Finnish Pavilion JKMM Architects

The Finnish pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is called Kirnu (“KIRNU’s kettle”). Designed by JKMM, an architect’s office in Helsinki, Kirnu won first prize in the design competition announced in May 2008, which received 104 entries in all. The results were made public on 6 October in Helsinki. The following description of the Kirnu concept is based on the designers’ own delineation of their proposal for the competition.

Miniature City

The Finnish pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 portrays our country in miniature, presenting both Finland and its society to the world. The aim of the pavilion’s sculptural architecture is to create visions of freedom, creativity and innovation for the future. The pavilion will rise from the water as an island-like miniature city. A bridge leads visitors over the water into the pavilion, the heart of which consists of the miniature city’s center and a forum for events, “Kirnu”, where ideas can meet and mix.

Nature

The architecture of the pavilion draws its inspiration in Finnish nature. Elements of nature are reinterpreted in the pavilion, including the shape of small rocks found on coastal islands, the surface of a fish, reflection on water, framed view of the sky and smell of tar on wood. Like nature, the pavilion offers a quiet refuge from busy city life for anyone who wishes to enter.

Experience

The pavilion floats over water, white and ethereal. A thin film of water cools the air flow around the pavilion. The delicate, scale-like surface structure is gradually revealed when approaching the building. A smooth bridge leads towards the entrance, whose warm wood surfaces form a shady and inviting portal to the pavilion. Visitors next arrive at the forum, Kirnu. Sheer walls made of fabric rise towards the sky. The displays and lighting fixtures integrated into the floor create a virtual exhibition that visitors walk over. A gently sloping ramp ascends within the thick walls of Kirnu towards the exhibition hall, a high space that winds around the atrium. After the exhibition hall, the ramp continues downward to the exit, shop and restaurant.

Activities

Activities and facilities are clearly and accessibly located in the pavilion. The ground floor houses the Kirnu forum, a restaurant, shop, cloakroom, public restrooms and storage spaces. Visits to the shop and restaurant can be made after the exhibition without traffic flows crossing one another. The VIP entry is located away from the main entrance. The basic design enables big crowds to move smoothly around the exciting spaces. Entertainment, meeting and staff facilities can be found on the second floor.

Good life

The pavilion’s main goal is to present a vision of ‘Good Life’. The six pillars of good life are freedom, creativity, innovation, community spirit, health and nature, all of which have been integrated into the pavilion’s architecture; its spatial and functional solutions. The sculptural design represents the freedom and creativity in construction enabled by technology. Innovation has been introduced into the project in the form of clarity, but also in technical details. The pavilion winds around the forum, making the coming together of people and community spirit part of the building’s basic design. The natural elements of water and sky are an abstract part of the architecture. A comfortable and inspiring miniature city, the pavilion also provides an example of a healthy environment. People, nature and technology come together in it. The pavilion offers a forum for discussions about the development policies of a better life.

Construction process

A 3D computer model will be created to assist the construction process. The pavilion’s load-bearing vertical structures are made of steel. The façade consists of narrow elements, which will be assembled on site. The horizontal structures are made of wooden casing elements and the floors of sub-plates. Wood/plate structures will be used for the inner lining. The outer façade will be covered with scaly, modern shingles made of paper/plastic composite sheet, which is an industrial recycled product. The atrium walls and some of the walls on the second floor are made of fabric. The atrium can be covered with a transparent fabric. The stairs and lift will be constructed from individual elements. All of the construction elements will be made in such a way that the building can be disassembled and re-assembled.

Sustainable construction

The big challenge in the near future is to find methods for city construction that are sustainable and preserve natural resources. The pavilion is a laboratory for sustainable building, presenting Finnish solutions for future urban construction. The goal is to develop energy-efficient, low-emission and environmentally friendly solutions in terms of construction method and maintenance properties. The design incorporates, for example, renewable energy sources. Solar panels on the roof power cooling devices in the hottest season. The electric panels feed electricity directly into the building network or store it in batteries. Natural ventilation is used to reduce the need for mechanical ventilation. The supply air can be collected at water level underneath the house. The thick atrium wall forms a natural flue and encases the spiraling entrance ramp. Opening wall and ceiling hatches enhance natural ventilation, and the heat stress caused by the sun is reduced by the direction of facilities, the use of light surfaces and the structure of windows. The planted roof can be used to even out the heat load. Rain water is collected on the roof and conducted to a basin in the yard. Geothermal heating is also made use of. The construction materials are selected so that construction generates as few greenhouse gas emissions as possible. The loading, reuse and recycling of materials will be analyzed for the entire life cycle of the pavilion.

The New Dance and Music Centre in The Hague by RAU Architects & Powerhouse Company

November 4th, 2010

This proposal by Amsterdam architects RAU and urban design agency Powerhouse Company is one of three projects vying to win a competition to design a dance and music centre for The Hague. 

The new centre would accomodate central performance auditoriums, offices, practice rooms, and a learning centre in the roof.

A vertical slither of glass at the entrance would offer views of an atrium space and plaza, while  revealing movement within the building.

