Editorial

The Bulgarian example

If Bulgaria is an example of anything, it is of the exception it constitutes within Europe. No other country is so often quoted as exemplary for what it is not, or does not have. With its approaching accession to the EU, the absence of social, economic and administrative transparency has become a recurrent theme; in architecture and architectural history, it presents a comparable figure or - rather, it is absent altogether. In the introduction to „An Outline of European Architecture“, Nikolaus Pevsner instanced Bulgaria in an effort to explain why he had ignored all of Central and Eastern Europe: „A different case is that of say Bulgaria. If it is never mentioned at all in the following pages the reason is that Bulgaria in the past belonged to the Byzantine and then to the Russian orbit, and that her importance now is so marginal as to make her omission pardonable.“

In this issue of A10, Bulgaria is emphatically present, albeit still from the perspective of absence. In „On the spot“ we report on the Not Found action launched during the recent Architecture Biennale in Venice by the partners of architecture. It is an attempt, which deserves every support, to ensure that Bulgaria is present at the next art and architecture biennales, preferably with its own pavilion. In Eurovision, Milena Filcheva sketches a not altogether cheerful picture of the current state of architecture and urban design in Sofia (with keywords like chaos, corruption and collapsing constructions) and the absence of organized planning. Quality architecture and urban design are not necessarily present, either. And in my article about Eurocentrism in architectural history, Pevsner’s comment about Bulgaria is quoted as an illustration of West European dominance in historiography.

All these observations of absence could be regarded as one more confirmation of Bulgaria’s general non-inclusion, but it could also mark the start of a change of mentality, which must inevitably begin with the realization that where there is nothing, something might exist, or develop: an appreciation of quality in the Bulgarian built environment, a platform to show what Bulgaria is currently producing in the fields of art and architecture, concern for the 
(recent) architectural past. And Bulgaria may in many instances be the proverbial example of the fringes of European architecture, but it is certainly not the only architectural terra incognita on this continent which we hope to chart in A10 in the coming years. (Hans Ibelings)

Inhalt

On the Spot
News and observations
• Neutelings Riedijk’s Netherlands Institute for Sound and Image, Hilversum (NL)
• First Bakema Fellowship for research project on architecture and terrorism
• Poland's first architectural blob
• ArchStoyanie, a festival of wood in Nikola-Lenivets (RU)
• Eight winning projects in French-speaking Switzerland
• Bulgaria’s absence from the international architecture scene
• Tourists and architects benefit from Tourist Road Project in Norway
• Update: Helsinki housing (FI)
• and more...

Start
New projects
• Dóm Architects’ understated competition design for thermal baths in Algyo (HU) gets a second viewing, after not having been understood by a jury of local architects
• In Limassol (CY), irwinkritioti.architecture were faced with the challenge of creating a landmark-building for a cruise terminal with a complex, ever-changing programme
• Swedish artist Jon Brunberg is planning a series of monuments commemorating all soldiers killed in wars since 1945. He plans the first Polynational War Memorial to arise in Normandy (FR)
• The redesign for Rogierplein by Xaveer de Geyter shows that Brussels (BE) is finally getting serious about urban design
• Tabanlioglu have brought loft life into a 30,000 m² recycled office building in Istanbul (TR)
• The renovation of the Congressenpaleis in Brussels (BE) by A2RC will even include a name change

Interview
Querkraft
In an interview with Oliver Elser, Querkraft’s Jakob Dunkl, Gerd Erhartt and Peter Sapp discuss the true reasons for banding together into a group, why a big black box suits a sporting goods manufacturer better than a Las Vegas-style running shoe, and whether one should invest 100,000 euros a year in self-marketing.

