Architecture Archives - Page 20 of 66 - Zarkon Group Real Estate Builders & Developers

Architecture

Productora converts Mexico City textile factory into artist spaces

By Zarkon Group,06/10/2023

Mexican architecture studio Productora has restored a concrete industrial complex in Mexico City into a series of studios including its own office.

Productora has been gradually renovating the building, which was originally a textile factory built in the 1920s, since it moved its offices to the structure following an earthquake in 2017.

The studio originally took up residence in an empty “nave” in the factory in Mexico City’s Doctores neighbourhood along a furniture company.

Since then, the studio has been “slowly rebuilding the complex while inhabiting it” and more than twenty other companies have moved into the complex, which is now called Laguna,

Concrete and green trim in Mexico City — New buildings were added to the cleared courtyards in the middle of the complex

For the renovation, the studio focused on the interior of the complex while leaving the street-facing, painted-concrete exterior, generally untouched so that one might not know the complex is there at all.

The complex is now orientated around two courtyards that were cleared of existing structures to create new circulation and gathering areas.

Green metal screen with concrete breeze blocks — The site was once a textile factory

Within these courtyard spaces, a mix of newly built concrete workshops and the renovation of existing brick-and-mortar and concrete buildings will continue to take place over the next several years. The studio said it hopes that the project will be one of “constant adaptation and transformation”.

Now, the most significant aspects of the renovation have been the cleared courtyards and added buildings, as well as expressive walkways and a new freight elevator that towers above the site.

Green detailing was chosen because it was prominent in the trim of the windows and roof on the facade of the original structure, and these green details continue along the causeways and in the gridded window frames.

People on benches in Mexico City art space — Gathering spaces have been included in the courtyards. Photo by Camila Cossio

Social spaces have been installed in the courtyards so that members of the various companies can gather.

In the future, Productora plans to build wooden workshops on top of the preexisting structure to create flexible and modular extensions to the current program.

Jozz Gómez, a coordinator for Laguna, said that the presence of the complex has also positively changed the environment around the complex.

“It started to bring more employment, but also changed the neighbourhood,” she told Dezeen.

“It was known to be a very dangerous neighbourhood, but after the project started, you can see foreigners, students, and young people walking around the streets.”

Office spaces in industrial spaces — It holds office space for creative studios. Photo by Camila Cossio.

Productora was founded in 2006 and has additional offices in Brooklyn. Recent projects include a hotel in San Miguel de Allende clad in red and green tile as well as a bright-blue cohousing project in Denver, Colorado, USA.

The photography is by Pablo Manjarrez. Top photo by Camila Cossio.

Reference

Architecture

What’s So Luxurious About Luxury Vinyl Tile, Part III: The Poison Plastic and Why “Recycling Will Not Save Us”

By Zarkon Group,05/10/2023

This article was written by Burgess Brown. Healthy Materials Lab is a design research lab at Parsons School of Design with a mission to place health at the center of every design decision. HML is changing the future of the built environment by creating resources for designers, architects, teachers, and students to make healthier places for all people to live. Check out their podcast, Trace Material.

Between 1950 and 2019, more than 7,000 million metric tons of plastic waste were generated. We add roughly 400 million metric tons to that figure every year. If your eyes glazed over while reading these frankly incomprehensible numbers, just know that our plastic waste problem is out of control. Recycling, the solution long promoted by the plastics industry as a panacea, is deeply flawed at best and entirely unfeasible at worst.

So, if recycling as we know it won’t save us, what do we do with the mounds of plastic clogging our waterways and landfills? Even if we could recycle plastics effectively at scale, does it make sense to recycle a toxic plastic like Luxury Vinyl Tile?

This article is Part III of a three-part series on the hazards of vinyl flooring.

Part I explores the “dirty climate secret” behind the popular material and shares some healthier, affordable alternatives.
Part II considers the long history of worker endangerment by the vinyl industry and how this legacy continues in China today.
Part III, this article, explores the dark side of recycling.

The Guilt Eraser

Municipal Solid Waste – Worker in recycling facility, The U.S. National Archives, Library of Environmental Images, (ORD), image via GetArchive

As early as the 1970s, plastics industry officials warned that effective recycling of plastic wasn’t feasible. One said in a 1974 speech that “there is serious doubt that [recycling plastic] can ever be made viable on an economic basis.” And yet, the plastics industry forged ahead with its recycling messaging. Plastic’s enemy number one was the guilt people felt about the wastefulness of single use products. So even if the industry wasn’t actually recycling or protecting the environment, they needed consumers to think that they were.

One industry lobbyist called recycling the great “guilt-eraser”. “Recycling assures people that plastic isn’t just an infernal hanger-on; it has a useful afterlife. As soon as they recycle your product,” he explained, “they feel better about it.”

