Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Location: 2-294 Torii Matsu Machi, Kasugai-shi, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Client: GC Corporation
Site Area: 421.55 sqm
Built Area: 233.95 sqm
Total Floor Area: 626.5 sqm
Cooperation for Design: Design Department of Matsui Construction
Structural Design: Jun Sato Structural Design
Photographs: Daici Ano

This is architecture that originates from the system of Cidori, an old Japanese toy. Cidori is an assembly of wood sticks with joints having unique shape, which can be extended merely by twisting the sticks, without any nails or metal fittings. The tradition of this toy has been passed on in Hida Takayama, a small town in a mountain, where many skilled craftsmen still exist.

Cidori has a wood 12 mm square as its element, which for this building was transformed into different sizes. Parts are 60mm×60mm×200cm or 60mm×60mm×400cm, and form a grid of 50cm square. This cubic grid also becomes the grid on its own for the showcase in the museum.

Jun Sato, structural engineer for the project, conducted a compressive and flexure test to check the strength of this system, and verified that even the device of a toy could be adapted to ‘big’ buildings. This architecture shows the possibility of creating a universe by combining small units like toys with your own hands. We worked on the project in the hope that the era of machine-made architectures would be over, and human beings would build them again by themselves.

Work: Museum and Archaeological Park “Cabezo de la Almagra” in the Campus of the University of Huelva
Type: Museum
Location: University Campus of “El Carmen”, Huelva, Spain

Architect: Sebastián Cerrejón Hidalgo
Collaborators: Cerrejón Arquitectos, S. L. P., Joaquín Gracia Barberán (Metal Structure), José Sainz Sopeña (Foundation), Carlos Enviz (Agricultural Engineer), Juan Manuel Campos Carrasco (Archaeologist), Grupo JG (Facilities)

Sponsors: Municipal Management of Urbanism Town Hall of Huelva
Dates: 2004 – 2010
Construction: Terracivíl, S.A., Vicente Cantalapiedra (Chief of Work)
Materials: Cor-ten steel reused, acoustic plate of fine wood shavings with magnesite (Herakustik star), Cobblestone ceramic (Klinker)
Action Area: 21.489,68 m2
Photographer: Roland Halbe

There were various requirements to be met by the project: to represent the archaeological significance of the site, ordering a space which will enhance the image from the new highway access, and becoming the gateway to the campus ‘Carmen’ of the University of Huelva.

A few materials define formally the performance. A covered structure with opaque surfaces is raised and seems to float on the soil. The iron is capable of reflecting the passage of time of a recognizable way and durable, is expressing of multiple ways. The iron’s oxide melts past and present, and evidences our cultural identity, which is associated with characteristic colour of the Tinto river and its marshes.

Architects: Studio Ricatti – Pierpaolo Ricatti
Location: Breganze, Italy
Collaborators: Marco Chilese (Project Manager), Laura Canazza, Giulia Gallo, Anna Griggio, Paolo Omodei Salè, Diego Rossi, Marco Saterini
Engineering: Jacobs Italia SpA
Project area: 87,000 sqm
Photographs: Daniele Domenicali, Aerodata (aerial views)

The new Diesel Headquarters is located in an area previously occupied by a mechanical industrial plant. The project can be defined a low-rise hybrid building which keeps together different functional programs: offices, warehouses, exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a kindergarten, a canteen, a fitness center in addition to covered parking car and technological plants.
The result is a small creative town whose community shares working spaces but also common ones, those where emerge the effective sense of working together and sharing different skills.
This led us to conceive the intervention as a real urban project, crossed by streets and articulated into several squares: the result is a state of exceptional functional density within the scattered sprawl that characterizes the entire region.

This makes it immediately recognizable without using any formal complication. For this reason we wanted to create nor a landmark neither an icon-building. We have been working, instead, on the concept of  “locus” in order to make clear the role of this island into a regional scale, into the larger metropolitan archipelago.

Architects: Amann-Cánovas-Maruri, Atxu Amann Alcocer , Andrés Cánovas Alcaraz , Nicolás Maruri González de Mendoza.
Location: Murcia, Spain
Colaborators: Javier Gutiérrez, Ana López, Patricia Lucas, María Mallo, Mónica Molero, Carlos Ríos, Antonio Rodríguez
Technical Architect: Rafael Checa
Sponsor: Consorcio Turístico “Murcia Cruce de Caminos”
Construction: Intersa
Completion: 2010
Photographer: David Frutos

It is a place in the shade.
On the upper floor are structured the permanent and temporary showrooms, is a closed place and guarded, which is only open to look in a controlled manner to the best views of the valley and the castle. The building is also then a gazebo, a window becomes a showcase and framed exterior parts that should be shown to be seized.

