Retreat House by Hutker Architects

The Boston Society of Architects shared the four winning projects for the 2010 Unbuilt Awards with us.  Each year, the BSA sponsors this award program to honor and promote excellent design.  Any project typology can be submitted for review, as long as the project is either purely theoretical or an unbuilt client sponsored project.  The four winners show the diversity of the award as the projects vary in program, materiality and, of course, their design strategy.  The winning projects and teams include: Land of Giants by Choi & Shine Architects,  Playcloud by Nameless Architecture, Retreat House by Hutker Architects and Putting the Farm Back in Farmington by University of Arkansas.

More about the four projects after the break.

Land of Giants by Choi & Shine Architects

For Choi & Shine Architects’ Land of Giants, the firm envisioned a new high-voltage transmission line tower that is “monumental yet human and beautiful.”

Playcloud by Nameless Architecture

Playcloud by Nameless Architecture is a pavilion made of fabric.  The weightless space provides a new aesthetic perspective and is also sustainable.

Retreat House by Hutker Architects

Retreat House by Hutker Architects addresses issues around coastal preservation.

Farmington by UArkansas

And for the University of Arkansas’ Putting the Farm Back in Farmington, the students developed a “tool kit” for practically introducing urban gardening into a city.

Architectural educators and architecture students throughout the world are annually invited to submit real or theoretical projects. More on the Boston Society of Architects’ awards programs here.

There’s a bit of a primitive vibe going on at the moment so for this month’s top ten we’ve compiled our ten most-read stories about caves, rocks and sticks. (more…)

Night time aerial view of main entrance

Austin-Smith: Lord recently came runner up in a high profile bus station competition in Stoke-on-Trent, winning the public vote but not selected by the client.

The Austin Smith Lord team, consisting of JMP Transport Engineers, Curtins Structural Engineers and Hilson Moran on Environmental and M&E were supported in the provision of costs by Gleeds and Project Management input from RLB ,worked closely in the 4 week design period to develop an exciting and innovative scheme which found favor with both the public and their peers.

Location Plan

An Austin Smith Lord headed team were recently chosen from over 43 entrants to take part in a limited invitation design competition with 5 other teams from international opposition for Stoke on Trent City Bus Station.

Selected Architectural practices included Zaha Hadid, Grimshaws, Wilkinson Eyre, John McAslan and BDP with Engineering support from Arup, Aecom, Mott Macdonald, and Max Fordham.

The team took an early decision to re‐analyse the earlier feasibility work carried out on the site in order to see if it was possible to meet the operational capacity requirements of the brief without using the Drive in Reverse out layouts contained therein as it was felt that the risk of an accident in a drive through solution would be fundamentally lower given the nature of the site.

View of Bus Stands

Working with local transport engineers and a panel of national advisors the team developed a strategy building on the layout being installed at Wolverhampton, which we knew worked having driven it in 2 days of live trials at the NEC, with a 14 bay dive through facility both meeting and exceeding the requirements set out in the brief with an additional strategy for expansion to add another 30% capacity should it be required in the future.

In addition to the innovative operational form ( the Austin Smith Lord team were the only team to suggest an alternative non reversing layout) the team proposed a thin concrete curved shell like canopy echoing the potteries history of the City with manufacturers such as Spode and Wedgewood at the heart of the world Chinaware Industry. The station enclosure provides shelter from rain and snow while meeting sustainable aspirations through use of natural ventilation, rainwater‐harvesting, and air‐source heat pumps.

View of main entrance

The team worked closely with Gleeds to ensue the cost plan was robust and under the 15 million pound budget and to give the client confidence in the figures we utilised tender returns for sub contract packages on another local similar scheme.

Following the formal submission the team were delighted to see we topped both the Council’s own public vote and the Architects’ Journal peer vote when the schemes were anonymously placed on websites for an X factor style vote on the preferred solution. Project Director and Transport Cornerstone Richard Cronin said:

Station Section A

“It was good to get the recognition of the public and our peers, however we do take this kind of thing in the spirit in which it was intended. It was a welcome diversion to come in and see how we were doing whilst we waited for the interview and it gave us a lift knowing we were obviously doing something right.”

