The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre by Foster + Partners

The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre by Foster + Partners:


[from dezeen]

UK architects Foster + Partners have completed the worlds tallest tensile structure in Astana, Kazakhstan. (more…)

Building Illumination Handbook, 1959

here [via google books]

MAXXI: MUSEUM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS

[from www.zaha-hadid.com]

MAXXI: MUSEUM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS

Rome, Italy
1998–2009

Photography © Iwan Baan

PROGRAM:
Contemporary art and architecture centre, temporary exhibition spaces

CLIENT:
Italian Ministry of Culture, Rome, Italy
Fondazione MAXXI

SIZE:
30000 m²

CONCEPT:
MAXXI stands for Museum of 21^st Century Arts. It is the first Italian public museum devoted to contemporary creativity, arts and architecture. The idea of building a centre for contemporary arts and architecture dates back to early 1998 with the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage desire to ensure the great cultural traditions of Italy’s past should not be denied a prospect for continuity in the future. The MAXXI was conceived to promote today’s artistic expressions – which will become tomorrow’s cultural heritage. Intended not only as place to exhibit art, the MAXXI was also planned as a research workshop for different contemporary languages of design, fashion and cinema to establish a dialogue with art and architecture – its cultural mission inspired by three key words: innovation, multiculturalism and interdisciplinary.

The design concept for the MAXXI was to move away from the idea of the museum as ‘an object’ and towards the idea of ‘a field of buildings’ accessible to all. After many studies, our research evolved into the concept of the confluence of lines, where the primary force of the site is the walls that constantly intersect and separate to create both indoor and outdoor spaces. The plan aligns itself with the two urban grids that regulate the town planning of the area and the new interpretation of these grids generates the geometrical complexity of the campus. The walls of the MAXXI create major streams and minor streams. The major streams are the galleries, and the minor streams are the connections and the bridges. The site has a unique L-shaped footprint that meanders between existing buildings. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, we used it to our advantage, taking it as an opportunity to explore the possibilities of linear structure by bundling, twisting, and building mass in some areas and reducing it in others – creating an urban cultural centre where a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces have been intertwined and superimposed over one another.

The contractor provided integrated construction solutions from the technical proposals presented at tender stage – with direct contribution of all sectors involved in the completion of components. The individual specification of materials was minimized in favour of an integrated strategy, ensuring the precise coordination of construction materials and methods required to develop the bespoke production lines for the contract. For continuity, the walls of the MAXXI were cast on-site in self-compacting concrete, representing one of the most challenging aspects of the construction process – with casts up to 50m long. The concrete shuttering involved the coordination of casting guidelines issued by Zaha Hadid Architects; with the site management directly responsible for the structural planning of the joinery, the completion of off-standard formwork systems, the design mix of the concrete, and the critical aspects of laying the concrete.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Roland Halbe

Photography © Roland Halbe

Photography © Iwan Baan

Photography © Iwan Baan

JS BACH CHAMBER MUSIC HALL

[from www.zaha-hadid.com]

JS BACH CHAMBER MUSIC HALL

Manchester, UK
2009

Photography © Joel Chester Fildes

PROGRAM:
Chamber Music Hall at Manchester Art Gallery, T1 Gallery

CLIENT:
Manchester International Festival

SIZE:
17 x 25 m

CONCEPT:
Zaha Hadid Architects have created a unique chamber music hall specially designed to house solo performances of the exquisite music of Johann Sebastian Bach. A voluminous ribbon swirls within the room, carving out a spatial and visual response to the intricate relationships of Bach’s harmonies. As the ribbon careens above the performer, cascades into the ground and wraps around the audience, the original room as a box is sculpted into fluid spaces swelling,merging, and slipping through one another.

“The design enhances the multiplicity of Bach’s work through a coherent integration of formal and structural logic. A single continuous ribbon of fabric swirls around itself, creating layered spaces to cocoon the performers and audience with in an intimate fluid space.” said Hadid.

The process of realizing the design involved architectural considerations of scale, structure and acoustics to develop a dynamic formal dialogue inseparable from its intended purpose as an intimate chamber music hall. A layering of spaces and functions is achieved through the ribbon wrapping around itself, alternately compressing to the size of a handrail then stretching to enclose the full height of the room. Circulatory and visual connections are continually discovered as one passes through the multiple layers of space delineated by the ribbon. The ribbon itself consists of a translucent fabric membrane articulated by an internal steel structure suspended from the ceiling. The surface of the fabric shell undulates in a constant but changing rhythm as it is stretched over the internal structure. It varies between the highly tensioned skin on the exterior of the ribbon and the soft billowing effect of the same fabric on the interior of the ribbon. Clear acrylic acoustic panels are suspended above the stage to reflect and disperse the sound, while remaining visually imperceptible within the fabric membrane. Programmed lighting and a series of dispersed musical recordings activate the spaces between the ribbon outside of performance times.

The installation is designed to be transportable and re-installed in other similar venues. Pivotal to its function is the performance of the ribbon. It has been designed to simultaneously enhance the acoustic experience of the concert while spatially defining a stage, an intimate enclosure, and passageways. It exists at a scale in which it is perceived as both an object floating in a room as well as a temporal architecture that invites one to enter, inhabit and explore.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Photography © Duncan Elliotts

Photography © Luke Hayes

Photography © Luke Hayes

Photography © Luke Hayes

Video © Zaha Hadid Architects

ARCHITECT:
ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
DESIGN: Zaha Hadid Architects
DESIGN TEAM: Melodie Leung, Gerhild Orthacker

CONSULTANTS:
ACOUSTIC: Sandy Brown Associates
TENSILE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Tony Hogg Design Ltd
FABRICATOR: Base Structures
FABRIC: Trapeze Plus Lycra
LIGHTING: DBN Lighting Limited

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Villa Vauban extension by Philippe Schmit: [from Dezeen]

Architect Philippe Schmit has completed an extension to a extension to a Luxembourg art gallery, clad in perforated brass panels. (more…)

Harpa by Henning Larsen Architects

from Dezeen

Harpa by Henning Larsen Architects

by Joe Mills

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A concert hall and conference centre by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with artist Olafur Eliassonis under construction in Reykjavík, Iceland. (more…)

Pharmacy in La Puebla 15 by Buj+Colón Arquitectos

Pharmacy in La Puebla 15 by Buj+Colón Arquitectos [from dezeen]:

Buj+Colón Arquitectos of Madrid have designed a pharmacy in Palencia, Spain, decorated with large neon symbols illuminating both the interior and exterior. (more…)