Divisare - Projects — Top Favorites of the Week

In an anonymous high rise building, among many of those surrounding our skyline; we’ve decided to use the interior of this 110 sqm flat to elaborate, with simple elements, walls and lights, an experiment on the nature of perception.

Photo by Amit Geron. Published on August 25, 2013.

The idea here is to thicken the existing walls with vertical perforated metal panels that may be open and closed; forming this way a thick wall that contains functions of the habitat (kitchen, closets, library, bathroom, storage).

Photo by Amit Geron. Published on August 25, 2013.

Above all, this wall is an optical device that transforms, depending on the type of light used, and modifies the height and depth of the space.

Photo by Amit Geron

In the light of day this thick perforated wall, composed of variable thicknesses, becomes a three dimensional veil that makes opalescent the different areas of the flat. Niches and deep spaces create visions of transitional forms.

Photo by Amit Geron. Published on August 25, 2013.

In the dark we’ve drawn attention to a ritual passage, familiar to all of us, once we enter our home at night; the passage from darkness to illuminated space. Here we create a second view to the inhabitants. Our device adds new parts to the space, transforming itself into a remote architecture with new and profound windows: the vision exceeds the measurable borders of the flat.

Photo by Amit Geron. Published on August 25, 2013.

The appearance of this new place vanishes once the lights are turned off.

Photo by Amit Geron. Published on August 25, 2013.

The building is implanted in the zone foreseen in the plan, aligned in the south side with one of the buildings projected by Architect Fernando Távora.

In front of the North elevation it is foreseen an arborized square with alleys that mark the entries of the Pavilion. In this square will exist a slope that will make the access to level -1. Formally the building is defined by a table where an aluminium box and every necessary equipments to the function of the diferent activities promoted in it’s interior will be placed.

The whole image intends to be associated with the naval architecture, existing a relation with the image of the “Gil Eanes” ship.

The multipurpose Pavilion will be a space directed to cultural and sport events.
The main accesses will be situated in the North and South extremities. The service entrances will be made in the other elevations.

It’s interior will be ample and permeable, existing the possibility of viewing the sea from the entrance floor. It is pretended that it’s transparency will be able to make it as lighter as possible in relation to the other buildings.

Eduardo Souto de Moura started to design this Cultural Center back in 1999, it took five years to build and it was finally opened last 14th of July 2013.

The project for the headquarters of the Swiss media company Tamedia is situated in the heart of the city of Zurich in a 1,000m2 site within a larger urban block where the main buildings of the group are currently located. The site is positioned towards the east part of the block and has the particularity of developing through almost 50m of linear façade facing the Sihl water canal.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

The implantation of the new building basically responds to the footprint of the existing building to be demolished but this time creating continuity with the facades of the buildings beside as well as taking advantage of the maximum allowed height in order to optimize the exploitable office area in this side of the building block.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

The main access of the building is situated in the north angle of streets Werdstrasse and Stauffacherquai and will actually become the principal entry of the whole building complex. The building develops within 7 stories over ground floor with two basement levels for a global net area of 8,602m2 to which we can add 1,518 additional square meters that correspond to the two-floor extension project located on the roof of the neighbor building at number 8 of Stauffacherquai street.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

From an architectural point of view one of the main features of the project is indeed the proposition of a main structural system entirely made designed on timber that, other its innovative character from a technical and environmental standpoint, gives the building a unique appearance from the inside space as well as from the city around. In order to reinforce and express this idea the building skin is entirely glazed and special attention was given to achieve a low energy transmission levels that responds to the latest and very strict Swiss regulations in terms of energy consumption.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

Facing the city, the building also features an “intermediate” space throughout the whole height of the east façade that other its role as “thermal screen” within the general energy consumption strategy, also becomes a unique spatial experience with lounge areas and connection vertical links between the different office stories. These “balconies” can be used as informal meeting and rest areas that will also have the particularity of having a façade composed of a glass retractable window system that allow to “transform” these spaces into open air terraces that reinforce the privileged relationship between the interior building and its surrounding landscape.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

Innovation:
The timber main structural system is in great extent the most significant innovation of the project. From a technical and environmental point of view the proposed this timber structure is a unique response to this type of office building and the fact that the structural elements are entirely visible also gives a very special character and high quality spatiality to the working atmosphere.

