a+t Blog

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Now on sale

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:02:39 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE is a visual analysis of 30 urban landscapes of opportunity. The projects selected are grouped according to scene of origin: - Industrial areas - Peripheral voids - Infrastructures - Waterfronts.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Layers

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:08:33 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE, the new a+t book on public spaces available by the end of July 2008, is a visual analysis of 30 urban landscapes of opportunity. The projects selected are grouped according to scene of origin: - Industrial areas - Peripheral voids - Infrastructures - Waterfronts.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Sites

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:51:14 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE, the new a+t book on public spaces available by the end of July 2008, is a visual analysis of 30 urban landscapes of opportunity.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Strategies

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:50:03 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE, the new a+t book on public spaces available by the end of July 2008, gathers the most commonly used design strategies in revitalizing public space. Twenty different strategies on public space design are thus highlighted, from the included projects.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Opportunities

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:02:16 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE, a+t’s new book about public spaces, features 30 urban landscapes as opportunity generators. a+t identifies a series of opportunities, from territorial to individual scale, that come up from the re-used scenes.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE. Index

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:03:25 +0200

THE PUBLIC CHANCE, the new a+t book on public spaces available by the end of July 2008, is a visual analysis of 30 urban landscapes of opportunity.

THE PUBLIC CHANCE:
a+t analyzes public spaces

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:58:09 +0200

We, as citizens, have a common territory that in fact pertains less and less to us as time goes by. The cities in which we live, the stages of our daily efforts, the world of our routine and our maps of obligations and pleasures, are getting broken up into limited domains. It is a conflict that has existed for years, a conflict that involves the public sphere being sucked into the private spiral at the rate of land revaluation.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:07:01 +0200

Haworth Tompkins. Young Vic Theatre. London

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:43:23 +0200

The intervention in the Young Vic Theatre was done with the fluency of someone inviting friends over, with no pomp, no boasting, familiar with the likes and needs of its own and yet at the same time technically discreet and efficient.

a+t in A Barriga de um Arquitecto

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 12:52:29 +0200

The architecture blog A Barriga de um Arquitecto (written in bilingual Portuguese-English) has recently published a post about a+t's new website.

On density and other concerns

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:02:06 +0200

Land occupation is a key issue for a sustainable world. Density projects gathers some historical views and comments by experts on how cities should grow.

a+t in Plataforma Arquitectura

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 11:06:26 +0200

Alday Jover. Metropolitan Water Park. Zaragoza

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:42:17 +0200

Guided by one of its authors, Iñaki Alday, we toured the Metropolitan Water Park, a periurban park adjacent to the Expo site which will be the finest legacy of the event to the public once the Expo is finished and the mad collection of buildings on the site becomes a business park.

Zaragoza looks over the Ebro

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:59:51 +0200

Accompanying Plan. Pro Expo Consortium 2008 Common in this type of appointments, the legacy of the Expo will fortunately go much further than the site itself, a motley set of architectural gestures somewhere between an amusement park and a shopping centre.

Francisco Mangado. Spain's Pavillion. Expo 2008. Zaragoza

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:09:26 +0200

As I haven't been able to gain access to the inside of the pavilion, for now it is enough to admire how it imposes its presence against surrounding artifacts, and to applaud the choice of baked clay. Low technology on a tremendous scale.

a+t in Edgar González

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 11:09:39 +0200

Oscar Niemeyer. Teatro Popular. Niterói

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 17:12:59 +0200

At almost 100 years old, the master Niemeyer inaugurated the theatre of his home town last April. This was a work that suffered several modifications and a significant delay due to serious budget problems.

David Adjaye. Rivington Place. London

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:52:47 +0200

One approaches this new visual arts centre in the East End of London by going through a neighbourhood in the middle of transformation. The City pushes towards the west and old industrial warehouses are being renovated as offices, art galleries, bars and restaurants.

3XN. Orestad College. Copenhagen

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 13:15:27 +0200

A school for students in the final years of secondary education, where classrooms and meeting areas are developed around a central space. The spatial organisation reflects the freedom in the academic programme, where more importance is placed on internships and group work than teaching in the classroom.

