Campus International School for Downtown Cleveland Proposal / OS+A

TGIF!

Sorry for the Tardiness with todays post folks had to put a couple of fires out in the office this morning concerning work.J

Thank you Gretchen Pfaehler for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx]

Do Enjoy! Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek

The project proposal for the Campus International School for Downtown Cleveland, designed by OS+A,  illustrates the transformation of Cleveland State University’s master plan for converting the area into a dense mixed-use development and with recreation fields. The quotation ‘’an opportunity to re-evaluate the broader terrain in which children learn and give as great an emphasis on learning environments as others have given the educational philosophies’’ formed the basis for their proposal. More images and architects’ description after the break.

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A key aim of the design is to produce a safe learning environment for the students. The flexible classroom design and “street” layout of the school encourages different age groups of children to meet and learn together, while the main circulation space between the classrooms, student dining, media center and recreational spaces is an additional learning hub. The proposed plan layout avoids hidden corners and blind spots, and careful thought has been given to landscaping to provide different types of outdoor play space including areas for learning, planting, quiet zones and games. Each classroom has direct access to the outdoor playgrounds and views to the surrounding buildings.

The basis of the design is centered around four clusters of education: learning, growing, recreation, and social interaction. We believe these to be the foundations of the new school vision, allowing for a complex program where students can interact with each other and the city of Cleveland. Instead of opting for a linear and continuous distribution of these four clusters, the project design proposes a combined, more playful combination of spaces through the use of curves and organic shapes.

Our vision for the Campus International School is to establish an open learning environment as such that the site will be a landscape for future and extended learning. By creating an environment that will promote and sustain continuous learning, it will make learning a part of everyday life.

For More Information See links below.

http://www.archdaily.com/172298/campus-international-school-for-downtown-cleveland-proposal-osa/

Erika Mann Elementary School by Die Baupiloten

TGIF!

Today I’d like to share with you Erika Mann Elementary School.

Architects: Die Baupiloten
Location: Berlin, Germany
Client: Stattbau Berlin – Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Project Team: Maximilian Assfalg, Ania Busiakiewicz, Andrea Ceaser, Fee Kyriakopoulos, Ansgar Schmitter, Irmtraut Schulze, Thilo Reich, Wojciech Wojakowski
Sponsors: Baustoffhandel Mammitzsch, Eternit, Eurostahl, Follenius und Martin Tischlerei, GLS Bank Bochum, Firma Transresch, Bristol Kempinski Hotelkette, Essensanbieter Luna and Ridi Leuchten
Project year: 2006-2007
Photographs: Jan Bitter

The Baupiloten are a group of students at the Institute for Architecture within the Berlin Technical University’s Department for Planning, Construction, and the Environment. Under the leadership of architect Susanne Hofmann AA dipl, the Baupiloten conduct their studies through the realization of actual building measures. The students experience the architectural curriculum as a praxis-oriented ideal and take part in all phases of design and construction.

“The Snuffle of the Silver Dragon”

The Baupiloten create an all-day “home-away-from-home” for grade-schoolers

Following the successful modernization of the Erika-Mann Elementary School in the Utrechter Strasse 25/27 – 13347 Berlin, the Baupiloten have now designed the building’s interior for all-day use. With new seating-landscapes and worlds of recreation, the Baupiloten – together with the schoolchildren – expanded upon the concept of a comfortable learning environment to include the school’s hallways and classrooms. Until recently, the hallways of the school building (designed by Ludwig Hoffmann in 1915) embodied the sterile and authoritarian educational atmosphere of the early 20th century. In their redesign, the hallways were made to suit modern educational concepts of a “rhythmic” learning atmosphere, thereby serving the current need for communal areas of varied use.

“Form Follows Kids’ Fiction”

Working together with the Baupiloten in a series of workshops, the students created fantastical and poetic worlds, culminating in the fictive “Snuffle of the Silver Dragon”. This was a further development of the “Silver Dragon World” created in the school’s hallways in 2003. The “Snuffle of the Silver Dragon”, a veil covering the floors and ceilings of the schools 3 upper stories, functions (depending on weather conditions) as a brilliant light filter.

Children as Designers of their Worlds

Beyond the collaborative process, children should be able to form their daily environment – not only suggestively in the form of ideas, but as actual co-designers of their world. In the school’s three upper stories, a seating landscape was created in a series of openings contained within the “Snuffle of the Silver Dragon”. In these openings, the children can relax upon soft, warm materials. The landscape is composed of five modules: couches, caverns, lairs, pedestals, and tables with fold-out benches. These modules allow the children to test their bodies and find the most comfortable position in which to learn or play, without having to conform to seating norms. The children can communicate via the “Snuffle Beatle”, a total of 34 reflectors placed around the building.

