PEG office of landscape + architecture has won first place in the 2010 Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) international ideas competition. PEG (Keith VanDerSys and Karen M’Closkey) teamed with PennDesign landscape architecture students Marisa Bernstein, Young Joon Choi and Marguerite Graham. The ENYA competition is sponsored each year by the New York Chapter of the AIA. This year’s competition theme was HB:BX Building Cultural Infrastructure. As part of the award, PEG will co-curate an exhibit of the work at Storefront for Architecture in New York.

Ripple Effect is a network of social spaces organized to entwine the cultural, environmental, and historical contexts that make Highbridge unique. Our proposal is a circuit of displays, interlacing the programs of art, recreation and landscape in order to create unique or unexpected adjacencies among them. The circuit is a distributed system whose organization is inspired by the line-arc configuration that forms both the steel and masonry structures of the bridge as well as the tangle of transport infrastructure below. The line-arc geometry loops on itself to form a series of clusters - infra-blooms – that are collectors for both artistic and environmental performance, which gather people, activities, and water. The system of infra-blooms supports three distinct areas for display:  intermittent (landscape), interstitial (bridge) and internal (building).

Intermittent display is a network of paths, pools, puddles and ponds located on the Manhattan side of Highbridge where the landscape is restructured to support various activities. The infra-blooms function as a water-cleansing system that collects and filters rainfall, and then channels it back to the aqueduct where it falls, days later, into the Harlem River. This rain delay - a temporal gap from storm-event to bridge-event – reinstates the presence of the river and establishes a previously absent connection between the river and the aqueduct. By reversing the flow, the aqueduct is transformed from a distribution pipe that transports water from distant sources to a collecting reservoir that returns clean water back to the river, thereby inverting the historical trend of isolated infrastructures that promote the contamination and disregard of local waterways. The intermittent curtain of water falling from the bridge can be engaged by visitors and artists in a variety of ways.

The exposed nature of these dispersed displays is tied to the temporal aspects of the landscape and the weather events that determine the amount of water capture. Art programming in this area supports informal or unanticipated performance spaces and gatherings. The existing swimming pool facilities are reconfigured as a series of blooms that open them up to both the park and the performance spaces, thereby creating adjacencies among art, recreation, and landscape. 

Interstitial display allows for gathering on and within the bridge. The pipe from the old aqueduct is removed and the water-reservoir that collects cleaned water from the infra-blooms is reconfigured and housed within the structure. This enables people to access the space underneath the bridge, providing a unique destination for art displays and a place to experience the rain fall. The surface of the bridge itself is configured with a series of small petals that hold planting, water, and provide linkages to the space below.

Internal Display is housed in a building on the Bronx side of Highbridge, providing a gateway to the aqueduct. It contains the art creation facility, career development center, gallery space, classrooms, and storage.  The building and landscape is configured as a loop that intertwines street access, bridge access, courtyards and continues as a pathway that leads down to the existing river access.

Ripple Effect is a tangle of possibilities tying together building, bridge and landscape; a series of interchanges that encourage unpredictability and possibilities for artistic, recreational, educational, and environmental exchanges to occur.

 

The winners of eVolo’s 2010 Skyscraper Competition were announced today. After several years of organizing, this annual competition has become a renowned architectural prize around the world. The main idea of the contest is to examine the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and urban living. The competition asked to push our imagination to redefine the term skyscraper through the use of new materials, technology, aesthetics, programs, and spatial organizations. Globalization, environmental warming, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution are just some of the multi-layered elements that were in the focal point.

First Place: Vertical Prison by Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, Beh Ssi Cze, Malaysia (project info)

Second Place: Water Purification Skyscraper in Jakarta by Rezza Rahdian, Erwin Setiawan, Ayu Diah Shanti, Leonardus Chrisnantyo, Indonesia (project info)

Third Place: Nested Skyscraper in Tokyo by Ryohei Koike, Jarod Poenisch, United States (project info)

Here’s a selection of Special Mentions we especially liked (for the complete list, click here):

After years of accommodation in temporary premises, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands has revealed its design for new permanent headquarters by schmidt hammer lassen architects (SHL).  The Danish office was selected in a prestigious architectural design competition with a twenty strong international shortlist including David Chipperfield, Mecanoo Architecten, OMA/Search, Ingenhoven, Wiel Arets, and Kengo Kuma & Associates (previously on Bustler).

“To the victims, to their families and to the world, the ICC building must communicate respect, trust and hope. This building cannot be anonymous; it must have the courage to express the values and the credibility of the ICC,” said Bjarne Hammer, Co-Founding Partner and Creative Director of schmidt hammer lassen architects. He continued: “The building is designed as an abstract and informal sculpture in the landscape. This way, it becomes a backdrop for the ICC to communicate trust, hope, and most importantly, faith in justice and fairness.”

