Zaha Hadid Architects have unveiled their design for the largest cultural building in China, to be located in Chengdu in Sichuan Province.
The Chengdu Contemporary Art Centre will comprise three auditoria, an art museum, exhibition space and conference centre, plus restaurants, bars and shops.
The facade will be covered in criss-crossing louvres to provide shade from the sun.
The following information is from Zaha Hadid Architects:
CHENGDU CONTEMPORARY ART CENTRE [CHENGDU, CHINA]
The result of an international design competition in 2007, Chengdu Contemporary Art Centre will be a new cultural destination for Sichuan Province and will provide Chengdu with an unprecedented collection of world-class arts, performance, leisure, and congress venues.
Design students Min‐Chieh Chen, Dominik Zausinger and Michele Leidi of the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, have sent us some images of a pavilion made of cardboard hoops.
Called Packed, the digitally designed pavilion is made up of 409 cylinders of different diameters and thicknesses, connected together with ties to create a dome-shaped grid of circles.
The students used computer technology to implement the manufacture of the components of the pavilion and also its packing and shipping.
The aim of the project is to show how CAAD (Computer Aided Architectural Design) can be exploited, not only to create designs but also to optimise the entire design processes including production and logistics.
The pavilion was on show as part of the 3D paperArt exhibition at the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts in November 2010, as part of the Shanghai Expo 2010.
Packed a cardboard pavilion by Min‐Chieh Chen, Dominik Zausinger and Michele Leidi with the help of Jeannette Kuo and the supervision of Tom Pawlofsky Shanghai, 2010
Packed is a digitally designed cardboard pavilion that has been exposed at the exhibition 3D paperArt in Shanghai. The exhibition took place at the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts and at the Fudan University in connection with the finishing of the Shanghai world EXPO 2010.
The pavilion is the final group‐project of the Master Advanced Study at the Chair of Computer Aided Architectural Design (MAS CAAD) at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland. The CAAD Chair is specialized in the application of information technologies in the field of architecture and in computer‐controlled fabrication.
The pavilion features a bottom‐up design composed of variable truncated cones, 409 in all, in which these basic constructive elements are filling the entire surface creating a network. The cones negotiate their parameters with each other by adapting their size, form and position. While maintaining their individual diversity and freedom, the elements cooperate together to achieve common goals such as overall stability, shape, illumination, views and spatial quality.
The cones were manufactured using corrugated cardboard in 28 layers, each of which was cut, glued and labelled with a computer‐controlled machine. For all steps, from design, production, logistics and packing in Zurich to shipping and assembly in Shanghai, the process was implemented and optimized by means of self‐made computer programs. By intelligently nesting and packing the cones the amount of material used, the production time and the shipping volume were significantly reduced.
The experiment is intended to demonstrate how architects can use CAAD to customize a design process. It was possible on one side to overcome logistical and fabrication constraints with integrated solutions, and on the other side to exploit the potential of digital design on the aesthetical level.
Here are some photographs of the completed Tree Hotel byTham & Videgård Arkitekter, a mirrored glass box suspended round the trunk of a tree in Harads, northern Sweden.
The 4x4x4 metre cube is accessed by rope bridge and reflects the surrounding forest and sky.
The plywood interior is designed to accommodate two people, containing a double bed, bathroom, living room and roof terrace.
The information that follows is from Tham & Videgård Arkitekter:
Tree hotel in Harads (2008-2010)
A tree hotel in the far north of Sweden, near the small village of Harads, close to the polar circle. A shelter up in the trees; a lightweight aluminium structure hung around a tree trunk, a 4x4x4 meters box clad in mirrored glass.
The exterior reflects the surroundings and the sky, creating a camouflaged refuge.
The interior is all made of plywood and the windows give a 360 degree view of the surroundings.
The construction also alludes to how man relates to nature, how we use high tech materials and products when exploring remote places in harsh climates (Gore-tex, Kevlar, composite materials, light weight tents etc).
The functions included provides for a living for two people; a double bed, a small bath room, a living room and a roof terrace.
Access to the cabin is by a rope bridge connected to the next tree.
To prevent birds colliding with the reflective glass, a transparent ultraviolet colour is laminated into the glass panes which are visible for birds only.
The tree hotel in Harads focuses on wild life-/eco tourism where one encounters and experiences the pristine nature of Sweden.
Architects: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, www.tvark.se
Chief architects: Martin Videgård and Bolle Tham.
