16 January 2019

The proposed concept for the site was to transform a single-use office building into a genuinely mixed use development incorporating office, retail, restaurant and residential use; seeking to create a new destination integrated within the local area. The architects chose to situate the buildings around a new courtyard in the center of the site, which is connected by a publicly accessible route and ground floor public uses to the surrounding streets and spaces. The key elements of the scheme were to introduce activity into the area, provide a mix of uses particularly retail, restaurants and housing introducing daytime and night time surveillance, and creating a properly managed and controlled environment which is reflected in the urban design approach to the layout of retail units, spaces and pedestrian routes. Located in Camden, the project is part of a complex urban patchwork of medieval streets, modern buildings and traditional urban blocks. This environment had a dramatic impact on the design of the project. The scheme is composed of complex volumes, which are characterically chiselled fragmented and reduced in scale to match the surrounding buildings. These chiselled volumes mad St-G an impressive architectural sculpture characterized by a combination of shimmering facets. Each facet is unique, differing in height, orientation, color, and relationship to natural light. Glass, steel and ceramic are the primary elements of the skin. In each fact the ceramic is used in different shade and colors that respond to the surrounding building, thus helping to integrate the scheme in the immediate urban environment. At the core of the scheme there is a large courtyard, where the public activity is concentrated with its cafes and restaurants this piazza will generate social life, thus enhancing the urban identity of the site. A six-meter full height glass facade provides a maximum of transparency, five passages through this courtyard allow a permeable scheme and invite passers-by to this piazza shaded by a 20m high tree. (Fabiana Cambiaso) www.centralsaintgiles.com Figures: © RPBW; © L&G and MEC; © Michel Denance; © Hufton & Crow; © Joost Moolhuijzen; © Maurits van der Staay   Central Saint Giles, London, England Renzo Piano Building Workshop Architectsin collaboration with Fletcher Priest Architects Completed: 2010 Material:  Glass, Ceramics, Steel Applications: Envelope.

Marco Mignatti

20 February 2019

It's called the Building that Grows, and it could be compared to a dream, a wish that comes true. It's something different, which we are not accustomed to, it is extremely material but at the same time loaded with symbolic meanings. We are in Montpellier, southern France. The Edouard François’ Maison thinks and designs this building for houses that will become part of the collections of the Pompidou Centre. The Maison architecture reflects the trends of contemporary society: sustainable development, the use of local materials as well as the conservation and valorisation of the existing buildings. These are all recurring themes in the work of the French firm that continues to investigate new forms of sustainability, new "green" habitat.

In this case, the choice was towards the use of stones as wall claddings and to design balconies or small wooden terraces that sprout from the sides of the building by discontinuing the linearity. The study of the balconies was a key part of the project: we are the "balcony-gardens" to dine outdoors and to accommodate many friends; the "balconies-cabins" that remain perched in the trees for more intimate gatherings, then the "balconies-towers" that, as little medieval towers, allow you to explore your surroundings, the foliage of the tree tops, in which the building is well integrated. Finally, there are the "balcony-terraces" entirely dedicated to reflection and contemplation to live in perfect harmony with nature while staying in town. The name of the building, however, is tied to the outside walls. As a living skin, a real intervention of manipulation was built by François Maison. With the idea that it would grow and sprout, that the building would slowly change its appearance according to the laws of nature, sacks of potting soil, stones and small plants were combined with iron cables as support. Some climbers have watered with compost and planted along the surface, until the installation of an automatic sprinkler system on the façade. Just like a small eco-system, the Building that Grows continues to change and to change depending on the form you create, mosses and plants that grow and then die, creating a constantly evolving composition. www.edouardfrancois.com 

