DAWANG MOUNTAIN RESORT CHANGSHA BY COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

The building volume is integrated into a beautiful landscape scenery and positioned directly on top of a historical cement mining quarry pit and lake. In the design solution towards the South and East, the existing quarry pit is revealed and the sculpted shell of the Snow and Ice World spans 170 meters from cliff to cliff over a sunken and hanging garden creating a new functional leisure space of islands, water, cliffside pathways and ramps connecting the building to this natural heritage.

This unique framed open space in between architecture and landscape is also characterized through an impressive central glass cone providing controlled natural daylight down through the Ice World structure and on to the islands and water surfaces. A cantilevered outdoor swimming pool is part of the Water Park attractions and creates a 60m high waterfall into the quarry pit.

From the inside the leisure functions of the Snow and Ice World engage the space of the quarry pit with views through large glass façades to the natural cliff faces and hanging gardens, also with overviews to the water pools and islands below. At the same time visitors walking or standing on the Cliffside Pathways can also look into the building through the transparent façade; hence an interactive visual contact with the interior of the Snow and Ice World is created establishing more excitement and maximizing the existing value of the industrial heritage. 

 
A separate sculptural 100m high tower on the South end of the site hosts a 5 Star-Hotel and is connected to the Ice World via a Grand Garden Plaza. Arriving from the city of Changsha over Pingtang Avenue, the Hotel tower will be the most significant iconic landmark for the entire Dawang Mountain Tourism Resort Center. It offers 270 high-class single and double bed suites, 60 Executive Suites with an Executive Club Lounge and a 6-room Presidential Suite, all with impressive views to Tongxi Lake, Dawang Mountain and into the Ice & Snow World.

A spacious central Lobby around the tower core opens up into the service plinth containing a bar and restaurant on level one, flexible and multifunctional conference areas on level two and the fitness and spa and beauty facilities on level three. The façade of the Fashion Hotel Tower is a specially designed, highly economical system providing state-of-the-art sun shading, natural ventilation and a unitzed, quick construction. The element façade system offers a maximum of flexibility to the inside room layout and allows a homogeneous appearance over the exterior façade.

Location: Changsha, China

Architect: COOPHIMMELB(L)AU

Design Principal: Wolf D. Prix

Senior Project Partner: Markus Prossnigg

Executive Coordinator: Lei Feng

Project Architect: Angus Schoenberger

Design Architect: Quirin Krumbholz

Project Team: Tyler Bornstein, Laura Ghita, Crystal K.H Tang, Xinyu Wan, Paul Challis, Veronika Janovska, Sorena Dumitru, Philipp Scherl

Structural Engineering: B+G Ingenieure / Bollinger und Grohmann Gmbh, Prof. Klaus Bollinger

MEP / HVAC: Buro Happold Ltd, Bath,UK, Steve Macey(Competition Phase)

Site Area: 150,000 m2

Year: 2013

Client: Changsha Xiandao Land Development and Construction Co., Ltd.

PAVILION 21 MINI OPERA SPACE BY COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

The task which we had to solve with our design was to create a space with 300 seats (or 700 standing spectators) for experimental performances of the Bavarian State Opera.

 

The Pavilion should be dismountable, transportable and re-mountable and make the respective urban space distinctive through its shape. Mass and therefore weight are the decisive criteria for good acoustics.

The conception of the Pavilion 21 MINI Opera Space therefore had to overcome a contradiction: to design a lightweight construction which must allow to be dis- and re-assembled quickly, but which at the same time meets the acoustical requirements of a concert hall.

Hence how do we create the conditions for good acoustics despite a reduction of mass? Already the first considerations fixed in drawings show the basic concept of the Pavilion to introduce elements which are on the one hand the spatial transformation of sound sequences, and which on the other hand develop sound reflecting and absorbing properties through their pyramid-like shape: “Soundscaping”.

The idea to combine architecture with music is not new. Also the term soundscaping is not new. Similar to landscaping it involves “Gestalt”. Soundscaping originates in the 1940’s and designates a method of composing.

In architecture, Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis together engaged in the topic of music and architecture when they thought about three-dimensional implementation of musical compositions (Le Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion and the partition of the windows in La Tourette).

As a starting point towards the abstraction of music into spatial form, a sequence from the song “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix and a passage from “Don Giovanni” by Mozart were transcribed.

Through the analysis of frequency sections from these pieces of music and through the combination with the computer generated 3D model, the sequences are translated into pyramidal “spike constructions” by means of parametric “scripting”.

Our strategy to achieve soundscaping comprises three steps: Firstly, to realize the shielding effect between square and street, secondly, to shape the geometry of the Pavilion in such a way that the surface deflects noise, and thirdly, to design the surface of the Pavilion in such a way that it reflects and absorbs sound.

In order to implement the objectives of the interior spatial acoustics, the interior wall and ceiling surfaces were fitted with a combination of perforated absorbing and smooth reflecting sandwich panels. The flooring of the Pavilion is carried out as a reflecting even “stage floor”. Sound reflecting, parallel wall and ceiling surfaces are avoided and are therefore tilted or skewed.