Unfortunately the practice were successful in the final selection with Grimshaw Architects being appointed by the Council and the Developer for the adjacent East West Centre who are partially funding the scheme. However, upbeat Richard Cronin commented:

Station Shadow Study

“It was a pleasure to take part in such a challenging and interesting exercise and to see how the other teams approached the problems posed by the site both in terms of its operational layout and its historical mining use. We knew that looking at a drive through solution was a riskier option but were genuinely feel it was the right solution for that site, utilizing the ring road and ensuring separation of the passengers’ from the buses was key to our approach and we pride ourselves on our ability to take another look at the problem to try and see if there is a better way of doing it, That’s what we as Austin Smith Lord bring to clients in the sector, it’s about a full understanding of the operational issues and ability to analyse the patterns of use to deliver the safest and best architecture at the right price”.

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En la entrevista de esta semana Louis de Grange*, atento a la contingencia en las ciudades nos comenta desde su posición de ingeniero y académico especializado en temas de transporte, su visión sobre las implicancias del Transporte público, la ampliación de la red de metro y el desarrollo del transporte en regiones, además de entregar claves sobre el desarrollo de las autopistas, y elementos en las herramientas y procesos de planificación en las ciudades.

* Louis de Grange es Ingeniero, Profesor de la Universidad Católica de Chile y de la Universidad Diego Portales

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TRANSPORTE PÚBLICO, METRO, REGIONES

¿Más autopistas o más transporte público?

“Yo soy partidario del metro. Una ciudad del tamaño de Santiago con 6 millones de personas, debe mover de manera eficiente a las personas mediante metro. Las autopistas atienden a un tipo de viaje muy especial, pero uno no puede pretender que el transporte de una ciudad se base en autopistas porque no es posible. (…) Sí podríamos aumentar la red de metro, porque no ocupa espacio público, o sea libera espacios públicos, es capaz de transportar gente de manera muy eficiente, es un modo de transporte limpio… Y dada la contingencia actual de Transantiago, que solo está empeorando, que la evasión es tremendamente alta, este es el momento para aumentar la red de metro”

En una Carta al Director que envía al Diario El Mercurio, señala que la Bicicleta es una alternativa minoritaria en el transporte en Santiago. ¿Qué medios de transporte alternativos consideraría para la ciudad?

“Cuando planificas una ciudad para 6 millones de personas no puedes pretender que la bicicleta cumpla un papel importante. La bicicleta siempre va a ser minoritaria. En las ciudades donde la bicicleta puede llegar al 20% del mercado, son ciudades 20 veces más chicas que Santiago, con mucho menos población”

“Yo creo que a lo mejor estudiar algunos tranvía o trenes suburbanos a algunas localidades como por ejemplo a Padre Hurtado o Lampa, potenciar más el metro tren, que pasa por San Bernardo, integrar estos trenes urbanos a la red de Santiago, por ahí puede ser una medida complementaria que tenga un efecto mayor”

¿Qué pasa con el transporte público en regiones?

“En regiones afortunadamente el transporte púbico no es tan dramático como en Santiago porque son ciudades más chicas con soluciones acordes a sus necesidades. O sea, el taxi colectivo en regiones funciona de manera muy eficiente (…) En regiones yo creo que el problema está en los sectores rurales, que están más aislados y requieren una conectividad que hoy día no existe”

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TRANSANTIAGO

Usted tomó un papel muy crítico respecto a Transantiago. ¿Qué recomendaciones haría hoy?

“El Transantiago tocó techo, ya no hay nada que hacer. O sea un sistema basado en buses no puede pretender ser mejor que lo que tenemos hoy en día. Ahora, las dificultades están dadas desde el punto de vista financiero, pero de la calidad de servicio ya tocó techo y probablemente lo que queda es tratar de revertir el deterioro del Transantiago, en tiempos de viaje, tiempos de espera”

El sábado 24 de Julio el arquitecto y académico Iván Poduje declara en la Revista El Sábado de El Mercurio, que la reconstrucción será el Transantiago de Piñera. ¿Comparte esa opinión o es más optimista en ese tema?

“Yo creo que la reconstrucción y el Transantiago no son tan comparables, porque Transantiago fue una política de estado, una política pública diseñada e implementada por el gobierno, mientras que la reconstrucción obedece a un terremoto que fue un hecho fortuito y lamentable (…) Si creo que el tema de la reconstrucción es un desafío para el actual gobierno.”

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AUTOPISTAS

¿Cómo se debiera conciliar el desarrollo de las autopistas urbanas, con el tránsito local y las vías de accesibilidad de los barrios?