The “Snuffle Garden” on the schools second story offers a series of horizontal and sloped surfaces on which the children can lay, sit, or slide. Particles such as the “Wings” and “Fireflower” float inside the “Snuffle of the Silver Dragon”. The particles are fold-out chairs and sculptures on which the children sit or retreat into – either together or on their own. Warm rays of light shine into the particles from the ceiling, covering the seats in a golden glow.

The hidden “Dragon’s Treasure” is also located on this story. The children decorate its magnetic walls with colorful mosaics that can be changed however they please. On the 3rd story, the “Snuffle of the Silver Dragon” is entangled within the “Kaleidoscope”. A gallery of mirrors optically dissolves the geometrical space; the walls and ceilings of the hallway are equipped with highly reflective field of metal panels, penetrated only by a collection of images composed of 270 picture frames. The children decorate the picture collection with their own creations, allowing their images to be endlessly reflected and providing for a constant change in spatial perception.

The “Chill Room”, also located on the third story, is a landscape of seating-pedestals covered with foam, tarp, and various textiles. A series of one-meter high “Petals” form a protective island around the pedestals, large enough for two to three children. These protective islands are made of wooden frames and can be individually formed by the children. Thus, the children are able to form their own environment according to their wishes through the manipulation of sound, light, and laminate.

View more photos here: http://www.archdaily.com/27714/erika-mann-elementary-school-die-baupiloten/emg_7350_snuffling-corridors/

Source taken from: archdaily.com

By Nico Saieh

http://www.archdaily.com/27714/erika-mann-elementary-school-die-baupiloten/

Sleepbox 01 by Arch Group

Happy Friday!
Today's YEOW will be "sleepbox 01" by by Russian architects Arch Group.
Here is an excerpt from Dezeen:

Russian architects Arch Group have completed the first of their tiny hotel rooms for napping at airports.
The Sleepbox unit at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport contains two beds and can be rented for between 30 minutes and several hours.
The pod is equipped with LED reading lamps as well as sockets for charging laptops and mobile phones.
This booth is constructed from ash-veneered MDF, although future units could instead be made from metal or glass-reinforced plastic.
The Sleepbox concept was the most popular story on Dezeen back in November 2009 and received over 100 comments – see Dezeen's earlier story here.

Here’s some more information from Arch Group:

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Sleepbox
Imagine the situation where you are in a modern city, you are not a local resident, and you have not booked a hotel. It is not a comfortable situation because modern aggressive cities give you no opportunity to rest and relax. If you want to sleep while waiting for your plane or train, you face many security and hygiene problems.
We believe that urban infrastructure should be more comfortable. For this purpose we have developed Sleepbox. It provides moments of quiet sleep and rest without wasting time in search for a hotel.


In mid-August 2011, the first Sleepbox was installed at the Aeroexpress terminal of Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia. It represents the base version made of MDF with a natural ash-tree veneer. This Sleepbox attracted such a great deal of interest from passengers and big companies that chances are first commercially operated boxes will be installed at airports and in the city by the end of this year.
Area: 4 m2
Architectural bureau: Arch group
Architects: M. Krymov, A.Goryainov
Design: 2009
Realization: 2011

for more info, please visit: http://www.dezeen.com/2011/09/12/sleepbox-01-by-arch-group/

Pop up Cafe - Design Beyond the Four Walls

Happy Friday Folks

TGIF!

Thank you Anita Bullock for today’s YEOW suggestion!

[If anyone else has any YEOW's they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx J]

Ok. I'm back, and Today’s Environment Of the Week will be

 

Brooklyn Receives First DOT Sanctioned “Pop-Up” Cafe

At Pattern Cities we like to observe how good ideas spread.

A few years ago, New York City began implementing a slew of tactical urbanism “pilot” projects that add public space and improve street safety. By making quick, low cost improvements using temporary and/or inexpensive materials, the City was able to swiftly make the improvements and monitor their success. Many of these projects are now on their way to becoming permanent, like the transformation of Broadway, which is perhaps the most well-known example. Today, more than 50 such projects are on their way to replacing car space with people space all over this great city.

Seeing the wisdom of this deliberate, low-cost approach, city officials in San Francisco developed their own “Pavement to Parks” program, which makes use of the same tactics to achieve the same results: more public space, safer streets.

San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks projects are inspired by the recent success of similar projects in New York City – where plazas and seating areas have been created in excess roadway simply by painting or treating the asphalt, placing protective barriers along the periphery, and installing moveable tables and chairs. Streets such as Broadway have been transformed into much more inviting and pedestrian-friendly spaces through New York’s efforts.



My favorite pic of all.





Uh!



However, rather than directly mimic NYC’s approach, the San Francisco quickly began riffing on the idea, with their much heralded “parklets,” which replace one or two automobile parking spaces with raised wooden platforms, tables, chairs, and planters. How about Replacing a parking space with an entire SHIPPING CONTAINER. Adam Kalkin did it and succeeded.



