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- © Stéphane Chalmeau
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- © Stéphane Chalmeau
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Zagrad Center / Randić & Turato
Architects: Randić & Turato / Saša Randić and Idis Turato
Location: Rijeka, Croatia
Collaborators: Leora Drazul, Ana Stanicic, Sinisa Glusica, Iva Cuzela (Technical Architects)
Contractor: Dragan Ribaric
Client: Austrograd d.o.o. Rijeka
Project Area: 18,000 sqm
Construction date: 2007
Photographs: Robert Leš
Zagrad project is located in the center of Rijeka. Project is located on top of the underground garage with 900 parking places and a future city train station.
The mixed-use program of 18,000 sqm consists of retail and office spaces and in third of housing. Center is divided in 6 separate office buildings, each with a different façade, on top of which is laid a continuous structure of apartments. Seen as the most stable element of the program, apartments are designed as individual two-storey houses accessed from the roof terrace with gardens.
Project is characteristic for the modern dynamics, where it is increasingly difficult for one office to control the whole process of construction. The plan was made by one office, the garage has been designed by another one, then the third has designed the access road and the train station, Randić-Turato was responsible for the main part, the mixed used program, and in the course of construction other offices have been defining different interior parts of the building for their clients.
south elevation
Secondly, the project proves that architecture is too slow. During the construction there has been a series of modification due to the change of final users. The project has been constantly confronted with the situation where it followed-up new requests.
Such context is typical for the commercial projects, that redefines traditional client-architect relationship. Client being a developer is no longer the final user and the whole project is normally financed by another party. Usually, there is also an intermediary between them, a project manager, who is increasingly taking over the position previously controlled by the architect.
Nature of the project also influences the design method, that must count on the project dynamics as the most certain element of the program. The façades are deliberately disengaged from the inner structure, which never seemed to stop changing, while the apartments, following the logic of a self-generating structure have been able to absorb new staircases, galleries and numerous partitions. In such context the project must be able to accommodate imperfection. To put it in simple terms, if Keith Richards stumbles on the stage, it is a normal part of performance, if the same thing happens to David Bowie, it is a total disaster. The benefit of imperfection.
Punggol Waterfront Master Plan & Housing Design Program
Argentinian architects B4FS shared with us their proposal in the Punggol Waterfront International Housing Design competition in Singapore, which was shortlisted and awarded a Merit Prize (second prize ex aequo).
The two-stage design competition was launched in December 2008 to generate fresh, innovative and new design ideas for high-rise public housing along the waterway. Participating firms were required to incorporate new sustainable development concepts and features to realise the theme “Green Living by the Waters”.
The first stage required participating firms to propose urban and new architectural concepts for the housing district. The top five firms were then short-listed for Stage Two, where they further developed their design concepts proposed in Stage One into a more thorough and implementable architectural design that included landscaping and other detailing.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
MASTER PLAN / URBAN DESIGN
The dramatic increase of world population has a clear manifestation in the urban environment, either by extending the endless urban sprawl or by increasing density in the existing urban areas.
Considering these two possibilities, the process of densification is, without any doubt, the most sustainable alternative of urban growth. This statement can be argued for in terms of land and water resources management, energy and food crops production, pollution control, climatic amelioration, and increased porosity of land cover.
The rationality of the densification process, at the regional scale, is even stronger in countries with reduced territories. However, such density creates serious problems and challenges at the urban scale. The overwhelming presence of construction gives cities a sense of supra-human space of unmanageable size, together with a dramatic reduction of the open recreational space, with examples of levels less than 5% in cities such as Tokyo.
The first objective of the proposed design is to extend the recreational space from the promenade into the area assigned to housing, leaving most of the ground floor unoccupied and free for sport, cultural, and social activities, all occupying a minimum indispensable area. The extension of the recreational space from the promenade, through the project, reaches the south side of the site, and incorporates a school, a church, and a sports activities area.