Ready
New buildings
• Thurles Arts Centre and Library by McCullough Mulvin Architects lingers on the bank of the River Suir in Thurles (IE)
• In Innsbruck (AT), architects Frötscher Lichtenwagner have realized their winning Europan 1996 project: a new town centre for a big, dull housing estate
• Andrzej Kikowski and Damian Cyryl Kotwicki's office building in Olsztyn (PL)
• RAU have converted an existing building into a CO2-free, sustainable office for the World Wildlife Fund in Zeist (NL)
• In Zurich (CH), pool Architects have re-established the connection between Lochergut commercial centre and its urban context
MPH architects designed a crèche in Geneva (CH) that generates social and spatial activity
• The Franz Liszt Concert Hall by Atelier Kempe Thill in Raiding (AT), the composer's place of birth, is nicely balanced between the poles of trashy and ultra chic
• DSDHA's Paradise Park children's centre in London (GB) eliminates the cliches associated with children's nurseries
• Giovanni Vaccarini has connected space and time, geometry and landscape in his design for a cemetery in Ortona (IT)

Section
Light
Although not tangible, light is perhaps the most important „material“ that architects have at their disposal. Light is complementary to every aspect of a design; at the most basic level it makes colours, textures, spaces and forms visible, but the particular quality of the light can also subtly transform any one of these. And, of course, the presence of light is a precondition for inhabiting a building. Light brings materials to life, it can even endow a building with a „soul“.

Eurovision
Focusing on European countries, cities and regions
• Although Sofia will be a EU capital in 2007, the city is still relatively unknown, as is the country itself. When it comes to architecture, Bulgaria is practically absent from the international scene
• Eurocentrism – the one-sided history of architecture. A foretaste of the editor’s forthcoming publication „Exploring Europe“
• Smile, you're in the Canaries! An „all inclusive“ architectural tour to the EU's most outlying region: the Canary Islands (ES)
• Home: Liivi and Vilen Künnapu’s weekend retreat, Haabneeme (EE)

Out of obscurity
Buildings from the margins of modern history
Cordula Zeidler discusses 66 St James’s Street in London (GB), an oddly mannered 1970s building by Rodney Gordon, one of the UK’s most in-your-face brutalists of the 1960s.

Exhibition pavilion, Vilnius

Paleko ARCH studio skilfully strenghten the sense of place of a former flood plain by making as little of an actual facade as possible.

The city of Vilnius has an amazing array of unique spaces, the quality of which is often attributable to the city’s natural assets. For thousands of years the Neris River has been picturesquely sculpting the city’s terrain: urban developments span several levels and often command majestic views.

Vilnius’ Litexpo exhibition centre is conveniently located in one such remarkable space – a former flood plain whose eastern and northern flanks are confined by the winding river and a steep, forest-clad hill. Just across the river is Vingis park – a favourite venue for outdoor events and a perfect place for a stroll. One of the city’s major traffic arteries now cuts through the south-west corner of the flood plain and leads up the hill to the soaring residential towers of the 1970s Lazdynai district. Interestingly, the Expo buildings themselves are hidden from passing traffic by the trees. The original 30-year old pavilion and its newer, rather temporary-looking neighbours were judged too small to handle the crowds and an expansion project was established to boost capacity and revamp the entire site.

Strengthening the „sense of place“ was listed as one of the primary requirements in the competition brief for the new pavilion. Other design tasks included unification of the existing pavilions into a functional whole and the creation of a new visual landmark for the central expo piazza, while still allowing for a continuum of space.
These requirements have been skilfully met in the winning proposal by architect Rolandas Palekas and his team. The proposed structure is a simple triangle in plan – in itself a rather unusual choice, as the square „box“ all too often seems to be the standard response to the utilitarian function of a pavilion. The geometric triangular design is both respectful and significant: its diagonal face redirects and emphasizes views towards the surrounding green hills and introduces a healthy dose of architectural dynamism to the central piazza, while the rectangular rear blends functionally with the existing grid.
The most prominent feature of the new building, its diagonal elevation – or rather opening – is thus revealed as if by cutting an imaginary enclosed square volume. The vibrant, reflective glass screen encourages visitors to wander around without being constrained by a sense of „inside“ and „outside“. Actually, the architects’ design statement reveals a deliberate intention to eliminate the main elevation in favour of the smooth transition of space. The diagonal „cut“, the longest facade, allows daylight to flood the building. To further emphasize the overlapping of inside and outside spaces, the roof extends out over the glass screen, creating a canopy in front of the building. Dramatically touching the ground with a sharp-angled corner, the concrete structure of the pavilion also becomes the high point of the Expo piazza, without being in any way intrusive or pretentious.

