suigenerisworks: July 2015

Friday 10 July 2015

African architecture subject of major exhibition at Copenhagen's Louisiana Museum

Installation by Active Social Architecture. Photograph by Ulrik Jantzen

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The work of architects including Diébédo Francis Kéré, Heinrich Wolff andSelgasCano features in a new exhibition about African design open the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen (+ slideshow).

The show – titled Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity – is a major survey of architecture and design in Sub-Saharan Africa, which encompasses 49 countries south of the Sahara Desert.

Structure by SelgasCano. Photograph by Kim Hansen

The exhibition features architectural models, photography, videos, and other visual material, along with several large-scale installations. The show is divided into seven themes, ranging from "belonging" to "making space".

"Through a number of projects spread over the African continent, the exhibition tells a story of the new architecture of different regions – with its various proposals for accommodating local traditions, strengthen the existing ones and create solutions for the future," said the Danish museum.

In the museum's sculpture park, SelgasCano – the Spanish firm behind this year's Serpentine Pavilion in London – has built an enclosure made of colourful poles and plastic sheets. After the exhibition closes, the structure will be moved to Kibera, Nairobi, where it will serve as an informal school.

The young Namibian architects Mieke Droomer and Andre Christensen have also erected an installation in the park – a curving fence made of rough-hewn wooden posts. The installation resembles the duo's Dordabis Community Spine project in Namibia, designed with Wasserfall Munting Architects.

Louisiana Spine installation by Mieke Droomer and Andre Christensen. Photograph by Kim Hansen

Inside the museum, Diébédo Francis Kéré, who grew up in a rural village in Burkina Faso and runs a small practice in Berlin, has erected a 90-square-metre installation using light-coloured, locally sourced wood.

Featuring a canopy and seating made of bundled branches and logs from willow trees, the installation takes its cue from building techniques in Kéré's homeland.

Louisiana Canopy by Kéré Architecture. Image courtesy of the architects

"This architectural installation aims to highlight the importance of shading and sheltering as a form of protection from over-exposure to the sun, as well as an inherent space-making device for community gathering," saidKéré Architecture.

South African architect Heinrich Wolff has designed and curated the "city" area of the exhibition, creating a series of sculptural booths that display material related to six different cities: Dakar, Senegal; Lagos, Nigeria; Nairobi, Kenya; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Maputo, Mozambique; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The "city cells" present utopian visions for the future, housing projects for the growing middle class, Colonial Era architecture, and other conditions within the urban areas.

"Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the places on the planet where the cities are growing most," said the museum. The chosen cities are all " important nodal points on the continent and represent a complexity of geography, culture and colonial history that is expressed in different ways of living."

Installation by Active Social Architecture. Photograph by Ulrik Jantzen

The "rebuilding" section of the show puts the spotlight on Active Social Architecture (ASA), a Rwandan firm led by Tomà Berlanda and Nerea Amorós Elorduy. The duo have replicated brick walls that are featured in their low-tech projects back home.

The museum said it was critical to include work that reveals how Rwanda has progressed since the country's 1994 genocide, when over half a million members of the Tutsi tribe were slaughtered by the majority Hutu group.

"Although Rwanda is one of the smallest nations on the African continent, the country looms large in the minds of many people as a result of the macabre genocide in 1994," said the museum. "The paradox is that Rwanda, 20 years after the genocide, is one of the best-functioning countries on the African continent."

African-Architecture-Culture-Identity-exhibition_Louisiana-Museum_dezeen_2 — Exhibition view. Photograph by Ulrik Jantzen

In the "belonging" area of the exhibition, Ghanaian architect Joe Osae-Addo tells the story of Kente, a traditional Ghanaian textile design that features bright colours and a geometric pattern. Osae-Addo is chairman ofArchiAfrica, an organisation that tracks and promotes contemporary African architecture and culture.

Sculptural area by Heinrich Wolff. Photograph by Ulrik Jantzen — Kinshasa: Project for The Third Millenium by Bodys Isek Kingelez. Photograph by Ulrik Jantzen

A multi-coloured model of a metropolis is featured in the "building futures" area. Titled "Kinshasa: Project for The Third Millenium," the piece was created by the late Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez, who was focused on an art form he called Architectural Modelism.

Makoko Floating School by NLE, 2014. Photograph by Iwan Baan

Also on show are photographs, films and artworks, depicting projects including the floating school in Nigeria by NLÉ.