“Las autopistas urbanas debieran ser diseñadas básicamente para viajes un poco más largos. (…) Sin las autopistas urbanas Santiago probablemente no funcionaría como está funcionando hoy en día, pero sí creo que hay que ser un poco más minucioso y riguroso en cuanto al diseño local.

¿Cómo se debiera resolver el tema de Vespucio Oriente respecto a la gestión y participación de los municipios involucrados?

“Yo creo que es un proyecto que es necesario. Vespucio Oriente se necesita. A la gente le gusta usar auto y es un reflejo de la mejora de la calidad de vida. (…) Yo apoyo el proyecto de Vespucio Oriente, el tema es el diseño, que tiene que ser acorde con la movilidad local y de preferencia subterráneo (…) pero dada las particularidades del trazado, no se puede pretender que vaya a 18 metros de profundidad”

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RECONSTRUCCION, PLANIFICACION, GESTION

¿Cómo se debiera conciliar la participación público-privada en el desarrollo de las ciudades de la reconstrucción?

“Yo creo que la participación de las concesiones es fundamental. Mi impresión es que las concesionarias no cumplieron las expectativas que tienen que cumplir luego del terremoto”

¿Qué instrumentos de planificación faltan en Chile para un mejor desarrollo de las ciudades?

“Primero que todo se necesita información de primera calidad. Información permanente, bases de datos, actualización permanente y una vez que se tiene la información para hacer una planificación correcta, yo creo que hay que empezar a utilizar metodologías más actualizadas que las que actualmente se están utilizando. Yo creo que estamos atrasados 30 años respecto a las metodologías de planificación urbana”

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RECOMENDACIONES

© Craig Steere Architects

Architect: Craig Steere Architects
Location: Redgate, WA, Australia
Project Team: Craig Steere, Julie de Jong, Travers Elliot, Parisse Constantine
Contractor: Denis Poor Building Services
Engineering: C.B Cornforth Consulting Engineer
Site Area: 39,000 sqm
Built Area: 430 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Craig Steere Architects

Situated on a dramatic coastal site overlooking Redgate Beach just west of Witchcliffe, this house was designed to respond to the natural qualities of the site and the client’s desire for a modern, low-maintenance, passive-solar home, which captured ocean and valley views whilst also retaining a sense of living ‘within the trees’. To minimise clearing of existing vegetation and to maintain the visual buffer between the house and a neighbouring limestone quarry, the house site is located within a natural clearing, which was also fortunately well elevated above the lower lying land and allows generous views across the 10 acre site, as well as ocean views. The site itself is quite exposed and characterized by rocky limestone outcrops interspersed across the sloping site, with dense vegetation to the east, screening the house from nearby Redgate Road, and coastal trees and scrub.

floor plan

From the south, there are often strong salt-laden winds and limestone dust from the adjoining working lime pit to contend with, hence the house design has a cranked linear form, with the profiled steel roof extending down the outer walls to create a protective ‘shoulder’ against the elements, whilst the interior spaces within are more lightweight and open, and encourage interaction between inside and outside.

© Craig Steere Architects

The building materials were all selected for their durability, and combine to create a simple and industrial palette, which also responds to the colours and textures of the site itself. The profiled steel cladding is an important feature of the building form, achieving the distinctive low-pitched roof form, and with custom-made prickle-caps, creating the sharp lines of the folded roof form where the roof extends down the walls, to wide easy-clean gutters below. The floating, cantilevered concrete decks maximize the sense of elevation and lightness of the house, and creates a distinct edge between the house and landscape.

© Craig Steere Architects

Functionally, the clients desired an open plan living area to maximize views and connect with the outdoors via a generous outdoor deck. The living area forms the main building spine, with a secondary bedroom wing projecting outward from the spine (accommodating the children’s bedrooms and guest suite), as does the main bedroom suite, which is positioned to obtain impressive southwest views and connected back to the main building form via a link structure, which houses the study. The clients were also interested in an environmentally-sustainable house, hence the design has a strong focus on achieving natural lighting with generous glazing to the north, the exposed concrete floor slabs act as a heat sink, whilst electronic-controlled highlight windows capture breezes and ceiling fans and a large open fireplace were favoured over air-conditioning. An energy-efficient heat pump supplies hot water to the house, and the large rainwater tank works in conjunction with a windmill-pumped bore to provide all the water to the residence.

model 03

The project achieved excellent cost efficiencies considering the building market and the limited availability of trades at this remote site, with very little variance to the client’s target budget over the 24-month construction period.