The design is one of three finalists, competing with Zaha Hadid Architects (see their proposal in our earlier story) and Neutelings Riedijk Architecten.

More details on the competition website. The winning project will be announced this month.

Here’s more information from Powerhouse Company:

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The architectural concept shows the movements of the performance in the design of the auditoriums. Visible for the public: the city and the Spuiplein. The building is a stage for performing arts, but also a tribune on the Spuiplein and the city.

The design of the supporting space and practice rooms form the neutral, open and flexible spatial frame in which the movement of the auditoriums find their connection to the site.

It is the clear ambition of the four institutes that will be housed in the DMC to create a synergy between their institutions so that the result is more then the simple sum of four institutions.

From student to top-professional, from teacher to visitor, from practice room to large auditorium: the spatial synergy within the building for a large degree will determine the synergy between the different users.

The constellation of users creates a truly unique cultural hybrid building that does not exist yet anywhere in the world. At the same time it poses a number of important challenges.

How to create a common identity while simultaneously respecting each of the users unique background? How to combine the neutral, flexible and open space needed for the preparation and creation of performing arts with the specific, intimate and technically perfect spaces needed for performances themselves? If the building is a laboratory for performing arts that take place in time, how do we give form to this space for time?

The concept can clearly be read in two parts: the clear spatial frame that creates a volume and the open space within that frame. Within this open space the fluid volumes reminisce the rhythm and movement of performances.

Two ‘walls’ and a ‘roof’ form the clear, rational and efficient volume that opens up towards the plaza. The back wall houses the preparation and supporting spaces that can be placed within standard office floors.

In the side wall all the spaces are positioned which need exceptional height, such as the practice and dance studios. The roof houses the school and library.

Under and within this rational and flexible volume lies a cascade of flowing space. In this spatial atrium the foyers and auditoriums flow over into a super public vertical landscape. The plaza extends far into the building; it flows into the atrium creating spectacular views over the city.

This atrium, with its super efficient system of escalators, is the main infrastructural spine for the building: this is where not only all the different users meet each other, but also the visitors and the city. The city is always present in the view, so are the other foyers.

On the level of the city, the individuality of each institute is only recognizable in the alteration of movement of the facade. Only in the interior of the building the different institutes reveal their individual nature.

The result is a building with a wide range of spatial qualities. On the one hand a building with a very clear logistic and infrastructural mainframe that is ideal for studying, practicing and working. On the other hand a generous, spectacular, highly public and exciting space that is specifically geared towards maximum performances.

A building for dialogue and discovery – for the artists and the city.
Credits:
Design team: Thomas Rau, Nanne de Ru, Marijn Emanuel, Bjørn Andreassen, Sander Apperlo, Johanne Borthne, Daan Brolsma, David Goehring, Stijn Kemper, Anne Larsen, Ard-Jan Lootens, Olen Snow MillHolland, Ania Molenda, Kaan Ozdurak, Stefan Prins, Magdalena Stanescu, Vincent Valentijn, Sybren Woudstra.
Structural design by Gilbert van der Lee / BREED ID.
Engineering advice by ARUP.
Climate advice by Octalix.
Images by MIR.

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See also:Hiển thị tất cả

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3rd Prize at Taipei Pop Music Center Competition / office dA 15

Feb 2010

By Sebastian J — Filed under: Cultural , office dA, Taipei, Taiwan, Y. Lin Architecture

 

Office dA (design architect) with Y. Lin Architect (joint tenderer) and CAZA (design consultant)  received third prize at the Taipei Pop Music Center Competition.
Located in the Nangang District, the principal space design comprises of an indoor performing hall with 4500-6000 seats, an outdoor performing space with 15000 standing seats, exhibition space for reputed musicians, a digital library, a medium and small indoor exhibition and performing live house, industrial communities and incubation space, etc.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
BLENDING TERRITORIES: HOW TO KEEP THE HABITAT ALIVE
TPMC is born out of a commitment to cultural conditions that can advance the richness of Taipei’s music industry, the activity of the city, and the multiple programs that sponsor its vitality; from this emerges a form of hybridity, a condition that is so characteristic of Taipei itself. The principles behind its success must be those of an open city: a project with urban elements that have been reconfigured to be more than just a hinge between inside and outside but a new geography of cultural pressures and possibilities.
Our design posits the topological surface of the ruled canopy as an architectural figure that can give form and identity to a large expansive site while holding clusters of program together in a loose yet conjoined unity. It is a form that defines an interior volume as acoustically distinct while creating an exterior shell that touches on issues of symbolism, visibility and access in one gesture. The ruled surface, as a figure, also offers at least three ways to engage functional possibilities: a canopy for protection against the elements, a vertical fin for billboards and signage, as well as the scupper for hydrology. Streets, alleyways and market spaces extend through and beyond the pleats of this surface creating opportunities to intensify difference and enable invention. The north is urban, the south is a futuristic botanical universe and the spaces in between are open to the colonization of young, optimistic and entrepreneurial market makers.