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

Sustainability:
Besides the clear contribution to sustainability on the choice of timber as the main structural material (only renewable construction material and the lowest C02 producer in construction process) the global mechanical system has been designed to meet the highest standards in energy issues(The intermediate space other its “thermal barrier” function is part of the public spaces that will be heated and cooled with the extraction air from the office area)

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

Site Area: 1000m2, (Total Site Area: 8000m2)
Building Area: 1000m2
Total Floor Area (New building and extension floor): 10120m2
Structure: Timber structure, Reinforced concrete
Design Date: April 2008 – December 2010
Construction Date: Start of demolition February 2011
Start of construction May 2011
Completion of construction March 2013

Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour. Published on August 26, 2013.

The setting is the Stockholm archipelago, natural ground sloping gently down to the sea in the south, mostly open with a few trees and bushes. Unlike other projects we worked on located on more isolated islands in the archipelago without car access from the mainland, this site was relatively easy to reach also with heavy transports. This, together with the client’s desire for a maintenance-free house inspired us to search for a way to design the house as an integral part of nature, where the material’s weight and color scale connects to the archipelago granite bedrock, rather than a light light wooden cottage. The two building volumes are placed side by side and form a line that clarifies their position in the landscape, just at the border where the forest opens up out onto the bay. When approached from the north, the entrance presents itself as an opening between the buildings giving direction towards the light and water. It is a first outdoor space protected from rain by a pitched canopy of glass.

The exterior character of the house is derived from a number of transverse gable roofs, which connect to each other, and like boathouses in a line form a pleated long facade. This provides a sequence of varied room heights for the interior and create places in the otherwise completely open living room that stretches through the entire length of the main building. With a relatively shallow room depth and a continuous sliding glass partition out to the terrace, the space can be described as a niche in relation to the archipelago landscape outside. The small rooms are located along the north façade with access through a wall of sliding doors. They are lit by openable skylights and form smaller pitched ceiling spaces within the main roof volume.

Terrace, interior floors and facades are made of exposed natural colored in situ cast concrete with plywood formwork. The interior is painted white with woodworks in ash. A sauna, a detached block of in situ cast concrete with a wooden interior, offers a secluded place near the beach and pier.
Bolle Tham och Martin Videgård

Built area: 140 m2
Project: 2010
Completion: 2012

See more photos of Fernando Alda

The project is located in the east of Seville (Spain) in a new development area of the city. The program comprises 32 affordable housing and a services area for its users. The point of the project is the relationship with the surrounding green areas in two of its four boundaries.

The project is organized in parallel strips which relate the required different uses: housing, recreation area, common services and parking.

The accommodations, solved as three story building, are located in one edge of the plot and visually connected with the larger scale park.
The common services strip is a single ground level lying centered on the plot. It separates car parking from other uses.

The security enclosure required is determinant in the development of the project. So ‘the wall’ becomes the discourse to generate all spaces. Its folds create the access to the plot, its openings induce a relationship with adjacent green areas…

The main strip, dedicated to Common Services, is solved with a roof resting on ‘the wall’, glass enclosures to recreation area and colored panels to the car park.

The accommodation strip ‘looks’ into the courtyard, facing south. The accesses take place through galleries. It makes possible optimization of circulation with only one vertical core, complying at the same time with evacuation path of egress required by fire codes.

The south facing lends the building the greatest use natural lighting.
Cantilever and micro-perforated fabric sliding panels are used as passive measures to control solar radiation and minimize energy consumption.

