Editorial

Uniquely European

The celebration in March this year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which laid the basis for the EU back in 1957, prompted a flurry of reflection and prognostication. The general tenor of these commentaries was that while European unification is a truly stupendous project, it is currently suffering a lack of drive and enthusiasm.

This was in many cases cause for earnest speculation as to how Europe might recover its drive and where Europeans might look for a sense of self-assurance. The most obvious answer lies in finding common denominators, in the articulation of what distinguishes Europe from the rest of the world, in short, of what makes Europe European. And on this point there is a surprising degree of unanimity: the richness and length of European history, the versatility and high quality of European culture. It is here, too, that European cultural giants like Wim Wenders and György Konrád seek the uniquely European, be it that the first rates the image more highly and the second the word. Without in any way wishing to put myself in the same category as such luminaries, I would like to plead in a similar manner for my own constituency by arguing that architecture is one of the foremost expressions of this European culture and history, as the multitude of historical monuments convincingly attests.

And if the length of its history is regarded as the essence of Europe, it should surely be possible to bring a certain degree of relativity to the current real or imagined slowdown in the „process of unification“, an expression that perfectly reflects the ever-incomplete state of this European project. Seen in the light of the longe durée of history, a half century of unification is no more than a brief moment, and the current slowdown a mere fraction of that. From a broader perspective, the fact that today’s mood is more sombre than yesterday’s (and, hopefully, tomorrow’s) is not necessarily the deep crisis that it may seem to be here and now. Indeed, one could argue that in this context culture is a source of optimism. For while the here and now may be very important in politics and economics, two areas where moods and mood swings are of more than incidental significance, for culture, and especially for architecture, that is much less the case. Although the immediate motivation to start building always lies in the present and in current projections, in the end good architecture always transcends the political and economic mood of the moment. Hans Ibelings

Inhalt

On the spot
News and observations
• „Il buono volcano“: Renzo Piano's volcanic shopping mall in Naples (IT)
• Artist Olafur Eliasson designs a „rainbow roof extension“ for the ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus (DK)
• Cité de l'Architecture opens in Paris (FR)
• Update: Madeira
• Facelift for Communist-era schools in Tirana (AL)
• Reality check: Citroën's Champs-Elysées showroom, Paris (FR)
• and more...

Start
New projects
• Palatium Stúdio collaborates with four other firms to design ten stations for Budapest 's fourth metro line (HU)
• 24H architecture's building for the Rudolf Steiner College in Rotterdam (NL) reinterprets Steiner's philosophy
• Dekleva Gergoric arhitekti's winning proposal for the redevelopment of Ljubljana's tobacco factory grounds (SI)
• The Power Fold tool by Atelier Data has won the Lisbon Ideas Challenge
• By winning the competition for the design of the Czech National Library in Prague (CZ) Future Systems' Jan Kaplicky finally gets an opportunity to design a major project for his native country

Interview
Andrès Jaque
Speaking with Ariadna Cantis, Spanish architect Andrès Jaque pleads for a new definition of the role of the architect in society: „I think it is akin to that traditionally played by hostesses: to bring together different actors and enable them to develop emotional connections“.

Ready
New buildings
• Reiach and Hall's Forth Road Bridge toll canopy in Edinburgh (UK)
• In their design for a library building in Grosuplje (SI), A.biro respond to a mixed context with an equally heterogeneous building
• C HO_aR and Tomas Pejpek designed a home on top of a former grain silo in Olomouc (CZ)
• Selgascano architects' silicone house in Madrid (ES) seems to have sprung naturally from the ground
• The addition to the Lateran University Library in Rome (IT) by King and Roselli
• In Paris (FR), X-TU architecture translated the required segregation in a police station into a recognizable two-tone structure
• In their design for an apartment building in Bjelasnica (BA), Studio Non-Stops breaks with standard alpine architecture
• FKL architects' Reuben Street housing in Dublin (IE)
• Modus architects' heating plant in Bressanone (IT) is also a skating rink
• Does the community centre in Corpataux (CH) by nb.arch and 2b architectes ignore or mimic its context?
• Yannis Aesopos tells the ins and outs of the office building he designed in Athens (GR)
• Ivana Franke and Petar Miskovic's pastry shop in Zagreb (HR) is a serious minimalist joke

Glass eyes
Just as buildings are often compared to bodies, so windows are often called their eyes; they allow light to enter spaces and users to look outside. And like human eyes, they are one of the most expressive architectural elements of a building, giving it much of its personality.