Dano Secondary School, Burkina Faso by Kéré Architecture, 2007. Photograph by Kéré Architecture

Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity is open through 25 October 2015. It was organised by Kjeld Kjeldsen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg, both curators at the museum.

Africa Junctions, Oniru Estate, Lagos, Nigeria photographed by Lard Buurman. 2009/2013 — Africa Junctions, Oniru Estate, Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph by Lard Buurman, 2009/2013

The show is the third and last in the museum's Architecture, Culture and Identity exhibition series. In 2012, the institution presented the show New Nordic, and in 2014, it staged an exhibition called Arab Contemporary.

Independence Square, Accra, Ghana, photographed by Alexia Webster, 2014 — Independence Square, Accra, Ghana. Photograph by Alexia Webster, 2014

Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, has also mounted an exhibition about African design that is on view through 13 September. The Vitra Campus is also currently hosting a pop-up store for shoe brand Camper, designed by Kéré.

NLE's floating school casts anchor in Lagos Lagoon

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Here's a look at one of the standout projects from Designs of the Year 2014 - a floating school on a Nigerian lagoon by architecture studio NLÉ (+ slideshow).

NLÉ, the studio founded by Nigerian-born architect Kunlé Adeyemi, developed the Makoko Floating School as a prototype for building in African regions that have little or no permanent infrastructure, thanks to unpredictable water levels that cause regular flooding.

Half-building, half-boat, the floating structure provides teaching facilities for the slum district of Makoko, a former fishing village in Lagos where over 100,000 people live in houses on stilts. Prior to this the community had just one English-speaking primary school that regularly found itself under water.

"In many ways, Makoko epitomises the most critical challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change in coastal Africa. At the same time, it also inspires possible solutions and alternatives to the invasive culture of land reclamation," said the architects.

NLÉ developed a structure that can accommodate up to 100 adults, even in bad weather conditions. It is primarily used as a school, but can also function as an events space, a clinic or a market, depending on the needs of the community.

Built by a team of local residents, the structure was put together using wooden offcuts from a nearby sawmill and locally grown bamboo.

A triangular profile allows the building to accommodate three storeys whilst remaining stable over the water. "It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low centre of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds," said the designers.

The lower level houses a space for play, while a sub-dividable space on the middle floor accommodates up to four classrooms and the upper level contains a small group workshop. A staircase on one side connects the three levels.

Here's the project description from NLE:

Makoko Floating School

Makoko Floating School is a prototype structure that addresses physical and social needs in view of the growing challenges of climate change in an urbanising African context. It is a movable 'building' or 'watercraft' currently located in the aquatic community of Makoko in the lagoon heart of Africa's second most populous city - Lagos, Nigeria. It is a floating structure that adapts to the tidal changes and varying water levels, making it invulnerable to flooding and storm surges. It is designed to use renewable energy, to recycle organic waste and to harvest rainwater.

An estimated 100,000 people reside in Makoko in housing units built on stilts. Yet the community has no roads, no land and no formal infrastructure to support its day-to-day survival. In many ways, Makoko epitomises the most critical challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change in coastal Africa. At the same time, it also inspires possible solutions and alternatives to the invasive culture of land reclamation.

Until now Makoko has been served by one English-speaking primary school, built on uneven reclaimed land, surrounded by constantly changing waters. Like many homes in Makoko, this has rendered the primary school building structurally precarious and susceptible to recurrent flooding. Sadly, the inability of the building to effectively withstand the impact of increased rainfall and flooding has frequently threatened local children's access to their basic need – the opportunity of education.

In response to this and in close collaboration with the Makoko community, NLÉ has developed a prototype floating structure that will serve primarily as a school, whilst being scalable and adaptable for other uses, such as a community hub, health clinic, market, entertainment centre or housing. The prototype's versatile structure is a safe and economical floating triangular frame that allows flexibility for customisation and completion based on specific needs and capacities.

The 220m A-frame or pyramid building is 10m high with a 10m x 10m base. It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low centre of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds. It also has a total capacity to safely support a hundred adults, even in extreme weather conditions.

The building has three levels. The 1st level is an open play area for school breaks and assembly, which also serves as a community space during after hours. The 2nd level is an enclosed space for two to four classrooms, providing enough space for sixty to a hundred pupils. A staircase on the side connects the open play area, the classrooms and a semi enclosed workshop space on the 3rd level.