Staff: Andreas Helgesson, Julia Gudiel Urbano, Mia Nygren.
Client: Brittas Pensionat, Britta Lindvall and Kent Lindvall,
ma yansong was born in beijing, china in 1975.
he graduated from yale university school of architecture
in 2002 with a master's degree in architecture.
ma was the winner of 2006 architecture league
young architects award. he also received the
american institute of architects scholarship for
advanced architecture research in 2001 as well as
the 2002 samuel j. fogelson memorial award of
design excellence. prior to founding MAD in 2004,
ma worked as a project designer with zaha hadid architects
in london and eisenman architects in new york.
ma yansong has taught at central academy of fine arts,
beijing. MAD is a beijing-based design office dedicated
to innovation in architectural practice, landscape design
and urban planning. the office's works have won
numerous international design competitions,including
the absolute tower in toronto, canada, solar plaza
in guangzhou, china, and shanghai digital art center.
in 2006 MAD produced its first solo exhibitions:
'MAD in china' at the venice architecture biennial
and 'MAD under construction' at the beijing tokyo art
projects gallery in beijing. in 2007, 'MAD in china',
a floating city was showcased at the danish architecture
centre in copenhagen and MAD’s first monograph,
'MAD dinner', was published. MAD’s concept proposal
titled 'super star_a mobile china town' was exhibited in
the 11th architectural biennale in venice in 2008.
ongoing projects include: the absolute towers in toronto,
canada; the sinosteel international plaza, in tianjin, china;
erdos museum in inner mongolia, guardian art center
in beijing, taichung convention center in taiwan;
some large-scale public complex and residential housing
in denmark,hong kong, dubai, singapore, malaysia, japan
and costa rica. http://www.i-mad.com
---
we met ma yansong in beijing on november 5th, 2009
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the best moment of the day is when I get to escape from
work and pick up my children from kindergarten. and then you stop working or you have to go back?
I have to come back (laughs).
sometimes when I have no meetings in the office
I stay at home and only when they sleep I come back. what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?
nothing special.
If I'm happy I listen to the radio.
3 days ago I went to the concert hall by frank gehry and
they just happened to have a classical music performance.
I'm not sure if it was the space or the music but I really
enjoyed myself. do you listen to the radio?
in the car, mostly. what books do you have on your bedside table?
I don't buy books, but a lot of people send me books,
so it depends on what books they send to me. do you read design / architecture / fashion magazines?
I only read the magazines with our work in them.
again, because that's what they send to us and this
is already much to read, but I flip through many architectural
and design magazines regularily. I also like fashion
magazines and some graphic books. where do you get news from?
the internet I assume you notice how women dress.
do you have any preferences?
I like a women who dresses very clean and simple but also
manages to have a good contrast of colour to make
her look very cool. what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?
usually I avoid wearing colourful clothing, but this depends
on my mood. when I'm depressed I wear the same clothes
4 or 5 times. in these moments I really don't care and
I don't want people to look at me, but sometimes when
I'm with my kids and their friends my mood changes
completely and I wear something casual and very colorful
- but that does not happen alot to me.
on the other hand being a young architect and when
giving presentations I also need to look 'cool' or wear
something formal, such as a 'professional black suit'. do you have any pets?
no. actually when I was in middle school I use to have a
dog and then I lost it. the story was that I used to ride my
bike to school everyday for 40 to 50 minutes and one day
along my route I found a dog and took it with me and stored
it under my desk. I continued doing this for the next 3 or
4 days until my teacher's told me I wasn't allowed.
so during class I left it in the playground but by the end
of the day it was gone, so that is my short pet experience. when you were a child, did you want
to become an architect?
no.
I wanted to draw, be a professional painter.
I applied to art school and they didn't let me in (laughs).
the lecturers there suggested to me to study architecture,
as they said my fine art level was low.
for architecture it's probably OK (laughs). where do you work on your projects?
my initial ideas come mostly from travel.
I can not stay all day in the office, I want to continually
go out, but most of the time I need to stay
in the office have meetings with the various design teams. what project has given you the most satisfaction?
we did about 100 competitions in the first two years when
we started the firm. we didn't have time to organize
until recently when we did the archive and publishing work.
