Jaarbeurs Utrecht is taking its first steps in building a new Entrance in collaboration with Liong Lie architects.

With the development of a wonderful new space, named the Galaxy and a new Entrance, the Jaarbeurs gets an innovative and contemporary appearance.

Courtesy Liong Lie Architects

With the aim to create a sustainable society Liong Lie architects believe in creating unique places. Places that have an attractive force on people, places that deliver memorable experiences and create a big social and economical boost.

The Galaxy is a space suited for conventions, dinner parties and other events. It is directed towards the renewed West station area by means of a huge panorama window.

Courtesy Liong Lie Architects

Underneath the Galaxy the new Entrance East is situated: a spacious entrance hall that gives access to the halls on the ground floor and the conference rooms – including Media Plaza (1st phase designed by Sander architecten, 2nd part by Liong Lie Architects) – on the first floor. The Entrance serves as a central welcoming reception area with all facilities needed for a warm reception and an efficient people flow to guide visitors to their destinations. The entrance is part of the main connecting route, the Centrumboulevard.

Courtesy Liong Lie Architects

Construction is planned to start in 2013, and will take place solely on Jaarbeurs Utrecht property. During construction, events like fairs, conferences and business meetings will continue to take place. The application for a building permit has been submitted. Soon the construction documents phase will start.

Courtesy Liong Lie Architects

Recently the new office building Blaak 8 in the center of Rotterdam was completed, after which the organisation of Stedin has moved into the premises. Commissioned by real-estate developer Blauwhoed, GROUP A has in collaboration with Dreissen architects designed the building.

Image courtesy GROUP A

Massing and Program

This prominent and dynamic area along the Blaak in Rotterdam, has long been a wide gap in the urban fabric; a location with an illustrious history where much has changed and for which various proposals have been put forward following the demolition of the original railway bridge and trainstation Rotterdam Blaak. A location which until recently was only used occasionally by a circus, an ice rink, or an exhibition.

Image courtesy GROUP A

Both the restricted building footprint, sandwiched in between the railway tunnel, the extended Willemsbrug and the Blaak, as well as the comprehensive office program, have dictated the urban mass; conditions that have resulted in a powerful and compact 70 meter high building. The design of the building mass has emerged from the urban contours of the surrounding areas. A 6-floor trapezoidal shaped building base runs parallel to the extended Willemsbrug, with above a slightly twisted and ocantilevered rectangular high rise of 14 floors. The receding and rotated 3 floors high top along the Blaak facade, is oriented towards the city center. A building composition according to the classical configuration of 'base, body & top'

Image courtesy GROUP A

The 22,500 m² building houses alongside spectacular views, facilities like a representative entrance hall and outdoor spaces on both the 5th and 17th floor. A range of sustainable measures has provided the building a Greencalc+, A-label. Floors of Blaak 8 are characterised by their large, almost column-free space with asymmetric central core. The average area of a standard office floor is approximately 825 m². Parking facilities for 160 cars have been integrated within the building envelope.

Blaak 8 is a robust and future-proof building, firmly anchored in the urban fabric of the Rotterdam Laurenskwartier.

Image courtesy GROUP A

Facade

The structure of a tree with its natural constructional logic, has been the inspiration for the facade design. At the top, where the forces are relatively small, the tree exists of thin twigs. At the bottom, where the forces from the entire crown come together and must be carried, the trunk of the tree looks broad and strong. It is this natural structure that has served as inspiration for the load-bearing facade of Blaak 8. On the lower floors heavy piers reflect the 'tree-trunks' which extend upwardly branching out into smaller piers that reflect the 'tree-tops'. The tower owes its stability to this diagonal fluttering 'branches'. The unconventional facade structure ensures the building to be experienced as abstract from various viewpoints, and from other positions the tree structure to be clearly visible.

Image courtesy GROUP A

Prefab facade elements

Despite the wide variety of facade fragments as a result of the irregular shape of the 'tree structure', Group A has been able to minimise the number of elements. The smart use of a limited number of molds (7 window-options and 1 closed part) in the base-production mold of 7,20 m, provided a feasible and financially viable facade. By subtly varying the roughness and the 'sparkling' characteristics of the natural stone supplement in the concrete elements, the tree structure in the facade is strengthened. In this way the building presents itself constantly in a different way, depending on the ever changing light, weather conditions and season of the year.

+ All images courtesy GROUP A

Thailand-based design studio Whitespace recently has completed the new showroom for Honda.

Honda motorcycles entrusted Whitespace to help introduce Thai consumers to their line of 'Big Bikes' within their new landmark building. Focusing on evoking emotions and highlighting technology, we set out to let showroom visitors feel the excitement, quality and technical edge Honda bikes long before their first test ride.

