Category: Architecture

“Infrastructure is much more important than architecture.” – Rem Koolhaas

 

Koolhaas is an architect extraordinaire shaping the social structures of this planet as he goes along. His specialty is identifiable only in his sense of play. The social aspect of his gravity-defying and surprising structures not only incorporate their original purpose, but add to it, taking into consideration the urban planning aspect as much as the architectural.

Rem Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam and started off in journalism. A multi-talented social thinker, he attended the Architecture Association School in London. After graduating in 1972, he conducted research in the United States, during which time he wrote the book, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Much of Koolhaas’ work in the twentieth century was esoteric and theoretical. He often claims only five per cent of his projects have come to fruition.

In 1975 he cofounded the internationally renowned Office for Metropolitan Architecture, or OMA, with architects Elia and Zoe Zenghelis, and Madelon Vriesendorp. OMA is now led by nine partners, including Koolhaas, and the company maintains offices in Rotterdam, as well as Beijing, Doha, Dubai Hong Kong, Perth, and New York. He has also founded AMO, OMA’s research and design studio, a think tank approach of “…architectural thinking to domains beyond.”

Around the world cities have been permanently transformed by Koolhaas with projects such as: the China Central Television (CCTV), the Seoul National Museum of Art, the Seattle Central Library, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, and the Casa de Musica, in Porto, Portugal.

Current work includes the recently completed Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Audrey Irmas Pavilion, a new addition into the Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Glazer Family Campus in Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay’s Transbay Block 8.

The Pritzker Prize jury described Koolhaas as, “…that rare combination of visionary and implementer — philosopher and pragmatist—theorist and prophet.” Outspoken, talented, and with unlimited vision, Koolhaas is devoted to creating modern urban spaces that complement twenty-first century living, including the soon to be opening Taipei Performing Arts Centre.

“As more and more architecture is finally unmasked as the mere organization of flow—shopping centers, airports—it is evident that circulation is what makes or breaks public architecture….” – Rem Koolhaas

Zaha Hadid’s Morpheus Hotel

The City of Dreams now has another treasure in which to lure and mesmerize its guests. The Morpheus Hotel, the world’s first free form, high-rise exoskeleton is officially open. Wait, what? In plain speak that means that the building’s structural geometric grid negates the need for internal walls or columns that would clutter the hotel’s interior. It’s the first building in Asia without a single internal column. Held up instead by a free-form frame. 

Morpheus combines its optimal arrangement with structural integrity and sculptural form,” said Viviana Muscettola, ZHA’s project director. “The design is intriguing as it makes no reference to traditional architectural typologies.”

Named after the Greek god of dreams, the hotel debuted on June 15, and travellers were eager to get their first look inside. There are 772 rooms in the 40-storey building formed from two, twisting circulation cores that connect at the podium bottom, separate, and re-join again at the rooftop. It’s all part of the larger City of Dreams Macau collection. Here you’ll find an array of the finest dining, spa and luxury services in the region, true to their “Art of Winning” slogan.

Famed British architect Zaha Hadid designed the hotel and with it became the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. The grand opening of her masterwork was bittersweet, however, as this was Hadid’s last project before her death in 2016.  Macua’s buildings in general borrow their architectural style not from one place, but many places around the world. Morpheus is different. It evolved as new architecture, expressing the city for a change. The structure is designed to look like a stylized eight. An interesting choice knowing that 8, has long been regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture.

A splashy launch of Morpheus takes the form of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. The campaign, created by Chandelier Creative and a partnership with photographer Nick Knight, perfectly captures the opulence, allure, and magnetism of the remarkable space.

The campaign, inspired purely by Morpheus, pulls in great works ranging from Napoleon on horseback to Calliope on her throne, which are references to the boldest, most iconic archetypes throughout time. It’s a futuristic world that personifies the spirit of victory. And because the sky is the limit here, the campaign also features actor, filmmaker, and martial artist Donnie Yen along with supermodel and actress Du Juan.

Lawrence Ho, Chairman, and CEO of Melco Resorts & Entertainment (Morpheus’ owners) said of the new resort, “It is our goal to offer a journey of the imagination and the sensation of personal triumph for tomorrow’s most sophisticated world travelers. An unprecedented masterpiece of quality, taste, and vision, Morpheus is destined to become the icon of the new Macau.”

 

 

Miami’s Faena Forum

Argentinian developer Alan Faena’s 43,000-square-foot Faena Forum is located in the heart of the six-block Faena District, Miami Beach and is home to Faena Art. Miami’s new cultural cornerstone was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Remment Lucas “Rem” Koolhaas, the famed Dutch architect, founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), and led by architect Shohei Shigematsu.