Costanera Center, Venta de viviendas, Comunas y áreas verdes

Cencosud se reúne con el MOP por Costanera Center

Según fuentes del ministerio, el motivo de la reunión era analizar el problema vial que tiene el sector y restaurar la mesa de trabajo sobre el tema del túnel bajo la Avenida Andrés Bello. El MOP confirmó que el proyecto no se inaugurará mientras no esté la mitigación de las cuatro etapas. (más info).

Venta de viviendas cayó 24%

Esta cifra corresponde a la más baja de los últimos nueve años. El presidente de la cámara Chilena de la Construcción (CChC) Lorenzo Constans dijo que esta baja se debe al terremoto, las reasignaciones de subsidios estatales y la dificultad de tener requisitos para el otorgamiento de créditos hipotecarios (ver nota).

Lo Barnechea y Vitacura lideran mantención de áreas verdes

Un estudio del Observatorio de Ciudades de la Universidad Católica investigó los litros de agua que se consumen en cada comuna, lo que cuesta esto en dinero y la conservación de las áreas verdes. A raíz de este análisis, determinó que los municipios con más cuidado son Lo Barnechea, Vitacura y Santiago (más info).

The design for the administrative headquarters of Carglass, a British automotive glass company, had the intention to create a large structure, similar to an industrial hangar, but with unique and striking characteristics able to denote the use of the building.

Carglass Administrative Headquarters - Conceptual diagram, drawing courtesy AUM arquitetos

Carglass Administrative Headquarters - Conceptual diagram, drawing courtesy AUM arquitetos

The trapezoidal configuration of the site and the care of local law suggested an unusual implantation. To differentiate the building of the factory environment, the main facade, facing the northwest face of intense sunlight, was conceived staggered, creating through this geometry a volume of strong branding.

Carglass Administrative Headquarters, image courtesy AUM arquitetos

Each module has a structural steel truss, which sets a closing tilted metallic tile, which by its design eliminates the need of “brise soleis”. This configuration allows the creation of rips in the cover, which promote natural lighting inside the building. The rear facade, facing the southeast side, has a large window that releases the view to the beautiful local landscape.

Carglass Administrative Headquarters, image courtesy AUM arquitetos

The building has two floors, a ground floor and a mezzanine, together with two internal courtyards, which generates diversity in its interior and a wealth of space. The structural modulation and the environments’ amplitude allow great flexibility in layout. At both borders, in the largest part of the building were leased closed volumes which bring together the sanitary and other technical areas required.

+ Project credits / data

Project: Carglass Administrative Headquarters
Location: Santana de Parnaíba, SP, Brazil
Site area: 5.302,10m²
Built area: 4.380,00m²
Project year: 2009
Materials: Metal and concrete

Architect: AUM arquitetos – André Dias Dantas, Bruno Bonesso Vitorino e Renato Dalla Marta
Project Team: Filipe Dória, Filipe Romeiro, Gregory Canfield, Aline Pek and Maíra Baltrusch
General Contractor: Carbone Engenharia
Structure Engineer: Estrutural Engenharia
Photographs: Maíra Acayaba

+ All images, drawings and description courtesy of AUM arquitetos

Dezeen and publishers Juice are giving away five copies of HGW: Hakobo Graphic World, a monograph about the work of Polish graphic designer Jakub Stepien, aka Hakobo. (more…)

Here are more inventive, catchy, playful, ironic and distinctive designs from ROOMS. This time we are presenting two products of their Kids Collection, the Dressed Chair an the Commode-Commode, and a table made with wood and glass called Table Storage.

Hace algunos días se dio a conocer como el Ministerio de Obras Públicas está evaluando la posibilidad de concesionar la construcción y administración de parques urbanos. La medida buscaría responder tanto a la escasez de áreas verdes en las ciudades como a la condición deteriorada que presentan muchas de estas. Para las autoridades la participación de privados pareciese ser una alternativa viable para enfrentar estos problemas, ya que en la práctica el Estado, mayor responsable de su construcción y mantención, no ha sido capaz de solventar una política integral y eficiente.

