28 de septiembre de 2009.
Arquitectos: Shop Architects
Cliente: Forest City Ratner Companies
Ubicación: Brooklyn, NY
Superficie: 6.000 m2
Bruce Ratner originalmente asignó a Frank Gehry la tarea de diseñar el arena de básquetbol para Atlantic Yard, un desarrollo de 90.000 m2 en Brooklyn. La idea de Gehry esbozaba un arena rodeado de edificios que eran categorizados cuidadosamente en diferentes zonas y lue re-ensamblados para crear “sorprendentes momentos urbanos”. Cuando Gehry fue despedido hace unos meses y reemplazado por la firma Ellerbe Becket de Kansas, muchos estuvieron preocupados de que el proyecto no se realizaría con el cuidado que Gehry le había dado. Cuando el diseño original de Becket fue considerado de mala calidad, Ratner rápidamente contrató a SHoP Architects para conseguir un diseño a la altura.
Finalmente, el diseño del Centro de Barclays, que incorpora algunas ideas originales de Gehry, logra un equilibrio sorprendente entre la forma icónica y el compromiso con el espacio público. Es legible a escalas múltiples, mientras que mantiene una identidad que deleita a los visitantes, vecinos, aficionados y espectadores. Integrado en una de las intersecciones de mayor actividad urbana en la nueva Área metropolitana de Nueva York, el Centro contendrá un diálogo saludable e interactivo con las calles circundantes y el vecindario.
El gesto cívico del Arena es aumentado por una espectacular cubierta de 9 metros de alto, que contiene un óculo que enmarca la vista del Arena. El acceso público principal vincula la Plaza del Atlántico y la Avenida Flatbush, y crea un sistema flexible; un espacio cívico como gran bienvenida.
El acceso principal del público es predominantemente de cristal en el nivel de la acera, el óptimo para garantizar la accesibilidad y visibilidad.
Las vistas y el acceso físico, tanto dentro como fuera de la Arena serán un factor comun, claro y complaciente, garantizando así la una fuerte conexión con el medio ambiente urbano circundante.
En un comienzo, el proyecto, aunque constaba de muchas partes, fue pensado como un gran sistema. Para aplazar costos adicionales, Ratner dividió el diseño. Esto preocupó a muchos quienes sintieron que una vez construido el arena, podrían pasar años antes que el resto del proyecto estuviera cerca de completarse. De acuerdo a Ratner, una vez finalizado el arena, las fundaciones para los edificios residenciales y comercailes estarán ya cabadas, estando listas para empezar la siguiente etapa de construcción. Es importante para el diseño completo mantener el progreso constante, ya que la suma de los elementos es más importante que el arena mismo.
El siguiente es un modelo del proyecto para el conjunto original diseñado por Frank Gehry.
http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/2009/09/26/barclays-center-shop-architects/#more-27864+
21 de septiembre de 2009.
It was one of the most dangerous in the world because its runway was just too short for large airplanes. It had to be extended and engineers had two options: Extend the ground base with extra soil and concrete, or build a platform on top of 180 230-foot pillars. The answer just looks spectacular.
Madeira Airport (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA), (informally known as Funchal Airport, and formerly known as Santa Catarina Airport), is an international airport located near Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The airport controls national and international air traffic of the island of Madeira.
The airport was opened on 18 July 1964 with two 1,600m runways.
The airport was once infamous for its short runway which, surrounded by high mountains and the ocean, made it a tricky landing for even the most experienced of pilots. The original runway was only 1600 metres in length, but was extended by 200 metres 8 years after the TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 incident of 1977 and subsequently rebuilt in 2000, almost doubling the size of the runway, building it out over the ocean. Instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 columns, each being about 70m tall. This airport is also considered the Kai Tak of Europe because of its singular approach to runway 05[citation needed].
For the enlargement of the new runway the Funchal Airport has won the Outstanding Structures Award, given by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). The Outstanding Structures Award is considered to be the "Oscar" for engineering structures in Portugal.[1]
18 de septiembre de 2009.
En pleno corazón de Londres se levanta el Central Saint Giles Building de Renzo Piano. El edificio, a pocos meses de ser finalizado, será el primer proyecto del arquitecto italiano construido en Inglaterra, mezclando viviendas, oficinas, y equipamientos. La obra de Piano busca reactivar una importante zona del distrido de Camden, el cual se caracteriza por la gran diversidad de su trama urbana combinando un pasado medieval, edificios contemporaneos y bloques tradicionales.
