Architecture As An Educational Catalyst by BG studio

Park of Science

This project proposes a Park of Science that occupies entire area of Block39 and unites various academic and scientific institutions on the site, with a goal to promote popularization of science. With present global environmental, economic and social issues, it is necessary more than ever to educate and involve the general public in order to inspire ordinary people to make more rational, responsable choices and live healthier lifestyle.

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The proposed master plan for Block39 is an opportunity to create an urban environment that serves as a catalyst for popular education: a place where high science meets everyday life, where a dialog between advanced theoretical research and mundane practices is established to cross generate new practical concepts: a place that both inspire and educate lay people as well as bring scientific circles closer to present real life challenges.

Site plan makes a departure from the rectangular urban grid of New Belgrade that was originally design by adopting the scale of movement by car, and brings back the human scale of walking, that allows casual encounters, interaction and socializing.

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The new, fluid, geometry of the Block 39 site plan is created by following the natural flow of people between traffic entry points on its perimeter and the new points of interest on site. These new points of interests are not merely locations of entrance to the new buildings – instead, each building is considered to be a source of influence that generates what in abstract terms might be called “force field” and in concrete urban design is materialized as an accompanying public space. This public park area that accompanies every scientific institution is a sort of its exhibition space which gives an opportunity to spread its influence by curating its ideas and presenting it to general public in a comprehensible way.

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The same way the various fields of science interact and affect one another, distribution and distorted circular shapes of public spaces in the block is the result of the mutual influence between force fields that belong to the institutions on site. Each of these public spaces is considered to be a blend of natural (vegetation) and urban elements (pavement): paved paths meander through the natural landscape following the fluid trajectories of people’s circulation around the site.

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This somehow abstract design process uses means of architectural and urban design to visualize invisible and elusive process of how the new scientific ideas and discoveries spread out and become part of our culture: each domain of science doesn’t exist in isolation, but it has its field of influence that affects and is affected by other fields of science. And our culture is not a simple sum of all these individual fields of work, but a complex system that emerge when the ideas that are generated and circulating between these scientific circles start penetrating and influencing the daily life of society in general.

Urban design based on attempt to materialize these abstract forces that spread ideas and “upgrade” doesn’t attempt to make a formal statement but more than anything else to create a physical environment where this movement and interaction of ideas can be accelerated, or at least the one that creates an opportunity for this interaction to happen.

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Center for Promotion of Science: The Ring

The design of the Center follows the design concept of the master plan- it considers architecture an opportunity to attract people and introduce them to new ideas.The visual tension between its two rings (the lower horizontal, and the upper dynamically inclined) creates perception of strong circular movement that suggest both strong force of visual attraction that drive the people in, as well as centripetal force that spread out its influence by planting out the new ideas the visitors will carry away with them.

TThe circular shape is a perfect abstract form that reflects the objectivism in science: one that is equally opened to any point of view. The building has this same relation to its environment: without a typical front and back side, it opens up to the outside world equally in all directions.

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Moreover, with its ring-like shape, it envolves a part of the park and creates a contuniuty between the park and the central patio of the building. In this way, the Center for Promotion of Science serves as both visual and actual accelerator that will initiate the public use of land with aim of promoting science in Block39: its core patio contains the DNA that will in phases spread all around the Block39 to create future Park of Science.

Function

The Center for Promotion of Science comprises 3 main functional parts:

vehicle access and parking in the basement levels

pedestrian access with mixed-use spaces at the ground level as a continuation of the park.

Exhibition areas, science club and planetarium at the upper level.

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Vehicles enter from Boulevard of Art passing by a service road that runs around the perimeter of the block. There are 4 ramps that descend from the service road to the lower level of parking: two of them for the entrance and the exit for buses and loading trucks, while the other two are for the private cars. The parking are organized radially in concentric circles. The inner circle with the clear height of 4.50m is reserved for parking of the buses and the loading trucks, while the outer circle, with the height of 2.60m contain the parking space for the cars in two levels. The circulation of vehicles along the perimeter of the rings is vividly separated from the pedestrian ways that are radial and directly lead visitors into the center of the circle where elevators will lift them to the ground floor level.