Carlo Bardelli

Founded in 1937 in Milan, Mapei has become the world's largest producer of adhesives and building products. By the time the company has developed a stronger sensitivity to sustainability, it allocated more than 70% of investments in research and development for the study of eco-sustainable products. In 2000 it was awarded the "business award for Eco efficient" in "environmentally-friendly" category in an important initiative of the Lombardy region and the Chamber of Commerce. Today the commitment is even stronger, as shown by some of the main building where Mapei was involved, alongside the best international architects.   The Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore, designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie, also includes the ArtScience Museum and the Gardens By the Bay: a futuristic project for which several coatings, such as ceramics, marble, slate and bamboo, were laid. Waterproofing works were made to ensure moisture protection and impact resistance. For this, Mapei products with very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) have been chosen.   Dragon Bridge is in Da Nang in Vietnam. It is a concrete bridge with steel arches in the shape of a dragon. The weight of the bays and the exposure of atmospheric aggression made the use of specific products necessary, in order to achieve the concrete to protect the structure. Mapei has provided concrete additives and eco-friendly paint resistant to ultraviolet rays.   Environmental responsibility is very important for the company and his choices, starting from design and operation; ensuring greater durability means avoiding subsequent interventions on buildings and infrastructures. Mapei’s products are the result of intensive research, aimed to obtain innovative formulas integrated into complete application systems, more effective. Special attention is also compatible with substances of health professionals working in business and advanced technology solutions that contribute to environmental protection. The eco-sustainability is a commitment that requires, application and research method, but above all experience. And that's why Mapei is committed to working on large architectural projects and achievements are also important from an environmental point of view.

16 February 2019

In Canada, Upper Kingsburg, in an old village near Halifax, the Sliding House is a vacation home designed as an elementary box, carved and hollowed by incisions that alter its symmetry, with effects of instability and false dynamism. A construction related to the barns of this segment of Canadian coast, a structure that seems to slide toward the sea while, at the same time, penetrating the terrain, expressing a sense of belonging to the primitive landscape of Nova Scotia. The house rests on the ground like a ship on the sea, a bit sunken, a bit suspended, as if waiting for another wave to push it toward the sea that is waiting there, less than 500 meters away. The house is about to set sail: the line of the roof runs parallel to the slope of the land, and the visual effect is that the house seems to be sliding toward the ocean. The slope of the roof underlines that of the hill, which is actually just 6 degrees. Proudly facing the sea, the western facade of the house has an ambiguous expression, like a face in a curious asymmetrical sneer. The horizontal eye above it is a simple loggia, with a nautical look, entirely in wood, like all the interiors of the house. “Louis Kahn”, Brian MacKay-Lyons reminds us, “thought a building should not have more than two materials, of which one would be glass”, and this superb house has been conceived in that spirit of simplicity that is so deeply rooted in American modernism; a spirit found in the architecture of Kahn, but also the art of Sol LeWitt and the music of John Cage, who were both students at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. The Sliding House is an elementary monument, a construction related to the rural edifices of the zone. It is the result of an encounter between David Peters and Rhonda Rubinstein, a creative couple with a young son, Dashel, and Brian MacKay-Lyons, a talented architect and part of a family with centuries-old roots in the Halifax region. Seven years ago the couple decided to build a summer home in Canada, and Peters turned to Brian MacKay-Lyons, whom he had known for thirty years and for whom he worked as a graphic artist and website designer. David and Rhonda purchased a lot from the architect in Upper Kingsburg, an old village (founded in 1750) near Halifax, where MacKay-Lyons owns about 20 hectares of land on which he has built 12 houses over the course of 25 years. The couple wanted a quick and relatively economical project, for a vacation home of about 150 sq meters, and MacKay- Lyons, with partner Talbot Sweetapple, imagined a parallelepiped cut and hollowed by incisions that alter its symmetry and generate an effect of instability, suggesting false movement. On the northern side the house protects itself from the cold wind with its thickness, a large air chamber containing the staircase, the bathrooms and the kitchen with fireplace. On the opposite side, to the south, a ribbon window opens to the sunlight and the view of the meadows and the ocean, in a sheltered, welcoming summer habitat, a panoramic promenade that terminates, on both the short sides, in loggias facing the landscape. The south side of the house

The structure is in wood, the external walls entirely covered with a continuous skin of corrugated sheet metal, a cold industrial material that forms a contrast with the warm poplar interiors. Exterior and interior design of the house

The hundreds of slats of poplar, with tones varying from red to blanched, generate an intense pattern with optical effects in the hypnotic uniformity of the floors, walls and ceilings.  