Throughout the ‘90s, as environmental pushback mounted, the plastics industry fought back. Recycling was their most important message, so they spread it far and wide. The industry spent over $250 million on public campaigns about the usefulness of plastic and its ability to be reused. They wanted people to feel safe and comfortable with their products. They also invested millions in recycling efforts, but those efforts have come up dramatically short. In 2021, the U.S. (by far the world’s biggest plastics polluter) only recycled around 5% of plastics.

We spoke to Kara Napolitano who is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Sims Municipal Recycling Center in Brooklyn, New York for an episode of our podcast, Trace Material. We cover the sordid history of plastics recycling and its uncertain future. Kara, who lives and breathes recycling, had this to say about how we should set our plastics priorities:

“My job is to teach people about recycling. But I have to bring attention to the fact that recycling is only halfway up that waste hierarchy of preferred methods for managing our waste. Recycling is not number one. Recycling will not save us. At the very top of that waste hierarchy — the most preferred thing to do to manage your waste — is to not create any waste in the first place.”

Kara reminded us that the well known waste management hierarchy goes: “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” If we are to reverse the course of our plastics crisis, we must focus our efforts on drastically reducing production and consumption of plastic all together.

The Poison Plastic

Image generated by Architizer using Midjourney

There are lots of questions that need answering about the future of recycling. While there is consensus that we should focus on reducing plastics production, there are debates raging about what to do with the mounds of plastic we’ve already created. There is, however, no question about PVC’s place in that future. From a health standpoint, PVC has no place in a circular plastics economy.

That’s because PVC is toxic at every stage of its life cycle. The building block of PVC, vinyl chloride, is a known human carcinogen. Then there are performance additives: plasticizers to make PVC flexible can disrupt the body’s endocrine system and heavy metals used to make it rigid are toxic too. These toxic chemicals are in the millions of homes across the country that utilize the number one flooring choice in the US: Luxury Vinyl Tile. And, these dangerous chemicals don’t magically disappear if PVC is recycled. When companies advertise recycled LVT or tout its ability to enter the circular economy, ask yourself: Would I paint my house with recycled lead paint?

Problematic and Unnecessary

The U.S. Plastics Pact is a group of “stakeholders across the plastics value chain” that are trying to create a circular economy for plastics in the United States. To be clear, this group is certainly not anti-plastics nor anti-recycling. Yet, they have labeled PVC plastic to be a “problematic and unnecessary” material and are working to eliminate it from all packaging by 2025. This is because PVC is “not currently reusable, recyclable or compostable with existing U.S. infrastructure at scale” and “contains hazardous chemicals or creates hazardous conditions that pose a significant risk to human health or the environment (applying the precautionary principle) during its manufacturing, recycling (whether mechanical or chemical), or composting process.”

PVC is incredibly difficult to recycle and it interferes with the recyclability of other plastics too. Even if recycling PVC at scale could be figured out, its carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals remain. These chemicals pose a threat to residents in the use phase and again to humans and the planet at disposal. The vast majority of PVC ends up in landfills and incinerators. When PVC is burned, a host of toxic chemicals, including dioxins, are released into the air, soil and water. While there may be hope for a future where some plastics are able to be effectively recycled at scale, PVC should not and will not be a part of that future.

Rethink, Redesign, Reform

We should continue to support innovations in plastics recycling. Exciting progress is being made in the field of biological recycling, which uses enzymes from bacteria, fungi and insects to break plastics down into their component parts. This allows for theoretically infinite recycling of plastics that could have a smaller carbon footprint than making virgin plastics.

What we should not do is continue to use recycling as a guilt eraser. No innovations in recycling can justify the continued production of materials as toxic as PVC, and therefore LVT. The most effective thing that we as designers and architects can do to protect humans and our planet, is stop specifying plastics (especially PVC) wherever possible. In part one of this series we shared a list of healthy, affordable alternatives to vinyl flooring. You can find other thoroughly vetted flooring options in our materials collection on the Healthy Materials Lab website.

We’ll leave you with a re-imagining of the waste management hierarchy (“reduce, reuse, recycle”) mentioned earlier from Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences and friend of Healthy Materials Lab, Pete Myers:

Re-Think

Many applications of plastics are non-essential. Serious efforts should be made to identify the essential uses of plastics vs. non-essential.

Redesign

Chemists should be given the challenge of creating safer materials to use when the services of plastic are required.

Reform

The regulatory system needs to be reformed by incorporating 21st century biomedical science in its assessments of safety.

As architects and designers our charge as pivotal members of the design and construction industry is to re-think the design decision making process that has been “business as usual” for the last several decades. If we put the health of our bodies, the planet, and all those living there at the center of our design decisions, the way we build will radically change. That thinking has to extend to the entire lifecycle of the materials we use.

If we consider their impact from the time they leave the earth to the time they are returned to the earth, we will have no choice but to re-design our systems of production. These shifts in thinking will leave no place for toxic plastics or any other toxics in our work. Centering human and ecosystem health in design and construction will positively change the future for everyone.

Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.