Rem and OMA created the new center for the arts, designed to “…catalyze experimentation within and across artistic disciplines and foster cross-cultural collaborations among artists throughout the Western Hemisphere,” according to OMA.

The 50,000-square-foot center was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The 40-foot dome features a spiraling walkway connecting the ground floor to its central glazed oculus, and is connected to a cube that takes its inspiration from the Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón, the historical opera house. The series of flexible spaces formed by interlocking cylindrical and cuboidal volumes provide for a range of space for projects, commissions, performances and events.

Ximena Caminos, artistic director of the Faena Forum, has an agenda that aims at breaking taboos, and providing interactive cross-genre activities including such novelties as roller skating and art, and providing an incubator and exhibition space for “cultural turbulence.”

“The Faena Forum revives a Miami idea of architecture as playful sculptural expression, as much about appearance as usefulness.” – The Financial Times

 

The French Fashion Icon’s Marrakesh Yves Saint Laurent Museum

“Marrakesh taught me color.” – Yves Saint Laurent

The Marrakesh Yves Saint Laurent Museum is dedicated to the life and work of French fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent, curated by Saint Laurent’s former partner, and French culture maestro, the late Pierre Bergé. The museum, designed by Studio KO recently opened a short distance away from Jardin Majorelle, where the designer found inspiration and where his ashes were scattered.

Studio KO based the building’s design on the Yves Saint Laurent oeuvre and “…by the duality between curved and straight lines and between loose and precise approaches to cutting fabric.” The façade of the building includes intersecting bricks placed in aesthetic patterns, inspired by …” the weft and warp of fabric”. The museum’s interior is designed like the “lining of a couture jacket … velvety, smooth and radiant.”

Not just a retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent classics: the pea coat, the Mondrian dress, ‘le smoking’ and the safari jacket; the museum houses unique pieces rarely before presented in public and arranged around the themes of Masculine-Feminine, Black, Africa and Morocco, Imaginary Voyages, and Gardens and Art, offering an original interpretation of the couturier’s work.

 

The museum’s “scenographer”, Christophe Martin included “…immersive audiovisual elements – sketches, photographs, runway shows, films, voices and music – that, by offering a sort of dialogue with the garments, reveal the couturier’s creative process and invite us into his world.”

In addition to the rotating permanent Yves Saint Laurent collection, the museum offers temporary exhibition spaces, a research library and archives, an auditorium, bookstore, and terrace café. It will also warehouse and restore garments and accessories lent by the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, as well as non-exhibited pieces belonging to the Jardin Majorelle’s Berber Museum.

“It feels perfectly natural, fifty years later, to build a museum dedicated to his oeuvre, which was so inspired by this country.” – Pierre Bergé

The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

“A total work of art” – Hamburg Tourism

“The building is already a landmark” – NY Times

“The Elbphilharmonie has changed the face of Hamburg locally and internationally and culture has found a new home at the heart of the city.” – Olaf Scholz, Mayor of Hamburg

The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg is already a cultural and architectural landmark.

With its impressive glass façade and wave-like rooftop, the Elbphilharmonie rises up from the former Kaispeicher, a building on the Elbe River at the western end of the HafenCity quarter. Designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, it houses two concert halls, a hotel and residential apartments. Between the old warehouse and the glass structure is the Plaza, a public viewing area that extends around the whole building.

The Grand Hall is the heart of the Elbphilharmonie, with seating for 2,100 guests. The vineyard-style arrangement places the audience no further than 30 meters from the conductor, breaking down barriers between musicians and audience members. With the help of an expansive reflector that is suspended from the vaulted ceiling, the panels project sound into every corner of the space guaranteeing an optimal listening experience from each seat.

At a height of 37 meters above ground level, the public viewing area offers visitors a spectacular 360-degree view of the city and harbor. The defining feature of the Elbphilharmonie: 1,000 curved window panels, tailor-made to capture and reflect the color of the sky, the sun’s rays, the water and the city; turning the concert hall into a gigantic crystal.

Architects Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog and Ascan Mergenthaler started working on the Elbphilharmonie in 2003. The finished structure proves that this project was worth the wait. Herzog and de Meuron have designed and completed other prestigious projects such as the Tate Modern in London, the Alliance Arena in Munich and the 2008 Olympic Games National Stadium in Peking.

The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated in early 2017 with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as other cultural and political dignitaries in attendance.

