Mall of Istanbul, render courtesy Chapman Taylor

London-based Chapman Taylor has designed the The Mall of Istanbul. This mixed-use development forms a strong sculptural statement set within a lush, green, landscaped environment.

The Mall of Istanbul comprises a mix of uses – retail, leisure, offices, hotel and residential. The development concept is inspired by existing geographic streetscapes within Istanbul to create an abstract interpretation of the city. This creates an arrangement full of interest, variety and multiple experiences, overlaid onto an effective commercial plan.

The architectural approach responds to the nature of the site and the concept. With a changing vista of forms responding in a contemporary way to the complexity of the Istanbul cityscape, each use is given its own expression, but with strong connections between the forms.

Mall of Istanbul, render courtesy Chapman Taylor

Mall of Istanbul, render courtesy Chapman Taylor

Mall of Istanbul, render courtesy Chapman Taylor

+ Project credits / data

Project: Mall of Istanbul
Location: Istanbul, Estambul, Turkey
Architect: Chapman Taylor | http://www.chapmantaylor.com/
Typology: Mixed use | retail, leisure, offices, hotel and residential

+ About Chapman Taylor

Chapman Taylor is an international practice of architects, masterplanners and designers, established over 50 years ago.  The team currently operates from 15 regional offices, undertaking projects worldwide and is one of the UK's largest exporters of commercial architectural services.  Chapman Taylor was awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2009 and The International Trade Award: London Region 2008.

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Petatglass is an interesting project done by REC Arquitectura. Creating a certain level of comfort is the main concern for the project while avoiding the use of conditioning air. It is a good attempt of using the traditional raw material that applied on the wall which is usually used for roof covering, it created a contrast effect and demonstrated the new way of  interplay between contemporary and traditional features.

Petatglass, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

Petatglass, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

Petatglass, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

+ Project description by REC Arquitectura

The facade offers a new form of seeing the straw or plalapa, since commonly it is used for the roof in horizontal elements, but in this case we use it for vertical elements offering improvements to the interior comfort, this it is a facade that is combed when being placed.

Cuernavaca and its context have permitted REC to generate an architectural field of incomparable experimentation, where principal elements have tried to work with local identity and present technology. For that, by detecting  the urban caos  which applies appearance of town and its small urban image's adaptability to radical changes, we've generated a binary space which involves tradition with a creative language.

It's about a geometric orthogonal building, discreet and respectful toward the environment which used combination in each of creative phases from the conception to the pragmatic construction, and that works very same as a showroom of itself for brave use of traditional constructive system; a reinterpretation of palapa creates the skin of the facade which has the biggest solar exposition and generates an unique visual mimicry accentuating its presence with a new language.

Because of the short time we had to construct the building, the constructive system gave priority to the crystal and the steel, and so this way the result was one effective construction that was resolved by following a simple program.

As showed in this project, sustainable design is a guideline for the office, avoiding the use of conditioning air commonly used in these areas for volumes fitted with glass, saving money for the client with crossed ventilation, structure consistency, sun and currents of air, because intelligent buildings are not conceived by inserting a PC or sophisticated and expensive materials, but employed obvious criterion.

Petatglass - Level 1 floor plan, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

Petatglass - Level 2 floor plan, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

Petatglass - Section, image courtesy REC Arquitectura

+ Project credits / data

Project: Petatglass
Location: Paseo del Conquistador No. 53, Cuernavaca Morelos, México.
Site area: 41 m2
GFA: 142 m2
Architect: Rec Arquitectura | http://www.recarquitectura.com/
Team members: Jonathan Tapia Bernal, Magdalena Ramos Bazan, Carlos Solorzano, Gerardo Recoder.
Structure: Ivan Recoder.
Engineering: Gustavo Lira Mendoza.
Construction: Víctor Manuel Gómez y Gerardo Recoder.
Plalapa: Pablo Castro Carvajal.
Glass: Ricardo Salgado.

+ All drawings and images courtesy REC Arquitectura

REC Arquitectura has designed the Art Center UAEM located in Morelos, Mexico.

+ Project description by REC Arquitectura

The university of Morelos is located within a special region in Cuernavaca in regard of altitude, vegetation and topography, which summed up to its programmatic requirements,  resulted in a design strategy focused on the idea of a "village" or rational settlement that naturally adapts to the terrain, offering the opportunity to build the complex in phases without interrupting or impeding the rest of the faculty activities.

Art Center UAEM, render courtesy REC Arquitectura

It is worth mentioning that the site dedicated to one of these phases was already occupied by a structure that we decided to utilize in order to reduce the total building cost, but above all, to use a building that already needed resources and energy and applied them to new needs.

The overall design intention was to make the faculty an open museum, walking through the corridors and experiencing art deployed on the classroom windows performing as showcases for student work.

Art Center UAEM, render courtesy REC Arquitectura

The project is contemplated to grow up to a 40% to its current capacity and conceived sustainable since the classroom platforms are deployed and located to naturally adapt to the site topography without major excavation activity; the roof corridors are proposed of tensile fiberglass elements in the shape of inverted cones to capture rainwater to be used in restrooms.  In regard of classroom temperature, it is proposed cross ventilation and a double masonry wall to isolate the interior space from exterior heat, a strategy widely used in houses of the region.