Located close to the North Sea, the new Court is placed between nature and city, set in the rolling dune landscape at the edge of The Hague.  The main concept is the sculptural arrangement of buildings in the landscape and the design of a landmark that conveys the eminence and authority of the ICC while at the same time relating to a human scale.  Schmidt hammer lassen´s winning design complies with a complex brief and captures the spirit of the ICC. The overall building form can be seen as an undulating composition of volumes on the horizon, reminiscent of the dune landscape. “It was evident that connecting the dune landscape with the edge of the city had a striking potential. By designing a compact building with a small footprint, we propose to return the landscape to the city,” said Bjarne Hammer.

According to the Architectural Jury, the design provides the ICC with a sculptural composition of square towers. The Jury quoted this approach as “a very impressive and interesting architectural gesture and a great contribution to the city with an attractive integration into the landscape. This applies also for the idea of ‘moving down’ to the Court through the spacious staircase. The big and sharp incision in the landscape and the lower ground floor are very interesting elements. The inner atmosphere is confirmed as user-friendly, especially the spacious ground floor with beautiful daylight from above. This ground floor can be seen as an inner private park area which facilitates the interaction between all the ICC employees in a very pleasant and positive way.”
By making a sharp incision into the ground the building complex forms a contrast to the surrounding dune landscape. The architectural idea is to continue the gardens in the ground floor (parterre) level of the building as a cladding of the Court Tower.

“Gardens have always existed as part of all cultures and all religions. With flowers and plants from each of the 110 ICC member countries, the parterre gardens rise up as a green landmark and a symbol of unity, regardless of nationality and culture,” explained Bjarne Hammer.

Environmental sustainability is a key criterion in terms of the building’s footprint and the selection of building materials. The facades of the office buildings are clad in a composite material selected for its suitability to the windy and salty local climate, ease of maintenance and security performance. The material is normally used in the bodywork of professional race cars and in the cladding of windmills due to its durability.  The design has at this stage been assessed as BREEAM Excellent.

Facts about the new permanent premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC):

Client: The International Criminal Court (ICC)
Area: 46,000 m2, up to 1,200 work places
Construction sum: €190 million ex. VAT
Competition: 2008-2010, restricted international competition with a total of 171 applications

Images: schmidt hammer lassen architects

 

 

The Design Museum in London today announced the seven category winners of the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010. Collectively they celebrate everyday design, reflecting international trends, current themes of sustainability and social enablement.

In the Architecture Category, Chilean studio Elemental won the first prize for Monterrey Housing, a new model for social housing in Mexico, a project which was first trialed in Chile. An international ‘do-tank’ based in Chile, Elemental focuses on finding solutions to the challenge of housing the world’s ever-increasing population.

Other projects shortlisted for the Design Prize in the Architecture Category were Brandhorst Museum, Munich, Germany (Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young for Sauerbruch Hutton), British Embassy, Warsaw, Poland (Tony Fretton Architects), High Line Park, New York, USA (James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Hutong Bubble 32, Beijing, China (Ma Yansong and Dang Qun, MAD Architects), MAXXI, National Museum of the XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy (Zaha Hadid Architects), Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre Project, Melbourne, Australia (Ashton Raggatt McDougall), Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany (David Chipperfield Architects and Julian Harrap Architects), Ningbo Historic Museum, Ningbo, China (Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture Studio), Porchdog House Prototype, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA (Marlon Blackwell Architects), Raven Row, London, UK (6a Architects), TEA, Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes, Canary Islands, Spain (Herzog & de Meuron),  and Youl Hwa Dang Book Hall, Paju Book City, South Korea (Architecture Research Unit (ARU), London Metropolitan University with Network in Architecture (NIA), Seoul).

Here’s a detailed description of the winning project from Elemental:

Restrictions: Santa Catarina is a city of 230,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Nuevo León, in the northwest of Mexico. This project is Elemental’s first outside of Chile.

The Government of Nuevo León, México, commissioned us to design a group of 70 homes on a site of .6 hectars in a middle class neighborhood in Santa Catarina. The required density suggested the application of the typology we developed for Iquique. However, the climate in Santa Catarina is very different from the northern dessert climate of Chile. The 600 mm of annual rainfall required us to adapt our proposal to this new question.

The commission to develop this middle class neighborhood with the financing of US$20,000 per dwelling (almost double the funds we had for the housing projects built by Elemental in Chile). However, the construction standards and building codes significantly raise the construction costs. In this case, it was pertinent to use the strategy of investing state resources to build “the difficult half” of the home, especially given the capacity do-it-yourself building observed in Mexico, ensuring a promising future for the expansions.

The Project: ELEMENTAL Monterrey consists of a three-story continuous building that in section superimposes a home (first floor) with a two-story apartment above (2nd and 3rd story). Both units are designed to technically and economically facilitate the final middle class standard of which we will hand over the “first half” (40 m2). In this sense, the difficult parts of the house (bathrooms, kitchen, stairs, and dividing walls) are designed for the expanded scenario, that is, for a home of more than 58 m2 approx. and an apartment of approximately 76 m2.

Secondly, given that almost 50% of the m2 of the complex will be self-built, this building is porous so that the growth can occur within the structure. On one hand we want to frame and give rhythm (more than control) to the spontaneous construction so as to avoid deterioration of the urban environment over time, and also make the process of expansions for each family easier. The proposed continuous roof above the volumes and voids protects the expansion zones from rain and ensures a definitive profile of the building toward the public space.