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TAt the ground floor, the main pedestrian access to the center is channeled from the park through the northern part of the building, using the Science Institute tower as bait to invite visitors to discover the building. The ground floor spaces are organized completely independently from the shape of the circle: they follow the analysed trajectories of the visitors flow through the space in time which results in fluid spaces that offer a range of unusual visual sensations.

On the upper floor, our ring has changed: the inclination and the slight displacement make it look as if it’s going to take off towards the future and the space, spinning around the central core of Planetarium sphere. This inclination also generates a void between the two rings where a vast open terrace invites visitors to enjoy the views of the surrounding Park of Science.

The permanent exhibition is arranged in rooms stepped around the perimeter of the building that are connected by a continuous ramp that raises from the ground floor up. This visitors to easily orientate, move around entire building and experience all spaces open to public by means of a gentle movement along the ramp.

Architectural Space And The History Of Science

Each of the three levels of the building different organization of spaces, which might be associated to different stages at the history of sciences.

The geometry of the basement levels is a very rigid and stable radial scheme, very much like historical foundations of science like Euclid’s geometry or Newtonian physics. However, the fluid spaces of the ground floor express randomness that made quantum mechanics very influential to a large number of disciplines by juxtaposing laws of probability to the science that used to be based on determinism and reliable experimentation. The upper floor again develops the sequence in spaces in more regular way to express the bringing back the two dualities together as seen in recent ideas such as string and membrane theories. This new line of thought attempts to find out the hidden laws that govern everything including what to us appear as random, using abstract mathematical equations to describe the world in 11 dimensions that will forever remain far beyond the realm perceivable by our senses.

C. F. Møller Architects has won the competition to design a New State Danish Prison that will be in construction until 2016. The facility is designed to house approximately 250 inmates and is conceived as a small village that is integrated with landscape features, animal husbandry and housing within the confines of the perimeter walls.

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

The environment that is created within the prison is inspired by the condensed urban environment and derives its star-like shape from the surrounding sprawl of the rural area’s small villages. The environment of the facility is conceived as a place for a variety of spatial experiences, functional density and clarity of layout that an urban area can offer.

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

At the center of the building complex is the administrative building, the occupation building, and a cultural center which houses a library, religious worship room, sports facilities and a shop. Four ordinary wings and one high security wing radiate from the center. The layout affords the architects to give each wing a view of the landscape, without allows visual contact between one another. The complex is bound by a plaza area and a sequence of streets that offer internal and external outdoor areas within the confines of the perimeter wall. Such a developed complexity and heirarchy of cultivated and natural land gives the illusion of openness and spaciousness within the complex.

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

Each building of the complex has its own identity, and each building expresses an important part of the inmates’ experiential universe. The complex is the limit of the prisoner’s world, giving the total experience of the complex more meaning. Overall, the complex is clad in a warm, gray brick. The occupation building deviates from the norm and crystal-shaped and clad in perforated metal plates in green shades, while the cultural center is round and covered in glass ringed by green slats. The compactness of these structures allows room for the integration of sports facilities within the landscape, as well as areas for animal husbandry.

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

Image courtesy C. F. Møller Architects

The overall layout of the facility allows the inmates to percieve a world with possibilities within their confines by creating choice and diversity in space that mimicks the urban environment.

Architects: C. F. Møller Architects
Location: Falster, Denmark
Client: The Danish Prison and Probation Service
Size: 32000 m2
Year of competition: 2010
Construction period: -2016

LOVE COVE | MAXWAN
KAOHSIUNG, 2010
A visual showcase of maritime and pop music ACTIVITY.

Concept
For a true icon of the maritime and pop culture industries, the space should be more than simply formally symbolic or a series of closed boxes; it should function as a visual display of bustle of the actual workings and events of pop and maritime culture. By exposing the reality of the maritime and pop industries, people can engage with these cultures.

Site Strategy
In Taiwan in general, and in Kaohsiung specifically, open space is a precious commodity. The choice was made to maximize the available open space on site. The ability to interact with water is integral to the public space design.

The Building
The building is a connecting structure from east to west, creating a vibrant retail bridge with views out over the cove. The building is given a thin profile, in order to press the activities against the façade, giving the public greater visual access while also providing those in the building constant views out toward the harbor.