Según Maurits van der Staay de Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), Central Saint Giles rescata la diversidad del barrio, inyectando una ‘vibración jovial’ de colores los cuales fueron cuidadosamente seleccionados por Piano. Las fachadas van alternándose entre rojos, amarillos, naranjas y verdes, rompiendo por un lado cualquier atisbo de monotonía, y por otro, respondiendo a lo que Piano llama la ‘belleza de la sorpresa en la ciudad’. Para Renzo Piano una de las razones de la belleza de las ciudades es su capacidad para sorprendernos. En ese contexto el impacto que genera el proyecto de Central Sain Giles en el centro de Londres cumple su objetivo con creces.
El proyecto desarrollado por Central Saint Giles Limited Partnership comprende poco más de 37 mil m2 de oficinas en el centro de Londres, junt0 con 109 unidades de viviendas y aproximadamente 2 mil 500 m2 de retail.
http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/2009/09/18/en-construccion-central-saint-giles-london-renzo-piano/#more-27398
17 de septiembre de 2009
Work has started on a new headquarters building for a bank in Oslo, Norway, designed by Dutch architects MVRDV.
The pixelated 17-storey building, which will be part of the Bjørvika waterfront development in the city, is for Norwegian bank DnB NOR.
Construction start for MVRDV designed headquarters building in Oslo, Norway
(Oslo, September 17, 2009): With the completion of the foundations up to basement level, the construction of the main building of the new DnB NOR headquarters in Norway, has entered its main phase. The new headquarter cluster with a total surface of 80,000m2, is developed by the Norwegian Oslo S Utvikling (OSU), and its central building, designed by MVRDV with 17 floors and a surface of 36,500m2, is due to be completed in 2012.
The pixelated design adapts to the urban context and combines an efficient and flexible internal organisation, based on small-scale working entities, with a variety of specific communal spaces, a sheltered public passage and respect for urban view lines.
In 2003, MVRDV, together with Norwegian firms Dark and a-lab, won the competition for the Bjørvika waterfront development and designed a dense urban master plan along Nyland Allé, the Oslo Barcode, that will be developed and realised by OSU in phases.
The international Norwegian financial institution DnB NOR decided to concentrate their twenty office locations currently dispersed over the city in the Barcode. In 2007, the master plan team was commissioned by developer OSU to design the urban concept. A new cluster of three volumes and a common basement with a 3,000m2 underground concourse, which interlinks the three buildings of the bank, was developed. MVRDV was commissioned as architect for the central building and co-responsible for the concourse.
The development of a new headquarter cluster is a strategic operation aiming for synergy and a clear identity. The objective was to translate the social and democratic character of the organisation into a building with excellent working conditions and spatial qualities. The structure is conceived as a steel ‘rack’ which permits adaptation to the flexible nature of the organisation.
The steel rack is wrapped in a stone skin, which adopts Norwegian environmental standards. It appears as a rock, a strong shape within the boundaries of the Barcode. The niches of this rock provide space for vegetation growth: the positioning of the pixels creates roof gardens or outside areas for every floor.
The generic office floors recline and are recessed in various places to reflect the urban context and to create communal indoor and outdoor areas and outstanding daylight conditions. At street level the building volume is opened by sheltered entrance zones, and intersected by a public passage leading to the Oslo Central Station. The pixelated design allows this specific response whilst being highly efficient and flexible. As a result, every floor of the building is both unique and generic: the pixelated volume makes the generic specific.
Besides more than 2,000 flexible work spaces the building contains a panoramic 140 seat canteen on the top level, the executive lounge with a view over the fjord, the board room, in the heart of the volume, DnB NOR’s trading room with 250 work stations, and the main entrance with a reception and access to the concourse. These collective elements are connected by a staggered continuous internal route of terraces, encouraging informal meetings and communication between employees.
The route meanders from the reception upwards through the building, connecting all office levels with the communal areas. A series of wooden stairs and bridges allow employees to switch levels or even to walk the 17 levels up to the canteen on one side of the building and down on the other side. The route accommodates communal areas to the office floors and is made homely with a series of pantries, informal meeting areas and fire places. It gives access to the various outdoor terraces and roof gardens. All these collective spaces are designed as glass pixels allowing views over the surroundings and transparency from the exterior. The route is naturally ventilated and has a high performance glass fit for the cold Norwegian winter.
