Clapham Manor Primary School by dRMM.

08 de septiembre de 2009

London architects de Rijke Marsh Morgan have completed an extension to a primary school in south London.

The facade of the new building for Clapham Manor Primary School is inspired by post war system-built schools, with the usual regular grid of the curtain wall replaced by a brightly-coloured irregular pattern.

The colour scheme of the solid, clear and fritted panels shifts around the building, from warm colours to cool and back again, and hides the floor heights of the four-storey extension.

Some of the glass panels in the facade are upholstered on the inside so that childrens’ work can be displayed on them.

The new structure is joined to the old building by a triple-height transparent atrium that forms a new entrance to the school.

Clapham Manor Primary School, London, UK
dRMM’s vibrant intervention into a Victorian Board School, completed July 2009: this polychromatic extension inserted into a tight urban context offers the school a new identity, much-needed learning spaces and an organisational hub, while maximising play space.
Clapham Manor Primary School had become a victim of its own success, having grown from a one- to two-form entry, placing considerable pressure on successful delivery of curriculum within the restrictions of the original building.
Yet despite the physical constraints, the school has excelled.

dRMM was asked to consider the provision of additional learning spaces within the site that would support both learning and play. As a masterplan to restructure the school was developed, it became apparent that the school was successful because everything was ‘under one roof’. The new wing was therefore conceived as a freestanding addition that plugged into the Victorian Board School, allowing the school to work efficiently and holistically as a single entity.

The first move: to locate the wing within what was the most constrained, under-utilised portion of the site – a former caretakers’ house and awkward 60’s extension. The new intervention is pulled away from the flank wall to sit parallel with the neighbouring Grade II Listed Odd Fellows Hall. The resultant interstitial space establishes a formal entrance into the school, improving security by acting as an organisational hub for access to the entire premises. This new entrance from pedestrian Stonhouse Street provides safer access for children and the local community also benefit from improved passive surveillance along the street. Pupils enter a triple height transparent atrium that separates new and old. A glazed lift and stairs that scissor overhead reconcile 4 contemporary storeys within the height of 3 Victorian.

The architectural aspiration was to create a building that would sit shoulder to shoulder with the two great brick exemplars but not be subservient. The Conservation Office was supportive of a contemporary intervention provided it was of the highest standard.

The façade is inspired by post war system-built schools, which utilised the benefits of curtain walling to create bright and airy teaching spaces. The formal grid that typically defines curtain walling is replaced by a random grid to provide an expression appropriate for a primary school, both inside and out.
Compositionally it would be difficult to reconcile the difference between the window and sill heights of the two existing buildings, so avoiding a compositional dialog allows the building to create its own expression.

The building appears without scale as the façade conceals clues to storey heights – it is contextualised through colour rather than composition. The façade is a polychromatic loop of colour that shifts as it moves around the building.
The contextual colours of the Board School and the Odd Fellows Hall inform the rich reds and yellows along Stonhouse Street. The colour spectrum shifts into greens along the north elevation as the building emerges on the playground side echoing the soft landscaping below, and finally into vibrant sky blues before returning into the gap between the two buildings.

In addition to new classrooms, pupils benefit from spaces for performance/dance, music practice, breakout learning, informal/ social and a medical room.
Staff share a resource room, copy facilities, administration, and there are offices for the head teacher and facilities and premises manager.
Acoustics, ventilation, and light levels have all been designed to optimise learning and to complement the range of spaces offered by the Board School. The informal, social spaces that connect the classrooms are vibrant and stimulating, eliminating corridors and offering visual transparency. Soft play and informal spaces for quiet reading and conversation are situated around the new extension, as well as secure cycle storage.
The facade works doubly hard to define not only the exterior but also the interior. The vibrant coloured glass panels of the exterior are upholstered on the inside allowing opportunities for the display and presentation of pupils’ work. The dynamic quality of the triple aspect classrooms is further heightened by the composition of the views. Solid, fritted and clear panels at varying heights create amazing compositions of the urban landscape whilst being inclusive of all ages.