Logistics and Entrances
The public space is laid out for simple functionality. There are three zones for parking, directly accessed from the adjacent streets. These zones also allow for loading and logistics straight up into the building. Covering these three areas is an undulating public space.

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Credits:
programCultural – Pop Music Center, Marine Center, Large Performance Hall, Music Rehearsal Space, Small Performance Halls
clientCity of Kaohsiung
link to clientwww.kcg.gov.tw/english/
countryTaiwan, ROC
cityKaohsiung
scaleM
site area12 ha
total floor space60,000 m2
partner in chargeHiroki Matsuura, Rients Dijkstra
team leaderJason Hilgefort
teamArtur Borejszo , Leena Cho, Ignas Uogintas, Nobuki Ogasahara

The fish shape building you are seeing here is  the Nativity Church Competition Entry, It’s from Mexican firm Pascal Arquitectos. The followings are from the architect;
•    Design  considerations

-    Our intention is to create a recognizable object, its shape comes from a fish, and the exterior covering reminds of scales.
-    We decided not to put the picnic area in the bridge, it is nicer to have a picnic on the grass, besides it would make it too expensive and it would be too wide. We created a picnic garden outside the plaza , just upon arrival form de bridge and stairs, it has a view to the lake and it is shaded by big trees, and at the same time it is adjoining but not together with the plaza events.
-    The green wall in the Plaza creates a contained place and together with the shadow of the church it generates a microclimate, it acts like a veil which allows discovering through it the surrounding landscape.
-    Parking is possible under crypts with direct access from west side.
-    The crypts are like a library, a maze you can walk or stroll.
-    All the building is ADA accessible, even without the use of mechanical devises.
-    Sustainability and emphasis on Culiacan weather condition is a considered in all of the design.
-    Three-dimensional modulation is based on a 4 ft by 4 ft grid , this guarantees order, coincidences, besides there is no waste all the material is used at it maximum expression allowing the acquisition of better material.
-    The design is based in a series of structural frames  that create grids where all the other materials are hanged, screwed or attached in a mechanical way, allowing the service replacement and access to inner wiring plumbing etc. and also setting a job process of installing bases on prefabrication instead of jobsite construction.
-    The stained glass presbytery is a fundamental part of the architecture; I fuses into it, and is part of the structural support of the building besides being recognizable from the outside.
-    We added a fire pit on the centre of the plaza to provide heat in cold nights and also as a gathering point.

•    Furniture and accessories
-    Furniture and accessories design will follow same geometrical theme as the architecture.

•    The Bridge
The bridge must not compete with the church, so it is going to be made of the lightest possible steel structure and glass enclosure, being the bottom of it done in a double translucent glass layers that are lit at night.

•    Nativity Altarpiece

The Nativity is proposed as a large thematic stained-glass window drawing that also works as the structural piece that holds this church area. The colours used in this work have a symbolic and decorative function as well.

In this case, the Nativity altarpiece is formed by two panels with narrative continuity; on the left side (seen from the inside of the church) includes the holy child in the crib, the Virgin Mary, the midwife and the angels.

Child Jesus crib is at the same time the womb that, by its colour, is associated to the light that “illuminates us” and to the nourishing earth, represents the world to come and life foundation.

Virgin Mary, accompanied by the midwife symbolizes the feminine and maternal side, the feelings, the wisdom of grace and the beauty. The virgin has a blue robe that relates her with heaven. On the other hand, both feminine figures are bound by the red colour that refers to life origin.

Joseph, shown like a pilgrim that has made a long walk, represents willpower, intelligence and compassion.

The scene were child Jesus, Virgin Mary and Joseph appear, seems to take place in an interior space, while the rest of the story happens on the outside.

The right hand panel represents the masculine and the action world, including the shepherd, the animals and the three Wise Men guided by the star.

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The City of Frederiksberg, Denmark, the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sport Facilities and Realdania announced MVRDV and ADEPT winner of the House of Culture and Movement competition in Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Copyright MVRDV/ADEPT

The building is a new urban typology with its mix of community center, exhibition and performance, playground, park and health center. The House of Culture and Movement is aimed to engage the population of Frederiksberg in a healthy and active life style. The 4,000 m2 building is set in 4,500m2 public gardens and is the first in a series of 3 buildings. The first phase is to be completed in 2015 and has a total budget of 17 million Euro.