The building is constructed on the ground floor with exposed concrete structural screens and shutters. In the top section runs with a metal structure that resolves the long flights and closed with a panel of multiple sheets is sealed with a waterproofing hot end is topped with a skin of perforated Cor-Ten steel, which acts as final layer of a trans-ventilated facade takes up the old issue of climate as a backdrop.

Riccardo Mariano designed the ‘Istanbul Disaster Prevention + Education Centre’ as a reflection of earth-related phenomena. The surrounding site lifts to form a volcano-like structure. From the inside, coloful lights pour upwards, a reflection of man-made energy. Although the nearby landscape contains a creek while the north has civil infrastructure, the building is located on a flat topographical surface allowing the low profile center to visually emerge.

The interior façade consists of drawings which were derived from a typical islamic pattern, based on the hexagonal grid, the system modulates the light, adding color as it passes through its different densities. The built-in light gets stronger as it gets closer to the top, allowing for it to be seen from a distance at night.

Structurally, every sector works as an independent entity connected to the next by cracks and joints. This principle is based on the observation of the geometry of fractures in solid material. Overall, the building is a fragmented mass made out of simple substructures. Outside, the gravel from the surrounding site is continued onto the façade. The material acts as installation for noise and temperature while visually tying the building into the landscape.

Concept:

The planning museum is envisioned to be a new civic sculpture for the city located at the heart of the main the governmental district. The sculptural nature of the building ties to the existing network of sculptural elements and parks placed throughout the city.

The building becomes a technological bloom as the massing opens towards the main parks to the west. The form of the building takes inspiration from the nautical influences and seeks to become a symbol of technological progress and green evolution.

The building uses a photocatalytic nano-coating of Titanium Dioxide on the outer zinc rain screen to neutralize air pollution and remove dirt. The cleansing reaction is maintained 24 hours a day by using UV lights on the façade at night which are powered by PV cells.

The lighting scheme will be symbolic of a blooming flower- the main golden glow facing west towards the government buildings and the CBD. The inner aluminum façade layer uses a polymer coating that increases insulation values by 10-20 percent, and provides marine and fungal resistance. These nano-coatings are really nothing more than simple paints and will provide dramatic performance with minimal cost.

The use of the self-cleaning nano-coating on the façade will keep the skin clean of all dirt and organic stains for years without any maintenance. The building also minimizes east west facades and pulls all entries away from the northern winds to maximize passive solar ideas. The government hopes the project will inspire green ideas and further sustainable design in the city.

Dalian Museum Competition – Building Information

Architects: 10 design
Location: Dalian, China
Year: 2011
Design Team: Ted Givens, Peby Pratama, Adrian Yau, Audrey Ma, Laura Rusconi Clerici, Shane Dale
Landscape Design: Ewa Koter
Client: Dalian Planning Bureau

PROJECT: Community Center
SIZE: 4.500 m2
LOCATION: Shanghai, China
JDS PARTNER IN CHARGE: Julien De Smedt
BUDGET: Confidential
CLIENT: Confidential
TEAM: JDS, MUDI
PROJECT LEADER: Andrew Griffin
TYPE: Commission
STATUS: Ongoing 2011
PROJECT TEAM: Henning Stüben, Francisco Villeda,Cristina Marigo, Gladys Greyl

nation of municipality and community center essentially breaks with recent Chinese conventions by inviting the public to engage their local politicians in a forum that accommodates the full range of public actors. Natural patterns of movement were laid out on the site and guided down through a sunken plaza accommodating a range of different programs. The rest of the program extents as a manipulated ring hovering above the landscape.

Another New Museum?
The Miami Art Museum finds itself at a crossroads. A mid-sized museum at the center of the Americas, MAM is poised to expand the scope of the institution and re-define its position. Every year Miami is the focus of international attention through its renowned art fair, making it one of the travelling capitals of the global art world. Currently, the museums of Miami are its important private collections. Miami needs a new MAM for the institution’s ability to organize the city’s art activities and make them accessible to a larger community. The new Miami Art Museum will be a vital public space for cultural exchange.

