Style of Design

© Åke E:son Lindman

Architects: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Location: Gasverksgatan 22, Malmö, Sweden
Responsible Architects: Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård
Project Architect: Mia Nygren
Collaborators: Carmen Izquierdo Làzaro (Façade Architect), Helene Amundsen, Susanna Bremberg, Andreas Helgesson, Eric Engström, Mårten Nettelbladt, Marcus Andrén, Dennis Suppers, Alina Scheutzow, Suzanne Prest, Julia Gudiel Urbano
Client: Stadsfastigheter i Malmö
Client: Moderna Museet
Contractor: NCC Construction
Project Area: 2,650 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman

A starting point was that a new art museum, a public and cultural building, represents a rare opportunity to create a new node within the city, the urban balance is changed and the neighborhood develops. In Malmö, in the south of Sweden, there was also the possibility to, starting from the industrial architecture of the former Electricity plant dating from the year 1900, create a new art museum with an informal and experimental character that would complement the main museum in Stockholm.

situation

plan 01

The greatest challenge posed by the project, (in addition to the demanding eighteen-month time limit from sketch-design to inauguration), was the need to adapt the existing industrial brick building to current climatic and security requirements to comply with the highest international standards for art exhibition spaces. It soon became clear that in reality what was needed was a building within a building, a contemporary addition within the existing shell. This radical reconstruction not only provided a challenge, but also gave the opportunity for something new.

Seen from the exterior a new extension marks the arrival of the new museum. The extension provides a new entrance and reception space, as well as a cafeteria and a new upper gallery. Its perforated orange façade both connects to the existing brick architecture and introduces a contemporary element to the neighbourhood. The perforated surface gives the façade a visual depth, and is animated through the dynamic shadow patterns which it creates. The ground floor is fully glazed so that sunlight is screened through the perforated façade.

© Åke E:son Lindman

In relation to its context, the new addition plays with scale. From a distance it is only intelligible in comparison to the adjacent houses, only on close proximity the building and details can be read in its own right. The elimination of the standard ‘middle-scale’ strengthens the museum’s presence in the immediate urban setting, at the same time as letting the building appear as a signal establishing a relationship with Malmö as a whole.

Inside, the building has been spatially reconstructed. Two new staircases allow the visitor to move in a loop between the grand turbine hall and the upper exhibition rooms. The staircases are each enclosed between two walls, which functions to divide the program of the turbine hall into three separate spaces, housing in addition to exhibition spaces a children’s studio and a separate loading area (in fact also used for exhibitions).

© Åke E:son Lindman

As in Kalmar Art Museum, we have been committed to providing exhibition spaces which allow artists and curators to tailor the conditions to each individual exhibition. Moderna museet Malmö (Malmö Museum of Art) offers a series of white boxes; from the almost domestic scale of the upper gallery, to the Turbine Hall that boasts a unique space of almost eleven meters in height.

© Åke E:son Lindman

Architects: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Location: Gasverksgatan 22, Malmö, Sweden
Responsible Architects: Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård
Project Architect: Mia Nygren
Collaborators: Carmen Izquierdo Làzaro (Façade Architect), Helene Amundsen, Susanna Bremberg, Andreas Helgesson, Eric Engström, Mårten Nettelbladt, Marcus Andrén, Dennis Suppers, Alina Scheutzow, Suzanne Prest, Julia Gudiel Urbano
Client: Stadsfastigheter i Malmö
Client: Moderna Museet
Contractor: NCC Construction
Project Area: 2,650 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman

A starting point was that a new art museum, a public and cultural building, represents a rare opportunity to create a new node within the city, the urban balance is changed and the neighborhood develops. In Malmö, in the south of Sweden, there was also the possibility to, starting from the industrial architecture of the former Electricity plant dating from the year 1900, create a new art museum with an informal and experimental character that would complement the main museum in Stockholm.

situation

plan 01

The greatest challenge posed by the project, (in addition to the demanding eighteen-month time limit from sketch-design to inauguration), was the need to adapt the existing industrial brick building to current climatic and security requirements to comply with the highest international standards for art exhibition spaces. It soon became clear that in reality what was needed was a building within a building, a contemporary addition within the existing shell. This radical reconstruction not only provided a challenge, but also gave the opportunity for something new.

Seen from the exterior a new extension marks the arrival of the new museum. The extension provides a new entrance and reception space, as well as a cafeteria and a new upper gallery. Its perforated orange façade both connects to the existing brick architecture and introduces a contemporary element to the neighbourhood. The perforated surface gives the façade a visual depth, and is animated through the dynamic shadow patterns which it creates. The ground floor is fully glazed so that sunlight is screened through the perforated façade.

