Along with the master plan for the University of Oxford’s new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Rafael Viñoly Architects was hired to design the masterplan’s first building, the Mathematical Institute. The new building consolidates a department that was previously spread across multiple locations to provide a new focus and identity that balances researchers’ need for privacy with the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Building Program: Faculty offices, lecture halls, classrooms, meeting rooms, faculty common rooms, social space, green roof and terrace, underground parking
After seven years of planning and fundraising in the midst of a national recession, construction of the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA NC) thoroughly sustainable Center for Architecture & Design was completed this summer in Raleigh.
Image Courtesy FAIA
Architects:Frank Harmon, FAIA, Frank Harmon Architect PA, Raleigh, NC
Project: AIANC Center for Architecture and Design
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Client: North Carolina Chapter, American Institute of Architects
Landscape Architect: Greg Bleam, FASLA, Charlottesville, VA
Contractor: Clancy + Theys Construction Co, Raleigh, NC
Verbeeten Institute is a specialist hospital where clinical care is delivered in the field of Radiation Therapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine. In order to provide better service to its patients, the Institute has added a new wing to the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Den Bosch.
Contemporary companies, particularly those in the creative industries, are bringing about substantial change in the ways in which we work today. They are fully embracing changes which promote and stimulate creative work processes through communication, experimentation and new forms of collaboration. There is an understanding that – alongside ever improving connections to external information resources – encouraging communication and knowledge sharing within individual companies increases the potential for more creative and experimental approaches to work. This results in a better understanding of the potential for the optimal organisation of human resources and in turn, a workforce that is stimulated to play an essential part in the creation of improved output.
Client: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
Building surface: GFA 5.782 m2
Building volume: 27.221 m3
Programme: Offices and laboratories
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Harm Wassink with Florian Heinzelmann, Tobias Wallisser, Marc Herschel, Kristoph Nowak and Christiane Reuther, Aleksandra Apolinarska, Marc Hoppermann, Moritz Reichartz, Norman Hack, Marcin Koltunski, Peter Irmscher
ASPlan: Horst Ermel, Leopold Horinek, Lutz Weber, Stefan Hausladen, Jürgen Bär, Gunawan Bestari, Joachim Deis, Bernd Hasse, Marlene Hertzler, Michael Kapouranis, Vladislav Litz, Thomas Thrun
Mohawk College’s Fennell Campus developed organically over 30 years with multiple buildings incorporated in a functional manner, resulting in a complex plan without clear organization. When the firm was awarded the project, the College’s direction was to provide a Learning Commons / Library, and introduce a central organization to the campus. The result is a design, which provides a strong north-south link, from the new Fennell street entrance through the existing campus to the current main entrance at the south parking areas.
General Contractor /Construction Manager: Sub-contractors acquired by Mohawk College
Structural Engineers : Halcrow Yolles
Mechanical Engineers : MCW Consultants LTD
Electrical Engineers : MCW Consultants LTD
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
The courtyards are linked with pedestrian paths and landscaped with student movement in mind. Beneath the windmill generators, grassy sitting areas and pedestrian scale lighting are incorporated into the design, resulting in an outdoor space, which reinforces the College’s image as a “community-facing, modern and sustainable college”. (President Rob MacIsaac).