The inner space of the pavilion faithfully echoes the exterior’s crystalline, structural appeal. The 12-metre-high, 2000-seat conference hall space was designed for adaptability from the very start. All service areas are hidden in low-rise volumes outside the almost windowless rectilinear walls, thus maximizing the usable internal space. These external projections house a cafeteria with outdoor terrace, a 200-seat conference hall, staff rooms, cloakrooms, rest rooms as well as vertical and horizontal circulation. There is a technical basement underneath the entire structure.

The interior treatment is rather minimalist, in keeping with the idea of the prism-like external shell. The most prominent feature is a mezzanine level, or rather a wide balcony, running all the way along the inside of the diagonal facade at a height of four metres above ground level. Raised on columns (which also support the roof), the mezzanine overlooks the activity areas on either side of the dividing glass screen. It provides additional display space and is accessible via a staircase encased within solid balustrades – an almost sculptural artefact in the visually restrained pavilion.

Opened this September, the pavilion is just in time for some of the most popular exhibitions and for the „free“ show of autumn colours on the surrounding hillsides.

A10, Mi., 2006.11.15

15. November 2006 Bartenis Šiaulytis


verknüpfte Bauwerke
LITexpo pavilion

Office building, Zeist

RAU have converted an existing building into a CO2-free, sustainable office for the WWF.

Looking at the new headquarters of the Dutch chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), you are involuntarily reminded of a nature film where, the longer you look and the more the camera zooms in, the more fascinated you become by the wonders of nature, be it a cooperative ant colony, a spider spinning its web or the symbiosis between a tree and a lichen. Walking around and through this building, you discover that spaces, materials and building services are linked to one another and the surroundings by means of an ingenious, sophisticated system. And that is precisely what the WWF had in mind – a building centred around people and animals that uses low-tech technologies to achieve high-tech levels of sustainability and energy efficiency.

This overall concept began with the choice of location. WWF, which was looking for new premises to accommodate its organizational growth, opted to renovate an existing building rather than to waste a still functional structure by demolishing it. The building (a former agricultural laboratory from 1954) stands on the Schoonoord estate in Zeist, the city where the WWF headquarters were previously located. Since 1990 the organization has collaborated with landscape architect Willem Overmars on the restoration of Schoonoord, a protected nature area.

In 2002 the WWF organized an invited competition for the building’s conversion. From a field of seven practices, which included Soeters Van Eldonk Ponec, SeArch, Wessel de Jonge and JHK, Amsterdam-based RAU emerged the winners.

In their design, the centre of the existing structure is per­forated by a new, amorphous volume, the new „face“ of the WWF. This intervention simultaneously softens the strict geometry of the structure and introduces a vertical accent into the building. The open space contains the entrance – moved from the darker and mossy north side to the south side – and public areas. Visitors are led into the building via a bridge over the pond around the entrance. The raised, rectangular volume at the north side of the building has been clad with wooden shingles. It contains the meeting centre and is connected to the central space by a footbridge. The offices are accommodated in the east and west wings which have acquired new facades with Oregon pine frames and awnings, and transparent and dark grey tinted glass.

The building has a closed system energy balance. It is naturally ventilated via gratings incorporated into the facades. Eighty-five per cent of the annual energy requirements for heating are provided solely by the presence of people and the use of equipment. The heat released is stored in a capillary network concealed in the clay plaster ceiling. The (heated) water is drained off and stored below ground. In summer this water is used for cooling. The remaining 15 per cent of energy needs is supplied by a combined heat and power system that operates on linseed oil, making this the first CO2-free building in the world. Solar panels and solar boilers on the roof provide electricity and warm water.

The „sustainability“ claim refers mainly to the materials, which include responsibly logged wood with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification, bamboo from Columbia and tadelakt (Moroccan lime plaster). Leembouw Nederland, which produced the tadelakt, also supplied over 400 tons of clay for plastering ceilings and walls – a good example of how natural materials nowadays can be used in a very utilitarian and sophisticated way, something this company has specialized in. Investigations were also carried out to ensure that none of the materials used was produced with the help of child labour. One example of how natural processes come together in this „architectural biotope“ is the facade of the „blob“. The architect suggested titanium – one of the most sustainable materials –but the WWF rejected this as inconsistent with the required low-tech image. It was eventually decided to use variously tinted slates made from baked river clay. This product was supplied by brick and tile manufacturer Wienerberger, which has for many years sponsored the WWF’s campaign to rehabilitate Dutch river estuaries (in the interests of better water storage) by buying the clay excavated from the river beds.

