Maunula House is the central cultural and learning hub of a neighborhood being renewed. Located next to Maunula park in the center of the neighborhood of Maunula, the building is a center of public services to local residents of all ages. The library, the youth center and the adult education center cooperate seamlessly, enabling the co-usage and a high utilization rate of the spaces.
Architects: K2S Architects (Kimmo Lintula, Niko Sirola, Mikko Summanen)
Project: Maunula House
Location: Metsäpurontie 4, 00630 Helsinki, Finland
Photography: Mika Huisman
Client: City of Helsinki Real Estate Department / Erja Erra, Mika Malkki
Design team: Jaakko West, Elina Koivisto, Tommi Terästö, Tetsujiro Kyuma, Tommi Mauno, Juho Vuolteenaho, Petri Ullakko, Matti Wäre, Tuuli Kanerva, Antti Soini
Interior design: K2S Architects
Structural design: Pontek Engineering / Kari Saarivirta
HVAC: Äyräväinen Engineering / Jukka Issakainen
Electrical: Stacon Engineering / Kalevi Hämäläinen
Beigang Township is the epicenter for the Taiwanese worshipping of Mazu, a Chinese sea goddess. Therefore, the Beigang Chao-Tien Temple for Mazu and its surrounding form a core area with local historic significance. However, Beigang as well as other cities in the western plain of Taiwan faces the same suburban sprawl, exacerbated by disorderly building development resulting from the lack of a cohesive planning guidance. The project site itself is located at the northwestern corner of the 90-years-old Bei-Chen Elementary School campus, sitting right on the axis of the sprawling expansion.
Suncheon Bay is famous for its natural sceneries. The privileged location in the junction of the Dong and Isa streams is house of the widest reed bed in South Korea. Among the world’s wetlands, Suncheon Bay is widely known for attracting the largest number of rare birds. Suncheon Bay represents the best of the region and has been always the epicenter of tourism.
We would like to propose for the Suncheon Art Platform competition an urban reinterpretation of the natural sceneries of Suncheon Bay. We wish to connect the collective memory of the bay with a new cultural and urban life in the city center of Suncheon where Culture and Nature become the raw materials to fabricate a new creative platform for citizens to enjoy and express themselves.
LAVA has won 2nd prize in an international competition to design a new city in Malaysia.
LAVA’s concept sees the city defined not as one iconic building, nor as a skyline, but as a central public space, a real forest. Chris Bosse, director of LAVA, explains: “Skylines across the world look the same – usually a couple of iconic towers in the centre surrounded by lots of lesser quality buildings, which all resemble each other.” “Here we have designed an inverse city skyline where the icon of the city is a public space, not an object/building. Our central space is a Rainforest Valley and demonstrates the equation: PEOPLE = CITY. From an object to a place.”
Building a cultural center in Beaumont-Hague, in Cotentin, means to integrate an architectural project that takes benefits from the landscape qualities of this piece of peninsula. On the shore, sunken roads are planted of wooded hedges that protects from the wind, and becomes vegetal vaults to filter the light over time. These landscape elements are secular forms from the site culture but also inspiring spaces that can be employed for the design.
Knight Dragon unveils a new £1billion landmark, designed by international architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, at the heart of its transformation of Greenwich Peninsula.
This major new landmark is set to transform Greenwich Peninsula, London’s emerging cultural district. Residents and visitors to the Peninsula will arrive from the tube into an 80ft high winter garden and glass galleria. The scheme will total 1.4 million sq ft including a new tube and bus station, theatre, cinema and performance venue, bars, shops and a wellbeing hub. Above this will rise three towers of workspaces, apartments and hotels, all connected to the Thames by a stunning new land bridge.
UniCredit has erected a multipurpose building to house the bank’s general meetings, but also exhibitions and cultural events open to the Milan public. It occupies a privileged position against the background of Porta Nuova, beneath the mirror-glazed tower and in a dialogue with the Porta Nuova public gardens. UniCredit Pavilion has no foundations, being constructed on a reinforced concrete podium above the parking facility. Its soft profile is inspired by the shape of a seed, and its materials are natural. A vertically ribbed cage with lamellar larch beams contains a glazed space and supports a rounded, solar panelled roof. The structure opens on the outside through two large wings, equipped with monitors for events open to the general public. Situated on the ground floor is a multipurpose auditorium adaptable to diverse configurations and with seating for 700. An overhead walkway runs along the outer edge of the building and can be used for temporary art exhibitions. On the first floor is a nursery for 50 toddlers, whilst the top level is occupied by a lounge for customer reception and corporate events.
Client: UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions Scpa
Project Team: Nicholas Bewick (project director), Francesco Garofoli, Vittorio Romano; Giorgio Traverso; Marcello Biffi, Matteo Di Ciommo, Francesco Faccin
Consultants: Hines Italia Srl (project management); MSC Associati Srl (structural framework); Ariatta Ingegneria dei sistemi Srl (technical installations); Eurodesign Sas di Adriano Crotti (Façade design); GTP Srl (security and fire protection project); Gruppo C14 Srl (lighting design); Studio di ingegneria acustica Marcello Brugola (acoustic and AV design); Zintek srl (roof); Wood Beton (strctures in laminated wood); Erco (lighting)
ICE Kraków Congress Centre is a modern, world-class venue dedicated to culture – music, opera, ballet, theatre – and congresses. Designed at the highest standards of acoustics and mechanics. Besides the three main halls with 1915, 600, and 300 seats, the shell holds a multifunctional conference space of 550m2. ICE Kraków stands in the most prestigious location in Poland: opposite Wawel Castle, a location that influenced main design decisions. Hiding a multi-story foyer open to a panorama of Kraków, the Vistula embankment façade is spectacularly transparent. The outer shell combines glass, ceramics, and aluminium, with colours ceramic tiles reflecting those of the interior: red of the Auditorium Hall, graphite of Theatre Hall, white of the foyer, and the silvery aluminum used for the roof.
The new Danish Wadden Sea Centre – ultramodern, sculptural architecture rooted in local tradition
With a completely re-conceptualized conversion and extension, the Wadden Sea Centre – gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site – has recently been opened to the public in Ribe on the west coast of Denmark. At the new Wadden Sea Centre, internationally renowned Danish architecture firm Dorte Mandrup has set a new standard for combining the local building culture and history of the area with an ultramodern, sculptural architectural appearance.
This scheme placed first in the competition of ten Swiss-American team’s designs for the replacement of the Washington D.C. residence of the Swiss Ambassador. It is not only to be a private house but also a cultural gathering place on which standards and self-image of a country are measured.
Client: Swiss Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (BBL)
Architects:
Steven Holl Architects: Steven Holl (design architect), Tim Bade, Stephen O’Dell (associate in charge), Olaf Schmidt (project architect), Arnault Biou, Peter Englaender, Annette Goderbauer, Li Hu, Irene Vogt (project team)
Rüssli Architekten: Mimi Kueh (project architect), Justin Rüssli (design architect), Andreas Gervasi, Phillip Röösli, Rafael Schnyder, Urs Zuercher(project team)
Structural engineer: A. F. & J. Steffen Consulting Engineers, Robert Silman Associates
Mechanical engineer: B2E Consulting Engineers, B+B Energietechnik AG
Interior designer: ZedNetwork Hannes Wettstein
General contractor: James G. Davis Construction, Niersberger Gebäudetechnik Pforzheim GmbH
Landscape architect: Robert GissingerL
Building area (square): 23,000sf/7010sm
Cost: $14,000,000
Construction period: December 2004 – September 2006 (more…)
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