Article source: CCM ² – Côté Chabot Morel Architects
The mandate of the “Centre de foires de Sherbrooke” (Exhibition Center of Sherbrooke) conducted by CCM² – Côté Chabot Morel Architects includes site analysis, the design of the site plan and the floor plans, the volumetric studies, the materials selection, the establishment of the performance criteria s and a constant support as a specialized external resource for the City of Sherbrooke until the complete realization of the project. The expertise and qualifications of CCM² Architects are well recognized in the community to carry out such projects. For several years, CCM² Architects have done several feasibility studies, conceptual works, analysis and construction of exhibitions centers in Quebec (Quebec City and City of Laval in Canada).
Background, strategy
The Osthang ski resort was initiated in April 2006. Working closely with the client, we led a record pace design and construction phase where the first flats were handed over in April 2007. Osthang is located in Ramundberget ski resort, towards the Norwegian border in Härjedalennorth westsweden. The five houses clings on to the steep Osthang cliff from where you have a magnificent view towards the surrounding mountain peaks. The site plan originates from the traditional base-court typology that provides Härjedalen with its special rural character. We have organized the buildings along the hillside forming this courtyard with the gables. The project includes four buildings divided in three apartments over two floors and a loft, and an additional house with two apartments.
Called like this due to its floor plan, House H, located in the private neighborhood called Funes Hills Miraflores, is designed out of the idea of dividing all the functions that will be developed in the house into programmatic sets. With the clear premise of using the stairs as the nucleus around which the rooms will be organized, the house was divided into 5 volumes according to their uses.
The house was conceived of as one for a XXI century family, where both parents and children need some privacy. Therefore, the stairs on the second floor will separate two well-defined areas, protecting them acoustically and visually from each other. Likewise, the stairs on the first floor will be used once again to separate spaces. Without any marked closure, the services and the living areas are delimited by this intermediate space, allowing for different activities to be carried out simultaneously.
Image Courtesy I + GC arquitectura
The central volume will also function as a “knee cap” for the rest of the volumes, the point from which are generated the centrifugal forces that control the set and deform it, stretching the rooms outwards and modifying the closures and openings. Thus, the whole house is seen in permanent outward tension, which creates a sense of movement.
Image Courtesy I + GC arquitectura
Taking advantage of the special relation with nature that the house can enjoy due to the area where it is located, virtual holes were projected inside, piercing the house from side to side and in both directions. Thus, the exterior can still be seen from different places through the successive rooms. The stairs once again take a prominent role as regards the relation with the surroundings. Being the lightest-looking and the most transparent space of the project, this volume has the appearance of a tunnel by which nature breaks through this work. In addition, the project sought to connect the house with the surrounding nature through a set of fittings between both, thus achieving balconies “carved” in the building mass but still open to the surroundings.
With its low-slung, elongated outlines the private house forms a link between the different features of the surroundings; the spatial loop enables the house to take in the extreme aspects of the landscape. By being stretched to the maximum, rather than displaying a compact or tall shape, the house conveys from the interior the idea of a walk in the countryside.
The Möbius loop, the spatial quality of which means that it is present in both plan and section, translates into the interior into a 24-hour cycle of sleeping, working and living. As the loop turns inside out the materialization follows these change-overs; glazed details and concrete structural elements swap roles as glazed facades are put in front of the concrete construction, dividing walls are made of glass and furniture such as tables and stairs are made of concrete.
Carlsbad High School students returned from their holiday break last week to find 11 brand new education buildings and a central plaza awaiting them. Located at 3557 Lancer Way in Carlsbad, Calif., the $47 million classroom complex was constructed by McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s leading education facility builders, on behalf of the Carlsbad Unified School District.
The new building of Théâtre la Licorne like the theater company that runs it , La Manufacture, has a strong bond with its surrounding area. It tends to communicate with the city and reflects the type of theater that it produces: straightforward and urban. Aesthetic choices made during the design phase also reflects the idea of “manufacture”: Simplicity of form and the use of raw materials: glass, metal, concrete, brick… Apparent structure, ventilation ducts and plumbing. Elements borrowed from industrial buildings: cable trays, concrete floors.
KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten International has won the international competition entitled “Blue Sky Building Project” for the Air China headquarters in the major west Chinese city Chengdu. With its design for the high-rise, the international team from Frankfurt/Main and Beijing headed by Johannes Reinsch, Managing Director of KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten International GmbH, saw off five other entries. The office boasts a gross surface area (GSA) of 124,000 m² and offers space for a total of 5,470 workspaces. The fact that the high-rise design should serve as a role model with regard to energy efficiency and sustainability is of major concern to the developer.
Nightview (Image Courtesy KSP Juergen Engel Architekten)
The interior renovation of the Swiss-based Schindler Elevator Corporation transforms an existing mundane 1970’s office building into a distinctive U.S. Headquarters. Schindler’s objective was to create an interior environment that expressed the minimal and purist design aesthetics of its Swiss engineering heritage. Schindler’s corporate mission is to safely move millions of people each day with their elevators and escalators throughout the world. Inspired by contemporary artists working with light and color to illustrate space and movement, our design creates a series of one point perspective ‘mise en scènes’ that abstractly explore movement and displacement.
The LSE’s student salon is currently an unsuccessful space: Its walls are cluttered with unsightly alarm sounders, fire extinguishers and cable trunking, a big vending maching in front of the window blocks views in and out of the space and the big recycling bins are in everybody’s way. The lighting is mismatched and inappropriate for the type of use and the furniture is neither inviting nor comfortable. The space is quite simply not very attractive.
This property adjoins a large lake in a small town situated a few hours from Mexico City. To take full advantage of the relationship with the surroundings, a system of elongated rectangular volumes was used, with one side of each completely open toward the lake. The sloping plot and the amount of surface to be realized led to the creation of three volumen stacked in a zigzag pattern, generating spacious open terraces and irregular, sheltered patios between them. From the street, the residence looks like a traditional construction; the use of roof tiles, wood, natural stone, and the plastered facade with small openings, grants it the regional character that is required by urban planning requirements. From the lake, the house is perceived as composition of rectangular elements with large glass surfaces; a series of typical modernist volumes, stacked in a dynamic configuration.
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