Los estudios recientes indican un fuerte déficit de espacios públicos en nuestras ciudades, en Santiago por ejemplo el promedio de áreas verdes es de 4,7 metros cuadrados por habitantes, cerca de la mitad de lo que sugiere la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Estos datos empeoran si consideramos que la provisión de espacios públicos resulta altamente inequitativa en relación a los diferentes sectores de la ciudad, ya que las comunas con mayores ingresos poseen mayor cantidad de áreas verdes que las comunas más pobres.

Parque Bustamante, Vía Flickr por jeckafou

La gestión y administración de espacios públicos

Esta inequidad nos hace reflexionar sobre la gestión y administración que están teniendo estos espacios. La experiencia demuestra que los parques han dejado de ser una prioridad pública, ya que al eliminarse el Programa de Parques Urbanos, estrategia que construyó cerca de 45 parques en todo Chile, se delegaron estas funciones principalmente a instituciones que carecen de recursos para desarrollar nuevos proyectos y que con dificultad logran administrar los parques y plazas existentes.

Los presupuestos de mantención y construcción de espacios públicos otorgados a los municipios, por distintos fondos como el Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Regional y el Programa de Espacios Públicos Patrimoniales, dan cuenta de esta situación.

Todo indica que las municipalidades de menores recursos no pueden soportar la carga de mantener y construir la infraestructura adecuada para grandes espacios públicos, situación que muchas veces da paso al abandono y deterioro de estos espacios. La Secretaría Regional Ministerial de Vivienda y Urbanismo señaló que muchas de las áreas verdes de la Región Metropolitana se encuentran abandonadas, o se convirtieron en sitios eriazos o improvisados vertederos.

Parque Tres Poniente Maipú, Vía Flickr por patrcbzs

La concesión de parques urbanos ¿Una solución beneficiosa?

En base a este escenario, resulta evidente la necesidad de diseñar nuevas políticas que incentiven la creación y desarrollo de espacios públicos, pero debemos preguntarnos cómo respondería la administración privada a las necesidades de áreas verdes que existen en la actualidad.

Aunque la cartera de Obras Públicas aún no ha dado a conocer los detalles técnicos del proyecto ni cuáles serían las comunas favorecidas, la privatización de un patrimonio público, en este caso un parque, puede venir acompañado de dinámicas excluyentes que terminarían por segregar sus usos, convirtiéndolo en un negocio por sobre un proyecto integrador.

Lo anterior, no quiere decir que esta clase de proyectos se deban extralimitar al ámbito público, sino que, por el contrario, la experiencia internacional indica que la gestión exitosa de plazas y parques urbanos es multisectorial. La estrategia conjunta de varias fuentes de financiamiento, logrando conciliar intereses públicos y privados, como por ejemplo la concesión de algún tipo de servicio al interior del parque o plaza, ha probado ser eficiente en el manejo y sustentabilidad de áreas verdes.

En estos términos, la creación de una entidad pública que coordine y promueva la asociación con actores privados, a la vez que integre a la ciudadanía en las distintas etapas de diseño, resultan factores indispensables para lograr un resultado positivo y favorable en el largo plazo. Estos factores permitirían generar espacios públicos de calidad, impidiendo su uso indiscriminado para otros fines y motivando el libre acceso a actividades culturales, recreativas y deportivas.

Parque Bicentenario. Vía Flickr por .:Metropolís PCM - El Flickr del Bicentenario

Entrega subsidios, Nuevo tranvía Las Condes, Plan piloto Recoleta

Ministerio de Vivienda entrega 1.748 subsidios de reparación en Santiago

Los subsidios corresponden al Programa de Protección del Patrimonio Familiar y fueron entregados a 16 comunas de la Región Metropolitana. En total se beneficiará a 1.987 familias de 20 comunas de la región (ver nota).

A fin de año se licita proyecto de tranvía que incluirá tramo por Avenida Las Condes

De acuerdo con los resultados proyectados para el 2015, el tramo escogido fue por Avenida Las Condes, entre Manquehue y San Francisco de Asís. La futura construcción será de 7,2 kilómetros de extensión y reduciría las pistas en la Avenida Las Condes. Un vez puesto en marcha se quiere realizar una consulta ciudadana en el sector (más info).