Reference

Architecture

kengo kuma’s ‘kiki’s museum of literature’ soon to open in tokyo

By Zarkon Group,04/10/202304/10/2023

UPDATE: Kengo Kuma has announced that its Edogawa City Eiko Kadono Museum of Children’s Literature, also known as the ‘Kiki’s Museum of Literature,’ will open to the public on November 3rd, 2023. New images have been captured of the village-like structure and its playful interiors as it nears completion.

kengo kuma unveils ‘kiki’s museum of literature’

In honor of author Eiko Kadono, Kengo Kuma and Associates designs a hilltop museum for children‘s literature. Defined by its playful geometries finished in pink and white, the museum overlooks Nagisa Park in Edogawa City, Tokyo. The design team expects the building to open by the summer of 2023, at which point visitors in Japan across all ages will be invited to experience the world of Eiko Kadono, who famously authored ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service,’ a story which, in 1989, inspired Studio Ghibli’s film adaptation directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

images courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates © Kiki’s Museum of Literature

inspired by the worlds of eiko kadono

Kengo Kuma and Associates draws influence from the fictional works of Eiko Kadono in the design of the children’s literature museum in Edogawa City. The architecture of the new cultural space will echo the atmosphere of the fictional town illustrated in the author’s best-selling novel. The design team explains: ‘We thought the architecture would be designed starting with small units, like the little houses that often appear in the stories of Kadono.’ These small boxes will follow the gentle slope of the hill, and will be enclosed with wide, projecting roofs that lightly reach outward ‘like blooming flowers.’ Follow the development of the project on the museum’s official Instagram.

clustered boxes will echo the fictional town illustrated in Eiko Kadono’s Kiki’s Delivery Service
the museum is designed in honor of author Eiko Kadono
a third floor café overlooks the Old Edogawa River

Reference

Building with historical brick facade wrapping new glass building

Architecture

PAU places glass structure in shell of Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar refinery

By Zarkon Group,03/10/2023

Local architecture studio Practice for Architecture and Urbanism has installed a glass office building with a vaulted roof inside the shell of the 19th-century Domino Sugar Refinery on the waterfront in Brooklyn.

Called the Refinery, the 12-storey building is the conversion of an industrial factory into a contemporary office, reflecting how the borough’s architectural needs have shifted.

The structure is the centrepiece of the redevelopment of the Domino Sugar Refinery site, developed by Two Trees Management with a master plan by SHoP Architects and Field Operations.

For the Refinery, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) wanted to create a functioning office space that kept the facade of the Romanesque Revival structure.

Park with restored Domino Refinery in background — The structure is part of the larger Domino Sugar redevelopment in Brooklyn

“We’re not shortchanging today for some nostalgia,” PAU principal Ruchika Modi told Dezeen.

“What was really important was this idea of palimpsest and embracing what was on the site without becoming slavish to history.”

Vaulted glass ceiling on Domino Sugar Refinery — The office structure is topped with a large glass vault

Because of the floor configuration, the original building could not simply be adapted.

The floorplan was industrial with large cavernous spaces inside, so the studio opted for keeping the historic building’s facade intact while putting a whole new building inside of it.

View from gap between the brick and glass walls — Beams attach the old facade to the new curtain walls

“It’s not a conventional adaptive reuse project in the sense of going into a warehouse building and adapting it,” Modi continued.

“There was no building to adapt. And if we were to just go in and fill in the missing floors, it would lead to a really weird, idiosyncratic, completely bizarre, you know, interior configuration.”

Trees in gap between brick and glass — Planters in the gap hold trees

Instead, the new glass building sits back from the preexisting masonry and is anchored to it with metal beams that connect to the new building’s curtain walls.

This gap allows for light to filter in through the windows and creates space for a “vertical garden” between the brick wall and the curtain walls.

Architectural details such as a large smokestack from the original structure were preserved on the facade.

Office within Domino Sugar refinery building — The gap allows for the offices to have more natural light

The studio also used some of the original structural detailing to guide the new structure, such as a cantilevered glass overlook that juts out from the gap in the facade where an industrial chute once sat and has views of the Field Operations-designed parks on the site.

The new structure consists of 460,000 square feet (42,735 square metres) of offices with floor plans that differ depending on needs and a vast penthouse that sits directly underneath the glazed vaulted roof.

From the offices, inhabitants can catch views of the Manhattan skyline across the East River or of the urban environment of the Williamsburg neighbourhood in Brooklyn.

According to the studio, the building also runs on all-electric power.

View from vaulted glass ceiling — The building sits on the East River across from Manhattan

On the ground floor is a triple-height atrium lobby with amenities spaces and retail. A replica LED sign displaying the Domino Sugar logo brand was hung from the river-facing facade.

The structure sits between two larger structures, a pair of linked skyscrapers by CookFox Architects and two in-progress skyscrapers clad in porcelain by Selldorf Architects.

Domino Sugar sign — A replica sign was installed on the exterior

The Refinery had been in operation for 120 years when it closed in 2004. The site was bought by Two Trees Management in 2012.

A six-acre park by Field Operations holds the space between the developments and the East River and has become a popular park for the local public.

