The desire to reproduce the space of a forest, or of a group of bamboos on a layer of water, has formed the subconscious basis of the project. On the one hand there is the creation of a… building mechanism? able to generate extraordinary possibilities from the point of view of energy logic and environmental awareness, an essential and symbolic aspect for the future Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition of Zaragoza. But on the other hand, and this is very important, one of the most attractive spaces one may encounter, both in terms of matter and light, is transferred to the field of architecture. Changing spaces, full of hints and nuances, in which concepts such as verticality and depth play an essential role.
The new Health Faculty of San Jorge University is located on a campus on the outskirts of Zaragoza city. Although it is a rural campus, the nature in it is scarce. The forest along the campus is the result of a man created operation. The surrounding buildings, the Rectory and Communications Faculty, respond to a contemporaneous architecture that lives besides that nature.
The main activity of Certest Biotec involves research, development and manufacturing of diagnostic tests. Due to its rapid growth, the company decided to move its premises from the business incubator at the European Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in Aragon to a free 8,000 m2 plot with a dominant position in the San Mateo de Gállego estate.
Designed for the Zaragoza Expo 2008, the DWP is not a project meant, like many others, to seduce the visitor by the sheer power of its architectural form. Its geometry could hardly be simpler: a rectangular shape in which two boxes are respectively devoted to an information point and a tourist centre. The challenge was to use water – the theme of Expo 2008 – as an architectural element.
Photography: Claudio Bonicco, Max Tomasinelli, Ramak Fazel, Walter Nicolino, Guy Hoffman, Matteo Lai.
Client: City of Zaragoza and Expoagua Zaragoza 2008
Design team: carlorattiassociati | walter nicolino & carloratti, preliminary design with Claudio Bonicco, executive design with Matteo Lai
Consultants: MIT Media Laboratory, Smart Cities Group (William J. Mitchell, Director), Boston – interactive water wall concept, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, CDD Group (Dennis Frenchman, Director), Boston – masterplan Milla Digital, MIT SENSEable City Lab (Carlo Ratti, Director), Boston – masterplan Expo Gateway, Arup, Madrid and London – engineering, Agence Ter, Parigi – landscape architecture, Studio FM, Milano – graphic design, Typsa, Madrid – site supervision, Lumiartecnia Internacional – water engineering, Siemens, Madrid – lead contractor
The new building plays a key role inside Helios sports and leisure centre, working as an extension to the dressing rooms facilities and connecting an existing sports building.
The main functional ideas are:
Solve the connection between dressing room facilities and the sports centre, making it more natural through the new building. Create an integrated new façade of the group of buildings to the south, east and west, and a service yard to the west, needed for the functioning of the three of them.
The family. – A couple and a seven year old boy plus a dog. Old but with a great retirement. They christened the house “El Caserón”. They lived renting and they decided to pawn their savings in buying a lot that included an insultingly tasteless house, in my opinion. I decided not to demolish the house, with the family’s permission. We tried to avoid mediocrity looking for the best in the worst.
The task involved the creation of a cultural space for three types of activities: The leisure center for children up to 14 years, the center for cultural activities, and the multipurpose space. The urban space where the cultural center was to be located was a small lot in Plaza Miguel Aso, which according to the urban plan of the city, only allowed construction on the ground floor, with height up to the roof slab level, not exceeding the height of the ground floors of the surrounding buildings.
The commission is originated by the need from the school to augment the total surface of the courtyard that due to the great amount of students and parents that usually gather during the day, can sometimes obstruct the correct developing of the sports and leisure activities that should take place in it. The courtyard is 33 meters wide per 35 meters long and has a South East Orientation. It is formed by the existing school that has a U form with two wings, one from the 50´s and another one form the 70´s.
The first three-dimensional fountain in the world. This state-of-the-art fountain behaves as a three-dimensional water sculpture continually evolving in an attractive and interactive way. This project is a breakthrough in the concept of architectural fountains.
Delicias Station square is defined by consistent lines with the aesthetics of the High Speed train station building, being the water the main protagonist of the proposal. A central space with a reflecting pool offers the possibility of becoming a temporary skating ice rink; water games arising below the pavement energize the space. Bodies of small grass fields rippled by the wind between almond trees and tamaryx bushes define stay spaces near the front of the station.
Article source: José Javier Gallardo Ortega ///g.bang///
ONE CONCEPT, ONE COLOR AND ONE MATERIAL
The assignment is motivated by the need to expand the Neuro psychiatric Centre Our Lady of Carmen, in Zaragoza. In the first phase there is a new support centre for youth with behavioral problems, and currently sharing facilities with the geriatric section and, by the nature of their treatment and pathology, was necessary to become independent. In a second phase will be built the “Module for Occupational Workshops.”
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