Detailed section of NLE's floating school casts anchor in Lagos Lagoon — Detailed cross section - click for larger image

The simple yet innovative structure adheres to ideal standards of sustainable development with its inclusive technologies for renewable energy, waste reduction, water and sewage treatment as well as the promotion of low-carbon transport. Furthermore a team of eight Makoko-based builders constructed it using eco-friendly, locally sourced bamboo and wood procured from a local sawmill.

Construction began in September 2012 with floatation mock-ups and testing. Recycled empty plastic barrels found abundantly in Lagos were used for the building's buoyancy system, which consists of 16 wooden modules, each containing 16 barrels. The modules were assembled on the water, creating the platform that provides buoyancy for the building and its users. Once this was assembled, construction of the A-frame followed and was completed by March 2013. Makoko Floating School is now in regular use by the community as a social, cultural and economic centre and will soon welcome its first pupils for use as a primary school.

The project was initiated, designed and built by NLÉ in collaboration with the Makoko Waterfront Community, in Lagos State. The project was initially self-funded by NLÉ and later received research funds from Heinrich Boll Stiftung as well as funds for its construction from the UNDP/Federal Ministry of Environment Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP).

Makoko Floating School is a 'prototype' building structure for NLÉ’s proposed 'Lagos Water Communities Project' and its 'African Water Cities' research project.

Tottenham Hotspur football stadium by Populous to feature "world's first sliding pitch"

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Populous has revealed designs for an elliptical stadium for London football club Tottenham Hotspur, boasting a retractable pitch that will allow it to also host American football games.

Populous, a London-based firm specialising in sports architecture, proposes a doughnut-shaped stadium with capacity for 61,000 spectators – an increase from the 56,250 seats offered by KKS' previous proposals for the arena, and the 36,000 seats of the club's existing ground at White Hart Lane.

The stadium's main feature will be a retractable pitch that rolls back to reveal a second playing surface, to accommodate the two American football games the club will host each season.

"Populous has always been a pioneer of new technologies," explained Populous principal Christopher Lee.

"The world's first sliding pitch allows each sport to play on its own dedicated pitch and provides perfect sightlines for their fans," he said, adding that the firm drew on experience from designing a moving roof over Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Although the firm claims that the sliding pitch will be the world's first, other stadiums that incorporate slide-out playing surfaces include the Sapporo Dome in Japan, the University of Phoenix Stadium in the USA, the Gelredome in the Netherlands and the Veltins-Arena in Germany.

Panels of perforated metal and glass will wrap the structure, while a hole in the centre will leave the pitch open to the air.

A single-tier stand at one end of the pitch will provide a bank of 17,000 uninterrupted seats, and is set to become the largest of its kind in the UK on completion.

"The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium marks a new generation of stadia design," said Lee.

"The seating bowl is designed to create an intimate relationship between player and spectator," he continued. "Its 17,000 capacity single tier end stand – a tribute to traditional English football grounds – will be the largest in the UK, and will be the engine that drives the intensity and atmosphere in the new Spurs stadium. It will be like no other."

The stadium will replace the club's current grounds at White Hart Lane, north London – an all-encompassing design that stands in contrast to Herzog & de Meuron's more pragmatic redevelopment of Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge grounds.

The complex will also include a cinema, 180-bedroom hotel, visitors centre, merchandise shop and cafe, while the club's Grade II-listed Warmington House will be converted into an interactive museum charting the club's history.

Three old buildings that restrict access to and from the grounds will be removed and a public courtyard similar in scale to London's Trafalgar Square will be created, as well as a new Extreme Sports building that will host the world's tallest climbing wall.

As part of the deal, the scheme will also provide 579 new homes and a community health centre designed by London firm Allies & Morrison.

The scheme follows Spur's bid to demolish and replace the Populous-designed London Olympic stadium following the 2012 games. The stadium was instead granted to fellow London team West Ham United.

The designs will be submitted to the local council London Borough of Haringey for planning permission in the coming weeks. The stadium is expected to open in August 2018 in time for the club's 2018/19 season.

Populous, formerly known as HOK Sport Venue Event, also designed aFabergé egg-inspired stadium for the Sochi Winter Olympics last year, as well as numerous Premier League and Super Bowl grounds.

Populous has released the following statement to clarify details of the moving pitch:

"The new stadium will be truly perfect for both elite football (soccer) and NFL, with a state-of-the-art retractable pitch. Populous has always been a pioneer of new technologies. Moving pitches in stadia such as the University of Phoenix (NFL) stadium or the moving roof over centre court at Wimbledon have provided the critical experience to allow Populous to design a stadium that is perfect for both football and American Football."