Architecture: The largest museum in Germany, ampliation by Daniel Libeskind

PROJECT BRIEF by Libeskind web site:
The redesigned Dresden Museum of Military History is now the official central museum of the German Armed Forces. It will house an exhibition area of roughly 20,000 square meters, making it Germany’s largest museum.
The armory was built from 1873 –1876 and became a museum in 1897. Since its 1897 founding, the Dresden Museum of Military History has been a Saxon armory and museum, a Nazi museum, a Soviet museum and an East German museum. Today it is the military history museum of a unified and democratic Germany, its location outside the historic center of Dresden having allowed the building to survive the allied bombing campaign at the end of World War II.
In 1989, unsure how the museum would fit into a newly unified German state, the government decided to shut it down. By 2001 feelings had shifted and an architectural competition was held for an extension that would facilitate a reconsideration of the way we think about war.
Daniel Libeskind’s winning design boldly interrupts the original building’s symmetry. The extension, a massive, five-story 14,500-ton wedge of concrete and steel, cuts through the 135-year-old former arsenal’s structural order. A 82-foot high viewing platform (the highest point of the wedge is 98 feet) provides breathtaking views of modern Dresden while pointing towards the area where the fire bombing of Dresden began, creating a dramatic space for reflection.
The new façade’s openness and transparency contrasts with the opacity and rigidity of the existing building. The latter represents the severity of the authoritarian past while the former reflects the openness of the democratic society in which it has been reimagined. The interplay between these perspectives forms the character of the new Military History Museum
Inside, in the original, columned part of the building, German’s military history is presented in chronological order. But now it is complemented, in the new wide-open spaces of the five-story wedge, by new exhibition areas with a new focus on thematic consideration of the societal forces and human impulses that create a culture of violence.
The project opened in October 2011 completed by Architekt Daniel Libeskind AG (ADL) with Studio Daniel Libeskind (SDL).

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Architecture:’naturescape’ by kengo kuma, milan, italy

For milan design week 2013, kengo kuma’s urbanistic ideas are given a new context in the ever-burgeoning landscape of skyscrapers. 
His ‘naturescape for urban stories’ presents a vision for a living space in the midst of urban development in the center of the design capital. 
These ‘urban stories’ are suspended between sculptural environment and architecture, an abstracted and layered japanese garden comprised of pietra serena stone, bamboo, water and gravel, the topographic installation creates a terrain of depressions and elevations that dictate the shape of water and the paths of movement. The quiet, form-making power of water confronts the material tenacity of stone, while exposing the ability of the aqueous force to render the pietra serena delicate and soft. The design posits that the urban environment can be intensely livable and inextricably connected to the original architecture of the earth. The project was a enthusiastically backed by a collaboration of frassinagodiciotto and il casone, together with agape, pratic, tribù and vaselli, and with technical support from davide groppi.

Architecture: Fukita Pavilion Ryue Nishizawa

Architecture: 18 Septemberplein by Massimiliano Fuksas Architects_Eindhoven, Nederland

The Italian architectural firm of Massimiliano Fuksas have designed the 18 Septemberplein in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The “18 septemberplein” is one of the major squares in the city of Eindhoven. The square is the connection between the central station area and the main shopping district of the city. The demand for 2000 parking places for bicycles together with the important logistical function of the square led to a design of an underground bicycle parking, leaving room for the movement of people on the square. Two buildings, similar in form to each other but contrasting to there context, mark the space of the square. Two cone-like shapes form the entrance to the bicycle parking under a central strip of ceramic tiles, fountains lights and glass elements embedded in the square floor. At night the light elements together with the light coming through the glass elements from the parking, will create a tapestry of light.