Materia
Materia's view on the latest materials
There is some confusion about the meaning of „textile“. It is sometimes thought to be a separate class of material whereas in fact textiles are the result of a processing technique that can be applied to many materials. For example, there are textiles made of wood and metal.

Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• Sander Laudy puts the forthcoming Expo 2008 in Zaragoza (ES) in the context of the recent successes and disasters of other Expo cities
• Moscovite housing production comes in two sizes: large and extra large (RU)
• An architectural tour guide of Athens’ post-Olympic architecture (GR)
• Home: August Schmidt’s timber addition to a listed dwelling in Trondheim (NO)

Out of obscurity
Buildings from the margins of modern history
Maria Topolcanska praises the endangered Hotel Kyjev and Prior Store in Bratislava (SK). Together they form one of the most exciting examples of the city’s rich heritage of post-war modernism.

Toll canopy

Artistic composition and functionality play an equal part in Reiach and Hall’s infrastructural designs.

In February 2007 the Scottish Executive confirmed that they would build a new crossing on the Firth of Forth, the estuary that separates Edinburgh from Fife to its north. When the existing Forth Road Bridge was completed in 1964 it was the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world, but today it is struggling to cope with traffic at twice the level for which it was designed. The location of the crossing is yet to be decided, but it is likely to sit to the west of the existing road and rail bridges. The new £600 million crossing has the backing of Chancellor Gordon Brown but will provoke opposition from locals and environmentalists. Although a new tunnel is believed to be the cheaper and preferred option, the decision has prompted renewed debate about the instrumental role of iconic structures in defining national identity. The existing road and the rail bridges are often held up as symbols of Scottish innovation and the national capacity for brave feats of engineering.

The competition for a contractor and designer for the new crossing is likely to be as controversial as the Scottish Parliament. The last major crossing commissioned by the government was the uninspiring and clunky Skye Bridge. Local design enthusiasts are concerned that the Scottish Executive will opt for the cheapest possible option, leaving Scotland with another „aesthetically-challenged“ structure.
Against this backdrop, Forth Estuary Traffic Authority (FETA) is in the process of completing a new toll structure for the existing bridge. Essentially, the canopy acts as a traffic sign, houses new electronic toll equipment and provides shelter and new safety mechanisms to protect the toll staff. The procurement and design quality of the canopy is a source of encouragement and suggests that FETA and Bridgemaster Alastair Andrew are discerning clients. The toll canopy was designed by Reiach and Hall following an invited design competition initiated by Edinburgh’s chief planner.

Neil Gillespie, design director at Reiach and Hall, treated the commission as both a logistical challenge – the canopy needed to be built without causing major disruptions to traffic – and a sculptural project. Reiach and Hall’s last infrastructure project, the Seafield Wastewater Treatment Plant, which also sits on the edge of the Forth, was an similar exercise in combining abstract artistic compos­ition with function.

The form of the toll canopy, an asymmet­rical monopitch block, tries to capture a sense of motion and was developed in response to the experience of using the bridge. „You are travelling downhill, you are braking, you are trying to get in lane – and the kids are probably screaming in the back of the car – but then the views are also opening up and you are getting a glimpse of the bridge,“ explains Gillespie. From the south the canopy cants to one side as a nod to the bridge. If you are travelling towards Edinburgh, the structure forms a wedge rising up towards the capital city. Some critics have suggested it is oversized, but it needs to have nine metres clearance and provide shelter on a very windy site.

