Editorial

Cultural minority

Generally speaking, architecture magazines are not all that different from car magazines: both devote a disproportionate amount of attention to objects that you rarely if ever see on the street. Who would ever bother to buy an automobile magazine if the contents differed only minimally from what you could see in any parking lot? The same applies to architecture magazines: who would want to read a magazine that features the kinds of buildings that you see all around you every time you step outside your own front door? Even with an editorial policy of deliberately disregarding the architectural equivalents of the latest Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins, the projects presented in A10 are poles apart from the average Opel Astra – Europe’s best selling car – which you can see driving down any street in your neighbourhood.

The truth is that most of the projects featured in A10 are exceptions rather than the everyday, run-of-the-mill buildings that stand just outside our field of vision in that unobserved zone that the French writer Georges Perec once so aptly dubbed the „infra-ordinary“.
Seen in this light, A10’s ambition to provide a balanced coverage of architecture throughout Europe, is no more than a shift in emphasis vis à vis the massive exposure already accorded to iconic buildings and to all the other designs by architecture’s top guns. For even though our correspondents together cover the furthest corners of Europe, and even though they consistently ignore projects that are assured of receiving adequate publicity – even then, the works A10 manages to document amount to a very small proportion of building production.

To quote Hans Hollein’s famous statement once again: „anything can be architecture“; but in the end significant architecture, architecture that can be categorized as a cultural deed, manifests itself in only a small percentage of building production. No matter how important architecture may be as a cultural discipline, within the sum total of building production the works of architecture that interest the media make up no more than a tiny minority.

This does not, however, make this minority any less important, because even in an age when the idea of an avant-garde has lost its appeal it can still be classified as a vanguard, a source of inspiration for countless designers who are as unlikely to receive a commission to design an iconic building or to attain starchitect status as they are to own an Aston Martin or a Ferrari. (Hans Ibelings)

Inhalt

On the spot
News and observations

• Zaha Hadid's Nordpark cable railway in Innsbruck (AT)
• In Athens (GR), the New Acropolis Museum nears completion
Urban Center in Turin (IT) hosts tours of once neglected, now transformed industrial sites
• Update: Serbia
• Modern interpretations of old buildings in Brussels (BE) and Stromness (UK)
• and more...

Start
New projects

• A team of international and local artchitects has won the competition for a „City of the Environment“ in Santomera (ES)
• Antwerp (BE) is embracing itself; a 1200-metre-long bridge by the THV NORIANT consortium will finally close the ring around the city
• Hungarian firms win competitions for Pécs, European Capital of Culture 2010
• CAKMAK architects' In Vino winery complex in Modra (SK)
• Carlos Mourao Pereira's sea baths in Lourinha (PT)
• With their design for a distribution warehouse in Staffordshire (UK), Chetwoods Associates prove that a business park can actually be green

Interview
Svatopluk Sládecek

Svatopluk Sládecek, who has been running his New Work studio since 1995, stands out among young Czech architects. His work represents an original architecural strategy in the Czech Republic - instead of following the example of Western designers, he draws his inspiration from the tradition of the Czech periphery (the world of city-yards, farming land, industrial districts, kitsch conversions), transforming tired architectural motifs into contemporary projects. Jan Kratochvil interviews him.

Ready
New buildings

• Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner's spa baths in Bad Aibling (DE) offer wellness to everyone
• Ton Venhoeven's fire station in Den Helder (NL) reasserts the heroic status of firefighters
• PK Arkitektar's apartment building for handicapped youngsters in Hveragerdi (IS)
• In their apartment building in Paris (FR), Beckmann-N'Thepé bring concrete facades alive
• Promontório's river aquarium in Mora (PT) is helping to launch the local tourist economy in the Alentejo region
• In his design for a housing project in Zagreb (HR), Hrvoje Njiric politely exploits a market-ruled context
• With his wooden villas in Pirogovo (RU), Totan Kuzembayev traces Constructivism back to its Russian origins
• In Ditzingen (DE), Barkow Leibinger used the client's own technology to create a classy gatehouse
• Manuel Ruisanchez's library and Sagrada Familia community centre in Barcelona (ES)
• Brigitte Métra's first solo project is a cultural and sports centre in Dole (FR)
• In Scharans (CH), Valerio Olgiati designed a house without a roof for artist Linard Bardill

Section
Flourishing facades

The term „explosive growth“ has never been more appropriate: in the past fifteen years or so, roofs and facades all over the world, from Tokyo to Chicago, have started sprouting mosses, plants, flowers, shrubs and trees. These „green roofs“ and „living facades“ are regarded as technologically innovative but in reality they are nothing new. After all, according to Greek historiography, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (near present-day Baghdad), a botanical and architectural artwork counted among the seven wonders of the world, were built as long ago as the 6th century BCE.

Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions

• Does the self-willed historicism that seems to hold Islamic religious architecture in its thrall lie in the religion itself? Christian Welzbacher investigates the architecture of Euro-Islam
• Photographer William Brumfield's pilgrimage to the most obscure corners of Russia
• Everybody is familiar with Rome's ancient architectural masterpieces, but what about modern architecture? Giampiero Sanguigni presents a critical tour of 21 projects
• Profile: rising Bulgarian stars I/O
• Home: Peter Jannes' contemporary wooden house in leafy Grobbendonk (BE)

Out of Obscurity
Buildings from the margins of modern history

Roman Rutkowski & Lukasz Wojciechowski take another look at the observatory complex on Mount Sniezka in southern Poland (1959-1974). Designed by Witold Lipinski, with Waldemar Wawrzyniak, it is still a fascinating piece architecture and a stark contrast to the usually gloomy building production of the Communist regime.

Housing, Zagreb

Hrvoje Njiric politely exploits a market-ruled context.

Gracani, like other localities on the Medvednica hillside, has undergone a dramatic transformation during the last ten years, gradually changing from an amalgam of former villages on the outskirts of Zagreb, into a new configuration of suburban zones defined by intensive new housing development. The area is characterized by high density, multi-dwelling development in the form of over-sized apartment buildings that pay scant attention to the quality of public space and infrastructure. The result is a shortage of building plots in the urban periphery that is matched by a lack of taste in the matter of housing typology.

It is against this background that Hrvoje Njiric won first prize in a 2004 competition for a 3000 m² housing development in Gracansko borje, on the outskirts of Gracani. Ever since setting up his architectural practice in 1990, Zagreb-born Njiric´ has been trying to raise the quality of urban development through his many proposals, ideas, competition designs, buildings, urban studies and exhibitions. The architect’s approach here was to find the best strategy for „managing“ the site. His intention to design the entire site rather than simply plonking houses down in the available space is truly noteworthy. The project becomes a composition only when building and site, solid and void, operate together. As such, the non-built areas are a vital element of the whole.

Njiric has deliberately focused on the terrain which, he says, has the power to „reveal speculative forces in their utmost radiance“. Based on the topographic vectors, he draws the footprint of each future block, meanwhile dividing it into lots according to the contours of the land. This results in a rough plan that is further refined by playing with the volumes, and, after few transformations, the footprints start to line up with their plots. The results – low-rise, terraced blocks of housing – are quite interesting and evoke memories of modernist housing estates. The terraced blocks, which follow the natural contours of the land, provide each dwelling with its own ground-level outdoor space as well as a roof terrace. Everything is tied together with a buffer of green consisting of thin green strips and larger areas of green around the blocks that link up with the terraces and private gardens. Apple trees provide a unifying element and an orchard-like atmosphere.

Each apartment is conceived as a combination of private and semi-public space so that the buildings become an element in a larger spatial entity and every dwelling plays its role in the creation of the overall ambience. Inside, the night and day living zones are allocated to different floors: the living area is on the ground floor with access to the private garden, and the bedrooms on the floor above, with access to the roof terrace.

In terms of approach and language, this particular project casts doubt on the usual way of thinking about new living spaces on the urban periphery and is a good starting point for a debate about how architecture might deal with urban growth in a way that takes account of the relationship between housing and the environment while avoiding the low quality usually produced by profit-oriented housing construction industry. Njiric has politely exploited the market rules to produce high quality architecture that is a delight for both inhabitants and passers-by.

A10, Fr., 2008.02.15

15. Februar 2008 Silvio Carta


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Minisiedlung Gračani

Gatehouse, Ditzingen

Barkow Leibinger used Trumpf’s own technology to create a classy calling card.

Ditzingen, near Stuttgart, is the seat of the Trumpf Group, a world leader in the field of manufacturing technology. It is exactly ten years since Barkow Leibinger Architects started their first building project for Trumpf and since then, the com­pany’s site has been continually extended. In 2005, Trumpf purchased an old spice mill on the east side of Borsigstrasse, the former boundary of the Trumpf site. The mill is now used as a training centre. On an adjacent plot, a new staff canteen is under construction, due to open in summer 2008. The street between the old and new buildings is now owned by the company and constitutes the focus of the site as a whole. It was thus a logical step to move the main entrance to Borsigstrasse. As the architect’s sister sits on Trumpf’s executive board, it is no surprise that Barkow Leibinger plan and build for the company.