Since being commissioned for the Refinery, PAU has landed a commission, along with HOK, to redevelop the beleaguered Penn Station in Manhattan.

The photography is by Max Touhey.

Reference

Architecture

Warming Up: Florida’s New Wave of Breezy and Resilient Architecture

By Zarkon Group,02/10/2023

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

Migration has long transformed Florida’s landscapes and architecture. In the last two years alone, more than 600,000 new residents came from other parts of the United States, and 175,000 people from other countries. Without this influx, Florida would not be growing. This mix of new people, cultures and ideas has continuously shaped design in cities across the state.

As an evolution of Florida’s vernacular structures, this new architecture is also a response to the state’s humid, subtropical climate. From early chickee (homes) by Seminole tribes to St. Augustine’s Gilded Age buildings to the present, architects have continued designing in respond to local conditions and aesthetic traditions. Increasingly, new civic and cultural buildings pay careful attention to the building envelope, materials and ventilation. Designed to make an impact, the following projects represent this wave of iconic architecture found across the Sunshine State.

L. Gale Lemerand Student Center | Daytona State College

By ikon.5 architects, Daytona Beach, FL, United States

ikon.5 designed the 74,000-square-foot L. Gale Lemerand Student Center at Daytona State College as a landmark on the Floridian shoreline. In their own words, the project “establishes an iconic presence to the campus” along the main arterial road connecting Daytona beach with the rest of Florida. The team’s approach takes the form of a curving stone and bronze wall with two outreached arms forming a welcome lawn at the campus entry.

As the team notes, rising from the center of the wall is a bronze portal framing the opening to the student center and giving passage to the main quadrangle and campus beyond. Internally, a three-story commons overlooks the quadrangle and serves as the campus living room. Custom bronze perforated solar screens help limit glare, while a ventilated bronze rain screen reduces heat gain in the harsh Florida sun.

Florida Polytechnic University

By Santiago Calatrava, Lakeland, FL, United States

Designed at the intersection of engineering and architecture, this project creates a continuous canopy around the structure. Calatrava’s first building at Florida Polytechnic University, it was also named best in steel construction by AISC. The 160,000-square-foot (14,865-square-meter) IST Building opened as part of an institution hoping to give “physical representation to man’s highest aspirations.” The campus was being developed with the IST as its starting point.

Calatrava stated that the “building will be an iconic symbol of the university; visible from Interstate 4 and Polk Parkway, as well as from the campus entry, which is located south of the central lake.” For the masterplan, an elliptical vehicular ring road, lined by tall palms, segregates vehicular traffic from the core of the campus. Administrative, academic, residential and other support facilities are placed within a grid around the central lake and complete the campus core.

Florida International University School of International and Public Affairs

By Arquitectonica, Miami, FL, United States

Arquitectonica’s approach at Florida International University was to create a mixed-use building that brings people together. The 57,085-square-foot (5,300-square-meter) structure includes classroom, office and auditorium programming on the edge of a lake on the university campus. Formally, the exterior walls of the five-story post tension concrete building are of sand-blasted precast concrete, and the structure also includes an extensive green roof.

The auditorium acts as a focal point of the building. Its presence and function are evident from the exterior, as the large angular cantilevered form projects upward and outward from the lobby. The angles of the auditorium’s exterior follow the lines of the seating inside. The five-story tower opposite the auditorium has two large classrooms at the ground floor, with terrace access. Above are classrooms of various sizes, graduate study suites and language labs.

Perez Art Museum Miami

By ArquitectonicaGEO and Herzog & de Meuron, Miami, FL, United States

The PAMM building was designed by Herzog & de Meuron to express the raw material of concrete in its many forms. Due to its proximity to the water, the museum was lifted off the ground for the art to be placed above storm surge level. The team then used the space underneath the building for open-air parking, exposed to light and fresh air that can also handle storm-water runoff.

In contrast, the native plants been chosen by ArquitectonicaGEO display the raw materials of the landscape as complement and contrast to the geometric architecture of the building. The original project concept of formal hanging gardens was expanded to include the use of native plant material, in conjunction with systems to capture rain water. Rather than being an isolated “jewel box” for art lovers and specialists, the museum provides comfortable public space.

Mori Hosseini Student Union | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

By ikon.5 architects, Daytona Beach, FL, United States

The student union building at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is an expression of its mission to teach the science, practice and business of aviation and aerospace. Located at the front door to the campus, the building’s gently soaring form expressing flight was designed to form an iconic identity for the University and embody the student values of fearlessness, adventure and discovery.

Internally, the 177,000-square-foot (16,445-square-meter) student union building is an aeronautical athenaeum combining social learning spaces, events, dining and the university library. A soaring, triple height commons anchors and integrates the collaborative social and learning interiors. Wrapping this space and open to it are lounges, dining venues, group study rooms, clubs and organizations, career services and the university library as well as an event center, creating a “city within a city.”