Comuna de Recoleta: Plan piloto logra bajar tasa de victimización en barrio inseguro

El plan aplicado por la Fundación Paz Ciudadana en conjunto con la Fiscalía Centro Norte, el municipio, policías y los vecinos logró bajar la victimización en un 14,9%. Se espera que este plan pueda ejecutarse en barrios de Estación Central, Peñalolén y San Joaquín (ver más).

Waltritsch a+u projected the new Mediatheque, part of a larger complex named Casa del Cinema (Home of the Film) located in the Gorizia, Italy.

Here is the project description:

The new Mediatheque is part of a larger complex named Casa del Cinema (Home of the Film) which includes the Kinemax multiplex, several associations dedicated to the cinema culture, the DAMS Cinema section of the Udine University, and finally the Mediatheque. One place, located between the city main square and the castle hill, which gathers commercial, cultural, educational and promotional activities dedicated to the film culture. This combination of different activities is obviously quite unique, and particularly important for the small city of Gorizia.

Part of the project is the new façade on the public street as well. A series of colored glass panels on the higher part of the facade are facing the built and natural context of the historical city heart. The dialogue with the surrounding buildings goes through the use of the typical color palette of the building render, and the slight and not intrusive reflection of the surroundings provided by the colored glass. This allows the context to be dilated into the Mediatheque building façade: a “form of transit” of the everyday life.

Photos by Marco Covi, © Dimitri Waltritsch

Dave Rittinger has shared with us some of his photos from KIT's Hoops Canopy installation at Superfront in NYC. Click the link below to learn more about the event and this installation.

The design "London Gate" by Rotterdam-based practice DONIS is the winner of the international competition for a gateway to the City of London. The entry proposes the 100 meter-tall structure as a temporary landmark for Aldgate on the eastern edge of the City of London, to stand for the duration of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, to open in January 2012.

Sort of brings back memories from the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Architecture Award from last year...

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, is the London-based architectural firm Foreign Office Architects (FOA)’s first major building in the United States, and its first museum. It is approx. 34,000-square-foot with four-story structure, located at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road, the new MOCA is a flagship project of Cleveland’s emerging Uptown district, a major urban-revitalization project undertaken by Case Western Reserve University; developer MRN, Ltd.

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, render courtesy FOA

+ Project description courtesy Foreign Office Architects

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Releases Design by Foreign Office Architects for Innovative New Building

Project is cornerstone of Cleveland’s emerging Uptown district

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) today released the design for its new facility, following its presentation and approval at a meeting of the City’s Planning Commission. The project is designed by the internationally acclaimed firm Foreign Office Architects (FOA), London. The Museum anticipates that it will break ground for the $26.3 million project in fall/winter 2010.

The nearly 34,000-square-foot, four-story structure is FOA’s first major building in the United States, and its first museum. It will provide MOCA with street presence for the first time in its forty-plus-year history, and will enable it to present a diversity of innovative exhibitions and programs, while appealing to both current and new audiences. At the same time, it will give the city of Cleveland and its cultural community a signature building for contemporary art and ideas.

Located at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road, the new MOCA is a flagship project of Cleveland’s emerging Uptown district, a major urban-revitalization project undertaken by Case Western Reserve University; developer MRN, Ltd.; and other institutions in the University Circle neighborhood. The Museum will serve as a catalyst for creativity and growth in the area—which is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of cultural, educational, and medical institutions—with greatly expanded educational and public programs, as well as imaginative collaborations with neighboring organizations and cultural partners.

The Museum for Contemporary Art Cleveland is elated that the design for its new building has been approved by the City Planning Commission. This represents an endorsement of FOA’s inspired building design and a recognition of the critical importance of MOCA to the cultural life of the city. FOA’s design for our building is the perfect expression of our program—one that will not only enable it to operate at the highest level, but that will also be beautiful, intriguing, and sensitive to its urban surroundings and community. The Museum’s ability to realize this project during a period of economic instability is a clear testament to the vision and dedication of MOCA’s Board leadership and community funders.

MOCA Director Jill Snyder

As FOA’s first museum and first U.S. commission, this is an especially meaningful and inspirational project for us. Museums today are not just homes for art, but also serve multiple functions and host a variety of activities. Our design for MOCA Cleveland aims to provide visitors with a museum which is a dynamic public space in which to experience contemporary art in its infinite manifestations.

Farshid Moussavi, principal of FOA

In addition to Foreign Office Architects, the design team for the new Museum includes executive architects Westlake Reed Leskosky, headquartered in Cleveland and designers of more than fifty cultural buildings throughout the United States.