In order to an efficient construction only one type of accommodation is designed in the project, except those adapted for disabled access. Regarding this, floor plans are very flexible with the purpose of accommodate the variety of users. The size of the rooms allows different possibilities to arrange the furniture and so their use. Each unit expands to the gallery as a space of interaction with neighbors.

Each two accommodations, systems are concentrated on a single vertical shaft, minimizing length and also being accessible from the gallery in every story.

Una cantina alle pendici dell’Etna è un tema progettuale di grande interesse ma, nello stesso tempo, molto “difficile” in quanto pone questioni di interazione con un “sistema” consolidato dove vi è la presenza di elementi di notevole interesse paesaggistico quali il vulcano, la sciara lavica, le pietraie (imponenti basamenti in pietra a secco che razionalizzano la morfologia del territorio) e una vegetazione variegata dove la ginestra predomina e contrasta il colore scuro della lava.

L’iniziativa imprenditoriale è promossa dall’Aziende Agricole Planeta s.s. che si occupa della gestione di fondi agricoli, della produzione e commercializzazione di vini ed oli confezionati di qualità, nei comuni di Menfi, Sciacca e Sambuca di Sicilia in provincia di Agrigento, Acate in provincia di Ragusa e Noto in provincia di Siracusa. Le A.A.P. oggi producono ed esportano i loro prodotti in 40 paesi diversi. L’avvio di questa nuova iniziativa sull’Etna, che si concretizza in un impianto viticolo di circa 35 ettari, nasce dall’interesse verso i contesti dei distretti vitivinicoli di qualità (strade del vino, altre aziende produttrici di uguale segmento, favore delle amministrazioni comunali nella cura del territorio etc.etc.). Il luogo di progetto consiste in una spianata ricavata nel mezzo di una sciara lava del 1800 che si affaccia su uno splendido paesaggio ricco di una vegetazione imponente. Il sito è servito dalla viabilità di livello territoriale, consentendo il facile raggiungimento delle principali mete del bacino e delle grandi arterie di comunicazione. Dal punto di vista morfologico l’area in studio è ubicata ad una quota di circa 620 mt. s.l.m. nel versante nord dell’Etna e ricade nell’ambito di una zona sub-pianeggiante, degradante verso Nord Nord-Est, caratterizzata da pendenze debolmente accentuate.

La morfologia territoriale risulta caratterizzata dalla presenza, a Nord, dal “Fiume Alcantara” che assieme al fiume Simeto ubicato ad ovest dell’area in studio, delimitano l’intero complesso vulcanico. La proposta progettuale, si è posto l’obiettivo di realizzare un insediamento produttivo dimensionato per una capacità di circa 2.000 hl, proponendo volumi essenziali con un linguaggio architettonico contemporaneo. L’impianto plani-volumetrico è composto da tre corpi di fabbrica (edificio lavorazione – bottaia – magazzino) ed è stato impostato cercando di istituire relazioni continue con il vulcano in quanto elemento “cospicuo” predominante del paesaggio, generando spazi “conclusi” tra gli edifici e la sciara, capaci di accogliere percorsi e aree di lavorazione senza perdere il contatto con l’ambiente rurale circostante.

Edificio lavorazione – Imbottigliamento
L’edificio principale è un prisma a base rettangolare organizzato su un’unico livello con dimensioni in pianta di mt. 39,10×17,25 ed è diviso in due parti da una “galleria” nella quale avviene il conferimento uve. Destinata ad accogliere le zone di lavorazione, la struttura è stata realizzata in elementi di c.a.p. e tamponata da paramenti murari dello spessore di 60 cm, realizzati in pietra lavica di cava montati a secco secondo la tradizione locale. L’interno è diviso in tre zone: la prima destinata al conferimento delle uve, in posizione quasi centrale e aperta lateralmente, consente l’attraversamento trasversale dell’edificio. A sud è organizzata la zona di stoccaggio e vinificazione con un’altezza utile interna di circa 5,50 mt dove sono installati i serbatoi in acciaio inox. A nord ha sede la zona destinata all’imbottigliamento con un piccolo laboratorio enologico ed i servizi igienici per il personale. La copertura dell’edificio è piana con tetto giardino. L’edificio si configura come un monolite che si integra e si confronta con l’ambiente circostante indirizzando, tramite il suo orientamento, lo sguardo del visitatore verso il cono del vulcano.