I like all these proposals somehow and I feel that they all
became important to me, because if it wasn't for the first
one I could never have progressed to the next project.
all these buildings, visions are a very honest body of work
with lots of potential. a major project that helped the office to grow?
in the beginning I think we did too many competitions
and we only won one, however this is the one that made
us famous. it was an international competition outside china,
but made us recognized in china. this was the absolute towers
in toronto, canada. they bear the name of the property
but they are also called 'marilyn monroe', because of the
curves of the towers. this was in 2006, its already half
way done.
describe your style like a good friend of yours
would describe it.
last night I was thinking something (lol) -
the 'chinese dream' needs to be redefined with more
attention to the 'personal dream' of our people.
a dream where there are no political boundaries,
which then becomes the dream for human beings.
that's what interests me a lot. I always try to do something
which is open and free (perhaps involving nature).
there are those architects who are realistic architects
or those utopian architects. we are part of the first, we try
to plan something which is quiet real, something
you can visualize. do you discuss your work with other architects?
yes. with young architects like bjarke ingels from BIG
in denmark and also michel rojkind from rojkind arquitectos
in mexico. those guys, like me, always travel around and
it happens that we sometimes meet and present our work
to each other. however we don't meet that often.
when I feel a bit lost in the office, I call up my friends and ask
for advice. one time I invited the young architects
tom wiscombe and elena manferdini from LA
(who are also teachers) and asked them to critique
our work. to them we gave a presentation for each
of our projects. I think that discussing your work is very
helpful, as sometimes I feel there are too many things going on. who would you like to design something for?
I want to design a home for myself and for my family.
my parents stay with us as well.
sometimes when a family approaches us to design
a house I try to avoid it because all families have
different opinions and I don't know how to work with them,
but for my own family I feel it would be interesting.
I would listen to everyone's opinion and try very hard to
satisfy all. basically this house can change when people
grow. firstly it would have to be in a forest , in the middle
of nature - that's impossible in china (laughs). it would also
consist of a lot of courtyards with outdoor space.
something similar to the traditional buildings we had in
china once. another project I would like to do is a reading
room for myself. last month we went to a very special site,
with a beautiful lake. you can't really build a house there,
but perhaps build a temporary structure. I imagine a small
wooden container of maybe 2 square meters only,
where I can admire nature, whilst reading (laughs). you envision a city of the future?
we did one project called the beijing 2050, in that vision
we created a green square. where once the whole area
was covered in concrete but now will be covered with trees.
there's no design, no actual shape and no architecture.
its only covered with trees. I feel that the trees don't only
mean 'green', it is also the idea of transforming this
'political space' into a more 'human space'.
we also proposed a floating city in a high density situation
in china, because the country's population will continue
to rise in the future. the situation is very special here,
in china, compared to the rest of the world.
china has a very powerful ambition. the 'chinese dream'
now is different from what china dreamed in history.
who knows what's next ? what we might need to build
high up in the sky? the project also involved preserving
the old city by inserting bubbles around it. right now we
are talking with some producers to see if we can make
a few models and do a movie about the project, so it would
be a tool to look back in history and compare how the
world actually turned out to be. is there any designer and/or architect from the past,
you appreciate a lot?
I like mies van der rohe because his work is opposite
to what other people did at that time. and those still working / contemporary?
zaha hadid, who was also my teacher
(she's not a good boss but was a very good teacher).
she's the first person that gave me a lot of contemporary
art books (in architecture school) and gave me good advice.
I like frank gehry's work, in the beginning he did very
commercial projects and then one day he changed -
that's very brave. in my work I try to link with his work.
... and toyo ito. he has given a great contribution to
the architectural world. he encourages a lot of people
and is a sort of tutor for many young architects.
I hope I can do this type of thing when I'm older. please describe an evolution in your work,
from your first projects to the present day.
I think I'm still trying to find my way.
I have so many different interests...
for example, I think that it is amazing that we can
do this floating island project. that was in its original
version a student work of mine. at that time I didn't know
anything and I was totally not realistic. the first idea
was not so much the form itself. you know, you have
this idea in your heart and soul and you want to expose
it to the world by using all your energy...
usually when you're young you have great imagination
but cannot do anything with it. the pity of the architecture
industry is that it is full of old people. when they are given
the chance to do a 'significant something' they might not
remember what they wanted to do when they were
young. I think successful architects should do something
very original and not take away from that. don't you suffer a work overload?
last month toyo ito came to my office and we talked
about cultural issues within the practice. I asked him
what I should do: 'there are so many big projects coming
in, if I do all of these I might lose control and maybe in
10 years time I will have 20 similar shaped buildings'.