 

 

 

Location: Munich, Germany

Architect: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix/ W. Dreibholz & Partner ZT GmbH
Design Principal:Wolf D. Prix

Project Partner: Paul Kath

Project Architect: Volker Kilian

Design Architect:Sophie-Charlotte Grell

Project Team: Daniel Bolojan, Wendy W Fok, Martin Jelinek, Daniela Kröhnert, Valerie Messini, Judith Mussel, Martin Neumann, Renate Weissenböck
Models: Sebastian Buchta, Paul Hoszowski

General Contractor: Frener & Reifer Metallbau GmbH

Acoustics: ARUP

Media Technology: CAT-X

Concept: Hannes Köcher, Florian Prix

Programming: Hannes Köcher

Project management: Florian Prix, Claudia Oriold

On-site setup: Geari Schreilechner, Ruben Bunka, Hannes Köcher, Floria Prix

Site Area:1790 m2

Gross Floor Area:560 m2

Year: 2009-2010

Photo: Duccio Malagamba

MUSÉE DES CONFLUENCES BY COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

The Musée des Confluences understands itself not as an exclusive “Temple of the Muses” for the educated elite, but as a public gateway to the knowledge of our time. It stimulates a direct, active use—not only as a place of contemplation, but also as a meeting place in the city.

The striking interface situation of the construction site at the eponymous confluence of the Rhône and the Saône inspired the superposition in urban space of two complexly linked architectural units, crystal and cloud.

The cloud structure, floating on pillars, contains a spatial sequence of black boxes— admitting no daylight, so as to achieve maximum flexibility for exhibition design. By contrast, the crystal, rising towards the city side, functions as a transparent urban forum; it faces the city and receives visitors.

“Its clear, readable forms stand for the world in which we move each day. The cloud, by contrast, holds the knowledge of the future. What is known and what is to be explored are understood in the Musée des Confluences as a spatial experimental design to stimulate public curiosity.”

Also decisive in the selection of this concept was the manifold connection of these two units through the Espace Liant: It leads in a loop, as a corridor or over bridges and catwalks, from the crystal to the other end of the cloud. It functions as an additional means of access between the exhibition spaces that are directly connected to one another—a mellow space of hidden currents and countless transitions.

In a continuation of the park from the southern tip of the island, an expansion of the urban space is formulated: a landscape of ramps and levels that dissolve the boundary between inside and outside into a dynamic sequence of spatial events. This movement continues on the inside in the alternating spatial structure of the exhibition spaces.

The Crystal performs like an urban square, receiving visitors and preparing them for the museum experience. It is oriented toward the world in which we daily evolve; its contours are precise; its form is crystalline and measurable. This crystalline nature results from its glass-and-steel construction.

Large panes of glass are mounted in steel frames: assemblages that, by virtue of being resistant to flexion, make the various folded surfaces seem reflective.
The Gravity Well —a central element— provide a refrain both to the structural efforts and to the luminous sculpture.

The Cloud, by contrast, resembles an immense spaceship, stowed temporarily in present time and place, its deep entrails harboring the exhibition spaces. There are ten exhibition spaces on three levels, as well as an upper level of administrative offices.

Three of the galleries are intended for permanent exhibitions; the seven others are for temporary exhibitions. An interstitial open space, named “Connecting Space,” traverses all these spaces and weaves a network of traffic between them to serve museography.

 

 

 

Location: Lyon, France

Architect: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Design Principal: Wolf D. Prix

Project Partner: Markus Prossnigg

Project Architects: Mona Bayr, Angus Schoenberger

Project Coordination: Thomas Margaretha, Peter Grell

Project Team Vienna: Christopher Beccone, Guy Bébié, Lorenz Bürgi, Wolfgang Fiel, Kai Hellat, Robert Haranza, Alex Jackson, Georg Kolmayr, Daniel Kerbler, Lucas Kulnig, Andreas Mieling, Marianna Milioni, Andrea Schöning, Mario Schwary, Markus Schwarz, Oliver Tessmann, Dionicio Valdez, Philipp Vogt, Markus Wings, Tom Wiscombe, Christoph Ziegler, Jutta Schädler

Project Team Lyon: Francois Texier, Philippe Folliasson, Etienne Champenois, Alexandru Gheorghe, Niels Hiller, Emanuele Iacono, Pierre-Yves Six

Local Architect: Planning: Patriarche & Co, MESA Workshop

Project Managerment: Chabanne & Partenaires

Construction Survey Lyon: Jean Pierre Debray

Structural Engineering: Design: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann

HVAC: ITEE-Fluides

Security Fire Consultation: Cabinet Casso & Cie

Lighting Consultation: Har Hollands

Landscape Design: EGIS aménagement

Site Area: 20,975 m2

Gross Floor Area: 46,476 m2

Costs: € 150 Mio

Scheduled Completion: 2014