Architect: dRMM: Philip Marsh, Satoshi Isono, Michael Spooner, Mirko Immendoefer, Junko
Yanagisawa, Jonas Lencer, Russ Edwards
Client: London Borough of Lambeth
Project Manager: Sprunt
Structural Engineer: Michael Hadi Associates
QS and CDM Coordinator: Appleyard & Trew
Environmental Engineer: Fulcrum Consulting
Acoustic: Fleming & Barron
Main Contractors: The Construction Partnership

Project name: Clapham Manor Primary School
Location: London, UK
Architect: dRMM – www.drmm.co.uk
Client: London Borough of Lambeth

Project Manager: Sprunt
Structural Engineer: Michael Hadi Associates
QS and CDM Coordinator: Appleyard & Trew
Environmental Engineer: Fulcrum Consulting
Acoustic: Fleming & Barron
Main Contractor: The Construction Partnership












http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/08/clapham-manor-primary-school-by-drmm/#more-39083

ZMS Schwandorf Administration Building

30 de agosto de 2009.

German architects Archimedialab have completed a visitor centre and administration building beside at incineration plant in Stuttgart.
The ZMS Schwandorf Administration Building forms part of a 450 metre landscaped noise barrier.
Materials include exposed concrete, laminated timber beams and aluminum cladding.

Administration Building and Master Plan for ZMS Schwandorf Incineration Plant
The task to design a new administration building, reorganize the power station compound and create a new noise protection barrier gave us the chance to dissolve the dichotomy of landscape and building to realize the deconstruction of those categories into one designed environment, to be experienced in a dynamic and curious fashion.

Built Landscape
450m long and up to 13m high, the central part of a noise protection wall with a 45 degree incline simultaneously constitutes our new administration building for over 140 m. The superimposition of building and earth wall allows us to explore and experience the landscape of this entire ensemble on various levels.
An auditorium with a visitor center unfolds from this landscape and opens up towards the power station compound. It separates from the earth wall on the upper level, resting on two radial supporting walls and cantilevers up to 20 m over the landscape. A long panoramic glass façade leans towards the power station.
The administration building underneath is sculpted into the earth wall. Meeting rooms and common areas penetrate through the wall to establish a relationship with the bordering village of Dachlhofen. The grass covered roofs of the power station workshops in south form the extension of our landscape.

MATERIALS
As for the part of the building that is situated within the core of the earth wall, a basic structure of exposed concrete is supplemented with built in furniture elements in colored MDF, wooden oak floors, and brightly painted magnesia-bonded panels for acoustic absorption on walls and door elements. Part of the exposed concrete is stained in bright colors to contrast the archaic look of the untreated concrete. Profiled glass walls allow daylight to penetrate far into the building.
All meeting and conference rooms are enclosed in frameless glass walls. The light timber structure of the upper glue-lam shell remains exposed, the diamond shaped curvilinear spaces between them are filled with acoustic panels stained in a dark purple color.
Most of the north side of the building is covered in vegetation, yet three aluminum clad meeting rooms project through the earth wall and cantilever over the slope. The southern façade with most of the offices, opens towards the power station with a band of windows resting on gabion retaining walls in dark basalt evolving out the adjacent landscape. Some of these gabion walls even penetrate into the foyer of the building.

