesthetics of the building while inserting highly flexible pieces, including a large unit dubbed the Armadillo. The resulting space can transform from an office, tasting room and retail store into a dining and entertainment venue.
Charles Smith Wines is located in downtown Walla Walla in the former Johnson Auto Electric building, constructed in 1917. The shell of the building—with original brick walls, wood trusses and a concrete floor—received minor structural updates but was otherwise left raw. The team highlighted the automotive history of the building by replacing garage doors with two custom, hand-cranked pivot doors that completely open the space to the street and form an awning for outdoor seating.
Image Courtesy Olson Kundig Architects
The concept of the drive-thru was important in the development of the design. Elements of the design, like the prefabricated Armadillo are “parked” within the space; other elements transform as needed, including floating “rafts” that serve as a seating area/stage, tasting tables that dock together to form a dining table, and a sliding panel that can function as a video screen. Vehicles—including delivery vans or taco trucks for catering—can literally drive through the space.
Image Courtesy Olson Kundig Architects
The Armadillo is a 70 foot long shell, measuring 12 feet high by 20 feet wide. It contains a conference room and workspaces for 14 people, including a semi-enclosed office space for Charles Smith and an enclosed space for accounting. L-shaped steel panels slide along the side and top of the structure, alternately opening it up to views of the tasting room and natural light from above or shutting it down for security and privacy. The panels also serve as a backdrop for Charles Smith Wines’ strong graphics, and are lined with cork in the inside, serving as an impromptu pin-up area. The design team collaborated with fabricators from Spearhead to design the structure as well as the custom furniture within it. Pieces were fabricated offsite and quickly assembled within the building, cutting down on construction time.
Image Courtesy Olson Kundig Architects
Awards Received
2013 AIA National Honor Award for Interior Architecture
2012 AIA Seattle Honor Award
2012 IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter INaward, People’s Choice
2012 Washington Main Street Program Awards, Outstanding Design or Rehabilitation Project Award
Tags: Walla Walla, Washington Comments Off on Charles Smith Wines Tasting Room & World Headquarters in Walla Walla, Washington by Olson Kundig Architects
The basic idea is a kind of enclosure of the building in and on itself, and the use of the sloping ground to divide the building into a two-storey main residential part on the upper part of the land and a lower building containing the garages and entrance hall further down the slope. The result is essentially a two-storey house with a flat roof, positioned atop the concrete “retaining wall” of the lower structure. The house’s plan is of “U”-shape, or equally it could be described as a rectangle with an interior atrium open on one side to the surrounding landscape. Inside the atrium is a small pool, which ensures for this space pleasant cooling, reinforced by the system of louvered blinds against the sun.
BRIEF
To design a house for a family of ten people spanning three generations.
CONCEPT
The house is an attempt to blur the boundaries between exterior and the interior of an urban house. The concept of the house is an illustration of a metamorphosis of eastern spatial interiors and western aesthetics. It was designed for two brothers, on two separate levels yet connected without exposing oneself to the harsh weather conditions.
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