The project includes the landscape into its own logic, interlocking buildings and open spaces fluid and seamlessly in a continuity of fluxes of movements, activities and views that connect the surrounding city with the new park and the water.
The buildings propose a three directional structure composed of towers and bridges, articulated in a way that gives a sense of totality as well as allowing the readability of each part. The buildings surround a network of open 31m x 40m patios, connected to each other through big portals. These patios conform a chain of gardens lushly vegetated with native trees and bushes at ground level complemented with roof top gardens at higher levels.
The whole project is organized in two sectors in correspondence with the two parcels. The two areas are articulated with a boulevard that materializes the north/ south connection. The connection east/west from the Punggol Walk to the Punggol Way through the “patios” incorporates a pergola for pedestrian movement. This connection also includes a continuous service driveway shaped by a permeable floor for vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks, as well as for the refuse collection vehicles.
Both ground level and buildings terrace face down to the waterway. The building’s volumes vary, with maximum allowed heights at the external limit of the site, and descend as a cascade towards the waterway. This strategy provides the promenade’s public space with a sense of openness, complemented with views of the building’s roof gardens that terrace down to the river.
The terrace solution applied to the buildings is also incorporated to the design of the waterway promenade. The proposal includes one level of activities complementary to the housing program, such as child care centre, communal use spaces, etc., and a lower terrace at water level with boat houses, cafes, etc.
Every building incorporates an area designated for communal activities, in a contiguous space to the entrance hall, for celebrations, funerals, communal meetings, etc. Each area could be open or defined by a metal mesh screen that encloses the space allowing cross ventilation.
HOUSE DESIGN SCHEME
Each housing unit is related visually to both the system of courtyard gardens and the waterway’s linear park. This condition gives the apartment and its owners the sense of being part of a greater metropolitan landscape and at the same time, the fact of being strongly rooted to its own specific courtyard, with its local scale.
The unit’s design was based on the idea of flexibility considering the contemporary condition of dynamism and constant change. In order to obtain the maximum flexibility desired, the bearing structure of the building was located within the external skin. This exo-structure frees the interior plan of any element that could limit alternative interior organizations. Devoid of structural interior elements, each apartment is configured with movable partitions, whose positions could easily be altered. All the “wet” areas such as bathrooms and kitchen are then concentrated at specific point of the floor plan.
The proposal adequately articulates the public and the private, the buildings and the landscape, and the local with the metropolitan. This project is configured with a contemporary language, complex in its forms, but extremely rational in genesis and its technical solution, demonstrating that the high density required can be reached with a strong identity and a livable solution. It is a project for the future Singapore.
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World Village of Women Sports / BIG
BIG, in collaboration with AKT, Tyréns and Transsolar, just won the competition for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmo, Sweden, a 100.000sqm complex for research, education and training of women’s sports.
Rather than a program organized around a sports arena disconnected from the city, the project becomes a town inside a town, offering rich public spaces as you can see on the renderings.
The central space of the village offers a large area for public gathering, which can host professional football matches, concerts, conferences, exhibitions and flea markets. Around this space we find a series of sloped buildings, which reduce the visual impact of the complex to the adjacent neighborhood.
Between these buildings we find a pedestrian network around the main sports hall which plugs into the surrounding street networks as well as the interior galleries of Kronprinsen, turning it into a complete ecosystem of urban life.
More images and drawings after the break.
PROJECT: WVOWS
TYPE: Invited Competition
CLIENT: H-Hagen Fastighets AB
COLLABORATORS: AKT, Tyréns, Transsolar
SIZE: 100.000 M2
LOCATION: Malmo, Sweden
STATUS: 1st Prize
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Nanna Gyldholm Moller
Team: Gabrielle Nadeau, Daniel Sundlin, Jonas Barre, Nicklas Antoni Rasch, Jin Kyung Park, Fan Zhang, Steve Huang, Flavien Menu, Ken Aoki
Evergreen La Florida / ROW Studio
ROW Studio designed a new luxury apartment complex in a heavily wooded area in southern Mexico City. The buildings are placed around the existing trees and all facades are covered with plants to conceal the structures. This strategy gives the interiors “the sensation of living in the treetops”. Parking and service areas are located below the buildings to maximize the porosity of the soil and to avoid any visual obstruction on the ground level. There is a visual continuous garden, from the entry of the complex to the back of the site, as greenery flows from the ground level, up the facades of the buildings and into the surroundings. The ground level apartments are protected with a “land fold” of bushes for privacy which also screen their private patio. Wooden rooftop decks provide great areas for gatherings, meals, parties or to just simply enjoy garden views.