Copyright MVRDV/ADEPT

The main ambition for the House of Culture and Movement is to offer the Flintholm neighborhood a dynamic meeting point for people of all ages taking part in a wide range of activities. Health, culture, leisure and education should smoothly blend together to create a spectacular architectural experience that will become a destination.

Copyright MVRDV/ADEPT

The main building, the House of Culture and Movement, or Ku-Be (Kultur- og Bevægelseshus) is a rectangular glass volume containing six stacked ideal programmatic elements. The space in-between can be programmed flexibly as a ‘play zone’ with various activities and main circulation. The stacked elements hold more specific uses: a theater, a health zone, food zone, a zen area, a study center and exhibition hall, fitness and activity center, a wellness center and an area for the administration. The theater is flexible and can be used in different stage and audience settings; in addition its large window allows it to be used as an open air theater where the public stays in the garden. The building is a truly multifunctional public center which engages its users.

Copyright MVRDV/ADEPT

The 3 volumes are wrapped in an ‘urban curtain’ that acts as frame for the garden. It offers great flexibility and can be used for art projects, bicycle parking, water and light installations, performances – and curtains.

The garden, designed in collaboration with SLA landscape architects, is fit for multiple uses acting as an activated, spectacular public space for the area. The landscaping follows the themes of the interior of the House of Culture and Movement with a performance area, health and activity zones, a quiet zone, connecting zones and an empty zone reserved for House of Culture and Movement 2.

The project will be phased. The House of Movement, the garden and the urban curtain will be first realizations. In later stages a commercial building and a second House of Movement will be added. Climate and energy technology is based on reliable technologies such as solar panels, natural ventilation and underground hot and cool storage resulting in a highly efficient low energy building.

The project is designed by MVRDV, Rotterdam, and ADEPT, Copenhagen, in a joint effort with SLA landscape architects, Søren Jensen engineers, Imitio, Winnie Ricken, Copenhagen, Max Fordham, London, and Ducks Scèno, Paris. Earlier MVRDV and ADEPT teamed up and won the competition for the Roedovre Sky Village, a flexible mix-use skyscraper currently in development.

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Henning Larsen Architects wins Georgian Aquarium

Batumi Aquarium is inspired by the characteristic pebbles of the Batumi beach – the residue of dynamic seas continually shaping the shorefront throughout millennia. The building will be situated in the Georgian port of Batumi and will stand out as an iconic rock formation – visible from both land and sea.

Diagram courtesy Henning Larsen Architects

The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype – the Aegean Sea & the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea & the Red Sea and finally the more interactive exhibition.

Diagram courtesy Henning Larsen Architects

The four dispersed aquarium exhibitions are connected by a central, multipurpose space including cafĂŠ, auditorium and retail functions with views of the black sea and Batumi beach as scenic backdrop. Visitors gather in the central space to convene, play, eat, shop and relax before continuing their adventures through the exhibitions.

Image courtesy Henning Larsen Architects

Batumi Aquarium will become a modern, cultural aquarium offering visitors an educational, entertaining and visually stimulating journey through the different seas. Unfolding around the aquarium, a landscape of different sea archipelagos provides attractive opportunities for innovative outdoor research and learning, public space and meeting places along the beach.

The building’s significant expression inspired by nature will not only make Batumi Aquarium a spectacular new landmark in Georgia but also a state-of-the-art contribution to exploring life underneath the sea surface.

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Project Facts

Batumi Aquarium
Rustaveli Str., Batumi
The Republic of Georgia

Client: Association A.T.U.
Architect: Henning Larsen Architects
Gross floor area: 2,000 m2

Type of assignment: First prize in invited competition. Other participants
were the German architecture company Drei Architekten as well as the two American companies PJA Architects and Pryor & Morrow Architects.