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

Honda BigWing, image courtesy Whitespace | Photo by Wison Tungthunya

+ Project facts

Company: Whitespace Co., Ltd. (Thailand)
Design Director: David Mayer, R.A./US
Project architect: Boriphon Suwattana, R.A./Thailand
Environmental Graphics: Dann DeWitt
Lighting design: Bernhard Bstieler / Inverse

Start – September 2011
Completion – April 2012
Budget – 20 Mill BAHT (interior)
Size
600 sq.m. showroom
350 sq.m. Meeting and lounge
Photographer: Wison Tungthunya

+ All images and drawings courtesy Whitespace 

Image courtesy Yohei Sasakura

The site is located at the very end of the residential section developed in the 1970s in Nara, Japan. There are homogeneous prefabricated houses in one side, and ancient Japanese-styled houses and rich nature spread in another side. It is the typical site of Nara. We planned a new residence for young husband and wife.

Image courtesy Yohei Sasakura

First, We classified various spaces into two . The opened space with free usage , such as the living, the dining room, kitchen, and loft, was unified by a white volume. The closed space with specific functions, such as soundproof studio, a bathroom, a utility room, and a bedroom, was unified by a black volume.

Image courtesy Yohei Sasakura

Image courtesy Yohei Sasakura

Second, We put the black volume to the road side, The white volume was set some distance back from it.

Third, by combining two volumes, the residence could have a small courtyard and was able to gain a wind, light, and a view.

Section courtesy Yoshihiro Yamamoto

+ Project facts

Project: niu
Architect: Yoshihiro Yamamoto | http://yyaa.jp/
Location: Ikoma city, Nara, JAPAN
Construction: Nov 2011, May 2012
Structure: Wooden Structure
Site Area: 220.36 m2
Building Area: 76.77 m2
Floor Area: 89.53 m2 | 1F 76.77m2, 2F 12.76m2
Typology: House
Photographer: Yohei Sasakura

+ All images and drawings courtesy YYAA

Studio Mumbai recently has completed the Pavilion at MOMAT (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo).

SHEILD, a waterproof case for smart phones, has been released through a collaboration of UX agency Light Brain and Joongho Choi. SHEILD is designed to improve its look and durability by the consideration of distinctiveness to existing water proof cases, that have rough exterior and unreliable durability.

Double zipper has been implemented to provide better function and underwater photo and touch functions are provided with three color variations.

+ Designer: Joongho Choi

Courtesy Joongho Choi

Courtesy Joongho Choi

Courtesy Joongho Choi

Courtesy Joongho Choi

Valerio Olgiati recently completed an installation for the 2012 Venice Biennale (Commond Ground, curated by David Chipperield).

Courtesy Simone Rohner

Courtesy Simone Rohner

+ Pictographs – Statements of contemporary architects

For the installation I asked 41 contemporary architects to select images that refer to something important for their work or for them as practitioners. Architects whom I consider to be the most unique working today. Each architect creates a personal musée imaginaire by selecting one to ten images of different meanings and contents, depending on their own universe. Some collect images of memories, inspirations and atmospheres. Others talk by collecting images of analysis, explanations or manifestos. And yet others explain principles of their own architecture or simply show the things they like, consciously or unconsciously. It is about the visual world stored in the head of architects.

Together these 323 images represent a monumental view at the fountainhead of contemporary architects. The installation in this space mainly consists of a horizontal slab, hanging in the exact moddle height of the room. It is an intervention that expresses order looking from far away. However, upon approaching, it turns into an architectural object. By entering the object, a new deliberately symbolic space appears. In the middle of this space, on an additional slab, the pictographs of the architects are exhibited as icons.

Valerio Olgiati

Courtesy Simone Rohner

Courtesy Simone Rohner

Courtesy Valerio Olgiati

+ List of architects:

David Adjaye, Francisco & Manuel Aires Mateus, Alejandro Aravena, Mario Botta, Alberto Campo Baeza, Adam Caruso & Peter St John, Preston Scott Cohen, Hermann Czech, Roger Diener, Peter Eisenman, Sou Fujimoto, Anton Garcia Abril, Go Hasegawa, Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, Steven Holl, Anne Holtrop, Junya Ishigami, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito, Bijoy Jain (Studio Mumbai), Momoyo Kaijima & Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Atelier Bow-Wow), Christian Kerez, Hans Kollhoff, Winy Maas (MVRDV), Peter Märkli, Jürgen Mayer H., Richard Meier, Valerio Olgiati, John Pawson, Cecilia Puga, Smiljan Radic, Richard Rogers, Kazuyo Sejima, Jonathan Sergison & Stephen Bates, Miroslav Sik, Alvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Ben van Berkel, Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown, Peter Wilson (Bolles+Wilson) and Peter Zumthor.

+ Project data

object:
installation for the 2012 Venice Biennale (Commond Ground, curated by David Chipperield)

location:
La Biennale di Venezia (Arsenale, Corderie), Venice, Italy
architect:
VALERIO OLGIATI, architect, Senda Stretga 1, 7017 Flims
Tel. +41 81 650 33 11, Fax +41 81 650 33 12, mail@olgiati.net

collaborators:
Nathan Ghiringhelli (project manager), Meng Li

sponsors:
Community of Flims, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

year of construction:
august 2012

materials:
medium-density fibreboard (MDF), painted white

copyright photographs:
Archive Olgiati and/or Simone Rohner