More images after the break.
Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition / First Prize for Aboutblank
We shared Aboutblank‘s honorable mention housing project for the Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition earlier, yet the firm was also awarded first prize for their second design scheme. Aboutblank created “a non-centralized rhizomatic urban tissue” that promotes interaction between users by providing large green areas running the length of the building complex.
More about the housing project after the break.
The housing complex is comprised of single modules that seem to slide back and forth randomly. The module provides individualized spaces and creates economical construction methods.
The structure’s wooden sections jut past the main frame of the building, creating a textured facade of green gardens. In addition to these more private gardens, a large communal rooftop area provides a quiet atmosphere for users while great lawns allow community interaction at the street level.
Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition / Honorable Mention for Aboutblank
Turkey based Aboutblank Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their housing project for the Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition. The young firm focuses on urban design approaches, while working on a multidisciplinary level.
More about the housing project after the break.
Aboutblank Architects utilized the principles of folding to create an urban pattern. The horizontal rows of buildings were conceived as strips of paper that, when folded in strategic locations, created a series of connected buildings varying in height. Since the folding defines the heights of the buildings, the lower buildings allow sunlight to reach the garden spaces that are interwoven between the housing components. These green areas form a shared atmosphere users can enjoy together while the fold at the ground level “connects the ground with different heights and carries the green to vertical counterparts.”
ZAC bords de seine / ECDM Architects
ECDM Architects recently designed another housing project (we just shared their Student Housing Project earlier on AD) in the Issy les moulineaux, France. Entitled ZAC bords de seine the project features retail and mixed service areas in addition to several gardens that create “an intelligent living space that turns to its surrounding environment and weather elements for assistance.”
More about the project after the break.
This housing project, which is seen as an “island”, is comprised of eight components that are positioned into plots allowing maximum sunlight to enter the apartments. Lush foliage creates a rooftop garden while occupants can plant their own gardens on their suspended terraces which will bring an overall “garden theme” to the complex.
The structure collects rainwater that is stored for later irrigation purposes. Trees not on embellish the exterior landscape, but are also planted inside through large circular skylights to provide sunlight and create a dynamic atmosphere. Even the parking lot design incorporates foliage through circular skylights in an effort to push the garden theme.
Jönköping-Västra Kajen / Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter
Our friends from Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter sent us their latest project, a first prize in an invited housing competition in Sweden.
You can see some more images and drawings after the break.
Two six storey housing blocks located on the quayside in central Jönköping, Sweden. The facade, a wooden trellis, has been perforated with large openings which dissolves the scale.
The concept is to create attractive housing on one of the best sites in Jönköping, with a low energy, ecological perspective as the starting point.
All the apartments are built around a large vertical illuminated stairwell. Most of the apartments are located in the corners, providing good light and view opportunities.
An outer layer of terraces provide all apartments with outdoor spaces. By shifting the terraces every second storey, double-height spaces are created. A grid of wooden trellis diffuses the light and creates a buffer zone between inside and outside.
Credits
Architects: Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter
Responsible architects: Martin Videgård Hansson and Bolle Tham
Collaborator: Eric Engström, Mårten Nettelbladt, Helene Amundsen, Karolina Nyström, Marcus Andrén, Andreas Helgesson, Dennis Suppers, Anton Alvarez
Client: Vätterhem and Riksbyggen