STRUCTURE
The main structural challenges arose from the fact that we had to create an earth wall of up to 13 m height that is capable of supporting not only itself at a 45 degree slope, but also to accommodate a building within it, situated at about 6 meters above grade. It was very important to cover the building in landscape and vegetation that appears to be continuous and without indication of the shape of the building underneath.
A specially engineered and carefully balanced mixture of earths with fine aggregate and a very low percentage cement for adhesion ensures the stability of the earth wall structure, yet allows enough water to be retained to let vegetation cover the structure completely and evenly. A large portion of the building is covered with up to 6 m of the earth wall. Here the core of earth wall is built up with geo-blocks to reduce the weight of the earth wall. All this is covered with the same earth mixture and vegetation.
The upper floor of the building folds out of the wall and cantilevers up to 20 m over the upper level of the site. A pre-stressed concrete structure, initially supported by two curvilinear walls allows the auditorium and visitor center to hover over the site to allow panoramic views of the entire area. A lightweight structure of diagonally braced glue-lam beams forms the upper shell of this part.
This structure continuously evolves in shape and form, with the entire shape of the CNC milled beams following the always changing geometry of the building. A skin from 2 layers of 34mm boards bent into form and nailed at 10 degree angles to each other helps to create a very stiff shell in combination with the glue-lam beams. The entire timber structure was produced file-to-factory from 3D-plans.
Most of the materials evolve from the surrounding landscape, the industrial scape of the power station nearby and the cultural heritage of the former aluminum works on the site. For the uninitiated viewer it will be hard to discern in some places, where the actual building starts and where the earth structure does not bear any construction. Landscape features are incorporated into the building, built structures generate a new landscape. Simple and archaic spaces are contrasted with clearly artificial, refined and crafted surfaces.
Archimedialab is full service architecture + design laboratory aiming to combine unconventional spatial explorations with ecological and innovative technologies to create unique architectural solutions in all phases of the design and construction process. The main focus is on concept and design and construction of cultural and public institutions, hotels and conference facilities, housing, landscape design, urban planning and commercial design worldwide.

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/08/30/zms-schwandorf-administration-building-by-archimedialab/#more-37876

Masdar City Centre by LAVA.

28 de agosto de 2009.

Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) have won a competition to design the urban centre of Masdar, a zero-carbon, zero-waste city to be built in the desert near Abu Dhabi.
The centre will feature giant moveable sunshades based on sunflowers (above) that shade a public piazza, plus hotels, retail and leisure facilities.
Masdar, which will cover 6 million square metres when complete, is based on the urban layout of ancient walled cities and aims to provide a blueprint for sustainable urban development.

LAVA wins international design competition for the heart of Masdar, world’s first sustainable city
Giant umbrellas, with a design based on the principles of sunflowers, will provide moveable shade in the day, store heat, then close and release the heat at night in the plaza of a new eco-city in the United Arab Emirates.
The ‘sunflower umbrellas’ are one aspect of the winning design by the international practice Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] for the city centre for Masdar in the UAE – the world’s first zero carbon, zero waste city powered entirely by renewable energy sources.
Masdar is a planned city located 17 kilometres from Abu Dhabi. A government initiative, the city is being constructed over seven phases and is due to be completed by 2016.

The city centre includes a plaza, five-star hotel, long stay hotel, a convention centre and entertainment complex and retail facilities.
LAVA won the design in an international competition against several hundred entries and strong competition from some of the world’s most high profile architects.
LAVA was founded in 2007 by Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck and has offices in Sydney, Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi.
Chris Bosse said: ‘Masdar City is the world’s most prestigious project focusing on sustainable energy design. It is the city of the future and a global benchmark for sustainable urban development. We believe in the Masdar slogan “One day all cities will be like this”’.
The solar powered ‘sunflower’ umbrellas capture the sun’s rays during the day, fold at night releasing the stored heat, and open again the next day. They follow the projection of the sun to provide continuous shade during the day.
Mr. Bosse said: ‘the sunflower principle is eco-friendly and can be adapted to anywhere in the world – it opens opportunities for outside living, even in the desert’.
Mr Rieck added: ‘The entire city is car-free with a magnetic public transport system includes individual pods that drive you to your destination using solar power’.

Some other key innovations of the winning plan include:

• Building façade angles that can be altered to offset or optimise solar glare.
• Materials on wall surfaces respond to changing temperatures and contain minimal embedded energy.
• Water features can be stored underground during the day and at night trickle or flow strongly, triggered by passersby.
• Interactive light poles, inspired by the oasis fire, transform the plaza into a 3-dimensional interactive media installation.
• Interactive, heat sensitive technology activates lighting in response to pedestrian traffic and mobile phone usage.
• Roof gardens integrate food production, energy generation, water efficiency and the reuse of organic food waste.

Mr Wallisser said ‘the idea behind our concept is the use, inspiration, and adaptation of nature and our plans combine innovative design and sustainability’.