On behalf of OSU, MVRDV collaborates with Norwegian co-architect DARK Arkitekter AS and various Norwegian engineering firms. Project management is executed by Norwegian firm Vedal Project AS. The second building of the DnB NOR cluster is designed by A-lab and the third building by Dark Arkitekter, all within the overall master plan and the Barcode urban master plan by MVRDV / DARK / a-lab. DnB NOR is the largest financial services group in Norway. The Group consists of brands such as DnB NOR, Vital, Nordlandsbanken, Cresco, Postbanken, DnB NORD and Carlson.
MVRDV was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. Early projects such as the headquarters for the Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO and housing for elderly WoZoCo in Amsterdam lead to international acclaim. MVRDV develops its work in a conceptual way, the changing condition is visualised and discussed through designs, sometimes literally through the design and construction of a diagram.
The office continues to pursue its fascination and methodical research on density using a method of shaping space through complex amounts of data that accompany contemporary building and design processes. MVRDV first published a cross section of these study results in FARMAX (1998), followed by a.o. MetaCity/Datatown (1999), Costa Iberica (2000), Regionmaker (2002), 5 Minutes City (2003), KM3 (2005), which contains Pig City and more recently Spacefighter (2007) and Skycar City (2007), the latter two will be exhibited at the 2008 Biennale of Venice. MVRDV deals with global ecological issues in large scale studies like Pig City as well as in small scale solutions for flooded areas of New Orleans.
Current projects include various housing projects in the Netherlands, Spain, China, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, USA, India, Korea and other countries, a television centre in Zürich, a public library for Spijkenisse (Netherlands), a central market hall for Rotterdam, a culture plaza in Nanjing, China, large scale urban masterplans in Oslo, Norway and in Tirana, Albania, a masterplan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain and an urban vision for the doubling in size of Almere, Netherlands.
The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published world wide and receives international awards. The 60 architects, designers and staff members conceive projects in a multi-disciplinary collaborative design process and apply highest technological and sustainable standards.
14 de septiembre de 2009.
Slovenian architects Ofis have completed a combined office, warehouse and shop on an industrial estate in Skofja Loka.
The architects took on a plot that already had planning permission and adapted existing plans.
They also had to employ the services of a construction company already contracted to build on the plot using a pre-selected concrete prefab system.
The building, for a company that makes safety equipment, is finished in concrete, glass, metal and polycarbonate.
Office, Store & Shop Concrete Container:
Project start: 2007
Construction start 2008 / ?Completed 2009
Navigation: Trata, Skofja Loka, Slovenia
The site plot is in the industrial area of Skofja Loka, Slovenia. Client bought the site in industrial zone together with constructional permit plans.
The building dimensions are 35 x 22.5m and 11,50m in height.
Furthermore contract included executive Construction Company for entire industrial zone with their system of prefabricated concrete system with ready made openings on each elevation.
The project task was to merge a program inside the given volume and redefine existing elevations. The existing sections had to remain the same.
A client’s company produce and merchandise safety equipment and devices which had to be stored in the 2/3 of the volume.
The program was defined and inserted into 4 divisions following functional demands: Offices – storage loading – central storage – storage with attached loading.
The project scheme incorporated storage for goods of different sizes with loading areas, store, offices and classroom for lectures of safety.
The elevation cuts break the functional façade grid and reinstate flowing concrete elements in between translucent screens; Offices with transparent double-glazed façade, storage spaces with semi-translucent polycarbonate elements and two openings on the back as loading dock doors.
Materials are polished concrete, glass, metal and polycarbonate plates.
Main data:
Location: Trata, Skofja Loka, Slovenia
Type: storage
Client: private
Site area: 2500m2
Bldg. Area: 780m2
Gross Floor Area: 1.080m2
Store: 75m2
Offices: 150m2
Lecture: 150m2
Storage: 705m2
Coverage Ratio: 32%
Gross Floor Ratio: 23%
Structure: reinforced concrete – prefabricated
Height: 11.70 m
Budget: 180.000 EUR
Exterior Finish: polished concrete, glass, metal and polycarbonate
Completion period: September 2009
Project leaders: ?Rok Oman,
Spela Videcnik
Project team:
Andrej Gregoric, ?Katja Aljaz,
Janez Martincic,
Magdalena Lacka
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/14/office-store-shop-concrete-container-by-ofis-arhitekti/#more-40113
