Urban development Nya Årstafältet Stockholm By Erik Giudice Architect

Nya Årstafältet is part of Stockholm’s ambition to create a organic city structure in it’s southern parts and to establish new urban centralities. The project will become one of Stockholm’s largest new developments in the coming years.

The core of the project is the new landscape park of more than 50 hectares which will combine activity fields, playgrounds, allotments and botanical gardens. The park is linked to one of Stockholm’s green corridors and will contribute to local biodiversity.

On the north and the western side of the park two large decks concentrate playgrounds and leisure activities, creating a spectacular transition between the park and the buildings.

The project connects the existing neighborhoods and infrastructures with the aim to create urban continuity and suppress both social and physical barriers. The robust and flexible city structure with its folded geometry gives a specific identity to the layout and creates a great variation in the cityscape and in public spaces.

The new city blocks combine a wide diversity of typologies, scales and heights in order to respond to the needs of a contemporary evolving society. Towards the park, higher buildings create a contrasted and airy skyline, letting light and views pass through to the buildings standing behind.

The project carries a high ecological and social profile, that meets up with the city’s global ambition which has resulted in the nomination of Stockholm to Green Capital 2010. .....more
Site
Årstafältet, Stockholm

Program
New city development : housing, offices, services, public buildings and a large central park.

Dimensions
New neighborhoods 30 ha

Landscape park 50 ha

City center development | Hyllie, Malmö in Sweden | Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

location: Hyllie, Malmö in Sweden
program: City center development, shopping, office and culture
client: Steen & Strøm AS
size: 180 000 m2
commision type: Invited competition 2nd Prize (2006)
status: Competition Project
year: 2006
Building a single structure which is to contain the entirety and dynamic of city life is a huge challenge that requires special attention to aspects of human fulfilment and dignity in the way these are conditioned by the urban environment. The concept of “the city as a house” seeks to build upon the success of the single-structure shopping mall and develop the principle further by infusing the single structure with all the other aspects of life, i.e. housing, workplaces, leisure etc. This creates a dynamic reminiscent of the medieval walled town where the entirety of life was lived within tight parameters........more

Parkline/Swell Competition By Snarkitecture | Miami Florida

Parkline/Swell is a competition proposal for a pedestrian friendly elevated network that connects the Metromover to the surrounding city and cultural destinations. The Parkline allows passage over the highway via a roaming greenscape, while the Swell is a grand staircase that ebbs and flows to create an inviting civic event space. Parkline/Swell Station is both a destination landmark and a beacon that gives a powerful identity to the Metromover system and the city of Miami.

The Swell is a stepped landscape that ascends upwards from the museum plaza to shelter the Metromover station and create a floating civic space. A pair of escalators pass through the Swell allowing direct access from the museums and park to the station. At its most turbulent moments the Swell arcs and rears to reveal glimpses into the station also creates boundaries and vegetated walls. At its calmer moments the smooth, twisting stairs create pockets of program for visitors to activate. As the Swell drifts up and follows the rail, it becomes an icon of the Metromover system as it passes over I-395.

The propsed Parkline/Swell station is located between the Miami Art Museum and Science Museum and elevated to align with the adjacent plaza, creating a visual and physical connection to the surroundings. Sheltered by the form of the Swell which rises up and over the station, a structural, living green wall frames the platform edges, screening the Metromover riders from highway traffic to the north. Apertures in the diagrid screen and the concrete form frame views from the platform to Museum Park to the south and create glimpses of the Metromover cars as the enter and exit the station......more

Queens Whaft Competition By Parsonson Architects

Auckland’s water landscapes offer the seed for a new kind of sculptural and ecological architecture. Unlike the man-made rectilinear architecture of the city, nature’s geometries are the inspiration for a forest of ‘coral-tube’ structures.
The design utilizes a modular component system of triangulated lightweight elements to ensure that construction and future additions can be quickly and easily achieved using standard components.


