Sports Hall by Takenaka Corp

Entitled Harmonie Hall, the building functions as both a basketball court and auditorium for the Kobe International Junior High School and Senior High School, and was designed by Takenaka Corporation to fit in with the wood and concrete buildings that already made up the campus.


A 46 metre-long wall of uninterrupted concrete lines the north elevation. Narrow lengths of glazing run along its top and bottom, bringing light through to the floor and ceiling of the hall.


Larger windows span the southern elevation so that students elsewhere on the campus can catch a glimpse of activities taking place inside, while students inside can look out towards the surrounding woodland.


Structural timber columns are positioned along this facade to take some of the vertical load from the wooden roof, which protrudes over the edges of the walls.





Design Intent
The Kobe International Junior High School and Senior High School Harmonie Hall was based on an idea of a clear and open axial plan utilising concrete and wood to respond to the campus' history while creating a new relationship with the natural landscape. Harmonie Hall is an ancillary facility that includes a teacher's room, storage, toilets, and a gymnasium that can be used as both a basketball court and an auditorium.

Site plan

This building is designed to capture the most from the rich surrounding environment while inheriting the formal language of the campus as it exists today. Functionally, gyms tend to be enclosed spaces removed from their surrounding environment, but this time, by utilising a wood structural frame, the building is in concert with the vibrant local environment as much as possible.
The south side leads to an existing building and is comprised of a long 20m wood structural span for views of the woodlands supported by a 6m high and 46m long concrete wall. Opening the building to the lush ecosystem of the north campus was a natural configuration.
By supporting the horizontal force with concrete walls on three sides, with the north side being the exception, the structural roof frame was designed to transfer vertical load to the wooden poles on the north facade.

Ground floor plan

The north side is a rich and open ecosystem. Through the framing of landscape views, the beautiful surroundings engage with the space and offer openness by using the trees and sky to highlight the structural frame. From the beginning, the design has been interested in offering the experience of simultaneous continuity between the paired horizontal open spaces.
Furthermore, by providing a sufficient aperture to the wind and natural landscape, a space filled with light and consistent breezes from the north is realised.
Also, by using vegetation identified from research and field surveys, trees are transplanted from the construction staging areas while simultaneously cultivating local seeds as a means to visually and biologically produce a landscape of continuity with the local context.

Cross section

The idea for using structure to maximise openness to the surrounding environment, both conceptually and visually, marries the wind and light of the natural environment with the new space. The environment is the architecture.

Site and Context
The context for this project was a combined junior and high school located in the peaceful hills overlooking Suma with a view of the Akashi Straits and Awaji Island. This school was established in 1992 with aims to foster women with prolific knowledge and grace, and the campus has since been designed with the theme that the campus has made an impression on their memory. The exposed concrete of the design provides a sense of integration with the campus which includes many memorable places.

Long section

The existing school buildings, located on the north-south and east-west axes, consist of just two basic geometric shapes, the square and the circle, and were built of exposed concrete. This prompt for this project was to build a gymnasium the size of a basketball court for the 20th anniversary. For this project, I tried to create a new gymnasium, on the angle shaped site located in the west part of the campus, that was in harmony, to the greatest degree possible, with the surrounding environment. The junior high school building has a circular hall in the centre which is surrounded by open related rooms. This memorable hall within the square shaped form is inserted into the hill, but for this project I aimed to create memorable places between this building and the hills.


To see more photos, click here: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/06/24/harmonie-hall-by-takenaka-corporation/

Credit goes to: Amy Frearson @ dezeen

Reading Nest in Cleveland

YEOW for today~ a temporary art display in front of a library...read more to see what its all about below!



Artist Mark Reigelman used over 10,000 discarded wood boards to create a nest-shaped temporary installation inspired by mythical creatures and ancient symbols of knowledge. The Reading Nest is dedicated to books and, with its gold-hued interior, references the legend of the Griffin- a half-lion half-eagle creature, who built his nest of pure gold.



Visually, the installation resembles both a forest and fowl. It symbolizes growth through knowledge and is designed as a fresh interpretation of the Griffin sculptures which can often be seen at the entrances of civic buildings throughout the country. It took ten days and a team of five people to build the piece, which is currently on display in the Eastman Reading Garden of the Cleveland Public Library.



The installation is 13 feet (3.35 meters) high and 36 feet (11 meters) wide. It is comprised of 10,000 boards, held in place by wooden armature, steel cables and around 40,000 nails. The boards were locally sourced through Cleveland industrial and manufacturing sources. Around 4,000 boards were kept in a raw and weathered condition, while 6,000 were painted gold. The exterior of the installation is made of a combination of gold and raw pieces, while the interior is completely painted gold.







Read more: http://inhabitat.com/mark-reigelmans-reading-nest-in-cleveland-is-built-from-10000-discarded-wood-boards/

 

Exbury Egg: Amazing Self-Sustaining Floating Office Launches in the UK

  the exbury egg - images courtesy of nigel ridgen

 

 

 

Two years ago, a group of architects, artists and engineers announced plans to create a floating egg-shaped room to be occupied by artist Stephen Turner. Last month, the fruit of their labor was realized as the Exbury Egg, an energy-efficient, self-sustaining pod was launched in an estuary of the River Beaulieu in the UK. Turner will live in the egg for 12 months while he uses the space to study the life of a tidal creek and the ways in which humans interact with nature.

the exbury egg is a self-sustaining work space that is the result of a collaboration between PAD studio, the SPUD group and artist stephen turner, who will work from vessel for the next year.

located in in the estuary of the river beaulieu UK, the egg is a place to stay and a laboratory for studying the life of a tidal creek, a collecting and collating centre with integral storage & display areas.

the structure built using boat building techniques and local materials features a bed, a desk, a small stove, and a wet room. it will take on the patina of 730 daily tides below the water line, and 365 days of weathering by wind, rain and bleaching by the sun above.





the egg will be ‘tethered’ like a boat and will rise and fall with the tide. the light touch and basic nature of the 'exbury egg' aims to re-appraise the way we live; to properly consider sustainably and future use of natural resources. stephen turner is interested in exploring a more empathic relationship with nature which reveals the precious and transcendent in everyday life. the artwork created will stem from stephen’s occupation, developing through direct experience an understanding of local natural cycles and processes and the relationship of the environment to the narratives of human activity in the unending calendar of seasonal life.




the ‘exbury egg’ adopts the two key premises of 'lean, green and clean' and 'reduce, reuse and recycle'. the potential energy requirements during occupation were determined through exploring stephen’s anticipated daily routines, including a consideration of the variations that would result from seasonal differences. stephen’s requirements for electricity use including electricity for charging items such as a laptop, digital camera and mobile phone will be met using solar.































stephen turner
artist’s impression of the exbury egg exterior
watercolour on paper, january 2013
740mm x 1000mm
the watercolour was made by the artist from the western red cedar timber used in the actual egg construction.

For more information see links below:

Read more: Exbury Egg: Amazing Self-Sustaining Floating Office Launches in the UK | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Life of an Architect: The Graphics

TGIF!

I came upon this site: Life of an Architect and it had me quite amused...and smiling too.

I think we need some humor today...hence...this YEOW.

http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/life-of-an-architect-the-graphics/

The sketches on Bob's site has links to his other entries. So you might want invest your lunch hour to read some.... ;-)