a+t Blog

Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Central St. Giles. London

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 10:20:17 +0100

This is the first mixed-use building in England designed by this italian architect.

Mixed-use block.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. KX200. London

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 09:53:21 +0100

Two office towers in central London were transformed to hold a combination of public and private housing and a students’ residence. A base was added to them in order to bring the commercial programme nearer to the edge of the site and avoid free spaces of uncertain use. In addition, a wide variety of prefabrication options on the façade and interior elements allowed construction to be completed in a very short period of time.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. Adelaide Wharf. London

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 12:13:28 +0100

Adelaide Wharf is a pioneering mixed tenure housing scheme. Located on the Regent's Canal in Hackney, a key regeneration area of London, the scheme is the first to be delivered as part of English Parnerships' London-Wide Iniciative (LWI) with a mix of privately sold, Key Worker and socially rented apartments. There is no visible differentiation between tenures.

147 Units building of mixed tenure Developer: 50 % public, 50 % private Densities: 347 dwellings/ha, 850 inhab/ha Photos taken by Javier Arpa, available under request.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. Westminster Academy. London

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 12:14:35 +0100

Interior images of the academy, The Riba Sorrell Foundation Schools award winner in 2008.

Photos taken by Javier Arpa, available under request.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Westminster Academy 259-265, Harrow Road London, United Kingdom 2007

More outdoor images in the Master in Collective Housing at the ETSAM Architecture School in Madrid last Wednesday.

a+t at the Master in Collective Housing

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:38:44 +0100

Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas and Javier Arpa will be giving a talk called 'Density and other Concerns' tomorrow Wednesday, February 17th at 7 p.m., within the frame of the Master in Collective Housing at the ETSAM Architecture School in Madrid.

dRMM. Wansey Street Housing. London

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 09:05:07 +0100

Wansey Street Housing is the demonstration project for Elephant and Castle Regeneration, that includes the demolition of the 1960s Heygate Estate. The project will then form a landmark on the south east corner of a new public square.

Studio Ma. PRD845. Phoenix. Arizona

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:33:14 +0100

For decades, the metropolitan area of Phoenix has been growing faster than that of any other city in the United States.

Machado and Silvetti Associates. Hassayampa Academic Village. Tempe. Arizona

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:41:44 +0100

Arizona State University has several campuses in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Hassayampa occupies the south-east sector of the Tempe campus and includes accommodation for 1900 students, lecture halls, dining areas and stores.

The program is organized around five colour-coded privately accessed courtyards. Aside from this, the rest of the facades to the network of public links are uniform, and display meticulous glasswork, aluminium metalwork and concrete blocks of different sizes and tones. Photos taken by Javier Arpa, available under request.

The Public Chance, one of Archidose's favourites

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:03:24 +0100

One of the most influential blogs about architecture, Archidose, has included the book The Public Chance, published by a+t, as one of its favourites of 2009.

Hybrids III on Edgargonzalez.com

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:38:20 +0100

Edgargonzalez.com is one of the most relevant architectural blogs in Spanish.

Frank Lloyd Wright.Taliesin West. Scottsdale. Arizona

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:08:01 +0100

Frank Lloyd Wright started building Taliesin West in 1937, at the age of 70, as winter residence for himself and his third wife. Olga Ivanovna.

Günter Domenig. School dining hall. Graz. Austria

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:25:19 +0100

The dining hall of the Franciscan Sisters' boarding school in Graz, designed by Günter Domenig, with Volker Giencke as collaborator was built between 1975 and 1977, is within the school's inner courtyard.

Hybrids III on ArchDaily

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:21:56 +0100

The famous architecture blog ArchDaily has published a review of the latest a+t magazine issue, Hybrids III. Residential Hybrids.

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:42:39 +0100

UNStudio. MUMUTH. Graz. Austria

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:58:57 +0100

Officially opened on March 1st 2009, MUMUTH, Haus für Musik und Musiktheater, is the University of Graz building for Music and the Performing Arts.