„The standard approach for such a project is to create a big arch that spans one side to another and then hang the signs from it,“ says Gillespie. „This canopy is facing two amazing pieces of engineering; we didn’t want to produce an insipid piece of structure or a piece of structural expression to sit beside them. We wanted to make it 3-D, reducing it to an object,“ he adds.

The contract was design and build; Transroute UK and Raynewsay Construction built the canopy with structural design by WA Fairhurst. Aware that detailed design would rest outside their control, the architects focused on the design of the skin. The skin is lightweight; a metal mesh is exposed on the sides and underside of the canopy with a polycarbonate roof cover. The perforated skin reduces wind loads and allows for glimpses of the structure through the cladding.
The lighting system, designed by Speirs and Major Associates, is not yet operational. The bridgemaster is waiting for the high bay lights to be re-lamped and SMA is finalizing the lighting sequence, which needs to be appreciated when you are driving at 50 miles an hour. It will be made up of blue and white light washes. Blue was selected because it breaks down forms, creating a blur rather than a clear form; they were keen to avoid the brutal pool of white light usually associated with tolls.

A10, Mo., 2007.05.21

21. Mai 2007 Penny Lewis


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Forth Road Bridge canopy

Public library

A.biro’s response to the mixed context of Grosuplje is an equally heterogeneous building.

Grosuplje, a settlement only 20 minutes’ drive from Ljubljana, is an odd mixture of buildings and people. It is the home town of the current rightist prime minister, and while it is known as a Mecca for craftsmen its outskirts host both the cheap and kitschy Kongo Casino and gypsy shanty towns. A scattering of strange sculptures and a distinctive local dialect distinguish Grosuplje from your typical Slovenian town. There is a vaguely defined centre and a few irredeemably provincial luxury villas, but the overall impression is one of almost surreal diversity. It was precisely this heterogeneity that was the starting point for the design of Grosuplje Public Library.
The open competition for the building was won by A.biro, an architectural office whose built works range from a highly visible parking garage in the centre of Ljubljana to somewhat quieter but still quite experimental apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city.

The new public library is in fact an extension to the existing library which is one of the last remaining good-quality 19th-century buildings in Grosuplje and as such treated as an extremely valuable piece of architecture. The building underwent extensive but respectful renovation and modernization, since the architects’ focus was on the new structure, which is only loosely connected to the old building.
The site is typical for Grosuplje: an empty, relatively small plot between the old, listed building and anonymous 1960s blocks of social housing. The architects decided to „mirror“ the volume of the old building and gently re-shape it into an appropriate structure. The specific shape of the building conforms to some extent to the functional requirements, while simultaneously offering different kinds of symbolic readings. The central function of the library is visible on the outside as the building „opens up“ towards the main street like a book. The building zigzags in a casual but unsustained nod to the iconic. Despite the connection with the old building, the new volume stands as an independent structure in the chaotic urban fabric. The vertical alternations of glazed and closed surfaces – glazed towards the old building and closed towards the apartment blocks – make it look filigreed yet solid. While from the rear the addition seems like a closed box, from the main street is seems transparent, thereby leaving the dominant role to the old building.

The interior of the new library reveals a very complex „urban scheme“. The library is structured as an introverted public landscape composed of different platforms, voids, routes and stairways. Great importance was given to the way the public enters the building. The whole library opens up gradually: the entrance hall’s expressive exposed concrete ceiling reveals nothing of the vast central space that unfolds on the higher floors. The full-height central reading room has a great spatiality, in contrast to other sections which are filled with bookshelves. The choice of finishing materials and furniture gives the space a distinct character that is as heterogeneous as the urban context – tranquillity, cosiness and monumentality are all here. Another focal point for the architects was the lighting – one of the most important features of a library. The building „catches“ dispersed natural light through the skylights on the zigzagging roof, as well as from vast glazed facade sections. At night balloon-shaped suspended lights, hanging above the central reading room, softly glow like moons, inviting passers-by to enter.

