15 Ottobre 2018

L'università di Stoccarda ITKE Institute, Dipartimento di Strutture e Costruzioni della Facoltà di Architettura, nell'ambito del Research Proiect Bioplastic Facade, ha progettato e costruito il nuovo padiglione ArboSkin: è composto di 388 piramidi di bioplastica, materiale totalmente biodegradabile o riciclabile derivante da materie prime vegetali rinnovabili annualmente, come l'amido di mais o la farina.

L'intero padiglione è realizzato con elementi di facciata in 3D e dimostra le potenzialità estetiche e strutturali delle bioplastiche. Ha vinto recentemente un premio in uno dei più importanti concorsi tedeschi sulle idee innovative.  

La bioplastica è un materiale estremamente malleabile, ma con buone prestazioni strutturali, particolarmente adatto nello sviluppo di facciate complesse e con motivi in rilievo. Allo stesso tempo consente di rispondere alla crescente domanda di materiali da costruzione provenienti da risorse efficienti e sostenibili, limitando l'utilizzo di derivati da combustibili fossili.

Il progetto della struttura a guscio è basato su una rete di forme triangolati in pezzi tetraedrici di dimensioni diverse. La doppia pelle curva è fatta con piramidi di bioplastica di 3.5 mm di spessore che vengono assemblate meccanicamente per creare la superficie di forma libera. La forma complessa a doppia curvatura portante è realizzata collegando tra loro i tetraedri con anelli di rinforzo e travicelli. I fogli di bioplastica possono essere modellati e adattati liberamente per soddisfare qualsiasi esigenza estetica dell'edificio.

I fogli di bioplastica sono stati plasmati e termoformati ad alta temperatura consentendo di coniugare una elevata adattabilità ai disegni più complessi e i rifiuti prodotti durante la fresatura sono stati recuperati, ricostituiti e riutilizzati per creare altri elementi di facciata tridimensionali. I granuli di bioplastica sono estrusi in lastre, che a loro volta sono ulteriormente elaborate in base alle singole esigenze per ottenere superfici e strutture anche di notevole complessità. I prodotti semilavorati sono utilizzabili sia per rivestimenti esterni sia per rivestimenti interni. A fine vita il materiale può essere riutilizzato o smaltito tramite compostaggio.

Finora le bioplastiche erano state utilizzate solo per il confezionamento ma questo padiglione dimostra che il materiale può essere promosso ad alternativa verde al cemento, la cui produzione rappresenta l'otto per cento delle emissioni globali di anidride carbonica. (Fabiana Cambiaso Università La Sapienza) www.itke.uni-stuttgart.de ©ITKE; ©Roland Halbe.

Carlo Bardelli        

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

12 January 2019

For the Walker Art Center Expansion, the client – represented by Director Kathy Halbreich and Chief Curator Richard Flood – did not aim simply to increase the exhibition area, like so many other museums did in the nineties, but primarily to give the public more room, more room for urban living inspired by the variety and richness of contemporary art.

The Walker Art Center (WAC), as one of the most progressive poles for the transmission of contemporary art, is indeed a "center" and not just a "museum." Its name is an agenda, which is why plans for expansion also include more leeway for electronic media and the performing arts. The intention of the museum and the trustees to enhance urban life at the WAC is especially meaningful and necessary because there is essentially no street life in Minneapolis, due not only to the city's climate but also to the Skyway system of elevated pedestrian walkways.

Initial planning therefore targeted a repositioning of the WAC in relation to existing urban infrastructures. The demolition of the Guthrie Theater will make room for a larger Sculpture Garden, the main entrance will be moved around Vineland Place (back) to Hennepin Avenue, and a second tower will complement the existing tower by Edward Barnes, while also establishing a visual link with the downtown skyline as well as the church spires along Hennepin Avenue.