The gatehouse is designed to present the company’s know-how to visitors as soon as they arrive. Accordingly, the architecture was realized with the help of laser and metal processing technology. The load-bearing structure of the 32-metre-long roof consists of a 60 cm-thick honeycomb of welded steel that was specially developed for this project. The underside is a metal sheet with openings dictated by the varying structural loads. The way this roof extends out over two traffic lanes, a total of 20 metres, is impressive. It is supported by just four pillars that are all but concealed within the functional core of the building. This 130-square-metre space contains reception and waiting areas and technical facilities. The facade consists of two panes of glass set 20 cm apart. In some places, the cavity between the panes is filled with acrylic glass tubes to screen the service area behind. During the day, the desired effect is largely thwarted by reflections in the glass facade. But at night, when the tubes are illuminated from above, interesting plays of shadow and light are created, and the walls of the service area lose their solid appearance.

In the context of such an airy structure, the entrance door with its thick metal frame and rather formless handle is out of place. Trumpf uses this door as a unifying element in all of its buildings. The transparent look of the building would have been better served by a different design. The use of the com­pany’s own technology clearly marks out the gatehouse as part of the company campus. In spite of this, the small but far from insignificant building has qualities one might wish more companies would strive for.

A10, Fr., 2008.02.15

15. Februar 2008 Simone Hübener


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Trumpf Main Entrance

River aquarium, Mora

Promontório’s river aquarium is helping to launch the local tourist economy in the Alentejo region.

When as children we first draw a house, the most common shape is a triangle on top of a box, with a door, window and chimney, and a few trees around it. And perhaps, to complete the picture, a happy family. A house surrounded by nature is a universal archetype of tranquillity and happiness. And Alentejo, a region in southern Portugal, may well be an ideal location for such archetypical happiness.

The traditional boxy house with a pitched roof is one architectural shape that everyone can design and build with confidence. Alentejo buildings, as revealed in a Portuguese survey of traditional architecture, follow this predisposition for a simple, recognizable shape, and the undulating landscape of the region is dotted with specimens of this architectural type.

A farming region that is under pressure from global primary producers, Alentejo is urgently engaged in switching from an agrarian economy to eco-tourism and leisure. With this in mind, the municipality of Mora, in the northern part of Alentejo, is investing in infrastructure aimed at consolidating this new direction in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner.

One such venture is located in the Gameiro Ecological Park, an area with a river beach, a nautical club, picnic areas and a camp site. The landscape, with its mix of cork and olive trees, is typical of this region. In 2004, the municipality launched a design-and-build competition for an aquarium to showcase the biodiversity of the Iberian river, from the head waters to the mouth. Lisbon-based Promontório architects were the winners.

The site is a natural basin formed by the confluence of two small rivers, an ideal location for an explor­ation of the theme of running water. The climate here is hot – very hot. It has one of the highest numbers of sunny days per year in Europe and traditional architecture recognized that cooling and shading is the key to comfortable living conditions. The aquarium project addresses this fact in a striking way: a compact white volume with a single pitched roof made up of a sequence of precast concrete trusses spanning 33 metres between supports. The profile? Indeed, it is an oversized interpretation of the traditional whitewashed architecture known locally as „Montes Alentejanos“. The sequence of concrete ribs is the perfect strategy for sun protection and cross ventilation of the interior which is made up of a series of closed boxes containing the aquarium programme. In order to regulate the interior environment – light, humidity, temperature – and to protect the aquatic specimens, the boxes have windows on only one side.

Reception, ticket counter, shop, cafeteria, temporary exhibition space, documentation centre, research and education, live exhibits, multimedia and a small auditorium – are all lined up beneath the protective roof. The aquarium is like any exhibition space of this kind: dark for the sake of the exhibits, clearly laid out in order to educate. At the rear, a bridge takes the exhibition route outside to where a lake acts as a natural display case for local flora and fauna. A winding path takes visitors back inside the aquarium.

There was no need for big gestures here, so Promontório delivered a project that is compact, simple and clear while still managing to accommodate a complex programme. From a distance, it seems like just another big house in the countryside.

A10, Fr., 2008.02.15

15. Februar 2008 Carlos Sant’Ana

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