Third, experience tells us that in lower class neighborhoods the green spaces tend to be “earth spaces,” due to the scarcity of maintenance and the distance that exists between green space and the home that makes it difficult for neighbors to take care of.  What we did in this case was to surround the green space with building, reducing the distance between communal space and the home to a minimum. This permitted us to define a collective space with secure Access that gives space to the social network and generates favorable conditions for maintenance and care.

All the apartments have direct Access from the public space and parking, a condition especially relevant in a country where every family can have access to an automobile.

Project Details:
Name: 70 HOUSING UNITS
Status: Under construction
Location: Monterrey (México)

Land area: 6.591m²
Initial house: 40m²
Final house: 76.6m²
Initial duplex: 40m²
Expanded duplex: 76.6m²

Client: Instituto de la vivienda de Nuevo León (IVNL)
Engineering: Área de Proyectos e Innovación tecnológica, IVNL
Urbanization and specialization: Área de Proyectos e Innovación tecnológica, IVNL

West 8 in collaboration with Snoeck en Partners, Bas Dirk Jaspaert, ERM and Tritel, has won the competition organized by the City of Leuven, for the revitalization of the former industrial site Vaartkom in Leuven, Belgium.

Here’s a description of the project from West 8:

The Vaartkom is a unique location close to the water’s edge and within walking distance from the historical city center. Already this district offers an exceptional urban landscape, with its remnants of a rich industrial past. Inspired by these industrial artifacts, West 8 proposes a vibrant new urban center where living, working and production function in a healthy balance.

The area of the Vaartkom is characterized by a fascinating variety of features and scale. The original port operations are almost completely gone, what remains are the remnants of a rich industrial past. An attractive district will emerge where living, working and production function in a healthy balance.

This shift to a more human use also requires an adjustment to the design of public space. The accessibility of many homes and commercial spaces should be ensured, so the area will be better connected to the surrounding technical structures. The public space around the Vaartkom transforms from an industrial to an esplanade wharf, a lounge with numerous terraces.The hardness of a port makes room for warmth, for green, for a human habitat.

The Engelsplein is an important part in this transformation. The square plays a qualitative role as transit space. The presence of the viaduct, the bus platforms and the entrance ways to the public parking define the public space.  A maximum green character is created by gathering the necessary ‘hard’ surfaces under the viaduct. It is people and green who get all daylight.

Images: West 8

Winners have been announced for the Newark Visitor Center Competition. Chaired by Richard Meier, the international design competition seeks to enhance the progress of future endeavors in Newark, NJ while celebrating its fascinating past. Designers were asked to think of methods for way-finding or a comprehensive historical center for this revitalized city. The center is supposed to boast an eclectic, sustainable program, eventually becoming its very own destination spot.

First Place: di Domenico + Partners
(John di Domenico AIA, LEED AP, Andrew Berger AIA, ALSA, Kenji Suzuki AIA, Adam Mercier), Long Island City, NY

Second Place: PLT Design
(Barak Pliskin LEED AP BD+C, Kai Liang, Tri Nguyen), New York, NY

Third Place: Arquitectura, inc
(Nicolas Cascarano, Andrew Herland, Brittany Eggert, Harry Van Oudenallen), Milwaukee, WI

Fourth Place: super-interesting!
(Kian Goh AIA, LEED AP, Christina Draghi, John Bruce, Tamiko Beyer), Brooklyn, NY

The winner in the category “Built environment” is the Harmonia // 57 Office Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is designed by Triptyque Architects, Paris, France/Sao Paulo, Brazil and completed in 2008.

The award in the “Built Environment” category will go to an outstanding architectural, engineering or urban design project realised within the last two years that meets current demands for sustainable living and envisages the needs of the future. The award-winner will receive a purse of EUR 80,000.

French-Brazilian architects Triptyque were asked to create an innovative hybrid space to house a small company. It had to be versatile and allow spontaneous changes in layout and use.

The building is located in a neighbourhood on the west side of Sao Paulo, where artistic life and creativity increasingly shape the streetscape. The site is distinguished by the climate of a tropical country with massive rain showers and very high temperatures, as well as rich soil with natural underground systems.

Harmonia // 57 is an office building, with a planted façade irrigated by a mist system. The walls are thick and covered externally by a layer of vegetation that works like the skin of the structure. This dense wall is made of an organic concrete that has pores, where several plant species grow.

Concerning the energy concept, the project’s hydro system combines low-tech materials and elements with a simple irrigation system and innovative water treatment. Furthermore, to store the large volume of water without generating a high-cost infrastructure, a broader rain-water re-use programme provides good thermal conditions within the building. A green roof directs a portion of the runoff into the groundwater, generates fresh air and reduces the need for air conditioning and withholding a fair share of the rain water. The surplus of water from the roofs is stored and supplies toilets and provides irrigation.

Moreover, the construction was halted for about ten days, and the site was used as an event space during construction period. It became an open gallery, where the site workers and artists collaborated to create an exhibition with accompanying public lectures and debates