Bottaia
La bottaia è pensata come una pietraia. L’edificio, parzialmente interrato, esce 1,8 ml dal piano di campagna. La parte fuori terra è tamponata da pietra lavica raccolta, montata a secco secondo il metodo di costruzione delle pietraie dell’etna. Le dimensioni in pianta sono di circa mt. 9×20. Il piano di calpestio interrato di circa 2 metri rispetto al piano di campagna è raggiungibile mediate una lieve rampa ed una scaletta incassata nella pietra. All’interno è ricavato un unico ambiente di circa 160 mq destinato alla conservazione del vino in botti. Anche il tetto è ricoperto da pietrisco lavico e una scala scavata nella pietra lo fa diventare una terrazza dalla quale potere ammirare lo splendido paesaggio.

Deposito
Il terzo Volume, anch’esso con pianta rettangolare di dimensioni 10×15 mt circa, è realizzato interamente con elementi modulari in cemento armato prefabbricato, ma con le pareti esterne rifinite con intonaco tradizionale di colore grigio scuro. Il corpo di fabbrica è destinato ad accogliere il deposito dei pieni e dei vuoti. L’edificio è circondato da un muro alto 1,8 ml che genera un orto concluso.

The architectural idea is to take the entire site, which determines the surface of intervention. We identified two predominate grids emanating from the historic context of the site. The meeting and the convergence of these two geometries materialises in a deformation, a zone of turbulence, the future presence of the FRAC Centre.

The inner court is treated like a public space, linking all the buildings and carrying the program of the FRAC. Our intention is to create not only a landscape but a topographic surface. This surface follows the interferences of the two building grids and accommodates the natural slopes the site towards the entries of the different programs of exhibition spaces.

The volumes created by the meeting of these geometries are extruded vertically and stretched over the court and toward the city.They are organised into three parts and conceived to be simple and facetted in form, a language derived from the fusion of the grids of the site.

These “turbulent” extrusions each contain an element of the program: the first and tallest a temporary exhibition gallery with its accompanying scenographic spaces, the smallest an audiovisual gallery, and the third the welcome lobby, sales space, and a convivial social space which extends out into the court. This central space is an intersection, a place of meeting and exchange, material and immaterial. This ambulatory space leads the public to the temporary and permanent exhibition spaces and research areas.

The exterior and interior skins of the intervention are fine metallic and textile meshes which convey a perpetually modifying flow of information. The idea is to create a building which continually describes the process of creation, disappearing behind the lines which were drawn only to reappear in volume, a three dimensional image, the materialisation of architecture. Volume, light and image fuse together to create a dynamic form of architecture of information.

These digital surfaces are addressed to the city and, as such, the building surface transcribes flows of information into light images through an intervention of Electronic Shadow. These flows of information can be the weather, connections to their internet site or any capturable flow of real time information. The light surface of the building is simultaneously an architectural and artistic intervention, an urban signal, and signage of the buildings’ activities. This idea is also pursued in the interior under the form of a dynamic system of signage. The objective is to give the FRAC a tool that is sized by its public dimension, open and visible.

By its new open urban façade, obtained through the demolition of the existing building on the Boulevard Rocheplatte, the FRAC Centre is connected to the urban cultural promenade of Orleans, the interior court thus becoming a public plaza. We have displaced the centre of gravity to the heart of the site. The new architectural intervention is the new point of gravity, a new structure, a new geometry and a new departure for the site, creating an architecture with a new presence that communicates a welcoming, an opening, and a vision for both the public and researchers. The project explains itself through its extraverted nature.