Since its opening, around 850,000 people have attended over 600 concerts in the magnificent concert hall, and over 4.5 million people have visited the Plaza. The Elbphilharmonie’s Plaza is now Hamburg’s top tourist attraction, with growing enthusiasm both locally and globally.

 

This architectural masterpiece has also cemented Hamburg as a top luxury destination, established by Chanel‘s recent show at the Elbphilharmonie. The Paris?Hamburg 2017/18 Métiers d’art collection gathered Karl Lagerfeld, Kristen Stewart, Lily?Rose Depp, among others at the Elbphilharmonie.

Discover the Elbphilharmonie for yourself, whether taking in the view of the glistening Elbe River, or enjoying a world-class concert.

Beyond the Realm of Architecture

There are buildings that house art. Grand, staunch, impenetrable safe houses of our cultural heritage. Then there is architecture, a fusion of necessity, a shelter from the elements, but also an art, that in and of itself inspires, and is a response to culture, time and space.

Conceived by the architecture firm OMA, led by Rem Koolhaas, the Fondazione Prada combined seven existing buildings with three new structures: the Podium, Cinema and Torre. Koolhaas is quick to point out that it is not a preservation site of the original 1916 distillery nor is it new architecture. Located in Largo Isarco in the south of Milan, it is a combination of spaces that serve the purpose of art display, preservation and inspiration.

The 205,000-square-foot area combines post-industrial and modern spaces, both intimate and expansive. The Deposito, which houses the Fondazione’s collection, is intriguingly arranged, so states Koolhaas, as “…a hybrid of strict storage and partial display, creating ‘chambers’ where work such as a fleet of artists’ cars can be unpacked or half opened to the public.”

The Cistern, a preexisting building made up of three adjacent vertical structures that were once cisterns for distillates, is divided into three rooms with three interior ‘pulpits’ connected to an exterior balcony. According to Koolhaas, “Its configuration suggests a precise industrial need that now reads as a quasi-religious environment.”

The Cinema has bi-fold doors and can be instantly connected to the courtyard. Inside, the raked seating can be converted into a flat floor, allowing the space to be used for staging outdoor events or as additional covered gallery space.

The Haunted House, a preexisting building with its exterior covered entirely in gold leaf offers a ‘domestic’ setting for specific works, and adjacent, the Podium forms the center of the museum compound, made up of a fully glazed, column-free podium on the ground floor, and clad in aluminum foam with a bubbled pattern, is another gallery space on top. Both galleries provide large, multi-purpose areas inviting a superlative showcase for temporary exhibitions and events.

 

 

Photo by: Roland Halbe, Bass Princen.

“Redefining Modern and PostModern Architecture”

The Italian architect Renzo Piano has changed cityscapes all over the world. His buildings are unique and unforgettable, from his design-challenging Pompidou Center in Paris to the lantern-like Japanese headquarters of Hermès. Each Piano project breaks innovative ground in the art of architecture.

His fame began with Pompidou Center in Paris which he co-designed. The seven-year project, a structure made of glass, steel and colored tubing reflects its multidisciplinary function which is to preserve and exhibit important modern art collections and was a preview of Renzo’s ability to incorporate glass and light in the design.

Piano began the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) in the early 80s. Since its inception, RPBW has completed over 120 projects across Europe, North America, Australasia and Asia.

Art museums are a large part of the RPBW portfolio. Piano designed the Zentrum Paul Klee, in Bern, Switzerland where he incorporates Klee’s complex shapes and articulations. Other examples include the Chicago Art Institute’s Modern Wing, home to European contemporary art and the recently completed Harvard Art Museums as well as the Whitney Museum at Gansevoort in New York. Piano remarked that with the Whitney,

“It was necessary to be brave, to express the strength of a museum for American art, which by definition resonates with ideas of freedom.”

His most impressive building is the London Bridge Tower also known as the Shard. The Shard is a 72-storey, mixed-use tower located beside London Bridge Station on the south bank of the river Thames. It is the tallest high-rise in Europe.

The New York Times building is the headquarters of the New York Times. The 52-storey building’s themes of permeability and transparency express the intrinsic link between the newspaper and the city.

Piano is one of the most influential people in the world. In August 2013 he was appointed Senator for Life in the Italian Senate by President Giorgio Napolitano. The quality of RPBW’s work has been recognized by over 70 design awards including key awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was honored with the Pritzker Prize in 1998. The Pritzker Prize jury compared Piano to Michelangelo and da Vinci and credited him with “redefining modern and postmodern architecture.”