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
Area: 40,000 square feet
Completion: January 2011
Cost: $14.5 million
Client: Mohawk College
Sustainability Goals: LEED Gold
Annual energy consumption MJ / M2 year = 687 MJ / M2 year
Percentage of recycled content: 15%
Water consumption from municipal sources = litres / occupant / year = 8.2 M3
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
The impact on the site was reduced through a landscaping plan, which incorporates hearty, native species. This allows for minimal use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides on the green roof.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
Heating is provided through a hydronic piping system embedded in the concrete slabs. This configuration takes advantage of the thermal mass of the slab itself, which allows for an even distribution of heat throughout the space. Additionally, as heat is radiated from below, the natural effects of convection ensures that the heat is provided directly to the occupied zone in the space (ie: near the floor), rather than from diffusers in the ceilings. This reduces fan power, energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
Vibrantly coloured glazing creates a sense of warmth and contrast in the quiet student gathering and learning spaces. The brightly lit interior guides the students towards the building from the street on frigid winter days.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
In the interior spaces daylight is maximized by incorporating glazing throughout the building, which reduces the use of electric lighting and saves on operating costs. Additionally, all lighting is equipped with either daylight sensors or occupancy sensors, or both, ensuring that the building responds to environmental and occupant conditions.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
Close to 75% of the building provides usable space for students and staff. In an average building between 40- 50% is usable space. The creation of quiet learning spaces for students was a priority Mohawk students identified on key performance indicator surveys. The new library represents Mohawk’s vision to inspire learning, citizenship and innovation. Inspired by the ways in which modern mobile technology influence “plugged-in learning,” the spaces within the collaboratorium are flexible and fully wired to accommodate current technology. As part of the overall campus revitalization, the library forms the heart of its creative culture that will drive new generations of tomorrow’s skilled leaders.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
The design established a new vernacular for the campus. Future renovation projects will build upon this ‘street’ framework and extend the architectural language established in the Mohawk Learning Exchange through the premises, creating clear circulation routes and an understandable, complete campus.
Image Courtesy Tom Arban
Project Specifications
A 30,000 sf, two-storey “link” building to be the iconic new image of the campus on Fennell. The new learning exchange building will connect to three existing surrounding buildings and will include 10, 60-seat classrooms and an E-Learning Centre. It will be minimum LEED Gold and will be on an extremely fast-track schedule.
Elevation
The interior of the building is primarily concrete to reduce the use of raw materials. Concrete was selected as the primary construction material for its durability and finishing characteristics.
Top View
Low-emitting adhesives, coatings, sealants, paints, and carpets were used to ensure optimal air quality.
A living wall graces the main entrance and acts as both a focal point and as a natural bio-filter, removing carbon dioxide and other contaminates from return air.
lower_level_plan
Heating is provided through a hydronic piping system embedded in the concrete slabs. This configuration takes advantage of the thermal mass of the slab itself, which allows for an even distribution of heat throughout the space. Additionally, as heat is radiated from below, the natural effects of convection ensures that the heat is provided directly to the occupied zone in the space (ie: near the floor), rather than from diffusers in the ceilings. This reduces fan power, energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels.
upper_level_plan
In the interior spaces daylight is maximized by incorporating glazing throughout the building, which reduces the use of electric lighting and saves on operating costs. Additionally, all lighting is equipped with either daylight sensors, occupancy sensors, or both, ensuring that the building responds to environmental and occupant conditions.
The quality of the site, both symbolic and architectural, leads us to propose a building organized around an interior garden ; while preserving the site unity. We make the most of the authorized outline to propose a building with a simple construction principle and rational organization, while maintaining the garden’s qualities. All the laboratories and offices are turned to the garden thanks to the gallery distribution system under the hull south facade (it allows on one hand an optimal control of the temperature, and secondly, the precise frame on the surrounding urban elements).
WAI Architecture Think Thank has completed a study for an architecture, urbanism and spatial politics laboratory in the center of Beijing. In the form of a monolithic cube, the institute of optimistic architectures encloses a network of dynamic spaces of a laboratory for architecture, urbanism and spatial politics in China.
Architecture’s re-interpretation of modernity; integrating and articulating new levels of organisation complexity. A vibrant interface between residential functions and academic institutions. Through the placement of a ‘nexus’, the Centre becomes a catalyst for cross-disciplinary activity between departments, forging a stronger collective institutional identity for ITT as a whole.
Article source: João Luís Carrilho da Graça, architect
When I first started working on this project I happened to be visiting Eero Saarinen’s School of Music in Ann Harbor. Even though the building is interesting, it struck me as odd that no music could be heard in the passageways, not even in the common spaces. At about the same time I watched a documentary about the Music Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, it was an old colonial house filled with people, joy and music. For this project, I wanted to push to the limits the possibility of acoustic excellence – and also the seclusion and soundproofing of every space, as well as convey the conviviality and extroversion particular to certain musical practices.
The Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy High School (IHSCA) is a charter high school founded by Instituto del Progreso Latino (IDPL) in 2008. This state-of-the-art facility opened in September 2011, and is heralded to pave the way for the next generation of doctors, nurses, informatics professionals and bio-technicians.
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