Center for Information Comperj,Rio de Janeiro | Andrade Morettin Arquitetos

The headquarters of the Center for Information of Comperj in Itaboraí play a key role in the future petrochemical complex that Petrobras will implement in the region. The CI will be the gateway to the site. Therefore, the new building has to represent very clearly the values that the company defends, including modernity as well as social and environmental responsibility.
Via:e-architect

National Library of the Czech Republic | Emergent Architecture

This proposal for the National Library of the Czech Republic is based on radical contextualism, where the new building relates simultaneously to its local environment and to the larger urban context of Prague. The project sets into motion a dynamic relation between the Prague old city, the urban topography, and the Prague Castle, opening up a dialog with the cultural and political history of the city. The project is intended to become an important landmark for the Czech Republic in the league of similar undertakings in Paris and other world capitals. The building is composed of 4 components- the Box, the Library Landscape, the National Archive, and the Mountian. Together, these elements constitute a simultaneously public and private building, a simultaneously micro-contextual and macro-contextual building.


The Box

The Box is defined by the maximum buildable area of the site which is approximately 100 M. x 118 M. in plan. The massing of the Box establishes an edge along the urban corridor of Milady Horákové, relating to the massing and height of the existing buildings, in particular the Embassy of India and the Christian Community of the Czech Republic. The cornice height of the Box is proposed at 13.5 Meters, respecting the existing cornice height of the Embassy of India. This Box lifts up off the ground to create a sweeping, open Library Landscape on the ground level and an inviting Main Entry.

The Library Landscape

The Library Landscape is a highly flexible zone which is visible from the city and the park. Its overhangs and glass facades are an invitation to the people of Prague to enter and use the building. It contains the Public Areas, the General and Reference Services, and the Open Stacks with Study Areas. These areas are separated by way of differentiations in the topography of the floor as well as furnishings. A single point of identity check and book check-out is located near the entry of the building and the Grande Stair.

The National Archive

The National Archive is the heart of the design. It contains the entire collection of most delicate and irreplaceable volumes and is therefore located above any potential flood level. Suspended inside the Mountain, it is visible from everywhere in the building but not accessible. It is housed within a separate shell nested inside the Mountain to maintain the strictest protection in terms of security and environmental control. The National Archive is connected to the other areas of the building via large structural passageways.

The Mountain

While the Box relates to the local urban scale and the wide-ranging Letenská Plán, the Mountain reaches upward to a height of 60 meters. This height is calculated to allow the building to be seen from a great distance, in particular, from the center of the old city center of Prague. At the same time, this height respects the given setback rules for the site due to the fact that the Mountain is located away from the perimeter of the site. The natural topography of the Letná Slope above the Vltava River, combined with the building’s setback from that slope, would make the building otherwise invisible. The Mountain creates a visual connection with the cultural landscape of the city, establishing an urban triangle connecting the city center, the Prague Castle, and the new National Library. At night, the crystalline facets of the Mountain will glow, revealing the national archive inside, making the most precious of artifacts of Czech culture part of the skyline of the city.

Building Type:
National Library and National Archival Collection

Office:
EMERGENT

Principal:
Tom Wiscombe

Structural:
Arup Consulting Engineers

Mechanical:
Arup Consulting Engineers

Surface Area:

50,000 SM

All texts and images from : Emergent

Brockholes Wetland Museum Naturum Lancashire, England | Kjellander Sjöberg

International contest for a new natural museum for the region's natural wetlands and bird life. Program content is about 2000 meters for exhibitions, workshops and conferences with associated restaurant, cafe and shop for locally grown products. The place has a unique nature, but is in fact a former sand and gravel during gradual transformation. "Brock Holes Quarry" is a known destination for birdwatchers. The task was to design and create an integrated whole with the nature reserve visit facilities and walks in the area. Its basic concept is about movement in the landscape that continues into the building through created wetland exhibition diagonally up towards the restaurant outlook room, in contact with the surroundings.
Admission to the museum is the bottom in a glastub, from the reception can be reached at the building's various utsällningsdelar via a through-sloping ramp that move in zig-zag between different program areas. Utstansade holes through the volume creates light atrium that provides contact with the ground vegetation and sky.
The movement continues up on the building's roof with outdoor seating, picnic area and outdoor classroom.

The building is under the program be self-sufficient energy from the perspective of low pressure on natural, zero-carbon ', that is carbon neutral. Its strategies for sustainability and sustainable design is based on the English concepts: Impact Management, Demand Management and Cultivating awareness. Sustainability design: John Manoocheri

The competition was initiated by Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Forestry Commission.
Original text in Swedish translated by Design Ideas.
Images from:Kjellander Sjöberg

New Palazzo del Cinema in Venice ,2005 | 5+1AA

The competition has a dual background. On the one hand the need for international visibility and expressiveness and compliance of the extraordinary richness of Venice-Lido. The answer to this dualism is a statement that it is a scandal to destroy the green of the Lido and think to compete with expressive and Casino Palazzo del Cinema. Venice is not an underdeveloped city. It needs no formal violence and abuse. So the theme of realism (Carrà) states as a solution expressive exterior, where the earthy materiality of the hall is made with the richness of the Green Square Garden Cinema and Film, and the two buildings. On the other hand, the basement, which resolves all claims functionally, it's sensual, luxurious in its spaces: Dell'Ala uses the image of the dragonfly, stained glass window in the Great Hall of the park, the materials and images of the world of Cinema , gold, velvet, leather, in the Foyer, the ladder, in the Film Market in Bar
This response to the duality of the competition, is a unique compositional and perceptual, combining compliance and strength of expression, metaphysical realism and sensuality.
Original texts by 5+1AA translated by Design Ideas.
All images from :5+1AA