© Åke E:son Lindman

In relation to its context, the new addition plays with scale. From a distance it is only intelligible in comparison to the adjacent houses, only on close proximity the building and details can be read in its own right. The elimination of the standard ‘middle-scale’ strengthens the museum’s presence in the immediate urban setting, at the same time as letting the building appear as a signal establishing a relationship with Malmö as a whole.

Inside, the building has been spatially reconstructed. Two new staircases allow the visitor to move in a loop between the grand turbine hall and the upper exhibition rooms. The staircases are each enclosed between two walls, which functions to divide the program of the turbine hall into three separate spaces, housing in addition to exhibition spaces a children’s studio and a separate loading area (in fact also used for exhibitions).

© Åke E:son Lindman

As in Kalmar Art Museum, we have been committed to providing exhibition spaces which allow artists and curators to tailor the conditions to each individual exhibition. Moderna museet Malmö (Malmö Museum of Art) offers a series of white boxes; from the almost domestic scale of the upper gallery, to the Turbine Hall that boasts a unique space of almost eleven meters in height.

© Nazy Alvarez

Architects: Dennis Gibbens Architects
Location: Venice, CA, USA
Senior Project Architect: Oren Dothan
Project Architect: Ryan Turner
Lighting Consultant: Lux Populi
Audiovisual Consultant: Audio Video Experience
Structural Engineer: Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers
Concrete Contractor: Creative Masonry
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Benny Chan, Nazy Alvarez, Ryan Turner

Abbot Kinney Boulevard is one of the main thoroughfares in the coastal neighborhood of Venice, a section of Los Angeles. The street contains a unique blend of restaurants, small boutiques, and one-of-a-kind retail establishments, along with single-family houses, apartments, and live-work spaces for artists-in-residence.

ground floor plan

second floor plan

third floor plan

This mixed-use project is situated in the middle of a stretch along the boulevard known for its many recent examples of architectural experimentation. The ground floor houses parking and a single retail tenant; the two upper floors contain a single-family residence. The public residential spaces are on the second floor surrounding a private courtyard. The third floor contains bedrooms and a large exterior dining and entertainment deck.

© Benny Chan

© Benny Chan

The entire shell of the building is constructed of board-formed poured-in-place concrete. Other exterior walls are glass or stucco – non-corrosive materials practical for their use near the ocean. The roughly textured surfaces of the concrete – both inside and out – contrast sharply with the smooth and highly refined finish materials, which include tile, stone, stainless steel, stained woods, and smooth terrazzo floors.

© Nazy Alvarez

Architects: Dennis Gibbens Architects
Location: Venice, CA, USA
Senior Project Architect: Oren Dothan
Project Architect: Ryan Turner
Lighting Consultant: Lux Populi
Audiovisual Consultant: Audio Video Experience
Structural Engineer: Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers
Concrete Contractor: Creative Masonry
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Benny Chan, Nazy Alvarez, Ryan Turner

Abbot Kinney Boulevard is one of the main thoroughfares in the coastal neighborhood of Venice, a section of Los Angeles. The street contains a unique blend of restaurants, small boutiques, and one-of-a-kind retail establishments, along with single-family houses, apartments, and live-work spaces for artists-in-residence.

ground floor plan

second floor plan

third floor plan

This mixed-use project is situated in the middle of a stretch along the boulevard known for its many recent examples of architectural experimentation. The ground floor houses parking and a single retail tenant; the two upper floors contain a single-family residence. The public residential spaces are on the second floor surrounding a private courtyard. The third floor contains bedrooms and a large exterior dining and entertainment deck.

© Benny Chan

© Benny Chan

The entire shell of the building is constructed of board-formed poured-in-place concrete. Other exterior walls are glass or stucco – non-corrosive materials practical for their use near the ocean. The roughly textured surfaces of the concrete – both inside and out – contrast sharply with the smooth and highly refined finish materials, which include tile, stone, stainless steel, stained woods, and smooth terrazzo floors.

© Eddie Jacob

Architects: Levitt Bernstein Associates
Location: Liverpool, England
Client: University of Liverpool Energy Company (ULEC)
Structural Engineering: Curtins Consulting
Main Contractor: Emcor Engineering Services Ltd
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Eddie Jacob

floor plan

The University of Liverpool’s new energy centre provides a novel response to the challenge of building a boiler house in a prominent location. It is situated a few yards from Levitt Bernstein’s first building completed for the university in 2008, the Victoria Gallery and Museum. The new building is located on the campus’s main pedestrian spine, on a small site within an area of attractive Victorian buildings, many designed by Alfred Waterhouse.

The project links two existing distribution networks to provide a more economical and energy-efficient installation incorporating a combined heat and power plant (CHP).