Cool Idea!



Not to be outdone, NYC took the cue and has since added their own “pop-up” cafes, which are typically placed in front of restaurants where sidewalk widths preclude outdoor sidewalk seating. While the seats are open to restaurant patrons and non-patrons alike, intelligent business owners surely see the benefit to making space for people to linger in front of their establishments. Since last fall, several pop-up cafes have been built in Manhattan, adding much needed places to sit and enjoy the City’s wonderful street life. However, it was not until this past Friday that Brooklyn received its own example, at Smith and Warren Streets in the borough’s lively Cobble Hill neighborhood. Associated with the Ecopolis Cafe, the DOT has further leveraged a previous investment in pedestrian curb extensions by providing this additional public space amenity.
While snapping photos at rush hour, I was able to witness dozens of people noticing the pop-up cafe for the first time–particularly those exiting the subway who probably didn’t notice the cafe on their way to work that morning.

Try this in Your City!

the steps

Streetfilms will produce a short and fun video documenting the new pop-up cafés that are being installed throughout NYC. The 5 to 10 minute film will show the positive impact and enjoyment that pop-up cafés bring to neighborhoods, businesses, and pedestrians.  The film will feature interviews with pop-up café users, artists who designed them, business owners who installed them, NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) officials, and advocates for more pop-up cafés.  Our small and efficient crew will film for one week, edit and distribute it in Fall 2011. The film will be distributed widely for free on Streetfilms.org, and through Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo. Streetfilms will also host a community screening where people can come learn more about the value of pop-up cafés. 

why we're doing it

New York City continues to grow and the increased density of the city means we need to re-examine how we partition our street space for pedestrians, bikes, cars and transit.  Cars take up far too much space in the current equation, and leave pedestrians scrambling for space on our neighborhood sidewalks.  Pop-up cafés are an inexpensive and easy solution to this problem—they help provide more space for pedestrians by reclaiming only one or two parking spots per block. Pop-up cafés, paid for by host local businesses, provide dedicated space for people to sit and have a cup of coffee, meet friends for lunch, or just to rest their weary legs.  NYC is becoming known for our new and fantastic pedestrian plazas like in Times Square, and pop-up cafés allow neighborhoods to create their own pedestrian spaces on a smaller and affordable scale to enrich their communities. Unfortunately, pop-up cafés are sometimes met with resistance because people are afraid removing one or two parking spaces on a block will have negative impacts. “Discover NYC Pop-Up Cafés” will help get the message out that we need to keep improving pedestrian spaces in NYC to create a better, safer and more livable city.

Reference Links:

http://patterncities.com/archives/613

http://espressomelbourne.com/blogorama/news/pop-up-cafe/

https://ioby.org/project/discover-nyc-pop-cafes

Thomas Crane Library

TGIF! 
Thank you Tom Williams for today's YEOW!

For this week’s Y.E.O.W, I’d like to feature the Thomas Crane Library located in Quincy, Massachusetts.  I have been an admirer of H. H. Richardson since I was first introduced to his work in an American Architectural History course in college.  I have visited this particular building on multiple occasions and been struck each time by the sensitivity of the architects of the later additions to the original historic structure.  It is an excellent example of the manipulation of space and volume, the play of light on the building’s interior, and the fine use of materials with all of the juxtaposed textures. 

The original H. H. Richardson-designed structure is typical of the “Richardsonian” Romanesque style demarcated by the asymmetry, rusticated stone, turrets, repeated window patterns, rounded arches, and eyebrow dormers.  If you squint really hard, and mash things down a bit to emphasize the horizontal, you start to see some Frank Lloyd Wright beginning to emerge (arriving on the scene about 30 years later).   

The best way to appreciate this building is by entering through the door below the low sweeping arch (seen in the image below).  Once inside, you enter into a dimly lit space (the times we have been there, the lights have been turned off) with lots of exposed woodwork; despite being a two-story space, it still maintains an intimate feel and character.  The book stacks are located at one end – arranged around the perimeter and on two levels; a fireplace at the other end adds to a rather cozy experience where you can just imagine hanging out on a rainy day.  The relatively new 2001 addition is truly amazing (see images below).

I cribbed the write-up below from the Internet, which provides the necessary credits and a little more history.

The original building designed by H. H. Richardson.

 Below image is a view of the 1908 addition designed by William Martin Aiken – showing great sensitivity to Richardson’s original building.

 

Thomas Crane Library, a photo by Paul Keleher on Flickr.

Views of the original reading room with book stacks at one end, and fireplace at the other.

A nice shot showing the juxtaposition of the Aiken-designed addition on the left and the new 2001 addition on the right.

Enjoy! And have a great Labor day weekend.