NUOVO CENTRO CIVICO BY RICHARD ROGERS

The buildings group around a new public piazza. A cultural centre, an office building, a residential block and the new tram station are designed to complement the existing town hall. 

The slightly sunken hard surfaced piazza will form a public space to be used for markets, performance artists and other activities. The cultural centre frames the eastern edge of the piazza and provides a multi-functional hall for seminars, conferences, exhibitions and concerts. 

It is designed for and operated by the local council and offers – with its flexible space – significantly enhanced opportunities for public and cultural activities in Scandicci. 

The tram line runs along the southern edge of the piazza and the new station has a ‘gate-like’ appearance with ‘floating’ louvres, connecting the two areas on either side of the tram lines. 

South of the tracks, a seven-storey office building will act as ‘marker’ for the development. It will provide highly flexible office space which can be leased/rented as open plan floors or as a series of small units. 

The residential development contains 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments as well as eight penthouse flats. It sits parallel to the tram tracks and is aligned with the office building.

All three buildings have retail and restaurant uses at ground-floor levels creating an animated zone for the public and providing a continuation of the existing shopping street from the old centre of Scandicci, in Italy. The council has plans for a hotel development to the west of the piazza at some stage in the future.

The development is appropriate in scale for the area it serves, while acting as a catalyst for encouraging increased public activity and further development of Scandicci following the broad outlines established in the original masterplan. 

It adopts a sustainable approach by including the installation of solar elements for water heating, photo-voltaic elements generating electricity as well as a green roof on the cultural building.

The landscape concept with its linear arrangement of trees and benches alongside the tram line helps to unite the development with the existing and new parking areas.

Location: Scandicci, Italy 

Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 

Local Architect: DA. studio 

Project Team: Torsten Burkhardt, Lorenz Frenzen, Rowena Fuller, Lennart Grut, Ivan Harbour, Annie Miller, Alberto Morselli, Jacopo Venerosi Pesciolini, Richard Rogers, Stephen Spence, Elena Arzua Tourino 

Quantity Surveyor: Studio Associato Zingoni 

Landscape Architect: Erika Skarbar 

Sructures & Services: Politecnica 

Site Area: 26,000 m2 

Development Area: 15,000 m2 

Cultural Centre: 1,900 m2 

Office: 4,000 m2 

Residential: 7,250 m2 

Commercial: 2,350 m2 

Cost: 33.8 million euros 

Client: Scandicci Centro Srl

EXPO 2015 SERVICE AREAS BY ONSITESTUDIO

The projects defines 13 large buildings, 17 medium buildings, and 16 small units for a 64.000 sqm. gross floor area. The wood project stems from the desire of creating a space rather than a building.

It looks for an immediate relationship with scale of the architectures and of the open space with the individuation of the correct size for the unusual scale along with the desire to use a spatial principle and not a form, thus scale suggest similarities to linear systems of stoà from Mediterranean classicism.

The unit of space and structure is made evident by the use of wood as a single material, choosing not to deal with the issue of diversity rather than with the uniformity one.

The system repeats reiterating at different scales the same tapered column with median entasis, and the same slab element. In this way both biggest units (stecche) the smallest ones ( kiosks and infopoints) are composed with the same precast system.

The project with its bareness offers the charm that structures have: the lack of what binds the building to a kind of contemporarity and makes it universal, giving up with the unnecessary. This buildings have no facades but shadows.

Location: Milan, Italy

Architects: Onsitestudio

Project Team: Liverani,  Molteni architetti

Consultants: Monica Lavagna, Lavinia Chiara Tagliabue, Michela Buzzetti

Client: EXPO S.p.a., Metropolitana Milanese s.p.a.

IRAN PAVILION EXPO 2015 BY NEW WAVE ARCHITECTURE

New Wave Architecture was designate as one of the eight architectural firms to present its proposal for Iran’s pavilion at Expo Milan 2015. The designers’ vision towards the Persian Garden is inspired by its self-sufficient and compatible identity.

Therefore, the main concept of the project is an abstract deduction of a natural tree organism which is simply sustainable in its essence. Iran’s pavilion should be an alluring depiction of its long-time civilization, art, historical characteristics and cultural events with having close connection with agronomics, food and technology.

Configuration

As an initial step, preserving the Expo’s codes and guides, a legible and impressive character is gradually shaped while the border of the pavilion and its surroundings is faded. Meanwhile, to absorb maximum and efficient sunlight, facets stand obliquely while the hierarchical accessibility and fundamental elements of a Persian garden - natural light, water streams and trees - configure the basis of the design.

A simple cuboid

We start the design by imagining the whole space available as a simple cuboid. While displaying the site and its height restrictions, this plain cuboid indicates the legal boundaries and general proportions for the pavilion design.

Division starts

Identifying the functional requirements for the pavilion, the mass is divided to smaller parts to start the space organization puzzle of the project. Considering functional aspects and space qualities, every divided element is scaled and extended to its appropriate proportion to play an efficient role in the whole space.

Orientation

The scaled elements are oriented and positioned systematically, reflecting the urging visual movement on the basis of the function. While the main axis is broken, spatial organization is preserved and hierarchical accessibility is configured gradually.

Spatial organization

While vertical accessibility facilities are located in different parts of the pavilion, the main circulation and spatial organization of the pavilion differs throughout the day and the night. This means visitors experience various activities and events depending on the time of their visit.

The functional spaces are housed on different levels which are accessible by lifts and stairs. After walking through the arcades and achieving the top floors, an awe-inspiring panoramic view is offered from the Expo’s landscape. According to our scenario, the four main climatic zones of Iran are proposed as the journey destination of the visitors’ in the form of four pavilions.

They confront the compelling challenges, feel the ambient pleasantly and wet their appetite to taste Iranian foods. The stylized lands subtly depict the culture, farming method achievements and innovative organic food production and presented via digital media, three dimensional pictures and installations.

The maintenance areas are housed in ground floor while the first level is allocated to food court .The galleries are considered in the above level to approach panoramic views of surroundings. Ultimately the green roof offers a wide context to night events and gathering spaces.

Location: Milan, Italy 
Architect: New Wave Architecture 
Architect In Charge: Lida Almassian/Shahin Heidari 
Project Team: Zahra Hamedani, Helaleh Alaei, Mohammad Keshavarzi, Fatemeh Dehghani, Soheila Zahedi, Golnaz Baharami, Mona Ramzi, Maryam Shokouhi, Sara Milani Nia 
Year: 2013