Article source: Noura Al Sayeh and Leopold Banchini Architects
The house for Architectural Heritage is a centre that houses the archival collection of sketches and drawings by the architect John Yarwood, as well as serving as an exhibition space dedicated to architecture. John Yarwood resided in the city of Muharraq between 1983 and 1985, while he was serving at the Head of the Urban Renewal Department at the Ministry of Housing and fell in love with the city. His affection for exploration and documentation found an excellent opportunity in the abundant architectural heritage of the city. Today, his hand drawn sketches and drawings as well as his photographs remain one of the most extensive sources of documentation on the architectural heritage of Muharraq of which unfortunately much has been destroyed since the 1980s.
BO Space is located in HE Park where used to be an old industry site and now a culture & innovation gathering place in Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou. In the designer’s view, the city is expanding way to fast that we are losing the old imprint of our city while we are losing our culture as well. Buildings are getting old, but we can keep its vitality through a design and transformation. Bo Space is not just a restaurant bar but also a complex space. It does not only provide people a place to stay but also presents a way of living. People can find out what they really like here, even if it is just a ray of sunshine, a picture show, a good meal, a slow pace, or a way back to life.
In 2013, the Fuzhou Government hosted an international invited competition for the Strait Culture and Art Centre with the goal of strengthening the cultural image of the city and the Mawei New Town development area. PES-Architects’ winning proposal aims to offer an extraordinary experience for ordinary users by creating a new type of “cultural shopping mall”. The cultural programmes of the Centre are complemented with commercial and family-oriented entertainment services to create a modern hybrid complex. This format is typical of the new phase of cultural building in China.
Project: Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre (SCAC)
Location: Mawei New Town, Fuzhou, China
Photography: Marc Goodwin, Zhang Yong, Virgile Bertrand
Software used: Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, ODEON
Client: Fuzhou New Town Development Investment Group Co.,Ltd.
Lead Designers, Architecture and Interior: Pekka Salminen (chief designer), Martin Lukasczyk (project architect), Lai Linli (project manager)
Main Design Team: Li Wei (project coordinator), Guan Xiaojing (project manager), Yizhou Zhao, Masahide Nakane, Matti Kankkunen, Anna Blomqvist, Clara Juan, Uros Kostic, Antonio Barquinha, Martin Genet, Dou Jian
Team Members: Dragan Jevtic, Pauli Rikaniemi, Tuukka Päivärinne, Timo Kujala, Piercarlo Torri, Sami Lauritsalo, Yin Liang, Tuomas Pinomaa, Fan Yujing, Siiri Murtola, Beatriz Redondo, Jazz Fu, Tristan Hughes, Jarkko Salminen, Karla Diaz, Mia Bungers, Marcelo Diez
The project began with an abandoned Hoffman brick kiln, which was located between Hengshui wetland park and the city proper of Hengshui. It was formerly a place where factories nearby used to drain their sewage water onto. As the only building on wetland, the brick kiln was highly recognizable with its chimney. However the Hoffman kiln was gradually abandoned due to the national policy that banned the burning of bricks out of clay as an environmental protection measure. The building was eventually demolished by the government due to its collapsing condition. With the new governmental plan to convert the wetland into a botanic park, the project called for the design of a botanic art center on the same site of the former kiln. We decided that the memory and history of the demolished kiln has to be recalled and remembered with the new architecture. We hope to connect the past and the present of the place with the project.
This is the story of the conversion of a regular, standard flat into a photography studio, private house and an art gallery. The apartment is located on a quiet street parallel to a busy boulevard in Alsancak, one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Izmir. The brief was to design the ground floor and the upper floor of this apartment which was part of a five storey housing block on this calm and green street, to be used as a photographic studio. During the design process, together with the client it was agreed upon that this place could go beyond being just a photographic studio. Besides meeting the demands of the client who is a well-known photographer in İzmir, who wanted to have a place for his own where he could live and work, the idea of integrating an exhibition area to this space was quickly embraced. While enabling his studio to exhibit and share the photographic work that it produces, this space would also host other photography exhibitions and thus become an alternative art exhibition spot in the city.
TOWOdesign Studio, which excels in reconstruction of commercial space in information era, created two subversive showrooms for Chinese wood flooring brand TREESSUN. Through recombination of exhibits, arts, space and time, the flooring exhibition was transformed into a large interactive installation with unique aesthetic image.
Three Aspects of the Reconstruction Strategy for the Building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga
Considering the unique architecture of the building, its representational importance and significant contribution to the cultural heritage, the proposed extension strategy is based on:
– retention of the existing building capacity and authentic details;
– need for renewal and extension of museum functions in the clearly expressed modern volume and subtle minimal design of the additional spaces;
Hanyang Guiyuan Temple Sales Center: a curved building that embraces landscape
Each city is given unique character by its history. Unfortunately in China most cities are losing their features after reconstruction and taking on almost the same image. It is imperative for urban real estate developers to retain cultural heritage of the city through balanced and appropriate design solutions.
This facility is designed for the city of Prague and is based on Prague inspirations. The design is simple, drawn with one line. This line should be easy to remember and should characterize the Botanical Garden once and for all.
We designed a fancy experience house that will lure people to come back again. The facility is designed to be economical both in its construction and in its operation. The facility and its surroundings will be dominated mainly by green plants.
As a new home for the spectacular natural history collections of Tel Aviv University, the building combines exhibition spaces and research activities. The collections, which were never before on display, were placed in a large wooden chest – a treasure box of valuable specimens of flora and fauna. The building enfolds the box and offers it to the public as an enigmatic object, invited to be explored. The box itself, which aspires to be of timeless qualities, concurrently ancient and futuristic, is covered with industrial wooden panels that highly insulate the collections and keep them under strict climate control.