Art Center UAEM, render courtesy REC Arquitectura

The plaza is a design element that was not contemplated at the beginning but finally allowed to connect and articulate the renovated structure, the new buildings, the parking lot and the future faculty of architecture; this civic plaza also would work as an open movie theater.

The Art Faculty consolidates on the phase I building,  sculpture classes for big format, photography, stop motion, painting and graphics, this is the building to be reutilized.  Phase II involves the plaza, restrooms, sculpture of small format, drawing rooms, cafeteria, multimedia, animation lab, video editing, computer and network rooms and audio visual areas.  Finally, phase III involves general administration, auditorium, library, gallery and classrooms.

Art Center UAEM - Floor plan, drawing courtesy REC Arquitectura

Art Center UAEM - Section, drawing courtesy REC Arquitectura

+ Project credit / data

Project: Art Center UAEM
Location: Av. Universidad No. 1009, col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca, Morelos. c.p.62209
Year: 2009 (project), 2010 (Under Construction)
Construction: 3,800 m2
Architect: Rec Arquitectura | http://www.recarquitectura.com/
Team members: Ulises Rodriguez, Ivan Garcia, Gerardo Pérez, Gustavo Lira, Jesus Mondragon, Ivan Recoder, Maria J. Jimenez y Gerardo Recoder
Typology: Culture | Art center, school

+ All drawings and images courtesy REC Arquitectura

+ Recommended art gallery/school featured on +MOOD

Herning Museum of Contemporary Art | Steven Holl architects

Thor Heyerdahl School | Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Mexico-based firm REC Arquitectura has designed the Central Library in Morelos, Mexico.

+ Project description by REC Arquitectura

The building complex is conceived in sub elements, each element rationally positioned and connected to one another with three generating ideas: culture, cultivation and domesticity.

Central Library, render courtesy REC Arquitectura

The wagons:
Volumes dedicated to book collection and reading rooms with clean circulations, but above all with close proximity between books and reading tables, echoing the way it occurs at home and its domesticity in having things within close reach.  The building structure is flexible for additions, modifications or reproductions within the same site or serving as models for different places inside or outside the university campus.

The “L” Building:
This volume serves as boundary for the central space and contains administrative, public and service spaces such as: multi-purpose rooms, videotheque, hemerotheque, auditorium for 143 people, theses, computer and meeting rooms, cubicles, chief of services, private collections, restrooms, book storage, machinery room, clean water cistern and rainwater cistern.

Lobby/Vestibule:
The double high space performs different functions and the resulting form is entirely rational.   The main access features a 5.6m glass curtain with a concave silhouette designed to protect the space from isolation, likewise, columns and different structural elements are projected towards the exterior in order to work as brise – soleil. Inside, the building’s main facade works as a canvas to deploy a timeline in which historical facts are xerographied within the architecture; divided vertically in modules of 1.2 meters width to show chronologically key moments in history from 1500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.; and horizontally in learning areas, looking for a recreational strategy to interrelate important events in history in a holistic context.

Central Library, render courtesy REC Arquitectura

Central Patio/Central Courtyard:
The central patio with a raindrop shape offers, aside from natural light and ventilation, a triple function of the building with its context; first, it seems like an interior street that ends with a natural mound in the exterior, second, if observed from the wagons, the building is perceived as if the viewer were on the outside, and finally, when the visitor is located at the last wagon towards the main access, the central patio seems confined with a local tree species called “gold rain”, this is the way in which the same volume allows the viewer, depending on his position, to experience a street, a building from the outside and a central courtyard.

Agriculture:
This action embraces self resources, society and education; instead of proposing landscape design and gardening which would eventually need future budget for maintenance, the library landscape strategy is focused on partnering with the faculty of agriculture to surround the building context with orchards and vegetable gardens, interrelating the library socially with another university faculty and allowing the faculty of agriculture to gather and concentrate its land needs while creating synergy within more areas of knowledge.

Central Library - Lighting diagram, drawing courtesy REC Arquitectura

Light:
The lighting strategy was based on the idea of light bouncing in one or two surfaces at least, this effect would generate a different light intensity in the interior; for example, in the wagons, the three skylights would received different illumination since the way they are place embrace light from the dawn to light from the dusk.  The skylight of one of the wagons was oriented towards the north in order to have homogeneous natural light, in the double high stairs and multipurpose rooms, the roof walls were conically shaped in order to look for zenital light; finally, there was left a gap between the double high space ceiling and the elongated bar in order to take advantage of the 12pm light bouncing against a orange surface to provide warmth light at noon.

Central Library - Floor plans, drawing courtesy REC Arquitectura

+ Project credits / data

Project: Central Library, UAEM
Location: Av. Universidad No. 1001, col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca, Morelos. c.p.62209
Year: 2010 (project), 2011 (Under Construction)
Construction: 3,630 m2
Architect: Rec Arquitectura | http://www.recarquitectura.com/
Team: Gustavo Lira, Ivan Garcia, Ulises Rodriguez, Alejandro Albarran, Daniel Ceceña, Maria J. Jimenez, Ivan Recoder y Gerardo Recoder
Typology: Culture | Library

+ All images and drawings courtesy REC Arquitectura

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Kortrijk Central Library (Kortrijk LLLibrary) | REX