These “turbulences” are to be investigated as a metaphor, inspiring the architecture which is in turn exuded to the public or passers-by along the edges of the site.

The language of these turbulences was born of the site. We want this project to be as a creation of the site itself, practically “self-created” from site conditions, thus describing all the acting forces. It is a project full of life, communicating, revealing, provoking, stimulating and informing.
Jakob + MacFarlane

Program: Rehabilitation and extension of the Frac Centre. Exhibition spaces, archives, auditorium, media gallery, information gallery, offices
Location: 88 rue du Colombier – Boulevard Rocheplatte 45000 Orléans
Competition: 2006
Completion: 2013
Net plan area: 3 400 m2
Cost: 8.5 M €

The main design theme of this school is the merging of the inside and outside space. The school offers various types of outdoor gardens and roof terraces for different activities. The six small courtyards on the ground floor are spatially and visually connected to the two large courtyards on the first floors. As a result of the many courtyards, the building is full of natural light and there is a constant connection to the outdoors. Each of the small courtyards on the ground floor faces a different room such as the cafeteria, multifunctional room, chemistry or biology class and in turn each is designed with a different theme and can be used either as additional external classroom space or as a recreation area.

Main Terasse

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

All of the classrooms on the first floor are oriented towards the South to benefit from optimum light conditions and furthermore, to be protected from the noise of passing trains along the north side of the building. Students approach the school from the promenade along the southern façade where a landscape with trees and seating areas has been designed. The building has not only been planned for school use but also for various activities in the community of Neulengbach. Therefore, there are two entrances along the promenade and the rooms are organized in such a way that they can be divided flexibly for multifunctional use.

Terrasse and Courtyard

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

This school is also one of the first ecologically sustainable schools in Austria. The building fulfills the Austrian standard for low energy consumption by using a heat recovery ventilation system, a geothermal heat pump system, outside sun protection and superior energy saving insulation. The structural system uses a 12m span precast concrete ceiling. This system creates large spaces free from supporting columns, which enables flexible spatial organization for possible modification in the future.

Dates and Facts
Competition: August 2010
Design Service: June 2008
Building Opening: September 2010
Area Surface: 30000
Built Surface: 4500
Total Project surface: 4500
Building Height: 9
Volume: 25815
Floor nr: 2
Park nr: 100
Building cost: 10.000.000 €

Courtyard

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Lobby

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Corridor

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Lockers

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Class entrance

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Gymnasium

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Multi purpose hall

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Main entrance

Photo by Kurt Kuball. Published on September 03, 2013.

Concept drawing

Floor plans

Site plan

The site is located on the outskirts of Santa Maria da Feira, surrounded by a diffuse and changing landscape.
The concept of the project comes from the combined interpretation of the functional program of a single-family house with the specific premises of the clients, as from the study of the characteristics of the lot and its surroundings and morphological conditions.

The house is organized in a single floor around a central courtyard, facing South and West, protected from the street on the North side.

Shaped as an “L”, it is divided in two parts – a longitudinal volume organized the service areas and the leisure zone, while the bedrooms are located in the shorter volume, transversal to the lot. An additional volume, a storage room placed in the limit of the terrain, accurately defines the central courtyard.

Access to the house is made from the east side, by a ramp that serves as a transition between the level of the street and the main and service entrances.

At the intersection of the two volumes of the L, a void announces the main entrance, that inward, through its transparency, reveals the central courtyard and leads to the different areas of the house.

The interior spaces are directly associated to the patio, though protected by the porch, that externally unifies the different areas of the house as intensifies the daily experiences of the family. The living room is an ample space, where the dining and living areas are commonly organized, spatially extending to the outdoor through natural light.

The volume, simple and compact, is coated by an opaque ventilated façade made of prefabricated black textured concrete panels on its public surfaces, whilst its interior walls, facing the private patio, are fully open through their transparency. The background scenery of the courtyard and garden is framed by the “memory wall”, built out of stones from the demolition of pre-existence.

