Office, Store & Shop Concrete Container by Ofis Arhitekti

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

Vancouver 2010 Promises Greenest Olympic Games Ever

12 de septiembre de 2009.
From the world’s largest hydrogen bus fleet to a six-acre multi-use Olympic Oval, British Columbia appears determined to host the “greenest games ever” in Vancouver come February. The city has constructed a series of stunning sustainably-built structures in preparation for upcoming events, and has also kicked off its naturally:wood website, which offers a free digital tool kit for Building Green with Wood and insight into how BC’s sustainable forestry helps LEED the way for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Read on for just a few of the Olympic buildings boasting impressive LEED certification standards.

The Richmond Olympic Oval is a sexy crown jewel of a speed-skating hall with three levels and a massive wood wave roof inspired by local ecology, using lumber affected by the Mountain pine beetle. The venue features energy-saving refrigeration and rainwater collection, and the CAD $16-million oval roof claims one of the world’s largest clearspan wooden structures, around the size of four and a half football fields.

Vancouver Convention Centre will host the Winter Games Secretariat’s International Media Centre and a six-acre living roof of 400,000 native plants, free of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, that also captures rainfall to use within the building and for irrigation. The venue also features seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment, marine habitat built into the foundations, and shoreline restoration.

The 2010 Commerce Centre is certified as a LEED Gold structure, connecting two distinct spaces for multimedia and community affairs and decked out with submerged Douglas-fir logs and concrete countertops utilizing post-beetle mania pine chips.
As intended, Vancouver’s Olympic buildings will remain alive and well even after the games have ended.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/12/09/vancouver-2010-promises-greenest-games-ever/

Nomiya temporary restaurant by Pascal Grasso

11 de septiembre de 2009.
Parisian architect Pascal Grasso has installed a temporary, transportable restaurant on the roof of Le Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris.

The structure features a dining room for twelve people with a panoramic view over the Seine and the Eiffel tower.

The restaurant comprises a glass cabin and a perforated metal screen covering the central cooking area.

Coloured LED lighting is placed between the metal skin and the glass core.

White Corian furniture populates the dining room.
The 18 metre-long structure was part constructed in the Cherbourg boatyard in northern France and transported to Paris in two parts, where it was assembled on the roof of Le Palais de Tokyo.

The restaurant takes its name, Nomiya, from a very small restaurant in Japan.

Nomiya : Temporary restaurant on the roof of the « Palais de Tokyo » museum
The art center « Le Palais de Tokyo » asked us to imagine a temporay piece on the roof of the building. We designed a take-down and easily transportable module, which is a twelve seats dining room, with a panoramic view on Paris. Nomiya is the name of the very small restaurant in Japan.

The structure is 18m long, 4m large, 3.50 m high and weights 22 tonnes. It has been constructed in the Cherbourg boatyard, in the North of France, and transported in two pieces by special trunks to Paris, and then set on the roof of the Museum.

This construction is composed by a glass volume, covered by a metallic skin on its central part.

The dining area, entirely made of glass, is looking at the Seine and the Eiffel tower.

The central part (cooking aera) is covered by a punched made-to-measure sheet metal. The perforations represent an aurora borealis drawing.

The lightning system is put between the glass and the metallic skins.

Composed by lines of leds, it emphasizes the drawing of the facade and changes its colors, like a real aurora borealis.

The interior design is minimalist, with a white Corian furniture and a grey wooden floor.

Above the dinner table, suspended leds extend the sparkling of the city.






Architect : Pascal Grasso
Artist associated : Laurent Grasso
Structure / facade engineer : ARCORA
Client: Palais de Tokyo / Electrolux
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/11/nomiya-temporary-restaurant-by-pascal-grasso/#more-39585

Pearl Academy of Fashion by Morphogenesis.

08 de septiembre de 2009.

Architectural photographer Edmund Sumner of photo agency VIEW has sent us images of Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur by Indian architects Morphogenesis.
The building uses traditional Rajasthani motifs including a “jaali” pierced stone screen an open courtyard.
It features passive cooling techniques to combat the desert climate.

A CONCEPTUAL NOTE
The Pearl Academy of Fashion, Jaipur is a campus which by virtue of its design is geared towards creating an environmentally responsive passive habitat. The institute creates interactive spaces for a highly creative student body to work in multifunctional zones which blend the indoors with the outdoors seamlessly. The radical architecture of the institute emerges from a fusion of the rich traditional building knowledge bank and cutting edge contemporary architecture.

The institute is located in a typical hot, dry, desert type climate on the outskirts of Jaipur in the soulless Kukas industrial area, about 20 kilometers from the famous walled city. It ranks third in the top 10 fashion design institutes in India, and its design needed to represent the seriousness of its academic orientation through its formal geometry.



Given the nature of an institution, budgetary constraints on the project necessitated the use of cost effective design solutions to keep within the price points set by the client and yet be able to achieve the desired functionality and effect.

The adverse climate makes it a challenge to control the micro climate within the project thus incorporating various passive climate control methods becomes a necessity and also reduces the dependence on mechanical environmental control measures which are resource hungry.

The architecture of the academy needed to be a confluence of modern adaptations of traditional Indo-Islamic architectural elements and passive cooling strategies prevalent in the hot-dry desert climate of Rajasthan such as open courtyards, water body, a step-well or baoli and jaalis (perforated stone screen). All these elements have been derived from their historic usages, but will manifest themselves through the built form and become an intrinsic part of the daily life of the design student.

The building is protected from the environment by a double skin which is derived from a traditional building element called the ‘Jaali’ which is prevalent in Rajasthani architecture. The double skin acts as a thermal buffer between the building and the surroundings. The density of the perforated outer skin has been derived using computational shadow analysis based on orientation of the façades.

The outer skin sits 4 feet away from the building and reduces the direct heat gain through fenestrations. Drip channels running along the inner face of the Jaali allow for passive downdraft evaporative cooling, thus reducing the incident wind temperature.

The scheme relies on self shading sliver courts to control the temperatures of internal spaces and open stepped wells while allowing for sufficient day lighting inside studios and class rooms. The entire building is raised above the ground and a scooped out under belly forms a natural thermal sink which is cooled by water bodies through evaporative cooling.

This under belly which is thermally banked on all sides serves as a large student recreation and exhibition zone and forms the anchor for the entire project. During the night when the desert temperature drops this floor slowly dissipates the heat to the surroundings keeping the area thermally comfortable. This time lag suits the staggered functioning of the institute.

The materials used for construction are a mix of local stone, steel, glass and concrete chosen keeping in mind the climatic needs of the region while retaining the progressive design intent.

Energy efficiency is a prime concern and the institute is 100% self sufficient in terms of captive power and water supply and promotes rain water harvesting and waste water re-cycling through the use of a sewage treatment plant.

Besides having become a very successful model for cost effective passive architecture in desert regions the design and facilities of the campus complement the ideology of the Pearl Academy of Fashion – a cutting edge design institute with a sustainable approach. The Pearl Academy of Fashion is an exemplar of an inclusive architecture which intends to accommodate all the heritage values while positioning it within the contemporary cultural and architectural paradigm.



http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/08/pearl-academy-of-fashion-by-morphogenesis/#more-39123