Both Event Pavilion and Passenger Terminal structures are based on this lightweight structure of triangulated hexagonal tubes, which are grafted as a new layer onto the wharf foundation. The result is an economic, fast build, adaptable solution.
The landscape is divided into an arrival square, a covered event square and a water square. The water square surface could be cut and folded down to water level providing a variety of possible harbour-side uses. In association with Chris Moller Architecture + Urbanism.....more

Library Oslo | Norway | XDGA Architecten

The site is the step stone between the existing city and the new Bjorvika neighbourhood and the fjord. Likewise, the library links the chain of new cultural institutions in Bjorvika to the city centre.
We imagine a water park for the public space in front of the library, a fully public and programmed piece of domesticated waterscape, situated in between the station square and the opera slopes.
This public sequence is connected through a device that starts as an underpass at the arches of the new railway station extension to end up in the water park and to continue as a bridge towards the terrace in front of the opera.
The same lecture of the site as a step stone between existing and new city allows for a full shopping program next to the library; in fact the best and only appropriate allocation for a department store in all Bjorvika.

Three basic, different volumes are set one next to the other. A transparent sphere, sitting on the water surface, is intersected by a standing and hermetic slab volume that closes off the waterscape. Together they form the library, the slab being a huge book stack that liberates the floors in the sphere from a books dominated order and allowing free floors for the library. The sphere opens up to all sides and directly addresses the library activity inside towards the surrounding streets.
The third volume is a massive floating box for the shopping building, with two gallery spaces carved out on street level, and with a void sphere cut out as an atrium inside it. This second sphere is visible as a big circular window on the north side, and as a skylight on top.
The composition out of basic forms allows for a well-tempered independence for the library, in relation to the strong identity of the opera building and the new extensions of the railway station.

On the site, a maximum of surface is claimed for a public park, made out of water in all its different forms. The park is the ultimate mediator between the city and the fjord; it faces both the Havnepromenaden and the square in front of the station. Through the park, an intense mixture of sports and wellness are brought into the public realm. The orthogonal layout is generated essentially from a large number of possible activities related to water, resulting in a catalogue of different appearances of the water and of its surface : from waves to warm water jets, from ice surfaces to a massive steam column. The waterscape is further organised through scattered mineral elements on different levels : a rock, an amphitheatre, an island, some sunken patios and an access platform to the library.....more

Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre | Victoria | Australia | Minifie van Schaik Architects

The Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Centre, for Melbourne Water, is perched overlooking the Edithvale wetlands. These transient wetlands, a remnant of the once extensive and ecologically rich Carum Carrum swamp, is now recognised by a RAMSAR listing of being of international significance.

The discovery centre will provide an interpretive experience for visitors to understand the vital and complex history and workings of this urban wetland in general, and it's role in the water-cycle in particular. This centre stands pelican-like above a constructed wetland rendering it safe from flood waters. A long ramping approach allows the visitor to journey upwards for a view of the wetlands. Entry is through an airlock comprised of a sculpted internal water storage


The interior contains an interpretive gallery offering views of the wetlands through panoramic windows. The glazing has been carefully designed to minimize vision into the building, and raked to ensure that external reflections are always of the ground, never the sky lest birds terminally confuse reflection for reality. An internal stair leads visitor directly from the exhibition space to a face to face greeting with the phragmites and diverse wildlife within the fenced wetlands boundary.

The building has many innovative ecological design features. Solar panels, heat-pumps, floor-grate supply and passive extraction, double glazing, motion controlled lighting, high levels of insulation and thermal mass together allow building operations to approach carbon neutral. Combined with a composting sewerage system and an internal water storage, the building will attracts an equivalent 6 Green Stars.

project:Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre
client:Melbourne Water
date:2007-2009

address:Edithvale Road, Victoria, Australia

The Last Resort Floating | Mobile Architecture | RAFAA

Concept
The concept of a conventional house and mobile swimming architecture cannot be easily merged. There is no doubt that a new typology has to be invented regarding usability, space and technology. The formal and conceptual requirements of being in motion stand in opposition with the desire to simultaneously feel at home. Living on water has to be rethought. This is why we propose a system focusing on movement and autarchy. As its name suggests, the project “the last resort” follows the strategy of a last resort and tries to challenge known and familiar concepts.