Riegler Riewe. I.T. Institutes of the Technical University. Graz. Austria

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 17:28:01 +0100

This section of the Technical University of Graz is made up of three entities: the Institute of Information Technology, the Secure Information and Communication Technologies Foundation and the Information and Computing Systems Institute.

Herzog & de Meuron. Allianz Arena. Munich

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 10:02:36 +0100

The Allianz Arena stadium replaced the Olympic Stadium (see post Frei Otto, Günther Behnish. Olympic Stadium. Munich) as home of local teams' football matches.

Rem Koolhaas: 'All architectures are survivors'

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 08:51:52 +0100

Full version of the authors of the interview published in the El País Babelia supplement with the title Vivimos un urbanismo loco (We are living through a crazy urbanism) (19/12/2009).

Frei Otto, Günther Behnisch. Olympic Stadium. Munich

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:35:50 +0100

In a conversation which took place with Juan María Songel (GG Barcelona, 2008 p 91) Frei Otto regrets that the Olympic stadium roof could not be lighter, owing to the necessity to adapt it to a form previously designed by the winner of the competition, the architect Günter Benisch.

Herzog & de Meuron. Five courtyards. Munich

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:25:25 +0100

The renovation of this block, in the heart of Munich, is a work of composing in-fills and voids in which that already existing is submitted to the new order, based on the use of the entire ground floor as retail space.

Herzog & de Meuron. Goetz Collection. Munich

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:50:32 +0100

The headquarters of the collection is a small building in the garden of the private house of the owner, Ingvild Goetz, who wanted a space where she could temporarily exhibit some works.

Sauerbruch Hutton. Brandhorst Museum. Munich

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:57:51 +0100

Located in the Museum district of Munich, the new Brandhorst Museum is a rectangular box three-storeys high, including the basement, which houses a private contemporary art collection.

Fink + Jocher. Student Hall of Residence. Garching. Munich

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 12:23:17 +0100

Four years after its completion, the climbing vine has not managed to get past the second storey and the East and West facades suffer the consequences.

Florian Nagler. Kirchenzentrum. Munich-Riem

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:38:22 +0100

The new city of Riem forms part of Munich's strategy for growth, which is based on three concepts: urban, compact and green. It lies on the the land of the former airport and tries to achieve a liveable environment based on three basic ingredients: home of the Trade Fair and the whole range of associated offices, social housing and facilities for 16,000 inhabitants and a 200-hectare park.

Steidle + Partner. Housing. Munich

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:20:10 +0100

The residential complex is composed of four buildings between Genterstrasse, Peter-Paul Althausstrasse and Osterwaldstrasse. Otto Steidle (1943-2004) finished the first of these, in Genterstrasse, in 1972, where his studio is located.

Hamonic + Masson. Housing and medical centre. Pantin. France

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:09:24 +0100

Courtillières is an example of a failure in modern urban planning. The neighbourhood, designed by Émile Aillaud towards the end of the 1950s, is currently undergoing different urban regeneration plans in order to slow down building deterioration and even more so, to improve the profound social unrest of the area.

HYBRIDS III. Now on sale

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:46:37 +0100

This last double issue from the Hybrids Series, titled HYBRIDS III. Residential Mixed-Use Buildings, is centred on residential use as a support for actions involving hybrids.

HYBRIDS III. Hybrid versus Social Condenser

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:32:52 +0100

In the search for models capable of economising resources, Hybrid Buildings, especially those with residential uses, are chance samples that include the gene of mixed-use development in its code. This gene is necessary in order to adapt to the signs of the times. Nevertheless, this mixed condition makes them mistakenly similar to another avant-garde model, a model that at first sight seems to be its predecessor when in fact it is the complete opposite. We are referring to the Social Condenser.

HYBRIDS III. Index

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:32:35 +0100

Hybrids III supports the inclusion of housing in mixed developments, that guarantees continuous functional intensity and tends to be the driving force of financing civic buildings.