“Architects have to dream. We have to search for our Atlantis’s, to be explorers, adventurers, and yet to build responsibly and well.” – Renzo Piano

Photos by OLGA KHVAN

Ty Warner’s Penthouse at the Four Seasons in New York has long been regarded as one of the most opulent penthouses in the world. Now, Mr. Warner is redefining luxury travel with an extraordinary new 28,000 square foot Mansion at the Five-Diamond Las Ventanas Al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort in Los Cabos, offering guests the ultimate resort experience with the seclusion of a residential setting. Featuring amenities from a private beachfront infinity pool overlooking the Sea of Cortez to a design-your-own fireworks display and dedicated staff of seven, the Ty Warner Mansion debuts an incomparable experience for even the most elite traveler – that of a private resort of his or her own.

“The Ty Warner Mansion is the true manifestation of an earthly paradise, unparalleled by any resort accommodation in the world,” said Frederic Vidal, managing director at Las Ventanas Al Paraíso, A Rosewood Resort.“Mr. Warner has designed the mansion with the craftsmanship of an ornate jewelry box. Each room features exquisite materials with unique discoveries at every turn.”

The moment guests arrive, they enter their own private paradise through an ethereal courtyard oasis, outfitted with one of the world’s largest 360? gardens. With a twist of the key, residents are greeted with sounds of the ocean in the Mansion’s great room, an impressive white hall adorned with 7.5 million glittering marble tiles and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the sea. The space then seamlessly transitions into an indoor/outdoor living room, where guests can lounge on Indian silk-upholstered sofas and take in the stunning views.

With interiors designed by Robert Couturier, the Ty Warner Mansion features a curated collection of locally-sourced artwork and furnishings throughout, providing guests with a truly immersive experience and reflecting the spirit, culture and beauty of Mexico. From hand-carved,Oaxacan alebrije sculptures to hand-embossed metallic chairs from Guanajuato, each vibrant piece celebrates the region’s rich artistic heritage and adds a vibrant touch to the villa’s pristine accommodations.

Sure to be a coveted Mexican hideaway, the Mansion features two sprawling master suites with plush Indian upholstery, hacienda-style kitchen with top-of-the-line appliances, five separate dining enclaves as well as a state- of-the-art media room and top-shelf tequila library for sampling some of the world’s rarest tequilas. Outside, guests can unwind on the 9,000-square-foot rooftop terrace or go for a swim in one of the master villa’s two swimming pools: a 328-foot oceanfront infinity pool and rooftop lap pool,which tops the ceiling in the Mansion’s master bathroom suite.

As more and more luxury travelers seek the comfort of a residential setting no matter their destination, the Ty Warner Mansion provides the ideal sanctuary, perfect for guests looking to strike a balance between a home-away- from-home and palatial beachfront estate.

Toyo Ito’s

Museum for Baroque Art in Puebla, México

As an example of the aesthetic achievements of our time, the Museo Internacional del Barroco, or simply the MIB, in the City of Puebla, Mexico has been created referencing the most up-to-date exhibition design by the firm of Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate of 2013.
In the words of the jury that presided over this international distinction, equivalent to the Nobel Prize of architecture, Toyo Ito is:

…a creator of timeless buildings, who at the same time boldly charts new paths. His architecture projects an air of optimism, lightness and joy, and is infused with both a sense of uniqueness and universality…

A walkway is suspended over water that extends into the park where it is located. From the outside, the reflection of the building in the surrounding water is unquestionably dramatic – a space where water, sky, light and structure meet. The Pritzker jury explains his style as a combination of “conceptual innovation with superbly executed buildings”, noting his work is distinguished for “spiritual dimension and for the poetics that transcend his works.”

Water
Sky
Light
Structure

The museum’s facade displays nighttime projections of images related to current exhibitions, which also illuminate the museum and make it stand out from a distance. In the extensive patio, dominating the space, Ito placed a large fountain designed as a swirling water motif. Moving water is a recurring theme of the Baroque era.

The building has two levels: the lower floor is dedicated mainly to exhibits, while the second is for research, education, and administration. The atrium features a curvy staircase and benches designed by Kazuko Fujie Atelier with local artisans.

In time, the MIB will become a cultural meeting center, not only in Mexico but internationally. People will come from all over the world to gather there and exchange thoughts and reflections. This cultural institution will become a timeless point of attraction to the world and a source of pride and joy for the people of Puebla.

“Architecture is nothing more than a tree, it should grow in harmony with its surroundings.”-Toyo Ito

Photo: James Danske, Fsm Secretaria De Cultura.