White Arkitekter. Kastrup Sea Bath. Copenhagen

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:56:12 +0200

At the end of Amager Beach is the Kastrup Sea Bath, a wooden dock that serves as a solarium, trampoline, sitting area, that coils facing the coast to create an area protected from the afternoon sun. The wood is azobe.

Zaha Hadid Architects. Arup. Pabellón Puente Expo Zaragoza 2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:07:52 +0200

With her first work in Spain, the Iraqi diva has managed to materialise those drawings that fascinated me as a student. The volume of the different pods placed over the river, cladded in plastic and glass scales, is reminiscent of the trunk of an anaconda, looking over the river Ebro's turbulent waters.

a+t makes you wonder

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:33:45 +0200

But there are a few things we are certain of: architecture cannot exist without the city and its citizens.

Expo Zaragoza 2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:14:53 +0200

The Expo 2008 site is located on the meander of Ranillas, on a surface of 25 hectares, next to a new 120 hectare park.

Jorn Utzon. Bagsvaerd Church. Copenhagen

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:11:41 +0200

With the appearance of agricultural cultivation, the church and its dependencies occupy a parcel of the public service buildings in a suburb of Copenhagen. As Utzon himself has said, the two pastors of the town came to him saying that the residents of Bagsvaerd had been saving money to build their church for 25 years. The architect didn't doubt that that was a job he couldn't decline.

BIG

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:04:05 +0200

Bjarke Ingels says that he makes mountains because Copenhagen is too flat. In this sense his perserverance goes beyond that of Mohammed; he doesn't just go to the mountain. If there is no mountain, he makes one.

PLOT=BIG+JDS. Sjakket Community building. Copenhagen

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:03:06 +0200

A project that makes good use of a former industrial building in a neighbourhood where the industrial fabric and residential fabric are becoming more and more combined. Adequate materials for the programme: asphalt fabric and wood for the terrace deck, a transport container that is placed on the original buildings, polycarbonate garage doors, graffiti on the patios.

BIG with JDS. Mountain Dwellings. Copenhagen

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:03:49 +0200

In this project published in Density projects, it seems impossible to build a high-rise car park with 480 spaces and a block of 80 homes that share the same block, guaranteeing that all homes have terraces and attic-like views, that parking be well-lit, on surface and well-ventilated, and not block the residents views, that the outer image look like Mount Everest and that the developer as well as the investor makes money.

PLOT=BIG+JDS. Maritime Youth Centre. Copenhagen

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 11:33:42 +0200

The initial purposes of the project, to satisfy the needs of the rowing club and create a space for play and interaction among the neighbourhood's youth, clash and it seems the rowing club is the winning party, taking up more space than would be ideal.

New Public Spaces in the Paseo del Prado. Madrid

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:04:24 +0200

The Paseo del Prado in Madrid is in luck on two parts: to the trio of recently enlarged existing museums (Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofía), the Caixaforum centre can be added after the renovation of the former power station Central Eléctrica del Mediodía.

David Adjaye. Bernie Grant Arts Centre. London

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 11:25:09 +0200

The three pavilions that make up the Bernie Grant Arts Centre complex are located among other existing buildings, some from the Victorian period, in the ward of Tottenham Green in the north of London, a neighbourhood with a predominantly black population, who the centre is specifically dedicated to, founded by the widow of the political activist Bernie Grant.

Studio Gang Architects. Aqua Tower. Chicago

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:04:50 +0200

I took a few pictures of the Chicago Aqua Tower building (see Density projects), a skyscraper that includes a hotel, apartments, luxury homes, offices and public parking. This hybrid programme was developed on the 82 floors of the tower, the large base of two storeys above ground level, and five basement levels.

Interview with Tony Fretton

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:21:51 +0200

London, 1 August 2001. - Irénée Scalbert: You have lived in London for a long time. Can you tell me about your background? Tony Fretton: I was born in the East of London. My father was an electrician... He and his seven brothers grew up in Hackney. His own father was a commercial glass blower. My mother also grew up in Hackney. She had four sisters. Her father was a tunnel digger.

a+t 30. Civilities II

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:05:37 +0200

This second issue of Civilities is a selection of architectures that are closely related to their location. Some form part of urban regeneration projects while others represent public realm in the middle of a private territory or behave as simple centres of life in a deserted landscape. In other cases, the architecture is added to existing places, to memories and uses that become a stratus of new constructions.