The interior, finished in natural materials and colours, blends in with the landscape. The layout is for the most part open plan and where partitioning was unavoidable, glass was used. Acoustic measures include the use of felt panels on cupboards, perforated facade panels and sound-absorbent ceilings.

Accommodation for animals living in the area is an integral part of the renovation. An existing well was turned into the entrance to a bat cellar below the car park and the bats, together the swifts, make use of the nesting boxes built into the facades. All in all, the new WWF office is a marvellous symbiosis between man and animal, building and nature.

A10, Mi., 2006.11.15

15. November 2006 Kirsten Hannema


verknüpfte Bauwerke
WWF office

Cemetery, Ortona

Giovanni Vaccarini has connected space and time, geometry and landscape.

„Acemetery is not a grave, it is a form of relationship with landscape and oblivion.“ With these words Enric Miralles explained his design for the Igualada Cemetery. Indeed, the concept of a grave is fundamentally different from the concept of a cemetery. A cemetery complex is not only a place for commemoration, a transit place for brief visits, but also a place for pausing and reflecting. Thus, planning a cemetery means planning both its own space and its disposition in space.

Giovanni Vaccarini believes that „architecture originates from ideas, not from form; form is only a byproduct of ideas“. The main idea behind this project is the commemoration of thousands of victims of World WarI. Ortona Cemetery is located near another, Canadian, war cemetery. The project envisaged the extension of the existing complex by incorporating the last undeveloped area on the far north side of the cemetery perimeter. The cemetery is located on a hillside, facing the sea and overlooking an extraordinary landscape. Vaccarini completed the cemetery complex by adding the final element, visible from both land and sea.

The 280 new recesses are organized, like the old ones, in parallel lines. The funerary buildings are inserted between the lines in a comb pattern. One line, perpendicular to the rest, marks the periphery of the complex on the sea side. The 109 side chapels (with the same number of recesses) run along this side of the complex, covering a surface area of some 3000 square metres.

Vaccarini is used to playing with simple, primary forms and architectural elements in the pursuit of linearity. Linear geometry is once again the key to understanding this project. Volume is used to define space and the disposition of the different elements in space. The buildings containing the recesses are two-storey blocks in the shape of a parallelepiped. In order to avoid a monolithic or monotonous look, the architect alternated the closed volumes with open spaces, which makes the complex considerably lighter.
The open spaces at times coincide with the organization of circulation in the cemetery. The distinction between social space and circulation space is highlighted not only by using different volumes and surfaces, but also by employing different building mater-ials. The first are enclosed in volumes built in hard materials, the latter are plastered in an unusual pink colour for the stairs leading to the upper level, and white for the corridors.

Every time the wall is interrupted by a path or empty space, it provides a view towards the sea. Redefining space and the relationship between space and landscape, the project creates a sequence of scenic frames that capture the landscape and invite the visitor to pause. Conversely, for those looking at it from the sea, the cemetery appears as a stronghold, thanks in no small part to the use of local limestone in different colours and shades.

One might compare it to the Brion Cemetery complex, realized by Carlo Scarpa (1970-1975), where the perception of space and nature is also overwhelming and where the memory of the function of the place is lost, yielding to contemplation. Or it could be compared to Modena Cemetery, designed by Aldo Rossi, where the buildings „become a city“ in a highly dramatic sense. The cemetery thus remains a thoughtful public space, with a clear organization and a rational use of land.

Vaccarini is a typical representative of the Pescara school, which, although still young in tradition and small in scale, is producing fine works which are appreciated for their grace and discretion. It is a „sottovoce“ in the loud choir of contemporary architecture.

A10, Mi., 2006.11.15

15. November 2006 Daria Ricchi


verknüpfte Bauwerke
Ortona Cementery

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