The Center for Asian Art at the Ringling Museum of Art

By Machado Silvetti, Sarasota, FL, United States

This iconic structure is a renovation and addition to a historic museum at Florida State University Sarasota. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art features both a permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Now governed by Florida State University, the Museum establishes the Ringling Estate as one of the largest museum-university complexes in the United States. The Asian Art Study Center is an addition and ‘gut renovation’ and to the West Wing galleries on the southwest corner of the Museum complex.

Connecting and making its own statement, the renovation converts approximately 18,000 square-feet (1,675-square-meter) of existing gallery space from temporary exhibition space to permanent galleries for the museum’s growing Asian collection. A 7,500 square-foot (695-square-foot) addition houses new gallery space and a multi-purpose lecture hall. The addition’s façade is composed of deep-green, glazed terra cotta tiles that address the client’s requirement of a new monumental entrance.

Brillhart House

By Brillhart Architecture, Miami, FL, United States

Designed for the architects themselves, this elevated, 1,500-square-foot (140-square-meter) house provides a tropical refuge in the heart of Downtown Miami. The house includes 100 feet of uninterrupted glass spanning the full length of both the front and rear façades, with four sets of sliding glass doors that allow the house to be entirely open when desired. Also included is 800 square feet (75 square meters) of outdoor living space, with front and back porches and exterior shuttered doors for added privacy and protection against the elements.

As Brillhart outlines, each design decision was organized around four questions: what’s necessary; how can they minimize impact on the earth; how do they respect the neighborhood; and what can they really build? Some answers came from the Dog Trot style house, which has been a dominant image representing Florida Cracker architecture for over a century. The glass pavilion typology and principles of Tropical Modernism also offered direction.

Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

By Grimshaw Architects, Miami, FL, United States

Grimshaw’s 250,000-square-foot (23,225-square-meter) facility brings together an aquarium, planetarium and science museum onto one campus in downtown Miami’s Museum Park. Taking advantage of the city’s sunshine, ocean breezes from nearby Biscayne Bay and views to a growing downtown skyline, the architecture of the museum furthers Miami-Dade County’s cultural offerings in a contemporary building. For the enclosure, the bar-shaped buildings of the North and West Wings are clad in a faceted, pixelated geometrical texture.

Grimshaw’s response to the project brief resulted in a complex of four buildings situated in an open-armed stance, inviting visitors to walk amongst them and opening up the building to the outdoors. An open-air atrium threads between the buildings connecting them to one another and creating a dynamic environment that directly connects the community to the experience of the outdoors and the city around them. The shapes of each individual building are dynamic and varied, sculpted to take advantage of filtered light and breezes.

The Dalí Museum

By HOK, Saint Petersburg, FL, United States

The Dalí Museum was designed to house the world’s most comprehensive collection of Salvador Dalí’s art outside of Spain. The design challenge was to create an affordable, iconic building symbolic of the Spanish painter’s work. The three-story museum is on a bayside site along St. Petersburg’s downtown waterfront. The dramatic envelope balances the exhibition and protection of the priceless masterpieces within a simple, powerful aesthetic.

A “treasure box” shelters the 2,000-piece collection from potential Category 5 hurricane winds and storm surges. The design opens up the 18-inch-thick concrete walls with a free-form glass geodesic structure that intrigues visitors while bringing daylight and bay views into public spaces. The 75-foot-tall geodesic glass “Enigma” and 45-foot-tall “Igloo” are formed by 1,062 undulating faceted glass panes, with no two exactly alike.

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

Reference

Architecture

MVRDV revives old tower as shenzhen women & children’s center

By Zarkon Group,01/10/2023

project info:

name: Shenzhen Women & Children’s Center

location: Shenzhen, China

architecture: MVRDV | @mvrdv

founding partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs

partner: Wenchian Shi

director MVRDV Asia: Steven SmitPeter Chang

project leader (Rotterdam): Lorenzo Mattozzi
project leader (Shanghai): Luca Xuconcept design: Lorenzo Mattozzi, Marco Gazzola,
Giuseppe Mazzaglia, Daehee Suk, Chi Zhang, Siyi Pan, Bertrand Tan, Albert Parfonov,
Andrius Ribikauskas, Enrica Perrot, Martina Franco, Peter Chang, Luca Xu
schematic design: Lorenzo Mattozzi, Giuseppe Mazzaglia, Daehee Suk, Fredy Fortich,
Chi Zhang, Bertrand Tan, Jiameng Li, Agnieszka Dabek, Paula Vargas Torres, Elisa Paneni,
Peter Chang, Luca Xu, Yang Hong, Leo Zhang, Cai Huang
detail design: Lorenzo Mattozzi, Giuseppe Mazzaglia, Daehee Suk, Fredy Fortich,
Chi Zhang, Bertrand Tan, Jiameng Li, Paula Vargas Torres, Luca Xu, Yang Hong, Echo Zhai, Ruochen Zhang
interior & Landscape design: Lorenzo Mattozzi, Fokke Moerel, Pim Bangert, Giovanni Nardi, Daehee Suk, Jiameng Li, Bertrand Tan, Paula Vargas Torres, Luca Xu
working documents revision: Lorenzo Mattozzi, Luca Xu, Giuseppe Mazzaglia,
Daehee Suk, Jiameng Li, Fredy Fortich, Yihong Chen, Peilu Chen, Xiaoliang Yu
aesthetic supervision: Lorenzo Mattozz, iLuca Xu, Giuseppe Mazzaglia,
Bertrand Tan, Jiameng Li, Americo Iannazzone, Yihong Chen, Kefei Yan, Edvan Ardianto Muliana
MVRDV NEXT: Boudewijn Thomas, Yayun Liu, Changqinq Ye
visuals: Antonio Coco, Angelo La Delfa, Pavlos Ventouris, Francesco Vitale,
Luana La Martina, Jaroslaw Jeda, Emanuele Fortunati
lead project coordinator: Jammy Zhu