Reviving the Heart of the City (1)

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:09:14 +0200

Some nurseries offer a new advantage to parents, cameras strategically placed in their facilities so that parents can observe the behaviour of their children online. The idea seems somewhat perverse because, although it does encourage transparence and information by allowing parents to see if their baby eats or takes a nap, it is also a way of monitoring the educator.

DBOOK
Density, data, diagrams, dwellings

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:06:45 +0200

DBOOK is based on a group of 64 collective housing projects, analysed because of their contribution to the dense city. After the publication of Density, New Collective Housing, DBOOK is the next step in the sharing of examples that will promote the compact development of urban settlements. In both publications exist differences that are typical of a path that is in the process of creation, on which new travellers appear.

Density projects

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:07:27 +0200

Density projects contains 36 ideas on collective housing that are committed to increasing density. They are projects that propose savings in land use and, consequently, a more sustainable environment. The design strategy of the authors, the implementation in the context and the development of the housing typologies are analysed and compared by themes, following the path begun by the a+t series dedicated to Density.

Density Condensed

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:24:30 +0200

From 2002 to 2004, the architecture and technology magazine a+t did a study on collective housing. The results of this study became the basic material of four issues falling under the generic theme of “Density”.

a+t 29. Civilities I

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:07:50 +0200

The term civilities relates to the conventions that regulate community life; it is as well the addition of civic + facilities. The new a+t series begins under this name and attempt to present a new focus on life in common and buildings that keep up society’s pulse. This topic embraces therefore all kinds of constructions and programs implying shared relations, converging activities and experiences to be exchanged.

Adaptability

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:11:14 +0200

"If one want to express something abstract, something that doesn't immediately relate to the visible reality, the best thing is to relate to the immediate surroundings. Then it stays clear and things never become easily vague" (1) We are all familiar with historical examples, such as the Amsterdam canal houses or London Georgian town houses, that have undergone many changes from single family dwellings to apartments and offices. Even hotel, night-club, art gallery shopping and light industrial uses have been found for these buildings. More recently, industrial warehouse buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th century have also found new uses. It is the adaptability of these buildings that creates a vibrant urban structure: ever changing and lively, with different parts of the city developing different characters and generating new forms of urban contact and sociability.

Re-engaging society with itself

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:25:23 +0200

During the 1960’s a number of revolutionary groups, among them Archizoom, Superstudio and the Situationist International, critical of changes in modern society, came about in an attempt to resist capitalism, resurrect the individual and redefine modern life.

Towards a new public space? Wanderings in the wasteland of the Ost Strand, Berlin

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:26:40 +0200

The test site is located on the former site of the Berlin Wall, at only a few kilometres away from the Alexander-Platz. Abandoned military wasteland, the place is nowadays an empty urban space. Today, it has become a rupture within the traditional urban structure. At the time of the wall, the enclosure of the wall tore the town in two and was a physical void, the so-called “Corridor of Death”.

El poder de lo que no existe

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:15:01 +0200

Miestakes

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:27:31 +0200

Trouble. According to statistics, a student and his or her parents decide, within five seconds of arrival, whether to apply to a given university or not.

How public is your private? Background to Melbourne’s

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:28:13 +0200

For over two decades something has been stirring on Melbourne’s water’s edge. Ever since the setting out of Melbourne’s city grid in 1837, which was aligned to the Yarra River at the meeting point of the salt waters of Port Philip Bay and the freshwater of the river, the city has been denied direct access to the water.

A short history of singular objects

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:28:57 +0200

The history of urban planning has shown us that in any urban area, whether it be a developed or spontaneous area, three basic functions exist. These functions are residence, materialised as a group of dwellings that takes up the majority of the built-up area; activities, found in workplaces or in facility-containing places; and lastly, the flow, movement supported by the infrastructural network.