Innovative Architecture Strategies

INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURE STRATEGIES SIMOS VAMVAKIDIS

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Introduction

Contemporary mixed use architecture projects have globally become a point of focus in architectural magazines and online sites due to their large scale and ability to transform whole neighbourhoods and city areas. Globally acknowledged architecture offices have designed a number of such buildings and almost every architecture school has a mixed use design module as part of its curriculum, either in its undergraduate or graduate courses.

This book presents a series of contemporary, diverse and innovative design strategies that vary in form, function and design intent. The common denominator of all projects is the alternative / experimental approach of combining both private and public spaces through mixed use projects.

Innovative Architecture Strategies is an intermediate level student skills book. It is also a guide for recent graduates and architects, urban planners and academics, enriching and informing existing professional and teaching approaches, both in design thinking and technique. It is also a reference point for anyone interested in architecture and urban design, due to its innovative ideas on urban living, clear and straightforward format, as well as it’s globally acknowledged built projects as references.

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“Hiding” programme under the land

DESIGN PARADIGM: The “Island”

The New National Library and Opera of Greece (zone A below), a building complex designed by architect Renzo Piano is located in the same area of this international competition award proposal. The competition asked for a new landmark at the end of a pier in the Faliron Bay in Athens (zone B below).

The opera complex is almost hidden under a large green park with small hills and valleys that will extend across the coast, reaching the far end of the Faliron bay.

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“Hiding� programme under the land

“Hiding� programme under the land

The roofscape is organised into smaller zones and areas using the micro topographic elements such as seating, stairways and benches. Their small scale allows for the roof to also function as an open air theatre, with the main stage being at the centre, at the top of the hill.

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Reclaiming leftover urban spaces

Programme

The matrix of urban strategies consists of three spatial categories -- single-point, linear and surface-area -- each of which unfolds along a continuum of choices related to social and economic impact. Short-term actions can be implemented at a minimum cost within a matter of days, whereas other, long-term investments require strategic funding.

The first and most important step in the evolution of the new urban block is in the form of a light-weight structure called the Info Point, which occupies the heart of the site of urban transformation. Initially, the Info Point acts to inform residents about a planned series of socially oriented events of reversible nature (e.g. street bazaars) that temporarily replace automobile traffic with public program and begin to suggest a new neighborhood identity based on improved public space.

1. Athens Charting works withing the existing 4 blocks, and intensifies its characteristics

2. The diversity of the urban fabric is of major importance: elements such as listed buildings are valuable opportunities and are dealt with case by case.

3. All empty surfaces, whether horizontal or vertical are considered as an extension of the new block’s public space. A subterranean parking space is an opportunity to modernize and make accessible all infrastructure networks running through the superblock.

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Reclaiming leftover urban spaces

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Attaching to existing structures

Based on aggregation, deformation, stimulation and accumulation of one unit (genetic similarities to Greg Lynn’s Animated Form, 1999), a system of accumulation generate the texture through the assembly of transformations of a single unit.

existing high-rise building attaching parasite

extending parasite

Attaching to existing structures

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Above: The Public plaza design principles: Cuts + Folds 67

Spaces with temporary use

BUILT PRECEDENT Luxor open air market (Souk) Architects: Site: Luxor, Egypt

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The characteristics of any open air market are probably the same around the world, from the Luxor Souk in Egypt to the farmer’s markets that one can find once a week in most Mediterrenean and even in many northern European countries; the smells, the food and fresh produce, the sounds, the market stalls.

Yet the most important “ingredient” is the people.

Both buyers and sellers create a melting pot, a social “beehive” of different social groups and ages. This urban attraction that characterises urban and rural living since the ancient times might have not changed that much. These street markets might even have Facebook pages or use photovoltaic panels to light up their spaces, but they still look like an urban bricolage, an urban space full of that hustle and bustle that makes them so attractive.

And of course the bargains, if we are talking about the cities around the Mediterranean and further south.

Maybe the most interesting fact is the way each vendor occupies his space, often extending in all three dimensions in way that seems random, yet functional way. What if new developments would allow for more such ephemeral spaces?

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Spaces with temporary use

existing skyline

outline

ephemeral use plaza 1 (concerts and water pond) dance school

relationship between built and empty space

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ephemeral use plaza 2 ( art performance / dance theatre)

ephemeral use plaza 4 commercial space + fashion school

ephemeral use plaza 3 (market)

First oor plan

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Urban Theatricality

BUILT PRECEDENT Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Architects: Snohetta Site: Oslo, Norway Client: Statsbygg, The Governmental Building Agency Design: 2000 Realisation: 2008

The National Opera and Ballet is maybe one of the most published contemporary projects.

It is probably the first large scale project that materialized what many architecture students have being discussing and designing ever since Greg Lynn introduced Deleuze’s philosophical terms in architecture; namely, the fold.

Maybe some of these students and general public adored this building because of its unusual folding form. Yet, for someone that has actually visited the project, its true virtue lies in blending architecture with landscape. This is achieved by the folds and inclined planes which invite people to walk all the way to the top of the building, revealing views of the city and fjord.

This project set a paradigm that inuenced architecture worldwide, through this noble and socially sensitive design gesture of creating a number of elevated exterior public spaces accessible to the general public throughout day and night.

At the same time, visitors become part of the spectacle but also spectators, watching and being watched in a constant ow of people on the building planes.

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Urban Theatricality

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Interior spaces organisation

Micro cities

DESIGN PARADIGM: The Triptych

May Khalifeh Mohammad Berry

Context matters. A thorough investigation and analysis of the area’s past, current and future dynamics should precede any project proposal.The project is an effort to combine three main existing characteristics / elements of the area: the young creatives, the local’s obsession with driving their cars and the farmer’s market that takes place once a week. These are translated into an art and music school, a commercial low traffic street that runs through the plot and a Souk with street vendors and different markets throughout the week.

All of the above are supported by a gymnasium and open air mini football field, a public plaza with an open air amphitheatre that can host different functions, from theatrical plays to movies and music concerts and a student housing block. The outcome is a space that is used 24/7, a mini city within the city. The Souk wraps around the new buildings, creating a coherent architectural composition.

Right: The main three elements: Souk-StreetBuildings

Micro cities

Cross section detail

Circulation

Green spaces 149

‘Innovative Architecture Strategies’ aims to help understand the different design approaches that can be followed when called to propose a concept and design an innovative mixed-use building. It’s also a guide, point of reference, and inspiration book.

Each strategy demonstrates an analytical and clear way to conceptualize, explain and present a mixed-use design project. All strategies vary in form, function and design intent. The common denominator of all projects is the alternative and experimental approach of combining both private and public spaces within a mixed-use project.

This is an intermediate level student skills book.

It is also a guide for recent graduates and architects, urban planners and academics, enriching and informing existing professional and teaching approaches, both in design thinking and technique.

It is also a reference point for anyone interested in architecture and urban design, due to its innovative ideas on urban living, clear and straightforward format, as well as it’s globally acknowledged built projects as references, at the beginning of each of its nine chapters.