The new energy centre responds to its context, which is characterised by pitched roofs and an interesting, varied skyline, with a building of five bays reflecting the dimensions of the principal plant. Although the proportions of the building are designed to sit happily beside its older neighbours, the choice and form of materials are entirely novel.

© Eddie Jacob

The cladding was specially designed to allow ventilation through the facade at any point, avoiding the need to design in conventional louvres to suit each individual boiler’s requirements. The upper section is clad in removable diamond-patterned aluminium sheets, whose scale-like form continually changes character as it catches the light in ever-changing ways.

The project architect Damian Howkins said: ‘it was an unusual project for us and we have found an unusual solution. We are very pleased to have been able to improve this critical part of the campus.’

This project sees the construction of a new, central energy centre to serve the whole of the University of Liverpool’s campus. The design of the new building responds to its sensitive location, within the University’s historic core, and on the principal circulation spine linking the north and south campuses.

© Eddie Jacob

The incremental growth of the University had resulted in a system with two separate high temperature hot water systems, operating at different conditions, and leading to inefficiencies in the operation and management of the estate. One was based around a gas turbine–powered combined heat and power plant – the first such installation in a British university when installed in 1985 – and the second was a conventional boiler plant dating from 1966.

A single high temperature hot water system has been constructed, based around the two existing distribution networks. A first contract, undertaken in 2007, linked the two systems, and the second has created a new single energy centre, providing high temperature hot water to the whole campus, with some standby capacity to allow for one boiler to be unavailable for any reason during heating periods.

© Eddie Jacob

The site for the new energy centre was previously used for car parking, and is located adjacent to the Royal Liverpool Hospital buildings recently acquired by the university. It is therefore situated in a sensitive and historic part of the campus, surrounded by listed buildings between the Waterhouse-designed Victorian hospital and the historic core of the university.

The three hospital ward wings terminate with arched balconies facing Dover Street. The new building refers to this context, forming a fourth wing and third courtyard, and repairing the previously disjointed and unsatisfactory urban realm. Its glazed facade facing Dover Street responds to the inset arched balconies and provides tantalising glimpses of the massive boilers, pumps, ducts and valves within the energy centre.

detail

An unusual design solution was needed to satisfy the brief, programme and context of the project. The programme required a planning consent before the final choice of principal plant could be made. Only then would the precise size, maintenance and ventilation requirements of the gas engine and boilers be known. We therefore developed a cladding system which avoided the need for any conventional louvres or ventilation grilles, and which can be dismantled to provide access for maintenance and replacement.

The diamond-patterned aluminium cladding is profiled to permit ventilation at any point. Its scale, texture and colour respond to the historic context, which is characterised by a varied roofscape of pitched roofs and facades decorated by openings, string courses and cornices. Overall the new building sits easily beside its Victorian neighbours, without copying any of their materials or details. Depending on lighting conditions sections of glazing permit reflections of adjacent facades, or allow views into the energy centre.

© Eddie Jacob

The new energy centre includes a 4 million voltampere natural gas powered combined heat and power plant, comprising of 3×12Mw boilers and a 3.4Mw(e) gas engine.

Removal of redundant plant and alterations, adaptations and extensions of the buried High Temperature Hot Water (HTHW) system to link the south campus to the combined heat and power plant (CHP) have transformed the district heating mains network for the whole campus. High and low grade waste heat from power generation is recycled for domestic hot water and to improve the efficiency of heating buildings during peak demand.

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Client: Zollverein School
Location: Essen, Germany
Construction start: March 2005
Completed: July 2006
Project architect: Nicole Berganski
Associate architects: Böll & Krabel
Built area: 5.000sqm
Masterplan: Rem Koolhaas, OMA
Landscape: Agence Ter
Photos: Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

The Zollverein Design School is located between a historical coalmining factory and a sprawling suburb. The building is a 35 meter cube, which, at the scale of the large neighboring factory buildings, stands in strong contrast to the finer suburban texture. Its intense presence announces the former factory grounds.

© Iwan Baan

Given traditional standards, the building volume might be perceived as too large for its program, an approach which not only has an urban impact, but is also a response to the building’s program. We felt that exceptional ceiling heights were appropriate for the educational spaces, particularly for the studio level that occupies an entire slab of the structure. This undivided production floor is an unusually lofty and fully flexible space, which is enclosed only by external structural walls. These walls, punctured by numerous apertures, filter the light and view from the surrounding factory landscape, softening the transition between exterior and interior.