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, render courtesy FOA

Building Design

The new MOCA, which will be forty-four percent larger than the Museum’s current, leased facility, will demonstrate that a museum expansion need not be large in scale to be ambitious in all respects. Devised for both environmental and fiscal sustainability, the design for the four-story building is at once technically inventive, visually stunning, and highly practical.

FOA has responded ingeniously to the project’s roughly triangular site by designing a building with a hexagonal base that, with imperceptible changes in the shape of each story, rises to a square roof. Viewed from the exterior, the building will appear as an inventive massing of six geometric facets, some flat, others sloping at various angles, all coming together to create a powerful abstract form.

Clad primarily in mirror-finish black Rimex stainless steel, the façade of the new MOCA will reflect its urban surroundings, changing in appearance with differences in light and weather. Window glazing will be tinted to assimilate with the reflective skin so that during the day the building will read as a unified volume, while at night interior lights will create a dynamic pattern on the dark surface.

Three of the building’s six facets, one of them clad in transparent glass, will flank a public plaza. This will provide a public gathering place and also serve as MOCA’s “front yard,” and will be the site of seasonal programming. From here, visitors and passersby may look through the transparent facet, site of the Museum entrance, into the ground floor, a space intended for socializing and for civic and cultural events.

While the building’s dark exterior will offer almost no hint of the interior massing and structure, the experience inside will be notably transparent. Upon entering MOCA, visitors will find themselves in an atrium from which they may visually grasp the dynamic shape and structure of the building as it rises. This space will lead in turn to the Museum’s lobby, café, and shop, and to a double-height multi-purpose room that will house public programs and other events. From here, visitors may take the Museum’s staircase—itself a monumental sculptural object—or an elevator to the upper floors.

Because MOCA is a non-collecting institution—one of the few such contemporary art museums in the country—its new building does not need to accommodate collection galleries, and the architect was free to design the exhibition space for maximum flexibility. This has been achieved by placing the main gallery at the top of the building. There it will be structurally unencumbered, needing only to hold the lightweight roof, the underside of which will be fully visible from the gallery. The 6,000-square-foot space may be divided into a variety of configurations in order to encompass the broad range of MOCA’s exhibitions and related programs. This floor will also contain a gallery designed specifically for new-media work and a lounge with a view of the city, where visitors can relax, reflect on what they have seen, and read about the exhibitions.

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, render courtesy FOA

Ms. Snyder notes,

As Cleveland’s only museum of contemporary art, MOCA is committed to presenting exhibitions that break new ground, showing the work of emerging artists from across the globe as well as from our own region. Flexibility is key to a program that, like ours, embraces aesthetic, conceptual, and cultural diversity, and displays works in a great variety of mediums and genres. We are thrilled with the gallery space planned for the new Museum.

While the main exhibition gallery is on the top floor, all four floors of the Museum contain space for either exhibitions or public programs, with the second and third floors combining public and “back of house” functions. The second floor, for example, will house both exhibition workshops and a 1,500-square-foot public gallery, to be used for more intimately scaled exhibitions; consonant with the openness that is characteristic of the building’s interior, visitors approaching this gallery will also be able to glimpse the workshops. The third floor, home to MOCA’s administrative offices, will also include spaces for classes, lectures, and other educational programs.

In keeping with the ways in which contemporary visitors engage with art, the new building will have wi-fi throughout, enabling the use of wireless devices for on-demand learning. MOCA anticipates that the building will receive LEED silver accreditation.

+ Project credits / data

Project: The Museum of Contemporary Art
Location: Cleveland, USA
Architect: Foreign Office Architects (FOA)

+ About Foreign Office Architects

Founded in London in 1993, Foreign Office Architects (FOA) has emerged as one of the most innovative and creative design firms working today, integrating architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture in a wide range of projects internationally. The project that established the practice’s reputation was the Yokohama Port Terminal in Japan, an imaginative hybrid of non-Cartesian industrial infrastructure and versatile social functionality, which architects and critics have called one of the most influential works of architecture of the last decade. Since then, FOA has amassed a diverse portfolio of built works around the world, ranging from transportation facilities to social housing projects.