Edoardo Croci

18 December 2018

16,000 aluminium hexagonal modules characterize the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, an impressive architecture created in six years by Fernando Romero architect. This building has more the characteristics of a sculpture, it was described as "dazzling", "flamboyant" and it was also called "impossible to build". But the South American architect (one of the youngest in the country) won the challenge. The difficulty was the exterior: a reflective and glossy façade, on which aluminum hexagons seem to hang in balance. It was a large and very heavy structure, for which it was necessary to design a skeleton of 28 vertical columns made of curved steel and seven reinforced slabs surrounding architecture. A lattice effect difficult to achieve and studied through a sophisticated technology software developed by an international Geometric network, that develops software and applications for the building. This software allowed the team of architects and engineers to display the project in a 3D model and to make all the necessary calculations to make the structure (apparently poised) be firmly and in balance. All the hexagons were positioned in digital, in order to study the orientation and the degree of curvature of the surface to fit the shape to the reticular pattern of base, also considering possible changes in natural steel and concrete structure. The result is surprising because the external pattern becomes fascinating setting that hides the support columns and almost 100,000 tubular elements of the structure. A curiosity: this architecture also wants to be a treasure trove. Wanted by Carlos Slim Helu, the wealthiest man in the world, the Soumaya Museum – named Slim's wife died in 1999 – retains a prestigious international art collection: it is the largest Latin America one, with 66 thousand artworks. Access to the collection is free. Since many Mexicans can't afford to travel abroad to see art collections, Carlos Slim Helu wanted to host a prestigious international collection in Mexico. The building includes a 20,000 square metres exhibition space divided among five floors, as well as an auditorium, bars, offices, a gift shop and a multi-purpose hall. The upper floor is the largest space of the Museum, with the suspended roof overlooking the city.   www.fr-ee.org www.geometrica.com.

Marco Mignatti

09 December 2018

The King Fahad National Library, one of the most important cultural buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was completed and went into use for its intended purpose in November 2013. This project sees Professor Eckhard Gerber and his Gerber Architekten team accomplishing one of the most important urban development and cultural projects in the capital, Riyadh. The design functions as the central driving force behind a piece of urban development and rearrangement, and combines the challenge of designing within the existing building stock with respect for Arabian culture. The symbolic cuboid shape of the new building surrounds the existing building on all sides, thus presenting the National Library as a new architectural image in the Riyadh cityscape without abandoning the old building, which now operates as an internal stack, making it the centre of knowledge within the new library as a whole. The square new building is covered by a filigree textile façade following traditional Middle Eastern architectural patterns and linking them with state of the art technology. The design goes back to the early days of an international competition dating from 2003. When the National Library is completed, Gerber Architekten will be working on planning the Olaya Metro Station, another of this country’s major projects. Gerber Architekten developed a cuboid building surrounding the existing library on all sides, thus presenting the National Library as a new architectural image within Riyadh’s urban space. The new building encloses the old one protectively, and combines itself with it in an unusual way, following monument preservation principles. The cruciform existing building, topped by a dome, is concealed inside the new building. The old structure is integrated as a building within a building, while its existing dome – originally in concrete – has now been reconstructed in steel and glass, and continues to be a cultural symbol of the library. The entire former roof of the existing building, which occupies an extensive area, now provides a reading landscape flooded with light and offers a special atmosphere that will encourage the exchange of knowledge in this way. Inside – as if hidden in a treasure chest, a knowledge storehouse – are the book stacks. Visitors access the open-access sections on the third floor of the new building via bridges from the reading area. Everything is covered by a new roof, punctuated by skylights under which white membranes gently distribute the light throughout the entire interior. The main entrance hall is on the ground floor, which also houses exhibition areas, a restaurant and a bookshop.A library area for women only, in which they can spend time without a burka, is provided on the first floor of the new south wing; this space is separated from the other building uses, and is also accessed separately. The key element of the façade was developed especially for the new building. It is a cladding made up of rhomboid textile awnings, marked by its play with revealing and concealing. Inserted white membranes, supported by a three-dimensional, tensile-stressed steel cable structure, act as sunshades and interpret the Arabian tent structure tradition in a modern, technological way. This sequence of old and new creates a uniform and prestigious overall architectural appearance with characteristic styling. At night the façade glows with changing colours and becomes the city’s cultural lighthouse. This filigree steel cable structure has a solar penetration level of only 7 per cent, and at the same time makes it possible to look both in and out. Given exterior temperatures of up to 50o Celsius, the membrane façade, which was optimised in relation to the local sun path by means of complex, three-dimensional light refraction, combines the required protection from the sun with maximum light penetration and transparency. This façade was combined with ventilation and cooling for the building by means of layered ventilation and floor cooling. In this way, thermal comfort is increased and energy consumption significantly reduced by using certain methods and technologies for the first time in the Arab world.

Edoardo Croci