Organisation
The programme is organised on two levels. In order to be able to have an adequate height of 2.50m in the upper deck, sleeping bunks, technical equipment and hatches are built into the lower deck. They serve as “extension rooms” of the upper deck: Beds and couches are embedded into the floor and can be opened as the need arises. The external measure-ments are 5m x 15m. In the front area, there is a covered terrace; there, you can find a staircase leading to the roof. Together, the kitchen and the living room form a generous open room. The bathroom consists of a core separating both bedrooms from the common room. The bedroom can be separated by sliding panels and used separately as a study. All in all, there are six beds (incl. 2 bunk beds).


Lusatian Lakeland
The horizontal, undulated shape of the waterfront is inspiration for the design of the project. Furthermore, it serves as means for orientation for the residents. The landscape can be understood as an extension of the living room. Therefore, an unobstructed view of the landscape enhances the spatial quality of the design.

Form
Two surfaces (floor and ceiling) frame the experience “nature”; they form the upper and lower margin of the picture. Since the height and shape of the levels can be varied, the perspective and view of the landscape keep changing. The floor, for example, bends downwards at one point and disappears into the water. At another point, the roof curves down to the floor, thus creating a “kissing moment”. At some other spot, it unfurls in order to make space for the staircase. All this generates a play on forms that, together with the swell, the wind and the water reflection results in an intense nature experience.....more

Victoria & Albert Museum | Exhibition Road Galleries Design Study | Heneghan Peng Architects

Invited to present concept designs for a hypothetical redevelopment of the V&Aʼs Boilerhouse Yard. The designs, comprising architectural models and plans are asked to respond to a brief to create temporary exhibition space below ground and a courtyard at street level off Exhibition Road.

At the urban level, a continuous carpet links Exhibition Road, Boilerhouse Yard and Madejski Gardens. A “sandwich” floor with a domed construction, below the yard reconciles the various level of the buildings that surround the Boiler House Yard whilst accommodating the peripheral spaces and services to the temporary exhibition below.

Four Spiral stairs and lift at key points provide strategic vertical links and flexibilities to all spaces, interior and exterior with the primary entrance to the temporary exhibition through the Western Range linking into the main route through the V&A.....more
Fact sheet

Client:V&A
Date:2010
Location:London, UK

Collaborators

Structures | Civil:Arup
Services:Buro Happold
Lighting:Bartenbach Lichtlabor
Model:Andrew Ingham & Associates
Model Photographs:Richard Davies
Renderings:Archimation

Al Faisaliah Competition Entry | Riyadh | Saudi Arabia | FXFowle

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Completion: 2008
Area: 3,800,000 sf

FXFOWLE was one of two finalists in a design competition for a mixed-use development in Riyadh. The resulting design draws inspiration from multiple sources, including the shape of Al Khozama, a flower unique to the Saudi Arabian Kingdom. The key program elements included a 450-room, five-star hotel; a mosque; commercial office space; retail and restaurant venues; parking; and several indoor and outdoor public spaces. The environmentally responsible buildings and site works were designed as integrated systems that respond to the climatic conditions of the region. The new complex also created a new urban center by incorporating key existing buildings.....more

New Government Center Abu Dhabi | UAE | FXFowle

Client: UAE Government Ministries
Competition: 2006
Area: 1,430,000 sf

This invited competition entry for a new government center creates an iconic new campus to house 28 prestigious Governmental Ministries and Authorities. The complex's functional requirements are fulfilled by creating efficient working environments for each Governmental Authority. Our approach draws its strength from a celebration of formality by acknowledging a distinct linear circulation system for the complex, its users (dignitaries, employees, general public, semi-public) and its functions (ceremonial). By creating a campus-like complex with a variety of micro-climates and natural environments, each combined with patios, shadows, water and vegetation, the design encourages the negotiation between nature and the public and private spaces. The concept creates a sustainable new Government Center with a contemporary vision and is programmatically flexible and adoptable, economically feasible, and environmentally responsible.....more

International Urban Planning Competition for the futuristic town of Henna | Finland | BOARD

