suigenerisworks: April 2016

Wednesday 13 April 2016

The Wave: Public Performance Space / The Scarcity and Creativity Studio

Courtesy of The Scarcity and Creativity Studio

Architects The Scarcity and Creativity Studio
Location Ecuador 428, Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Región de Valparaíso, Chile
Staff Christian Hermansen Cordua and Solveig Sandness
Students

Anna Gran Berild, Eva De Meersman, Truls Glesne, Timothy Hancock, Morten Jakobsen, Hauk Jonathan Lien, Paul-Antoine Lucas, Carolina Martins, Malen Sønvisen Moe, Ida Gjerde Nordstrøm, Ragnhild E. Osbak, Fu Tung Sze, Silje Træen, Clara Trivino Massó, Vilde Vanberg, Yinan Zhang.
Photographs Courtesy of The Scarcity and Creativity Studio

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Promoter The Oslo School of Architecture, The Scarcity and Creativity Studio
Donors which made the project possible

Deceuninck ( www.deceuninck.com/uk ), Byggeindustrien ( www.bygg.no ), Grindaker ( www.grindaker.no ), Birgit Træen

From the architect. Sitio Eriazo, our client, is a collective whose aim is to recover empty, abandoned, urban spaces in the city of Valparaiso, Chile, which are currently rubbish dumps and attract vermin and delinquents. The members of the group are recent graduates from theater, art and architecture schools. The activities of the group rely on self-motivation, mutual support and a non-hierarchical organisation; they work to recover and make available to the community the urban patrimony of the city of Valparaiso which was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.“The colonial city of Valparaíso presents an excellent example of late 19th-century urban and architectural development in Latin America. In its natural amphitheater-like setting, the city is characterized by a vernacular urban fabric that clings to the hillsides that are dotted with a great variety of church spires. It contrasts with the geometrical layout of the sea-side plain. The city has well preserved its interesting early industrial infrastructures, such as the numerous ‘elevators’ on the steep hillsides.”

Sitio Eriazo begins its activities in 2012 by recovering an abandoned urban site in Escalera Becker, a site which was converted into a space for the diffusion of arts & crafts and which facilitates activities such as urban agriculture, theater, carpentry, and other self-sustaining undertakings. In 2014 Sitio Eriazo obtains legal status as an organization and move to an empty site in Ecuador 428 which it is currently developing. Sitio Eriazo recycles the wastes produced by society in order to generate tools of resistance, transformed into architecture, theatre, music, circus, painting, crafts and orchards, to help build alternative modes of working and learning which will alter our relationship to the environment. The objectives of Sitio Eriazo can be summed up as follows:

• To recover Valparaiso’s heritage and make it available to the community.
• To promote arts and crafts as tools for work and learning.
• Generate meeting and reflection spaces for the neighborhood.
• To promote art and cultural activities through open workshops.
• Develop self-sustaining construction techniques through recycling.
• Develop self-awareness of the local identity of places together with the community.

Sitio Eriazo invited the Scarcity and Creativity Studio to help it to consolidate its activities in the Ecuador 428 site. Before the project begun, Sitio Eriazo had cleared the site of all rubbish, had secured it by building provisional closures in its four points of access from the street, and had built provisional facilities to enable it to carry out its activities. The activities which Sitio Eriazo requirements for the site are:

A flexible events space, to accommodate theater, circus, and music performances. At present up to 100 people attend Sitio Eriazo’s performances. Cooking facilities to prepare and serve food to those attending the organised events. The events which Sitio Eriazo organizes are free, but they do charge for food. At present they have built an adobe pizza oven and BBQ grill which they use for all the cooking. Space for workshops, which will be the places where arts and crafts are taught and where the community can come to realize their projects. Toilets for those attending the events. A vegetable garden, where Sitio Eriazo can plant vegetables and herbs to be used in the kitchen.

Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

15 Awe-Inspiring Libraries That Will Make You Want to Read All Day

From community meeting hubs to secluded refuges, places to learn and places to study, libraries can be so much more than just a place to a check out a book. With this in mind, we’ve rounded-up 15 awe-inspiring libraries, including a Canadian church that was converted into a library, the first library in Muyinga, Burundi – built using participatory design and local materials – and the largest academic library in Finland. See what makes each of the libraries unique after the break.
Rehabilitation of the National University Library / ANMA (Strasbourg, France)

Strasbourg’s National University Library (BNU) found new life in this rehabilitation project by ANMA. Located in a building from the German-occupation period (1871), the architects sought to maintain the monumental architecture style, emphasizing the molding and dome on the outside, while at the same time creating newer, modern spaces on the inside. A 27-meter spiraling staircase connects all of the library’s floors.
Cultura Bookstore / Studio MK27 - Marcio Kogan + Diana Radomysler + Luciana Antunes + Marcio Tanaka + Mariana Ruzante (São Paulo, Brazil)

While not technically a library, this bookstore – and 2015 Building of the Year winner -- in São Paulo functions like one in many ways. Seeking to go beyond being a merely a place to purchase books, the architects sought to create spaces for people to read, hang out and meet up. To achieve this the top floor features 21-meter-wide bleachers, providing a place for visitors to sit and read as well as a spot where small concerts and lectures can be held.
Hyundai Card Travel Library / Wonderwall (Seoul, South Korea)

Built specifically for travelers, this library in South Korea is the perfect place for those with wanderlust. Seeking to create a form of travel itself, the library “exhibits a thick accumulation of information, experience and objects, including a bookshelf that covers the entire wall from floor to ceiling.”
Vila Franca de Xira Municipal Library / Miguel Arruda Arquitectos Associados (Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal)

