Sicilian design team AutonomeForme has developed a plan for a new House of Associations, renewing and reusing Palazzo Sammartino in the Kalsa district of Palermo, close to the city harbour.
The 4,500 square metres project (of which 3,700 internal) includes a piazza, three playgrounds, gardens, laboratories, two auditoriums, a media library: aim of the project is to grant a space for “all cultural associations to develop cultural activities, laboratories, art and documentation initiatives”.
More info and details on the fifth issue of Jumping Forward.
Dutch firm 24-H > Architecture have completed their Kids Den in Thailand, which structure is completely made out of local Thai bamboo.
From 24-H leisure projects booklet:
This project for a 6 star hotel resort is located on Koh Kood, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. The design of the various parts of this project adapts to the humid tropical climate and the available construction techniques by using local materials and building solutions.
This green approach applies to the whole project, all the different buildings blend into their unique surroundings: the rainforest and the seaside.
The Kids Den will house different activity programs for kids. The program is split in two parts, one with the video games and a library, the other with a cinema, table games, an ice cream parlor and bathroom facilities.
The objective was to find an organic shape that would function as an enclosed children’s playground and an exciting sculpture in itself. From the rocky slope, the Kids Den seems to be flying towards the sea, referring to the manta ray below.
Credits:
24-H architects in charge: Boris Zeisser, Maartje Lammers
Collaborators: Olav Bruin, Anne Laure Nolen
Local Architect: Habita architects
Constructed area: 165 sqm
Design year: 2006-2007
Construction year: 2008-2009
[via ArchDaily]
We’ve had lacey façades, we’ve had crocheted façades, now we have fishnet façades too: here’s Tori-Tori Japanese restaurant in Mexico City by Rojkind Arquitectos and Hector Esrawe.
[via designboom]
Danish firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) was awarded first prize in an open international design competition for the new National Library in Astana, Kazakhstan — entrants included Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners.
Merging the forms of a circle, an arch, a rotunda and a yurt, BIG designed a 33,000 square metres building in the shape of an infinite loop.
Credits:
Architect: BIG
Client: Kazakhstan Presidential Office
Collaborators: ARUP AGU
Location: Astana, Kazakhstan
BIG Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Thomas Christoffersen
Team: Amy Campbell, Jakob Henke, Johan Cool, Jonas Barre, Daniel Sundlin
[via archicentral]
New York-based practice Steven Holl is the winner of the “Mackintosh” contest to design a £50 million new building for the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), right opposite the beautiful building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Renfrew Street, Garnethill.
It will be Steven Holl’s first project in UK and it will be delivered with the help of Scottish practice JM Architects.
Below, architectural drawings of the old C R Mackintosh GSA building, completed in 1909:
[via AJ]
The quietest building in the world — it’s the Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information (NSQI) at Bristol University, designed by Capita Architecture and built by Willmott Dixon Construction.
Intended for lab tests requiring zero noise, vibrations and air movements, the £11 million building, despite being in the centre of the city, complies with all these requirements. The ultra-low vibration laboratories in the basement are anchored to the stone below and will be also used for testing applications in nano-surgery, allowing scientists to study in details the surface properties of cancerous cells.
The central block of the façade is made of Portuguese limestone set out in the “Fibonacci series“.
[via AJ]
WATER BUILDING RESORT, is a sustainable building of postmodern generation (HITECH), it was designed architecturally and inspired by the form of a DROP OF WATER when falling from the heights. It is a sustainable building, projected and thought to create conscience of the water.
WATER BUILDING RESORT not contributed alone the knowledge and culture to the coming generations, if not also financial profitability for their promoters and investors.
Designed by Orlando de Urrutia in the shape of a giant water drop, Water Building Resort is a hotel, a spa, a conference centre, an underwater aquarium — but, above all, will be the first building to convert air into water: in fact its south photovoltaic façade will power an equipment on the north façade which will convert condensation and humid air into potable water. This will be possible thanks to a brand new Teex Micron technology.
The bottom floor will house a sea and rain water treatment plant and a Cidemco centre for the technological investigation on water quality.
[via Orlando de Urrutia]
The World Games Stadium, designed by japanese architect Toyo Ito, can welcome 55,000 spectators, and it’s finally ready for the World Games which will be held in Taiwan in July.
Apart from its brilliant overall design, resembling a snake, this stadium is amazing because it’s the largest solar-powered stadium ever built. In fact, its 14,155 squre metres roof is covered by 8844 solar panels which will supply 1.14 GWh green power per annum.
[via Deputy Dog and SkyscraperPage Forum]
[Photos: Paul Rivera / arcphoto.com for Rojkind Arquitectos]
The new Nestlé Lab in Querétaro, Mexico, was designed in 2007 and has just been completed.
The main challenge of this project were the restrictions to build imposed by UNESCO, being Querétaro a World Heritage site — therefore in designing new buildings certain architectural elements must be used, like, e.g., the use of arched entrances and arcades.
Rojkind Arquitectos reinterpreted the concept of arched entrance, designing a series of dome segments that mark the entrances of the buildings, “biting” the metallic exteriors to reveal orange interiors.
Architectural project: Rojkind Arquitectos
Structural engineering: Juan Felipe Heredia
Façade engineering: VYCISA
Construction: SLCI ENGINEER / Jose Soli
Interiors: ESRAWE DISEÑO / Arne Quinze
[via LA76 Strategic Design]
No more interrupted-by-rain tennis games: at Wimbledon they’ve set up a brand new retractable roof system.
UK-based firm, Capita Symonds, provided structural engineering for the roof, made of Tenara architectural fabric, a lightweight yet durable and tensile (and of course waterproof!) non-toxic, recycleable fluoropolymer, which can be pulled on trusses to cover the 5200 square metres over the tennis court in less than 10 minutes, providing a 40% translucent shield, therefore not blocking the natural light.
The new roof will be ready in time for the Centre Court Celebration matches on Sunday 17 May.
[via World Architecture News]
0 Comments 