This design for the new Museum Complex for the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design separates all the museum's floor spaces, as described in the competition brief, into two entities: a plaza and a cube. The plaza integrates all the workshops and studios, all the vaults, the reception and dispatch areas, and the entire administration area. The plaza also surrounds the two existing former railway station buildings on the site as a kind of urban carpet and integrates them into its pattern. The cube accommodates the public functions, all the exhibition areas as well as the outreach area, the library, the documentation centre, and the areas for the art-on-paper. To create the plaza, the entire site within the surrounding streets has been filled with the programme and is thus elevated and connected directly to its context. To bring light to the programme located under the plaza, several patios have been created. The cube in front and the proposed office building in the rear, frame the plaza spatially and functionally. Both the cube and the office building accommodate public functions such as cafes, shops and small galleries on the ground floor that will activate the plaza.....more

International Competition | Benetton Building | Tehran | Iran | By BOARD

The physical manifestation of this new multi-storey building for Benetton has been derived from the design envelope that was given for the site. In order to create a recognisable building with a clear sense of identity, the superposition of the floors, as instructed by the competition brief, has been manipulated in such a way that a three-dimensional artwork emerges that is perceived differently from every different point of view in its urban context. The curvy grid pattern on the facade is not simply a representation of the Benetton logo, but is actively incorporated in the structural engineering. Linked to the vertical cores of the building, it supports the ceilings. Thus all the floors of the building are completely flexible spaces. The program is organised in terms of platforms that are connected by several escalators and centrally located elevators. The different platforms are penetrated by two large voids that bring sufficient light into the office and apartment area....more

Istanbul Gateway | Albert Abut Architecture

Aside from enhancing the historical value of old buildings and streets of Istanbul, we propose to add a more futuristic Architecture and improved infrastructure for the city. This is intended to convey the same effect as was implemented by the Centre George Pompidou in the middle of historical Paris, or the addition of a glass hi-tech snake to the 19th century Victoria Station of London or the Science Museum placed in the middle of Hong Kong Harbour’s Kowloon side. If you cannot portray the new beside the old in an historical city, as a comparison, that city will become a prisoner of it’s own history. Planning a Science Museum together with the Ataturk Monument at Sarayburnu, right in front of Topkapi Palace, and in Karakoy, a business center with a high tech complex tucked between the historical buildings, will attract the members of the business community to have their lunch there, enjoying the sights of Topkapi Palace, the Science Museum or the passenger ships instead of having it in the sterile environment of let’s say... Maslak. The city has to create such centers for its residents, not only for tourists. Such centers will enhance the imagination and production capacities of its people. This is improved quality of life.
Many Ocean Liner passengers go back to their rooms in the evening and they can enjoy, next to their ships, a dockland with a good atmosphere, a safe and well lit neighborhood with restaurants, cafes, commerce, many activities and attractions.
Whatever the solution this corner of Istanbul should not lose it’s atmosphere but enhance it.
Integrate Istanbul into the 21st century, marrying today past history to future evolution. But Istanbul must remain the gate between Europe and Asia.
Any structure on the two coastlines should have enough transparency to let the city’s past, present and future breathe towards the sea and vice versa.

All passengers on sea should be able to see the historical buildings and monuments behind/through that transparency.......more

Great Egyptian Museum Competition | Frama

Mysterious organic forms emerge out of flowing sand dunes, shimmering objects, which might be covered by sand and be revealed again the next day. Crater like circular rings, with tilted edges that keep the traveling sand away are surrounding parks with obelisks and statues from ancient Egypt. Urban Environments proposal for the Grand Egyptian Museum takes the visitor through an unexpected journey.

The design of the Great Egyptian Museum derives from an algorithm related to traveling sand dunes and the surrounding rock formations, which are found in the deserts of northern Africa and in particular on the site. A self-organizing structure, resulting in freely formed organic shapes that emerge from the
surrounding sand dunes. The dialectic termination that respects the character of the landscape and its history in adding a new idiomatic feature creates a strong contrast to the geometric shape of the nearby pyramids. This ties the museum strongly to its place, yet formally keeping the building free of any
cultural association.