Grosuplje’s new public library is not just a centre of documentation and information; it is also important as a social centre and an „urban intensifier“. An open platform between the two buildings, beneath the bridge at first-floor level, acts as a covered public square, a small plaza hosting different activities including a café. And despite the striking contrasts, the complex works as a whole, making it an inspiring example of a different kind of heterogeneity.

A10, Mo., 2007.05.21

21. Mai 2007 Maja Vardjan


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Stadtbibliothek Grosuplje

Police station

X-TU architecture translated the required segregation in a police station into a recognizable two-tone structure.

Saint Denis is a former industrial area located in the northern suburbs of Paris. Its development received a boost when the national football stadium, Stade de France, was built there for the 1998 World Cup. The existing post-industrial landscape has gradually made way for a new street grid with offices and housing. The influx of new residents fleeing the exorbitant house prices of the capital, combined with the proximity of the cités – the bleak public housing estates of Greater Paris – as well as the numerous events generated by the Stade de France, have led to public safety problems and a need for a new kind of police station designed to meet local conditions.

On the corner of Rue du Landy and Passage des Arts et Métiers, at the crossroads of the new zones of activity and the stadium, stands the police station designed by X-TU, headed by Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières. Winners of the Europan 1 and Albums de la Jeune Architecture competitions, they are among France’s most successful young architects. Having completed numerous works in France – some of them prizewinners – they are now working on a diverse portfolio of projects that include the chemistry centre at the Paris XIII university, a courthouse in Pointe à Pitre, and housing schemes in Lille and Paris. They also won the competition for the Archae­ology Museum in Gyeonggi-do Jeongok, South Korea.
At the most basic level, their police station is the outcome of a rigorous analysis of the all-important issues of security, communications and circulation. This resulted in two completely segregated entrances. The first is intended for visitors, who enter a lobby through a monitored security entrance with two sets of doors. This reception area, which has large windows overlooking the street, leads to the small, confidential interview rooms where complaints are filed. The second entrance is reserved for police personnel, and provides access through a secured courtyard into a second lobby that communicates with all floors and all internal services.

The two lobbies are, however, linked by a common reception desk, facing the public lobby on one side and the service lobby with the security centre on the other. These two sections are separated by a vast one-way mirror, which allows police personnel to monitor the public without being seen.

The ground floor also houses the secure area – the detention cells and interview rooms – while the gym, locker room and the offices of the chief inspector are located on the first floor. In order to anchor the police presence in the community, the programme also provides for two studio flats for night-shift officers on this floor.
The remaining four storeys are devoted to the offices of various services, such as forensics, general inquiries, inspectors, internal administration, etc.

The interior, like the exterior, is dominated by two tones: a uniform grey for the circulation and common areas, and floor-to-ceiling white for the offices. The only touch of colour is orange, which is limited to the reception desk, perhaps in an attempt to introduce some warmth to this public interface.

While its functionality is beyond reproach, the St Denis police station also offers an interesting, sculptural silhouette formed by a set of interlocking volumes. Their sides are in black glazed concrete or in serigraphed white glass, the pattern density of which provides opacity or transparency depending on the degree of confidentiality required.

These two-tone structures create abstract shapes the contents of which are difficult to decipher owing to the cladding and to the reflective effect of the glass, which serves to dematerialize the walls. The squares, rectangles and occasional circles form a composition whose depth is generated by the proximity or distance of the various facade sections. Like living tableaux, they alter the perception of the building with every variation in light. At night, the mass vanishes; in the darkness only floating geometric shapes remain, lighted rectangular blocks or round portholes sheathed in opalescent plexiglass cylinders whose surfaces channel the light.
The building is visible from afar whatever the time of day or night, turning it into a kind of lighthouse, a distress beacon in a social and urban landscape undergoing total transformation.

A10, Mo., 2007.05.21

21. Mai 2007 Xavier Gonzalez


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Police Station

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