I can choose to ignore all of this and do my own thing.
I don't design all these high-rises, but only nice small
buildings, but that's not reality.I cannot ignore where I am.
his answer was quiet encouraging, he said he always
dreamt of having this opportunity, but it never happened
to him at such a young age. and that building high-density
projects is something architects should continue to do
until they die. in the end I realized it was a silly question
(... because that is why I am living and working in china). what advice would you give to the young?
don't hesitate.
make a decision fast. follow the first 5 seconds instinct.
if you think you need to compare and you hesitate,
then it must be a wrong decision. as in your life one
decision comes after the other and if you realize you do
something wrong, you know it is because of a previous
decision, which was a mistake. I think everyone should
follow their heart. robert stern, the dean of the arts and
architecture at yale says this to all the students on their
graduation day : 'you should forget everything you learnt
from school and start on your own. no matter who said
what, you should believe only in yourself'.
what type of work experience is required?
as a young designer it is very difficult to handle complexity.
after school I think you should work for somebody to gain
experience - for maybe five, max. ten years before starting
your own business.actually for us it was different, we just
started straight away, apart from the time I worked with
zaha hadid. it was only for one year, but at her office
there were a lot of projects going on, at the same time,
and we apprentices had to learn very fast. are you currently teaching?
no, I was teaching for two semesters, but my schedule
became too hectic. what are you afraid of regarding the future?
I hope I'm never unemployed (laughs)
and as we did this project for 2050, by that time
I hope I'm still alive. I think the architect's nature is
not to fear. I'm totally expecting to see what happens.
if something happens or you're not comfortable with it
you can change it or at least try to change it.
I think it is very simple: as an architect your job is
solving problems! if the world were perfect, there would
be no job for you. that's why I came back to china,
there are many things to do.
design proposal of 'V&A at dundee' by kengo kuma
all images courtesy kengo kuma and V&A at dundee kengo kuma's shortlisted design of the 'V&A at dundee' is a single volume composed of two tapered and offset forms which aims to generate new relations between the tay river and the waterfront. given the very prominent site of the project, the proposal not only looks at the building itself but a new addition of a network of public spaces to take advantage of the harbour space. the result is a literal extension of the public space onto the water and a promenade that meanders through and around the building. the creation of multiple public plazas at the foot of the museum not only serve as an outdoor exhibition/event space for the institution, but reshapes the waterfront into a space for both locals and visitors to enjoy. bird's eye view of the public square view of the museum from the union street axis primarily driven by the conditions already on site, the overall shape and form of the museum negotiates the already strong and established axes of the waterfront: the city's access which runs along union street, and the axis created by the docked 'RSS discovery', the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in britain, now serving as one of dundee's main attraction. taking these two intersecting lines and rotating one onto the other, the directionality of the V&A encourages unexpected visual relations with the river and the city. moments along the public promenade which meanders under the belly of the museum are framed by the structure itself, providing certain views and perspectives of dundee and the tay. view from the waterfront timber deck alongside the V&A constructed out of layers of prefabricated concrete beams, the building lacks any hard edges when seen from a distance. the columns are assembled on site to achieve the gradually offset structure and clad in reconstituted stone from local materials. the resulting permeable shell allows for natural ventilation as well as abundant daylighting. the actual structure itself is cut with glazing which changes the density of the volume, provides texture, and allows the museum to easily control the museum's microclimate. east elevation the main hall serves as an indoor public square with programs such as shops, cafe and restaurant. in order to avoid the perfection of the museum as a self-standing extraneous object on the river, the timer deck of the promenade and plaza is gradually translated to the interior and continued on the other side of the building. sectional view main hall seen from the balcony on the first floor digital wall and art installation in main entrance hall (clockwise from top left) the signatur restaurant by the tay, cafe with panoramic terrace, public path framed by the museum, temporary exhibition in the main gallery ground floor plan first floor plan physical model the other shortlisted firms areREX,snøhetta,sutherland hussey,steven holl, anddelugan meissl. -- the university of abertay dundee is currently hosting 'V&A at dundee - making it happen' which will exhibit all six shortlisted designs in drawings and models. the public is invited to give their input and opinions of the designs until the 4th of november, 2010. the winner will be announced in early november with the final building planned to open in 2014.
erdos museum, erdos, china, under construction
huaxi city centre, model, china, 2008
'superstar', self-sustaining city, 2008
