architecture now and The Future: Square

Showing posts with label Square. Show all posts

SQUARE BRUSSELS MEETING CENTER BY A2RC ARCHITECTS

An audacious architectural proposition to the city offers a newfound visibility to the former “Palais des Congrès” by means of a poetic emblem embodied in the glass cube that forms the principal entry to SQUARE, Brussels Meeting Centre.

Its treelike structure and an aesthetic based on transparency and light, irresistibly evokes landscape architecture, takes root in history and projects the « Mont des Arts » into modernity.

This monumentality, mild and poetic, dialogs with the image of the garden. Present and at the same time melting into the surrounding architectural landscape, it changes in materiality as the light and time of day change.

The entry, in the form of a large exterior auditorium, allows an entry to the base of the cube, sliding along the exposition hall under René Pechère’s renovated historic garden. A terrace leads to the upper access situated on the « Esplanade du Mont des Arts ».

The carefully articulated cube contains ribbon shaped suspended stairs and catwalks that connect the different access levels to the complex of 50,000m2 that optimally exploits the complex existing structure and succeeds in the challenge of increasing the capacity and the efficiency of the whole.

Square now offers 27 meeting rooms of 40 to 1,200 for a total capacity of 3,538, an exposition zone of 3,670m2 divisible in two distinct entities with a free ceiling height of 6m, a restaurant, and a « brasserie » of 420 places.

The reorganisation fully exploits natural light in a building where the majority of spaces are underground. The meeting centre also benefits from the presence of prestigious works of art that decorate the foyers and position colours, which create an ambiance specific to the site.

Square therefore constitutes an attractive technological jewel at the heart of the « Quartier des Arts » and consumes the transformation of an important historic site by respect for it’s history and ambition for it’s future. The poetic emblem of the cube becomes the urban symbol of a new site of communication with the world.

Location: Bruxells, Belgium

Architect: A2RC Architects

Artist: Arne Quinze

Area: 52,000 sqm

Budget: 60,000,000 €

Year: 2009

Client: Palais des Congrès sa and SPF

CENTRAL PLAZA CHIANG RAI BY SHMA COMPANY LIMITED

Being the first up-scale shopping mall in Chiang Rai, Central Plaza provides a generous outdoor space for the public to enjoy.

Our proposal presents this space as a cultural plaza and park that embraces native culture and identity with various activities to enrich local suburban life.

The landscape design encapsulates the mountainous scene surrounding the site through the interpretation of the northern mountainous contour line characteristic.

The contour pattern is reflected in the stark pavement pattern and the shape of undulating flower mound, step, seats, water cascade. Simple local materials like sandwash and terrazzo are used to construct the pavement and the fluid seat respectively.

Their flexible nature makes constructing natural form possible. Selection of native plants further enhances the northern atmosphere as well as corresponding to regional ecology.

Red Silk Cotton tree – locally known as Ngiew Tree – is the main feature. It is majestic in form and famous for its flower as an ingredient in traditional delicacy.

During January to March, Ngiew’s bright orange flower blooms in profusion and is accompanied by orange flowers of Trumpet Vine which covers the wall on the façade and other flowering shrubs on ground.

Shma’s collaboration with world renowned local earth artist, Master Somluk Pantiboon, is resulting in a series of 5-piece sculpture floating over cascading water feature. Placed as focal point of the landscape, the ceramic sculpture is depicting the life cycle of ‘Ngiew flower’ from budding to blooming to withering.

Location: Chiang Rai, Thailand

Architects: Shma Company Limited

Design Director: Prapan Napawongdee

Landscape Architect: Chanon Wangkachonkiat

Area : 7,780 sqm

Year : 2011

Client: Central Pattana Public Company Limited

Photography: Wison Tungthanya

EDUARD-WALLNÖFER-PLATZ BY LAAC ARCHITEKTEN + STIEFEL KRAMER ARCHITECTURE

The goal of the intervention at Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz (Landhausplatz) was to create a contemporary urban public space that negotiates between the various contradictory conditions and constraints of the site and establishes a stage for a new mélange of urban activities characterized by a wide diversity. The realized project consists of a 9.000 square meter concrete floor sculpture.

Before the transformation took place, the square’s atmosphere and spatial appearance was dominated by the facing facade of the Tyrolean provincial governmental building from the period of National Socialism, and by a large scale memorial resembling a fascist monument – which, in fact and in spite of its visual appearance, is a freedom monument that shall commemorate the resistance against, and the liberation from National Socialism.

The intervention aims to compensate for existing misconceptions and to reinforce the monument’s historical significance. The new topography of the square offers a contemporary and transformative base for the memorials and makes them accessible – physically and regarding a new perception.

The new topography creates a landscape-like counterpart to the surrounding, but it turns into an urban sculpture through its urban context, its concrete finish and through its function. Accessibility and the layout of paths result from the modulation of the surface, which responds to spatial constraints, functional requirements and with morphological considerations.

Pedestrians and users, as well as the memorials in their role as protagonists on this new city stage, allow for an operative public and open forum between main station and old town. The bright surface of the square functions as a three-dimensional projection field on which the protagonists together with the trees cause a high-contrast dynamic play of light and shadow during the daytime.

In front of this background the seasons are staged powerfully. Indirect light reflected from the floor sculpture directs the scenery at night.

In the northern part of the square, the spacious flat area in front of the Landhaus is conceived as a generous multi-purpose event space providing the according infrastructure. A large scale fountain activates the expanded field and provides cooling-down in summertime.

South of the liberation monument the topography features a variety of spatial situations for manifold utilizations. The texture of the concrete surface varies according to the type of geometrical configuration. Beneath many trees the floor continuously merges into seat accommodations with a terrazzo-like polished finish.

The sculpture group of one of the monuments is integrated into the basin of a new fountain where water runs down steps cut into a slope. The shoal fountain and the water games in front of the Landhaus provide a playground for children and a local cool-down spot in the summertime. There are drinking fountains in different heights for children and adults.

The surface of the square is realized in modulated slabs out of in-situ concrete, joined by bolts that deal with shearing forces. Infrastructural elements for the organization of events which can take place anywhere on the square are integrated in the construction of slab-fields of max. 100 square meter.

Drainage of the whole square including the fountains is located completely at the open joints between the individual fields so that there is no drainage pit visible on the site. An innovative buffer system allows for this – despite the existence of a subterranean garage – maintaining all the visible surface water drains away within the property.