co-architect, lanscape, MEP: SZAD

co-project coordinator: Shenzhen Women & Children’s Building Operation and Management
facade consultant: KGE (King Glass Engineering)
structural engineering: Yuanlizhu Engineering Consultants
lighting consultant: BPI (Brandston Partnership Inc.)
cost calculation: Jinxia Property Cost Consultation Co. Ltd.
interior architect: Jiang & Associates

photographer: Xia Zhi | @xiazhi_photogtapher

Reference

Architecture

This week we revealed Shrek’s Swamp in the Scottish Highlands

By Zarkon Group,30/09/2023

This week on Dezeen, rental website Airbnb unveiled its latest themed holiday home, a grass-and-mud-covered hut underneath a tree hosted by Donkey from the movie series Shrek.

Named Shrek’s Swamp, the small house, which is being hosted by Donkey while Shrek is away for Halloween, was described as “a stumpy, secluded haven fit for a solitude-seeking ogre”.

In architecture news, Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban created a prototype house that will be built in Morocco following a devastating earthquake earlier this month.

The latest iteration of Ban’s Paper Log House model, the structure has columns made from cardboard tubes with walls and a roof made from prefabricated wooden panels.

Recycled PET lego bricks — Lego abandoned its plans to make bricks from recycled plastic

In design news, Lego abandoned its plans to use recycled plastic bottles to make its bricks as an alternative to using virgin plastic.

The Danish toymaker dropped the plans after its pilot programme showed that adopting the recycled material at scale would ultimately increase the company’s carbon footprint due to the manufacturing process and equipment needed.

This week saw a mass-timber McDonald’s restaurant in São Paulo revealed. Designed by local architecture office Superlimão Studio, the building is supported by a tree-like timber structure.

The 2,150-square foot (220-square metre) building was built as part of the fast food chain’s “Recipe for the Future” initiative.

Mass timber interior — Mexico’s largest mass-timber structure was completed

In Mexico, the largest and tallest mass-timber structure in the country was completed. Designed by Dellekamp Schleich to “set an example for innovative construction methods”, the 940-square-metre office building was built in Mexico City.

Also this week, in other mass-timber news, the New York City Economic Development Corporation launched an assistance program to encourage the adoption of mass-timber in New York City.

Long Island social housing by studio Libeskind — Studio Libeskind unveiled a social housing block in New York

In other architecture news, a pair of social housing blocks were revealed. In New York, architecture firm Studio Libeskind unveiled a housing block with sculptural facades that contains 44 apartments for low-income senior citizens .

In Paris, Christ & Gantenbein created a 124-metre-long block containing 104 apartments, which was clad in steel.

Garden Tower House by Studio Bright — An extension wrapped in pink breeze blocks was one of the most popular stories this week

Popular projects this week included an extension in Australia wrapped in pale pink breeze blocks, a house under the ground in the Netherlands and a cliffside hotel on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.

Our latest lookbooks featured living rooms enhanced by decorative and striking art pieces and colourful bedrooms.

This week on Dezeen

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week’s top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don’t miss anything.

Reference

Architecture

Architecture and the Economy: Inside China’s Ghost Cities

By Zarkon Group,29/09/2023

Susan Sontag once said that there were only three subjects she had been interested in her whole life: “freaks,” women and China. She isn’t alone — especially on that last point. The world’s oldest continuous civilization has always captivated Westerners, partly due to the perception that it is shrouded in secrecy.

Even fifty years after Nixon visited China, this perception still has some basis. The political regime of President Xi is not known for its transparency. While China is by no means a hermit kingdom, there is much about its economy, military and politics that remains the subject of speculation. Little details, anecdotes or photographs from China are scoured like Rorschach tests, with Western spectators seeing in them what they want to see: evidence of either China’s strength or its weakness, its national virtue or its deep corruption. And as fear of China’s rising power has grown, these interpretations have trended toward the ominous.