Lo slogan del progetto urbanistico in cui si inserisce la Bibiblioteca è“Heidenheim costruisce il futuro”. La biblioteca dovrà ospitare una nuova generazione di utenti globalizzati, abituati ad un apprendimento aperto, veloce ed interattivo. L’ambiente deve attirarli, soddisfare le loro esigenze di comunicazione e stimolarne la creatività. La chiave è la flessibilità, fornendo una varietà di spazi sia esterni che interni (spazi tranquilli, sale riunioni, luoghi di aggregazione, giardino interno, ecc), adattabili e senza frontiere, in grado di ridurre le barriere alla comunicazione, creare occasioni di incontri casuali e di contribuire a costruire una comunità.

vista dalla piazza

Il progetto nasce da uno spazio pubblico pedonale isolato dal traffico: un luogo aperto e attivo che promuove l’attività soprattutto pedonale, creando la percezione che il luogo è più sicuro e più animato. Un aumento dei pedoni significa più potenziali clienti per la Biblioteca e per i negozi nelle strade vicine. Esso diviene “una piazza-giardino” all’interno della biblioteca. Prendendo in prestito le parole di Cicerone: “Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil”- Se presso alla biblioteca ci sarà un giardino, nulla ci mancherà. – (Cicerone, Epistolæ ad familiares, lib. IX, ep. 4, a Varrone.) L’idea prende spunto dalle origini romane della città di Heidenheim e alle Atriumhaus. Nel 2 ° secolo aC, la casa a corte romana viene spesso estesa con un peristilio, un cortile interno, circondato da colonnati che di norma è formato come un giardino ornamentale. Alla piazza al piano terra, si sovrappone un edificio a corte, diventando una corte centrale aperta verso il cielo. Questo spazio vuoto serve come zona pedonale per le persone e una zona relax. La biblioteca avvolge quattro lati della piazza-giardino al primo piano. Si crea uno spazio nuovo che mette in relazione le tre dimensioni della Biblioteca (Biblioteca, amministrazione, Kreismedienzentrum) in modo dinamico e continuo. Le tre funzioni nei diversi livelli comunicano tra loro: da tutte le aree della Biblioteca ci si può affacciare sulla piazza, a piano terra la circolazione diventa come una passeggiata all’ombra attorno ad un giardino.

strada-corte interna

Lo spazio pubblico s’inserisce nella morfologia della città in direzione nord-sud, privilegiando il collegamento, tra Georges Levillain – Anlage e Paulus-Kirche, seguendo una direttrice parallela al fiume Brenz che attraversa la città. La morfologia dell’area nasce da esigenze funzionali e visive: lo spazio pubblico ha un forma regolare di circa 1000 mq aperta a Nord sulla fermata dei bus di Brenzstrasse e a Sud su Christianstrasse. Ad Ovest si trovano i parcheggi per le automobili e le rampe per i parcheggi, che vengono separati dall’area pedonale attraverso un muro-barriera, che si apre solo in direzione di Friedrich Degeler Platz. La piazza, limitata ad Est e ad Ovest, può essere usata come un salotto all’aperto della Biblioteca in cui le persone possono usare i loro computer portatili e tablet, leggere il giornale o semplicemente fare un riposino.