The diverse Souk-like circulation patterns have the advantage of permitting the visitor either to have a comprehensive experience of the whole exhibition or to pursue any number of meandering routes. The main entrance-hall is the mediator between the complex organizational system, the inside and the
outside of the museum. It is a wide and open space with connections and
visual relationships to the exhibition and the circular parks.......more

The extension of the Kunsthall in Bremen | Frama

The extension of the Kunsthall in Bremen is a building that evokes a sense of mystery through its ability to seamlessly integrate with its surroundings, yet maintain a sense of architectural autonomy.

The language of the extension is articulated through the dichotomy of its main interior spaces: the open light-flooded circulation areas and the closed cubic exhibition areas. This results in a differentiated sculpture, which is wrapped by a partly transparent, partly mirroring façade. This main gesture fragments the reflection of the environment on the building exterior and on the walls of the interior exhibition cube. These distorted reflections of reality, evocative of Dan Graham’s mirrored sculptures and Andy Warhol’s camouflage portraits, stimulate the imagination of the visitors yet integrate the building into the surrounding park and existing museum.

On an urban scale, the addition is carefully planned to portray the relationship between the park and the city, through its setback from the street and museum. The building mass is carefully placed to capitalize on the urban qualities of the site and re-introduce the continuity of the green belt surrounding the city of Bremen. While its façade blends the building into the park, its engaging sculptural quality and urban setting renders the building as an attractor, inviting visitors to the new exhibition complex. The architectural language of the Kunsthall addition is such that it respects and preserves the delicate site conditions, yet adds a strong contemporary counterpart to the existing museum......more

The new International Congress Centre in Katowice | Poland | Jojko + Nawrocki Architekci

The new International Congress Centre in Katowice, recognisable as an important public building on the map of Katowice and of the Silesian conurbation, should not compete with a dominating form of the adjacent Spodek. Together with it and with future buildings, i.e. the seat of the National Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio, the Musical Theatre and the Silesian Museum, it has a task to create a new cultural axis of Katowice and to play a leading role in the current transformations and in revitalisation of free spaces in the northern-eastern part of Katowice city centre.

The requirements set to the Congress Centre are fulfilled in an abstract monolithic shape. The new building, like the adjacent Spodek, at first glance looks like a facility stationed here only temporarily, but in reality it has been skilfully integrated with the existing and future context so as to fulfil the role assigned to it in the best way. A monolithic structure of the building has been founded on a sloping ground in such a way as to appropriately fill the void existing in this part of the city and at the same time to create a series of new precisely defined public spaces. The building rises above the square transforming into a huge canopy, used primarily in the summertime to organise diverse outdoor events. A large atrium designed in the overhung part leads to the centre, where a raising square is continued in the form of successive foyer and lobbies......more

Competition for the "Theater under Construction" in Lublin | Poland | By Jojko + Nawrocki Architekci

The task of the “Theatre under Construction” and above all of the new Centre for Cultures Meeting is to become a new worldwide recognisable symbol of Lublin and a cultural heart of the city. The building, because of the importance of functions concealed in it, should be a dominating accent on the city plan and the most important catalyst of its inhabitants cultural life.
The existing building started in the seventies of the previous century cannot cope with these requirements. Unfortunately, the current mark of the place is a characteristic disorder in the existing building structure from its design to its external form, the complication of its functional arrangement, circulation paths and space as well as being ceaselessly “under construction”. The programme of building’s expansion shows a lack of sense and need clarity, as if an own idea is only now being sought. Instead, the planned Centre for Cultures Meeting requires an open, multi-functional social space, which connecting the existing structure with the new will create a vibrant place for meetings and for daily visits of multicultural community of Lublin and of the region.
All the requirements set to the new building, both symbolic and social as well as formal, economic and design-architectural, are fulfilled in a simple characteristic shape of the new “Theatre under Construction”, being a metaphor of meetings’ symbol rooted in the culture – a tent. The new system of internal circulation spaces integrates the whole of the building, creating one consistent organism, being an open structure with separated blocks of special functions......more

Linz Tanztheater | Dancing Theatre in Linz | Austria | Designed By Atelier Thomas Pucher

Urban - The musical theater as a landmark
The site is located in Blumau reference to the historical center and the new density field along the corridor as a joint station with the people of the garden as a hub.
From out of this positioning of the site's potential, concise urban landmark has become.