© Iwan Baan

Section

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Client: Zollverein School
Location: Essen, Germany
Construction start: March 2005
Completed: July 2006
Project architect: Nicole Berganski
Associate architects: Böll & Krabel
Built area: 5.000sqm
Masterplan: Rem Koolhaas, OMA
Landscape: Agence Ter
Photos: Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

The Zollverein Design School is located between a historical coalmining factory and a sprawling suburb. The building is a 35 meter cube, which, at the scale of the large neighboring factory buildings, stands in strong contrast to the finer suburban texture. Its intense presence announces the former factory grounds.

© Iwan Baan

Given traditional standards, the building volume might be perceived as too large for its program, an approach which not only has an urban impact, but is also a response to the building’s program. We felt that exceptional ceiling heights were appropriate for the educational spaces, particularly for the studio level that occupies an entire slab of the structure. This undivided production floor is an unusually lofty and fully flexible space, which is enclosed only by external structural walls. These walls, punctured by numerous apertures, filter the light and view from the surrounding factory landscape, softening the transition between exterior and interior.

© Iwan Baan

Section

© Manuel Correia

Architects: GRAU.ZERO
Location: Santo Tirso, Porto, Portugal
Structural Engineers: Ricardo Mendes, Eng.
Project Architect: Sérgio Nobre
Design Team: Gustavo Custódio
Gross internal floor area: 240 sqm
Design Year: 2004-2006
Construction Year: 2006-2008
Photographs: Manuel Correia

With the use of maxima deployment allowed by ground in its vertical projection, resulted the volume of the building.

The idea was blend a sculpture image with architectural needs, making them ambiguous, was the proposal made to the owner, as a work premise.

ground floor plan

section CC

We used a 10 ° flexion in two volumes, in order to maintain among themselves a common language. The application of bending, runs one of the volumes in its horizontal axis, and the other in its vertical axis. This gesture created a distant positioning to a formal level between the two block, allowing however have several readings volumes. These large volumes almost blind, provides you a very strong image.

© Manuel Correia

© Manuel Correia

Between the “bodies” happens the entry, where highlights, through a sectioning of the volume on the horizontal axis.

The organization of space, starts in the north wing of the house, a relationship between the house and an existing elementary school. Sought to break with some of the architectural forms of identification, especially outside windows that were used in the smallest possible number. Lighting/ventilation of rooms happens from individual small patios.

© Manuel Correia

Architects: GRAU.ZERO
Location: Santo Tirso, Porto, Portugal
Structural Engineers: Ricardo Mendes, Eng.
Project Architect: Sérgio Nobre
Design Team: Gustavo Custódio
Gross internal floor area: 240 sqm
Design Year: 2004-2006
Construction Year: 2006-2008
Photographs: Manuel Correia

With the use of maxima deployment allowed by ground in its vertical projection, resulted the volume of the building.

The idea was blend a sculpture image with architectural needs, making them ambiguous, was the proposal made to the owner, as a work premise.

ground floor plan

section CC

We used a 10 ° flexion in two volumes, in order to maintain among themselves a common language. The application of bending, runs one of the volumes in its horizontal axis, and the other in its vertical axis. This gesture created a distant positioning to a formal level between the two block, allowing however have several readings volumes. These large volumes almost blind, provides you a very strong image.

© Manuel Correia

© Manuel Correia

Between the “bodies” happens the entry, where highlights, through a sectioning of the volume on the horizontal axis.

The organization of space, starts in the north wing of the house, a relationship between the house and an existing elementary school. Sought to break with some of the architectural forms of identification, especially outside windows that were used in the smallest possible number. Lighting/ventilation of rooms happens from individual small patios.

© Manuel Correia

Architects: GRAU.ZERO
Location: Santo Tirso, Porto, Portugal
Structural Engineers: Ricardo Mendes, Eng.
Project Architect: Sérgio Nobre
Design Team: Gustavo Custódio
Gross internal floor area: 240 sqm
Design Year: 2004-2006
Construction Year: 2006-2008
Photographs: Manuel Correia

With the use of maxima deployment allowed by ground in its vertical projection, resulted the volume of the building.

The idea was blend a sculpture image with architectural needs, making them ambiguous, was the proposal made to the owner, as a work premise.

ground floor plan

section CC

We used a 10 ° flexion in two volumes, in order to maintain among themselves a common language. The application of bending, runs one of the volumes in its horizontal axis, and the other in its vertical axis. This gesture created a distant positioning to a formal level between the two block, allowing however have several readings volumes. These large volumes almost blind, provides you a very strong image.

© Manuel Correia

© Manuel Correia

Between the “bodies” happens the entry, where highlights, through a sectioning of the volume on the horizontal axis.

The organization of space, starts in the north wing of the house, a relationship between the house and an existing elementary school. Sought to break with some of the architectural forms of identification, especially outside windows that were used in the smallest possible number. Lighting/ventilation of rooms happens from individual small patios.