INDEX

Article

HYBRIDS III. Next release

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:50:56 +0100

This last double issue from the Hybrids Series is centred on residential use as a support for actions involving hybrids.

Whereas issues I and

Urban Design, an English journal dedicated to the analysis of current urban design, in its latest issue carries a review of the book published by a+t The Public Chance, New urban landscapes.

ENSA Nantes in Madrid

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:26:02 +0100

Last week we guided the students of the Nantes ENSA (School of Architecture) through part of their study trip to Madrid.

Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes. Simone-de-Beauvoir Footbridge. Paris

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:23:47 +0100

The new pedestrian footbridge links the Bercy Park with the riverside and the French National Library. One single gesture serves to bring together the Library access plaza, the riverside walks and the park on the other side of the Georges Pompidou expressway.

Ça bouge à Paris

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:21:56 +0200

Paris, the most densely-populated capital in Europe (20,164 inhab/km2)*, occupies land which has been filled up long since and walled off by its Boulevard Périphérique. The densities differ greatly between arrondissements, going from the 10,000 inhab/km2 of the 4th arrondissement to the 40,000 inhab/km2 of the 11th**.

HoCo in Plataforma Arquitectura

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:52:09 +0200

Plataforma Arquitectura is one of the latinamerican most visited blog. Its aim is to spread Chilean and Latinamerican young architects' projects and generate discurssion about them, taking advantage of web 2.0.

Emmanuel Combarel Dominique Marrec Architectes.17 Subsidized apartments. Paris

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:16:49 +0200

Combarel and Marrec’s infill contains 17 apartments subsidized by the municipality. The building stands on columns above the parking lot on the street level (a rare typological innovation in the city) and its neutral glass façade in the midst of the stone and renderings of the traditional Parisian architecture.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:27:45 +0200

Chartier-Corbasson. Social housing in rue Saint Antoine. Paris

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:06:05 +0200

This building for rented social housing in Le Marais will make available to lower wage-earners a total of 11 apartments in a district where house prices on the free market are around 8,500 euros per m2 of usable area*.

Agence Bernard Bühler. Housing and nursery at the Cité Prost. Paris

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:58:13 +0200

This operation of creating a sponge effect on the fabric of the 11th arrondissement has allowed the opening of a 5,000 m2 public gardens on the site of municipal land. At one end of the site an apartment block with a nursery on the ground floor has been built.

HoCo at Archidose

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0200

Archidose, one of the most influential blogs about architecture, written by the architect from New York, John Hill, has dedicated a post about a+t's latest book: HoCo Density Housing Construction & Costs.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:07:13 +0200

Brenac & Gonzalez. Transformation of the Boucicaut Hospital. Paris

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:49:51 +0200

Last June the first phase of the transformation of the old Boucicaut Hospital was inaugurated, a scheme which intends to convert this 3 hectare superblock in the 15th arrondissement into an ecological neighbourhood. When the works are completed the new neighbourhood will boast social housing, private housing, facilities, gardens and stores.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Lake Shore Drive Apartments. Chicago

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 09:12:11 +0200

Living on top: the tower

Between 1945 and 1951, Mies van der Rohe built two 26-storey towers on the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago. These two towers, numbers 860 and 880 on Lake Shore Drive, are two identical prisms, the direct result of an attempt to give shape to an idea, that of the glass skyscraper. With these two buildings, the progress of American technology can be identified with an architecture based on strict constructive principles, on slenderness and transparency.

Frank Lloyd Wright. Oak Park. Chicago

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:31:03 +0200

Frank Lloyd Wright’s solo career starts in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb where the architect builds his own house in 1887. During the day, Wright worked downtown for Adler & Sullivan, while in the evenings he completed the design of residences in the surrounding lots of his neighbourhood. When the boss found out Wright was undertaking freelance commissions, he was invited to leave the company.