Silent - noise
The neighborhood with the people of inner-city garden as a place of "relative" silence demands for a shift towards the curtain road noise to a bundling of traffic flow with the track rail body. This representative of the People's garden to park in front of the theater and music in a greater public importance is raised within the urban fabric.

Theater District
The design of the studied theater space flows into the road network of the Public Garden. Green islands are transformed into green space - expanding the reverse, the way to the place - the place is the foyer.
By the direct, pedestrian connection between theater and popular garden park with the added surrounding buildings and the street theater of the potential, over several years to the "theater district" - develop - with a lively restaurant and bar scene.

The building
The shape of the structure is based on several points:
1. urban: As already described, the musical theater is a central point at an interface of several neighborhoods. In this regard, claiming the building as an independent, centered, all access roads (access) devices recognizable form. It is the completion of the space station in the north-west axis and is a marker of Blumauerstraße, coming from the northeast, and the Kärntner Strasse, from the South dar.
2. on the immediate environment: the duality Music Theatre - People's Services will once again its reflection in the tension between volume / void, nature / culture. The volumetric continuation of the blocks north of the Blumauerstraße shows a logical growth from the stock.
3. the "real" essence of musical theater: it sounding the artistic energies of the city is beyond the music! This means it is not about a direct transfer of music into architecture - rather a transformation. This leads to the idea of transformation of the movement in music is art of the time out to set architecture in light of the time....more

Estonian National Museum | Tartu | Estonia | Atelier Thomas Pucher

Estonia has 1.341.664 inhabitants. 5% of the surface is covered with lakes, 44% with woods. The 45.227km² country has had a versatile history throughout the centuries. The first inhabitants appeared around 3.000 B.C.but it took a long time until the appearance of the Estonian state was marked on June 19, 1925. The Estonian people suffered hundreds of years of conquests and oppression. In 1991 it became independent and since 2004 it has been a member of the EU. The cultural history of Estonia will be preserved in the new Estonian national museum, a huge storehouse and a symbol of identity. As a metaphor for this point of time and as an object of the overwhelming landscape it is made of light.

Facade
The facade consists of two curtain-layers of enamelled glass, cut out into fields of leaves by laser-technology. The shapes used are borrowed from the Estonian landscape. Each shape reflects the shape of an Estonian lake. The brilliant surface of the material and the distance of layers force the building to become a reflection of the different light conditions of Estonia. By its size and appearance it becomes an object of the landscape itself.

The openness of the glass-layers is adapted to the function and needs of the area behind. Public areas like the reading hall, education etc. need much transparency. Here the layers are suspended in front of a glass-facade and also act as sun-blinds. Exhibition and storage areas shall be protected from natural light. Here the layers are suspended in front of a closed wall with some tiny openings, also in the form of lakes.

Form
By its appearance and its sheer size, the building does not need any form more complicated than a cube. By stacking the entire programme simply on top of each other, the shortest possible way between programmes is achieved. By perforating the slab ceilings in a pixel-like manner the building becomes “transparent” inside, shortcuts and connections between different functions and areas are easily possible, linking everything with everything.

As a matter of fact the volume of 52.5 x 52.5 x 52.5m (=144.703m³) is also the most efficient way of organising the space allocation plan in terms of the relationship surface area / volume. This means economic construction-methods and a significant reduction of energy consumption over the life cycle of the building.....more

Nature Activity Centre | Oostvaardersplassen | the Netherlands | Zecc Architecten

With the urban and landscape designers RRog, Zecc has worked on a prestigious design competition in the Oostvaardersplassen. From 105 entries our team has been selected for the last round. In the design RRog and ZECC played with the relation between “tough” nature of the Oostvaardersplassen and the intervention of people. The human contribution in the area is simple, but with a large impact for an optimum nature development. People become spectators; on the first row, to have a good view in the most natural field of the Netherlands. From the new activity centre the visitor is invited to enter the area to become a component of nature....more


project name: Nature Activity Centre Oostvaardersplassen
program: 1400 m2 activity centre and supporting offices
period: 2009-2010
note:one of the last five competitors out of 110