Over the years, FOA has won several prestigious competitions and commissions, including the BBC Music Box, for the network’s White City complex, in London; and it was selected as part of the United Architects team to submit a design for the World Trade Center, New York, in the aftermath of the September 11 attack. In 2002, the practice was selected to represent Great Britain at the 8th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Other completed projects for FOA include the John Lewis Department Store and Cineplex in Leicester, England; Carabanchel Social Housing in Madrid, Spain; the South-East Coastal Park, Barcelona, Spain; the Meydan Retail Complex and Multiplex, in Istanbul; the Spanish Pavilion at the 2005 International Expo in Aichi, Japan; La Rioja Technology Transfer Centre, in Logroño, Spain; and the master plan and infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic Park.

+ About Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Founded in 1968, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, a leading force in the cultural life of Northeast Ohio, is recognized nationally and internationally for its vital and creative exhibitions and public programs. These strive to challenge, inspire, and teach a wide range of audiences.

As one of the few non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States, MOCA enjoys the curatorial freedom of an alternative space while upholding the standards of a collecting museum. Through eight-to-ten exhibitions a year, all accompanied by public and education programs, and many by scholarly catalogues, the Museum brings the work and ideas of a diversity of national and international artists to its audiences. MOCA’s critically acclaimed exhibitions have included Yoshitomo Nara (2004), Sam Taylor-Wood (2008), and All Digital (2006), among many others.

From 1968 to 1990, MOCA rented modest quarters in University Circle, and from 1990 to the present it has rented second-story space from the Cleveland Play House, where it has been virtually invisible to passersby. Today, as it prepares to begin work on its new building, MOCA looks forward to welcoming both established and new audiences to its exciting new space in University Circle.

For additional information: www.mocacleveland.org

+ About Uptown Initiative

Established in 2008 by Case Western Reserve University, in cooperation with neighboring University Circle institutions and the developer MRN Ltd., Cleveland’s emerging Uptown district will add an urban center to University Circle and the surrounding neighborhoods. The eight-acre district is anchored by the new MOCA and the expansion of the Cleveland Institute of Art (Burt, Hill with MVRDV), and will also provide new commercial space and residential units, to be designed by Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc. The public realm of the Uptown district will be designed by James Corner, principal of the New York-based landscape architecture and urban design firm Field Operations.

Kay e Sante nan Ayiti (Creole for Housing and Health in Haiti), is an international competition launched by the ARCHIVE Institute to build five housing units in the area of St. Marc, Haiti. The housing units are unique in that throughout the entire project, from design, construction, and habitation, HEALTH is a driving factor. The housing units will make use of common sense design principles, and all units should seek to minimize the transmission of Tuberculosis. The community of St. Marc will be actively engaged in the project, helping refine the final ideas to ensure the long term viability of the project. The Kay e Sante nan Ayiti project believes that the way to reach the best design solution is through a collaboration of minds, skills, interests and people.

ARCHIVE hopes that the competition will raise awareness of the ability of housing to change the way in which society deals with global infectious disease epidemics, as well as generate a new-found knowledge amongst applicants of the link between housing and health. We are asking you to contribute your ideas to this project, whatever your background, to share your knowledge and create a truly interdisciplinary network of interested individuals. The 5 winning proposals will be built in 2011, with habitation commencing July 2011. The winning designs will also be showcased in travelling exhibits to universities worldwide and in a ‘best practice’ design development compendium. Prizes include: First place: $5,000 US; Second place: $3,000 US; Third place: $2,000 US. The competition is opened to: Architects, engineers, health specialists, university students and the general public.

International: Kay e Sante nan Ayiti (Creole for Housing and Health in Haiti), Open Architectural Design Competition
Registration Deadline: 20th September 2010. Submission Deadline: 12th November 2010
Competition website: http://www.archiveinstitute.org/haiti/
Registration: http://www.archiveinstitute.org/haiti/index.php/pages/registration/signup

Japanese architecture firm Edward Suzuki Associates projected this house which is the first case of an industrialized house in Japan designed the an architect.

Here is the project description:

This is the first case of an industrialized house in Japan (and perhaps in the world) designed by an architect, Edward Suzuki, and built by a major housing manufacturer, Daiwa House Kougyo, in a collaborative effort. The house is named after the architect’s nickname and also stands for Edward Daiwa-House Design Innovation.

EDDI’s House now boasts six basic types of plans with sixty-nine variations to accommodate as much of the varying site conditions and characteristics.

Via Contemporist

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