Known as the “Factory of Words,” this library in Portugal gets its nickname from its location on a site formerly occupied by a rice mill. A large triangular window cuts through the floors, providing natural light and connecting the building’s different spaces.
Seashore Library / Vector Architects (Hebei Sheng, China)

Enjoy the view of reading on the beach, but without all the sand (and no sunscreen required) in this seaside library in China. Designed to look like “weathered rock” each room in the library offers a unique connection with the ocean, letting in different amounts of light, wind and sound.
9 ¾ Bookstore + Café / PLASMA NODO (Medellín, Colombia)

Designed especially for children (and for the inner child in all of us), this bookstore and café in Colombia contains nooks for reading, drawing, resting and playing. There are also private reading rooms and tables for meeting up and chatting.
Story Pod / Atelier Kastelic Buffey (Newmarket, Canada)

This community lending library in Canada pivots open (like the covers of a book) during the day, inviting people to read inside and on the lawn in front. Featuring vertical slats of different sizes, the library allows light to filter through when closed, offering views of the book spines at the widest openings.
LiYuan Library / Li Xiaodong Atelier (Beijing, China)

Offering a quiet refuge away from the village center, this library is nestled in the mountains, blending into the landscape and offering a secluded place to sit and read. Local materials – sticks used to fuel cooking stoves – were used to clad the building. The wooden sticks “temper the bright light and spread it evenly throughout the space to provide a perfect reading ambience.”
Library of Birmingham / Mecanoo (Birmingham, UK)

Located in the heart of Birmingham’s largest public square, this library has eight rotundas on the inside, each one containing a different function and culminating with the original Shakespeare Memorial Room from 1882. A cantilever provides shelter in front of the entrance and also acts as a balcony with views of events happening in the square.
Free University's Philology Library / Foster + Partners (Berlin, Germany)

Designed for students (who would presumably be spending “hundreds of hours” studying in the space), the library at the Free University in Berlin, “combines a massed concrete structure with a light diaphanous envelope.” Natural light and air fill the space and reading desks wrap around each floor, while “the bibliographic collections are housed in a four-storey central core.”
Jaime Garcia Terres Library / arquitectura 911sc (Ciudad de Mexico, D.F., Mexico)

Housed within an 18^th century building in Mexico City, this library occupies just a 170-square-meter space. Dedicated to Mexican author Jaime Garcia Terres, the library features two long bookshelves that “are suspended from the walls,” creating a “syncopated rhythm that mirrors the floor pattern.” An “empty bookcase” hangs from the ceiling, filtering “the light through a series of mullions modulated in the same fashion as the bookshelves.”
Helsinki University Main Library / Anttinen Oiva Architects (Helsinki, Finland)

The largest academic library in Finland, this library was designed for a wide range of users, and includes a variety of functions such as sound-proof rooms for group work, quiet reading rooms, information and collections zones. Large arched openings give the library a distinct look from the outside and provide natural light on the inside, while the curved brick facades integrates the library “within the street line formed by the adjacent buildings.”
Library of Muyinga / BC Architects (Muyinga, Burundi)

Inspired by vernacular design and built using “a participatory approach,” this was the first library to be built in Muyinga. “Locally-sourced compressed earth blocks” were used to allow for cross-ventilation and to give the library a luminous glow in the evening. A special reading space for children is covered by “an enormous hammock of sisal rope as a mezzanine, in which the children can dream away with the books that they are reading.”
Garden library / Mjölk architekti (Zadní Třebaň, Czech Republic)

The supporting frame of this library in the Czech Republic is the library itself, forming bookshelves that stretch from the ground to the observatory on top.
Monique Corriveau-Library / Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas Architects (Quebec, Canada)

This stunning library in Quebec is housed in a former church, with the shelves and reading rooms bringing new life to the former nave.

Västra Kajen Housing / Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Architects Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Location Jönköping, Sweden
Chief Architects Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård
Area 10900.0 sqm
Project Year 2015
Photographs Åke E:son Lindman

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Design Team

Eric Engström, Mårten Nettelbladt, Malin Belfrage, Helene Amundsen, Karolina Nyström, Marcus Andrén, Andreas Helgesson, Dennis Suppers
Client

Vätterhem and Riksbyggen

From the architect. Located on the quayside of the Munksjön lake, these two urban housing blocks are based on a long term strategy of sustainability, creating attractive housing on one of the best sites in central Jönköping. Rather than a row of standard housing slabs, the requested number of apartments was assembled into two large units. The two compact volumes establish a solid position proportionally acceptable both to the city as well as the lake. It also minimizes the building envelope in line with the low energy concept.

An outer layer of terraces surrounds the perimeter of the buildings and provides all apartments with generous outdoor spaces. These are contained within a transparent screen of anodized aluminum that diffuses the light and with its arched shapes creates alternating open and filtered views. It offers a buffer zone between the intimate domestic interior of the apartments and the vast scale of the water landscape and urban context outside. By shifting the voids in the screen every second level, a characteristic pattern emerges that unites the six floors into one distinct cubical volume.

The apartments are organized around a large vertical atrium, a top lit stairwell dignifies a grand entrance hall and provides an important interior space for visitors and tenants in which to socialize. The atrium hall also functions as a natural preheating of fresh air, thus contributing to over all energy efficiency. The majority of the apartments are located in the corners, all benefitting from good views and light.