La Piazza è collegata con le attività sociali del piano terra. Lungo tutto il confine ovest dell’area, un corpo allungato si dirama dal Foyer, in posizione centrale facilmente raggiungile dagli utenti sia da Nord che da Sud. Dal Foyer si collegano al piano terra tutte le funzioni indipendenti dalla Bibiblioteca: A nord Schulungs- / Kommunikationsräume für Bibliotheksbereich und Kreismedienzentrum a Sud Veranstaltungsbereich. Le funzioni della Bibiblioteca si allineano tutte al primo piano, “Die Enfilade” di stanze collegate da un corridoi, che gira intorno a tutta la piazza. Tutte le aree della Bibiblioteca si affacciano verso l’interno della piazza attraverso una lunga parete vetrata. In un tradizionale blocco mono funzionale, alcune aree finiscono in una posizione mediocre in rapporto all’orientamento, vista, luce e calore solare: le sale letture spesso ricevono troppa luce o troppo poca luce nel corso della giornata.Essi diventano meno sfruttabili (meno accoglienti) e meno ecologiche (maggiori spese per illuminazione e riscaldamento). La disposizione lineare, permette di adattare la funzione alla loro ottimale posizione nel blocco, ogni stanza gravita verso la sua posizione preferita. Questo garantisce a tutti gli spazi condizioni ottimali di luce, calore e vista. A Est la Marktplatz Il Cafè con la terrazza guardano verso Biergarten, l’intera ala verso Nord è per i Bambini, la Sala lettura è disposta in un’unica lunga sala sul lato Ovest ed infine a Sud si trova il Ristorante con vista sulla Paulus Kirche ed ingresso indipendente dal piano terra. Il tetto inclinato di 13° verso l’interno permette spazi con altezze variabili. Lungo il lato Est un soppalco permette di avere le amministrazioni della Biblioteca e dei Musei su un unico piano, mentre la Sala lettura la zona Bambini e il Ristorante rimangono a doppia altezza. I Vani tecnici e gli archivi si trovano nel piano interrato. Visto dalle strade vicine l’edificio si caratterizza come un grande volume rettangolare,alto 13 m, compatto ma leggero, con una facciata esterna in lamelle (di legno). Le lame verticali sono posizionate con diverso interasse, si avvicinano e si allontanano a seconda delle funzioni interne. Questo gioco di linee contribuisce a dare “ritmo” alla facciata, a seconda del punto in cui si l’osservatore, il prospetto si contrae o si allunga, inoltre permette anche di modulare la luce all’interno delle sale.

The new Design Republic’s Design Collective is located in the outskirt of Shanghai in a town called Qingpu. Neri&Hu inherited an existing building and was given the task to completely redesign both the exterior and the interior without demolishing the existing structure. Neri&Hu’s concept was to cover the existing building to create a new exterior identity and simultaneously fabricate an introverted spatial platform to create a new identity for the Design Republic’s Design Collective, a group of avant garde furniture retail initiative in the city.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

The existing building has been completely covered with an opaque graphic wrapper made with carbon fiber panel to create an introverted spatial condition to showcase furniture both visually and experientially.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

The main entry is characterized by a large steel funnel, serving as a transition element from the urban context to the exhibition space. The shape of the entry tube also serves as a means of emphasizing the arrival into the 3 story exhibition hall where the visitors introverted journey begins.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

The staircase wrapping the interior of the main exhibition space leads the visitor throughout the multiple levels of display where the furniture can be experienced from varying spatial relationship and viewed from different vantage points and voyeuristic snippets of retail display. This journey is accentuated as the visitor climbs higher through the gallery levels by the seven large openings in the roof which serve to allow daylight into the exhibition space while at once generating a moment of visual release from within the introverted exhibition environment.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

About Design Republic Design Republic stands for a new birth of life and style. At its foundation, it is a republic of life – life that creates meaning and understanding through its relationship to objects of habitation. Seeking to explore the relationship between people and the simple objects they use in life – a plate, a teacup, a chair; it is here where we discover the beauty of everyday life.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

Design Republic is also a republic of style – style that creates new ideologies in design, retail, and merchandising concepts embodying a distinctive aesthetic for contemporary China. It crosses traditional boundaries to merge old and new, traditional and modern, opulent and austere, to ultimately create a dynamic platform of design.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

Design Republic Qingpu store is located on the first floor, with a total area of 2,000 sqm. Design Republic offers a unique collection of products created by the world’s best design talents collaborates with many designers both foreign and local to create products that will explore a new modern Chinese aesthetic.

Photo by Shen Zhonghai. Published on September 09, 2013.

The brief called for us to design a franchise for a popular north Indian school chain called Delhi Public School.