In recent months, as rumors of China’s economic crisis have spread, the images that seem to interest people the most are photographs of China’s so-called “ghost cities” — urban developments that are eerily under-occupied. The most famous of these, the city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia, is also one of the most captivating, as it includes not only luxury residences but also city squares and museums. But what do these images signify? Are Ordos and similar developments simply modern-day Potemkin villages designed by the CCP to place a veneer of luxury on an economy with deeply flawed fundamentals? The answer seems to be yes and no.

According to experts, China’s economic crisis is driven by an over-reliance on investment as opposed to consumer spending as the driver of economic growth. As counterintuitive as it might sound to those who, like me, never got past Econ 101, economic growth can be driven by capital investment even when there is a lack of demand for the products and services that are being invested in. Stephen Morgan, a professor emeritus of Chinese economic history at the University of Nottingham, explained this process in a recent interview with Vox.

“Investment is largely going into, as I said, infrastructure, real estate. At present, probably about 40 percent of that is unproductive,” explains Professor Morgan. “One way to think of that is ‘bridges to nowhere.’ The thing about investment is it doesn’t matter whether the bridge goes to nowhere or it actually serves a purpose. It produces GDP growth.When I was living in China, between 2013 and 2020, in Ningbo, I used to take the bus to work every day. The bus stops between my apartment and the university were rebuilt three times — three times in about six years. The first time they needed rebuilding. The second time, there were some nice improvements, like electronic boards that told you when the bus was going to come. The third time they rebuilt all the bus stops with so much steel you would need a tank to knock them down. Other than that, there was very little welfare benefit. That’s wasted investment.”

The city of Ordos isn’t exactly empty, but it feels that way. Over two thirds of its apartments are unoccupied. Image: Popolon, architects : Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun from MAD Architects[1], Ordos Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0

Real estate was long considered a “safe” investment, which is why the Chinese state encouraged and participated in this kind of investment. Some are still holding out, sitting on empty properties hoping they will get a return. However, the situation is strikingly unbalanced. According to a 2021 Business Insider article, there are about 65 million empty homes in China, almost enough to house the entire population of France. This is an especially daunting statistic when one considers the fact that many people in China live in substandard housing. The real estate that is being built is not being utilized by the Chinese population.

So what do the Chinese ghost cities signify? Nothing more or less than the misallocation of resources in that country. It is a problem created by a set of policies that solved one problem (increasing economic growth) while creating others (debt and waste). Despite the spell China casts on the imagination of westerners, there isn’t anything mysterious about it — the misallocation of resources has always been the central problem in the field of economics and no nation has ever been able to solve it, whether through markets, central planning, or a mix of the two.

Maybe one day we will have housing “to each according to his need,” but for now that is not the case — whether you are in China or the US. The two nations have more in common than they think.

For architects, the last decade in China has likely been bittersweet. While there were no shortage of opportunities, architecture is at bottom a practical art, and I imagine the architects who worked on these ghost cities were filled with a sense of emptiness, perhaps even dread, as they contemplated the fate of their creations. A building without a purpose is a melancholy thing indeed, like a song that no one will ever hear.

Cover Image: Ordos City, Uday Phalgun, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Reference

Architecture

architect shigeru ban offers earthquake disaster relief to morocco

By Zarkon Group,28/09/2023

A resourceful Response to Morocco’s Recent Earthquake

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that rocked Morocco‘s Marrakesh–Safi region on September 8th, 2023, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has once again demonstrated his unwavering commitment to disaster relief efforts. This natural disaster, which registered a moment magnitude of 6.8–6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, left in its wake a trail of destruction and claimed the lives of over 2,900 people. It is in this time of dire need that Shigeru Ban and his team, known globally for its humanitarian architecture, has extended a hand to the people of Morocco.

images courtesy Shigeru Ban Architects

sHigeru Ban: A Champion of Disaster Relief

Shigeru Ban’s involvement in disaster relief spans over three decades, with his work taking him to disaster-stricken regions across the globe, from Kobe to L’Aquila, Turkey to Haiti. His humanitarian approach to disaster relief is marked by resourcefulness, a quality that has become synonymous with his architectural practice and contributed to his winning the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2014. Shigeru Ban is celebrated for repurposing materials, even those not known for their durability like paper and cardboard, into structural elements for his designs. This same spirit of innovation permeates his planning and execution of disaster-relief housing projects.

the first Paper Log House mock-up shelter has been constructed in Marrakech

paper log houses to be deployed across the region

In response to the recent earthquake tragedy in Morocco, Shigeru Ban has launched a commendable initiative to aid the victims. This humanitarian effort is being spearheaded by the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), an organization founded by Shigeru Ban in 1995 to coordinate post-disaster construction aid. A significant facet of this project is the construction of a mock-up of Shigeru Ban’s iconic Paper Log House. This temporary dwelling, designed to provide shelter for those in urgent need, has been constructed at the National School of Architecture of Marrakech. It stands as a symbol of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.

the team will assess the affected areas, identifying potential locations for the deployment of the Paper Log House

Shigeru Ban’s dedication extends beyond the blueprint. On September 27th, he is delivering a lecture where he will introduce the ‘Paper Log House’ and share his wealth of knowledge and experience in providing post-disaster support. Moreover, on September 28th, he will remain in Marrakech to assess the affected areas, identifying potential locations for the deployment of the Paper Log House.

project info:

architecture: Shigeru Ban Architects | @shigeruban

location: Marrakesh–Safi region, Morocco

Reference

Architecture

Għallis exhibition suggests alternative to Malta’s “hyper-development”

By Zarkon Group,27/09/2023

Valentino Architects and curator Ann Dingli have presented a proposal to retrofit a historic fortification at the Venice Architecture Biennale to suggest alternative methods of conservation in the face of Malta’s rapid development.