The project team from Henning Larsen Architects includes Louis Becker (design director, partner) Anders Park (project manager), Viggo Haremst (design responsible), Michael Sørensen and Jaewoo Chun.

schmidt hammer lassen architects has won the competition to design a 54,000m2 concert, congress and hotel complex in MalmÜ, Sweden. The competition, where Snøhetta, Baumschlager Eberle and Daniel Libeskind participated, also included the development of additionally 35,000m2 for housing and commercial use. This is the second competition won by schmidt hammer lassen architects in the southern part of Sweden in 2010.

Image courtesy SHL Architects

The new building complex is situated on Universitetsholmen in MalmĂś. The building consists of a composition of cubic volumes that are mutually twisted and given different sizes to meet the directions and building heights of the surrounding city. The facades are designed with a homogeneous expression to make the composition appear as one architectonic sculpture.

”The idea is to create a ‘house of the city’ that incorporates the architectonic expressions of Malmö – a building that will contribute to the existing urban life,” said partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects Kim Holst Jensen, and he added, “The context has inspired our choice of materials, colours and the various sizes of the building volumes, yet the building design in itself points to the future.”

Image courtesy SHL Architects

The main entrance is found at the northern part of the building, with a classic loggia-motif* facing the plaza in front. From the south you enter the building directly from the promenade that runs along the canal. The different functions in the building are organised like separate elements – as a little city. Here, the lobby becomes the street that runs through the whole ground floor plan and ties everything together. Like the medieval cities, with curved and narrow streets, organised around plazas and squares, the lobby is designed to form small gathering places and recesses where it is possible to stop, sit and enjoy the view to the canal and the park.

”We have created a building that has a precisely shaped expression towards its surroundings to support the idea of ‘a city in the city’. As a contrast, the part of the building that faces the park and the canal is shaped more openly and organic. It is important for us to keep the ground floor open to the public, and to give the people from the city the possibility to stroll through the building if they are going to a concert, a conference, to the café or just want to make a shortcut,” said associate partner, and head of the Copenhagen office at schmidt hammer lassen architects, Kristian Ahlmark.

Image courtesy SHL Architects

From the inside, the three volumes that hold the large symphony hall, the flexible hall and the conference hall, will stand as clearly defined elements. The building shapes appear as a three dimensional composition in laminated wood with warm, red colours.

The new cultural centre becomes an open, expressive and dynamic building that is manifold in both its activities and its architecture. The point of departure for the building design is the modern Scandinavian architectural tradition with the clear functional organisation and the accessible and open ground floor lay-out. The building becomes the focal point and a landmark for MalmĂś – a place where the spirit of the city, the diversity and the intimacy is given an architectonic expression.

Client
Skanska Sverige AB

Area
Concert, congress and hotel: 54,000m2
Housing and commercial use: 35,000m2

Competition
2010, International property development competition

Status
Won, Completion 2010-2014

Landscape architect
SLA

Contractor
Skanska Sverige AB

Other collaborators
Akustikon

Competitions won by schmidt hammer lassen architects in 2010:
- The Salt Crystals, Helsingborg, Sweden
- International Criminal Court, The Hague, the Netherlands
- Schwabinger Tor Hotel, Munich, Germany
- New Central Library, Halifax, Canada
- Concert, Congress and Hotel, MalmĂś, Sweden

GROUP A has won the competition for the new dance centre in Nottingham. The Rotterdam-based architectural studio has been chosen out of five participants, who were selected after an international competition. The competition was backed by international dance organisation Dance4, who are seeking to realise a world-wide orientated and renowned dance centre in the Nottingham neighbourhood of Sneinton, an area currently facing redevelopment.

We have made a design proposal that is both multifunctional, flexible and dynamic, and seeks to establish a strong relationship with its surroundings. To improve synergy as much as possible, the central social hub where people meet should be the beating heart of the dance centre. The centre will be part of a greater vision for upgrading the Sneinton neighbourhood. It is one of the pioneering elements in this neighbourhood, and could be considered a catalyst.

Paul Russ, chief Executive and artistic director of Dance4 said: ‘We are thrilled to be working with GROUP A architects. Amid the formidable calibre of each of the five selected architects, it was clear that GROUP A best understood the brief and communicated their excitement and artistry through their designs. As a practice they embody the same philosophy as Dance4, seeking to deliver excellence through challenging perceptions and are clearly inspired by our ambition.’