Amazing place : Setenil de las bodegas

This small town (pueblo) is located 157 kilometres (98 mi) northeast of Cadiz. It has a distinctive setting along a narrow river gorge. The town extends along the course of the Rio Trejo with some houses being built into the rock walls of the gorge itself, created by enlarging natural caves or overhangs and adding an external wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art: Hyperrealistic sculptures

Hyperrealistic sculptures by Ron Mueck(1 to 6), Jamie Salmon(7 to 8) & Jackie K. Seo(10 to16)

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Architecture: 48 N Canal Rd, Singapore_WOHA

Architect’s Statement from WOHA web site:
The project brief called for a new boutique office and the reconstruction of a pair of heritage-listed shophouses.
As the original floor levels with their low ceiling heights were retained, the front end of the shophouses was deemed more suitable for meeting rooms, while the service end accommodated a mechanized carpark. The open plan offices within the upper 4 floors was strategically lifted up so that floor plate size is maximized,higher headroom is gained, better views are enjoyed and more natural daylight is accessed from the sides. Every flat roof area is also transformed into roof gardens with the attic featuring the office’s recreational lounge.The main design strategy was to invert the shophouse typology by carving out valuable floor area to create an externalised, urban, public pocket park at the very heart of the office instead. A café, break-out areas and meeting rooms are organized around this park, enjoying the greenery and light that it brings to the deep plan.The formal architectural language of fractal, triangulated geometry originated from the need to comply with authority requirements of having splayed corners as the building is bounded by three roads. This inspired a chiselled expression that was carried through in both plan and elevation, taking the form of internal angled walls and external slanted planes, revealing a concave curtain wall like that of crystal embedded in the hollow lower strata of its atrium park space. Shading was also built into the formal language by means of an integrated sun screen within the curtain wall system and a series of perforated aluminium panels.

Architecture: rapperswil jona municipal museum extension_mlzd_ switzerland

The project aims to provide a better flowing circulation for the pre-existing buildings of the cultural facility in rapperswil-jona, switzerland. in addition to establishing a more intuitive layout, the design seeks to lend a new exterior identity to the museum with a bronze perforated facade that folds between two historic structures.  The winning design of a competition held in 2007, one of the criteria for the new building was to leave the overall townscape as seen from the north unchanged. in response, the project inserts itself discreetly by a narrow street, integrating itself in to the town through scale and proportions. Contrasting from its immediate surroundings is the geometric exterior finish: a bronze skin that pleats in and out to avoid crossing over the old buildings’ windows, resulting in a sculptural effect to the facade. Small circular perforation ranging from dense to sparse collections admit natural light into the interior in a controlled fashion. As a new part of the whole complex, the extension provides disabled access as well as a new main entrance from the street. additional rooms, operations and exhibition spaces enable a flexible use of the facility. individual area benefits from different qualities – natural light, views, vertical height – to host a variety of exhibitions. gradually shifted in orientation, the scaling staircases offer unexpected perspectives and vistas of both the town and the museum.

Architecture: “Takuro Yamamoto architects-white cave house-Kanazawa, Japan”

The carved out volume of ‘white cave house’ by japanese firm takuro yamamoto architects is formed by a series of interconnected voids in the shape of a kinked tube. located in kanazawa city, japan, an area known for heavy snowfall, the white minimal house still features many external spaces. the building’s approach, through a large snow-proof entrance follows along the cave-like tube, which connects this exterior form with the house’s internal functions. a roofed garage for multiple cars, a terrace that is open to the sky and a large courtyard have a direct relationship to the rest of the house due to the ‘white cave.’ 
The void twists through the building from its street entrance, creating a private courtyard for the occupants to enjoy from the living spaces. the open-air features of the courtyard and terrace help to bring light through to the internal spaces, connecting to the outside. the cave also serves as a route to remove snow from these external spaces in the winter. the terrace is covered by a white waterproof membrane that holds a thin layer of water similar to a white basin. the reflection of the water above, the serene interior courtyard and the bold hollow cave result in a house that offers a sense of recluse from the ordinary.

Japanese Bike Parking Tecnology