Museum Park
The new Miami Art Museum will be located in Museum Park, a redeveloped downtown waterfront facing Biscayne Bay and the MacArthur Causeway, a major freeway connecting mainland Miami with Miami Beach. The masterplan, by Cooper, Robertson & Partners, knits together a collection of attractions along the park’s urban edge, opening up greenspace along the waterfront. Planned for the north edge are two buildings: Miami Science Museum (designed by Grimshaw Architects) and Miami Art Museum. The two museums are set on a raised platform and share a common plaza. The new MAM simultaneously orients its front facade toward the plaza, the park, the bay, and the city, and becomes a highly visible landmark amid Miami’s cityscape while part of a contemplative, quasi-natural context. The parking level is open, exposing it to light and fresh air, and usable as a storm water runoff. The design extends the park, bringing it into the Museum platform, and enhances its potential to create sustainable outdoor spaces. The canopy creates a habitable space over the entirety of the site, a public amenity welcoming all visitors to Museum Park.

Building, Climate, Vegetation
An open structure of densely arranged columns supports a shading canopy over the entire site. Under this canopy the park is intensified, becoming a dense, multi-dimensional garden with a museum buried in its heart. Tropical plants, engulfing the museum, are deeply integrated into the structural system of columns and platforms. The combination of the canopy and the hanging garden allows for a microclimate on the museum platform. The goal is to make an “outdoor interior”, stabilizing a range of comfortable outdoor temperatures to make a cooler exterior space by natural means. Stairs as wide as the plot engage the platform to the bay and a waterfront promenade. Rather than the conventional notion of the museum as an isolated jewel in a park, the building and site will together comprise a continuous, open civic space, a comfortable public veranda where community, nature, architecture, and contemporary art are harmoniously conjoined.

The new MAM will offer experience with gradual transition from the outside to the inside, from the warm to the cool, from the humid to the dry, from the street to the art. As well as creating an intermediate environment, the vegetation has the ecological benefit of reducing the energy load of the building. Minimizing the sun’s impact on the building’s envelope reduces the high cost of maintaining a controlled environment for artworks, as well as creating comfortable microclimates for outdoor public spaces.

With the help of landscape architects Arquitectonica Geo together with artist and botanist Patrick Blanc, a range of plants are selected, based on their hardiness in terms of exposure to sun, wind, and hurricanes. The open structure of columns will adapt a series of advanced horticultural techniques for the integration of vegetation and structure. As in previous examples of our work, such as the Dominus Winery in Napa Valley, the building’s environmental circumstances become central to its architectural concept.

The expression of the building comes from the roof, structure, and the garden, giving us the unique freedom to layout the interior according to its own optimal configuration.

Planted Chambers
Bringing the natural elements of the park into the territory of the museum and intensifying them, the Planted Chambers provide a prolonged transition. A series of softer and increasingly ambiguous thresholds between the park, the platform, and the museum gradually brings the visitor indoors, until the museum is discovered from the inside. Like a plantation, the effects of certain plants are concentrated around specific areas, forming natural enclosures. These pockets within the vegetation are virtual chambers, almost like the galleries inside, that could be used for events and public activities. The chambers are also designed to complement programmatic adjacencies within the museum, providing outdoor environements for the lobby, theater, bistro, and classrooms. The classical juxtaposition of art & science, presented by the masterplan, is supplanted by the union of art & nature.

Curatorial Plan
In collaboration with the Museum’s staff, a series of gallery typologies have been designed to fulfill the institution’s curatorial aims. Different gallery types embody strategies to both display and develop MAM’s growing collection. Different modes of display are deployed in a non-linear sequence, allowing the visitor to follow multiple directions through the museum’s collection, punctuated by specific pieces and spaces. The experience of art will be integrated into the entire building, including the garden and the garage. By presenting differentiated combinations of interior finishes in the exhibition spaces, as opposed to a traditional sequence of generic white cubes, MAM proposes a new model of collecting, curating, and experiencing art.

Expanded Mission
In recent years, progressive contemporary museums have expanded their role in the social sphere, taking into account the multiple functions that support the art experience and the museum’s function as a catalyst of civic unity. These additional functions include spaces for community education, research facilities for arts professionals, and dining and event spaces. These functions are located at the periphery of the building, maximizing exposure to the “Veranda”, the Biscayne Bay and Museum Park, giving the community direct access to the site’s resources and natural assets.
Herzog & de Meuron, 2009