This second tower is essential not only as an urban landmark; it also expresses the increased importance of the performing arts in the WAC program. Inside the tower there will be a theater encased in a balcony-like, three-story zone for the audience, somewhat like a down-sized version of the Scala in Milan or the open-air Globe theater of Shakespeare's day. This audience zone can also be used as an exhibition area for all kinds of art installations. Pictorial and performing arts can be interwoven here in entirely unexpected and innovative ways. The architecture thus fosters an intensification of the various activities with a view to the targeted urbanism of the new WAC. In contrast to the solid brick of the existing building, the walls are completely glazed, which will allow direct eye contact between the busy thoroughfare of Hennepin Avenue, the new interior of the WAC, and the new enlarged Sculpture Garden. This glazed street level running parallel to the slightly angled street will function like a "Town Square" open to everyone as a meeting point, a place to exchange information and news or to have a cup of coffee. People can also circulate here without going to an exhibition or attending an event. The new exhibitions spaces will be freely arranged within this glazed public area so that the "Town Square" will include cozier spaces, like side streets or alley ways.

This loose arrangement of galleries is a necessary modification of and addition to the rigid shape of the existing brick tower, which looks today like a pragmatic version of Wright's Guggenheim Museum. Edward Barnes' gallery concept along with his choice of materials, especially the terrazzo floors, have clearly stood the test of time and ensured remarkable curatorial freedom. On looking at the new WAC from outside, one is immediately struck by the huge, irregular windows. They look accidental but are homologous forms, showing a kinship in value and structure, somewhat like the shapes of a silhouette cutting. The papery appearance of the façade – also resembling a silhouette – consists of panels, which can simply be folded up along the slanted edges of the openings. Fragile and papery cladding will also be used for the inside of the theater, with its stud-wall construction so typical of US-American buildings that it is the inevitable fate of every architect. (Fabiana Cambiaso, Università La Sapienza) Credits: www.herzogdemeuron.com Figures: © Herzog & de Meuron; © Cameron Wittig.

Marco Mignatti

02 April 2019

Launched in 2004 by the Austrian company Rieder, fibreC (from the English "glassfiber" and "concrete") is a concrete reinforced with glassfiber applicable outdoors and indoors. The deprivation of the iron core inside of plates allows a very thin but highly durable production: sheets of 8-13 mm, very light but very strong.

Sandblasted or brushed surfaces are colored with the addition of iron oxide and natural additives: this provides varying surfaces for appearance and colors. FibreC is very durable, thin and pliable and it can therefore be used in flat slabs, and shaped in a particular way. Thanks to the unique feature of mouldability of these concrete and glassfiber panels and to the production system, this so thin material can find extraordinary possibilities of application. 

Messestand Gasser Swissbau '12 Basel, L3P ArchitektenRegensberg, Fertigstellung 2012[/caption] The architecture is the interplay of contrasting elements and the result of imaginative ideas that come from the continuous updating of materials, colors and texture of surfaces. The panels and the new elements in fibreC encourage the evolution of these ideas with innovative material suitable for all types of solutions. Similar to a skin of concrete, fibreC façade panels offer new solutions. 

Concrete skin coatings give the buildings a more modern aspect, both visually and in terms of innovation, as if they were covered by a second skin. FibreC is a material which allows a wide range of application and creating a wide variety of organic and creative shapes; it adapts to different forms and solutions, for example sliding constructions, curvatures, sloping walls and roofs.

The work shows all the expressive potential of this material that can be used as a second skin or tissue with spectacular effects on the façade of the building.   www.rieder.cc/it/it/home/ rieder.cc/blog/

Edoardo Croci

This project deals with the extension and the restructuration of a young workers residence, a 10-levels building made of a concrete structure with overhangs every 2.50m. The existing building was built in a brutal way in the 1970s on the Fondation Eugene Napoleon domain, a group of Heritage buildings.

To go faster, allow freedom of interior organization and future flexibility, the extensions have been assembled using a metal frame.

The anodized aluminium envelope draws up a new geometry, free of architectural styles, that encompasses the extensions and the existing buildings.

It reflects the light and is slit by openings onto the windows and the balconies/galleries of the garden. Final touch to the Fondation’s composition, the garden is connected to the Boulevard by openings in the outer wall, to the communal life spaces on the ground floor and to the galleries on the western façade.

The housing itself is the result of working on expanding minimum space, on series and repetitions. The metal structure allows shifting forward or backward the light frame partition walls in the flats to create two spaces, the “services” in the hall and the living space close to the window.