East and west are fused in the plaza design inspired by both the oasis, as the epicenter of Arabic nomadic life, and the iconic piazza of historical European cities. The organic forms created by the forces of natural erosion in geographical landmarks such as great canyons and wadis are the design inspiration behind the key buildings in the city centre.

After winning stage 1 in January this year, LAVA teamed up with the Sydney/Dubai based Kann Finch group, engineering firm Arup (with whom Chris Bosse previously worked on the Watercube in Beijing), Transsolar (worlds leading energy consultancy), and a team of international experts.

For more information:
www.l-a-v-a.net
http://www.masdar.ae/en/home

MASDAR – BACKGROUND MASDAR CITY

‘As part of the Masdar Initiative, a long term strategic commitment by the government of Abu Dhabi to accelerate the development and deployment of future energy solutions, Masdar City will take sustainable development and living to a new level and will lead the world in understanding how all future cities should be built.

Masdar City will be built over seven years at an investment in excess of US$20 Billion. The City will be built in seven carefully designed phases, incorporating the latest technological advances generated in its clean-tech cluster and globally. Masdar headquarters building under construction receives its power for construction from a vast PV array on its roof built ahead of the remaining structure – a world-first.

Strategically located at the heart of Abu Dhabi’s transport infrastructure, Masdar City will be linked to the centre of Abu Dhabi and the international airport, by a network of existing road, and new rail and public transport routes. The City will be car free and pedestrian friendly. With a maximum distance of 200 meters to public transport and amenities, and complemented by an innovative personal rapid transport system, the compact network of streets will encourage pedestrians and community social life.’*

*Source: http://www.masdaruae.com/en/Menu/index.aspx?MenuID=69&catid=32&mnu=Cat&fst=pd&pd=ag

CITY CENTRE PROJECT

The International Design Competition for the provision of design services for Masdar Hotel & Conference Centre (MHCC) Project Development. Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala)

Located in the heart of the new city, the MHCC will become a focus for shopping, leisure and entertainment. The mixed-use development will consist of a five-star hotel, long term stay serviced apartment, a conference centre, a themed entertainment centre, cultural facility related to future energy and shopping centre complete with a food court and cinema.

PROCESS

A global jury of world-renowned design and urban planning experts chose LAVA’s design from the finalists. The jury included: Gerard Evenden, Foster + Partners; Gordon Gill, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects; Professor Guy Chemla, Sorbonne University; and David Choi, David Choi Design. Eighteen proposals were shortlisted from several hundred entries and in December 2008 Kohn Pedersen Fox and LAVA were both further shortlisted. LAVA was announced as the winner in August 2009.

BRIEF

The brief included:

The Project is intended to be a world-class innovative landmark of sustainable architecture and engineering design, exceeding the current highest standards of green building energy and waste efficiency, material technologies, and integrated design thinking. MHCC Project Development will be one of the landmark structures of MASDAR City. It will exemplify the city’s commitment to the environment and the development of innovative and viable renewable technologies.

The highest standards of sustainable development will include zero emissions; zero waste; 100% power generation through renewable energy sources; energy efficiency; and a paperless document management system.

The criteria for selection included building functionality, water and wastewater efficiency, indoor environmental quality, zero carbon emission, carbon footprint reduction and firm experience.

LAVA

LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) was founded in 2007 with offices in Sydney, Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi. Directors Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck have completed a range of projects in Germany, Australia and the U.A.E. 2008 saw the successful launch of the Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower an ultra-luxury residential tower in Abu Dhabi, the future hotel Showcase suite in Germany and Green Void in Australia.

Bosse worked on the Watercube Swimming Centre Beijing 2008 [Atmosphere Award at the 9th Venice Biennale], and has been recognized as an emerging architect on the world stage by the RIBA London. Wallisser was instrumental in the recent Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Museum that attracted worldwide attention for its innovative spatial concept and is professor for digital design in Stuttgart. Rieck is a senior researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart and has done groundbreaking work in future office organization with Office 21.

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/08/28/masdar-city-centre-by-lava/#more-38171