Curated by Dingli, the small-scale exhibition was part of the Time Space Existence showcase and featured an abstracted plan to retrofit the 17th-century watchtower on the north-eastern shore of Malta.

“The Għallis watchtower in isolation is not remarkably significant – it’s been vacant for years,” Dingli told Dezeen. “But it belongs to a network of micro-fortifications that were built along the edge of the islands in the 17th century and tell a part of the islands’ wider military story.”

“Today the tower is a marker along the coast and not much more,” she continued. “The point of the exhibition is to re-charge its significance by introducing new usability and graduating it from just a visual landmark to a habitable space.”

Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition — It focused on an abstracted plan to retrofit the 17th-century watchtower

With its proposal, the team suggests changing the use of the building to create a multi-use structure that can be utilised in numerous ways.

“The design reverses the exclusive nature of the tower – conceived as a fortress designed to keep people out – to an inclusive building that invites people in,” explained Valentino Architects.

“Its programme is flexible, adapting to three permutations that allow for varying degrees of private use and public access.”

Exhibition of a historic watchtower — The team proposed renovating the tower

The tower was showcased at the biennale to draw attention to a wider issue facing Malta – the commercialisation of its historic buildings.

The team aimed to demonstrate that historic buildings could be converted into useable structures rather than being restored as empty monuments.

“Heritage architecture in Malta has a strong focus on preservation of building fabric and less so on functional innovation,” said Dingli.

“This means heritage buildings very often serve one programme – usually as museums of themselves or as institutional buildings – and as a result become inaccessible or redundant to everyday use,” she continued.

“This design moves away from heritage as a product and towards heritage as useful space.”

The team hopes that the exhibition will draw attention to the rapid development of Malta, which it says is happening at the expense of the country’s existing buildings.

“The islands are on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory of hyper-development,” explained Dingli. “Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU, and one of the most densely populated countries in the world.”

“Its built environment hasn’t met this intensity with the right blend of retrofit and newbuild development – the former exists in extreme scarcity, despite a huge stock of existing building fabric crying out to be re-used in smarter ways,” she continued.

Render of kitchen — The team proposed turning into a multi-use space

Although the exhibition focuses on a historic fortification, the team believes that prioritising reuse over rebuilding should be implemented across the country.

“The argument for conservation needs to be extended to any form of building stock, not just heritage buildings,” explained Valentino Architects.

“Demolishing existing buildings to make way for new ones is almost never sustainable,” they continued. “When there is no alternative but to remove a building, we need to advocate for dismantling as opposed to demolishing.”

“Materials such as Malta’s local yellow limestone – which has traditionally carved out the architectural identity of our island – is a finite resource that needs to be both protected and used,” they added.

Alongside the Għallis exhibition, the Time Space Existence show presented work by architects, designers and artists from 52 different countries in venues across the city. These included a tea house made from food waste and a concrete emergency housing prototype developed by the Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim.

The photography is by Federico Vespignani.

Time Space Existence takes place from 20 May to 26 November 2023 at various locations across Venice, Italy. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

Architecture

The Guilt Eraser

The Poison Plastic

Problematic and Unnecessary

Rethink, Redesign, Reform

Re-Think

Redesign

Reform

kengo kuma unveils ‘kiki’s museum of literature’

inspired by the worlds of eiko kadono

L. Gale Lemerand Student Center | Daytona State College

By ikon.5 architects, Daytona Beach, FL, United States

Florida Polytechnic University

By Santiago Calatrava, Lakeland, FL, United States

Florida International University School of International and Public Affairs

By Arquitectonica, Miami, FL, United States

Perez Art Museum Miami

By ArquitectonicaGEO and Herzog & de Meuron, Miami, FL, United States

Mori Hosseini Student Union | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

By ikon.5 architects, Daytona Beach, FL, United States

The Center for Asian Art at the Ringling Museum of Art

By Machado Silvetti, Sarasota, FL, United States

Brillhart House

By Brillhart Architecture, Miami, FL, United States

Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

By Grimshaw Architects, Miami, FL, United States

The Dalí Museum

By HOK, Saint Petersburg, FL, United States

A resourceful Response to Morocco’s Recent Earthquake

sHigeru Ban: A Champion of Disaster Relief

paper log houses to be deployed across the region

Get in touch

about us

Company info

Useful Links

Newsletter