 (Fabiana Cambiaso - Università La Sapienza) Credits: suzelbrout.com Figures: ©  Hervé Abbadie; © Frédéric Delangle Young Workers Residence, Paris, France aasb_agence d'architecture suzelbrout / Suzel Brout, Leslie Mandalka Site: 3751 mq Completed: 2011 Materials: Modular panels of anodised aluminium with serial holes made with laser technology, Steel Applications: Envelope, Structure  

10 January 2019

ANIMA is the first work of the Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi (among his most famous works there is the Parc de la Villette in Paris) in Italy. Commissioned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno and Comune di Grottammare, the work was born with the objective of facilitating the identification of the territory. The project, whose inauguration is scheduled for 2016, is a future landmark for the city of Grottammare, a generator of ideas for the territory, both in its physical size and in its creative potential. Including in an area at the edge of the urban fabric between the sea and the hills, the new work is characterized by a high degree of flexibility; its spaces are configurable on event function.

The name, ANIMA, comes from an acronym: A as Art, N as Nature, I like Ideas, M as Music, A like Action. They are the “five souls” of the project the architect has interpreted as an identity in the making. The work will be a catalyst for interest, interactions, synergies. The surface where architecture is placed coincides with that of the small medieval town of Grottammare, slightly more than 7,000 square meters. The project approaches the historical heart of the town not only in size: it recalls, both outside and inside, the “urbs” concept. Outside the ANIMA looks like a compact body, a perfect square that, if somewhat alludes to an idea of closure and protection, it breaks and immediately shows a high permeability.

A reflection on the theme of the façade is the basis of the research that led Bernard Tschumi in a workaround for large vertical walls that surround the building and that finds its strongest expression in the south wall, through which you access the complex. Once in the square body you find yourself immersed in a split, partly inside and partly outside.

The architect explains the project: The complexity of this space is determined by the rotation of a large cuboid volume that occupies the central area of the building and contains the main hall, with seating for 1,500, flexible and configurable based on capacity needs variables. The rotation of this volume determines a system of four large courtyards, to each of which the main hall has a chance to open up a fluid and dynamic system of visual and physical paths. In addition, an extensive system of ramps allows moving within this heterogeneous environment and mobile, observing from prospects and continuously variable heights. Adjacent to the main hall and linked spectacularly through a multiplicity of paths, there are willing share laboratories, offices, café-restaurant, ancillary spaces. Can you design a façade without recourse to a formal composition? Can you do so is neither figurative nor abstract but, so to speak, without form? At a time of economic crisis, indulge in formal geometry produced by complex volumetric curves didn’t seem to be a responsible choice. The era of the so-called 'iconismo' seems to be finished, as arbitrary sculptural figures of the recent past ".

"Rather than adding a new province and iconic sculptural shape, we decided to investigate interaction, simplicity and sobriety. The internal organization of space was socially and culturally important, but that the external image of the project was equally significant. For this reason we have designed a simple square plan with four façades and a fifth façade, as equivalent coverage. Each façade has its own vocabulary, allowing to address issues such as protection from the Sun, natural lighting and ventilation at the same time project a strong identity to the outside world.

Edoardo Croci

20 November 2018

A large irregular mirror Prism with irregular and changing facets beyond: this is the new home of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) which was inaugurated in October in Cleveland. The four floors of the building are encapsulated in a faceted surface made of blue stainless steel with multiple purposes. The transparent façade coating has a special mirror enamel that allows you to filter the sunlight. In this way the interiors are well lighting, while the heat remains outside: this solution also solves the problem of natural overheating. The Museum can be accessed from all six sides, so the structure makes the most of the flexibility of the spaces. The diagonal orientation, finally, allows the building to be reflected on several fronts. Visitors can live a unique experience, having the illusion of a moving perspective. Ready to receive LEED Silver certification for its high energy-saving standards, the 34 thousand square meters minimalist black cube has been designed by the Iranian architect Farshid Moussavi.     www.mocacleveland.org www.farshidmoussavi.com

Marco Mignatti