Tonkin Liu creates nature-informed tower for Manchester's Civic Quarter

Architecture studio Tonkin Liu has completed a biomimetic tower containing flues for a low-carbon energy centre in Manchester, England, along with a sculptural wall made from organically-shaped tiles.

Tonkin Liu's architectural interventions form part of the city's Civic Quarter Heat Network and Energy Centre, which provides low-carbon energy to a network of key sites across the district.

Tonkin Liu has completed The Tower of Light and the Wall of Energy in Manchester

Called The Tower of Light and the Wall of Energy, the building aims to transform its site next to Manchester Central station into a landmark that celebrates the innovative technologies being employed to produce and distribute cleaner energy.

The 40-metre-tall Tower of Light encloses flues that funnel hot air away from a combined heat and power engine and two gas boilers. It was designed to provide a visible expression of the project's environmental agenda and is illuminated like a beacon at night.

The structure celebrates clean energy technologies. Photo is by Matthew Burnett

The tower is the latest, and to date the largest, biomimetic structure to be developed based on research conducted by Tonkin Liu and engineering firm Arup into lightweight building methods based on geometries found in nature.

The Shell Lace Structure project, which began in 2009, previously informed the design of a sculptural tower installed in Hull, and was used to develop a prototypal windpipe stent for use after tracheal transplant surgery.

The 40-metre-tall tower encloses flues for a low-carbon energy centre

The Tower of Light was constructed using flat steel sheets with a thickness of just six or eight millimetres, which were laser-cut and welded together to create strong and rigid curved surfaces.

"Learning from geometries in nature, the tower's form is its strength," said Tonkin Liu. "The super-light, super-thin single-surface structure uses the least material to achieve the most."

The wall is covered in ceramic tiles

"Modern methods of construction using advanced digital modelling, analysis, and fabrication, combined with principles of tailoring, have made the Shell Lace Structure innovation possible," the studio added.

The tower's oval form is corrugated to increase the surface area and create a surface with built-in rigidity. The latticed steel structure allows the tower to be built with less material than an equivalent smooth cylinder.

Steel sheets that were laser cut wrap the tower

Perforations in the steel sheets increase in size towards the top of the tower, reflecting the decreasing dead load and allowing more wind to pass through the structure.

Reflectors incorporated inside the tower direct sunlight into its chambers throughout the day, while LED lights aimed at the same reflectors produce animated lighting sequences at night.

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The tower and the new energy centre are enclosed by a 63-metre-long street facade formed of glazed ceramic tiles.

The high-gloss finish on the tiles reflects light and movement in the urban environment throughout the day and is animated with programmed lighting at night.

A total of 1,373 tiles line the wall

"The tessellated interlocking lozenge tile pattern evokes the dynamic energy of earth's movements, as seen in patterns left in the sand by ocean waves," the architects explained.

A total of 1,373 tiles were produced in 31 different shapes to allow the undulating surface to change across its height.

LED lights illuminate the tower at night

A long ribbon window incorporated into the wall enables passers-by to look inside and see the inner workings of the energy centre.

As a whole, the project aims to celebrate the pioneering technologies used within the energy centre, creating a 21st-century landmark within a district known for its engineering heritage.

Perforations in the steel sheets increase in size towards the top of the tower

Tonkin Liu is headed by architects Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin, who found the multidisciplinary office in 2002. The studio's output often uses technical innovations to replicate the optimised design solutions found in nature.

The London-based office previously designed a biomimicry-informed swing bridge for a park in the UK capital, as well as a residential extension with a concave roof that curves around a reflecting pool.

_The photography is byDavid Valinsky unless stated. _

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Graal Architecture's Orly Festival Hall references residential and industrial buildings

This multipurpose events hall designed by French studio Graal Architecture evokes typical gabled houses as well as the industrial sheds found near to its location beside Paris-Orly airport.

Orly Festival Hall is located on the edge of the airport complex to the south of Paris, and forms part of a suburban neighbourhood made up of residential and logistical buildings.

Graal Architecture has created a festival hall in France

Graal Architecture designed the festival hall as a pavilion consisting of four interconnected gabled volumes that resemble typical houses. Its flexible and modular design allows the building to be used for various events.

Corrugated and perforated metal cladding forms a rectilinear envelope around the pitched-roof volumes, lending it a more industrial appearance that recalls the nearby sheds and warehouses.

The building comprises four interconnected gabled volumes

"Halfway between a low-cost prefabricated industrial structure and an ordinary house, the building unfolds in two cubic volumes of the same dimensions, which attempt to move away from the typology of the shed to approach the domestic scale of the house," the architects explained.

The metal cladding extends beyond the height of the pitched roofs, creating a more visible volume within the suburban streetscape that changes in appearance when viewed from different distances and angles.

The volumes are wrapped by corrugated and perforated metal cladding

"Through its champagne colour, its undulations and perforations, the thermo-lacquered, corrugated iron cladding offers a changing and renewed image of the facility through the play of reflections and transparency," Graal Architecture added.

"Depending on the light, the distance and the viewpoint, which is multiple on this angled plot, the building creates a real kinetic effect."

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The building is separated into two conjoined blocks that are shifted slightly in plan to fit the irregularly shaped plot. The space in the offset area forms an entrance plaza sheltered from the noisy airport.

A block of service areas including the entrances, toilets, offices and technical spaces are arranged along the northern edge of the building so they are direct contact with the car park and a small concrete plaza.

It has a champagne-hued colour

Three entrances along the building's length provide access to different parts of the hall, allowing each space to function independently and enhancing the facility's flexibility.

The building was constructed using a timber frame that is visible inside the hall and is complemented by the exposed timber walls and structural roof panels.

The prefabricated framework is visible inside the hall

The prefabricated framework supports a series of deep beams that span the hall from front to back. Tracks incorporated into the beams allow movable walls to be used to partition the interior into two or three rooms.

The four roof ridges help to visually separate the open, flexible space into smaller bays while also aiding its acoustic properties. Each bay features large windows on its southern facade that look out towards the airport.

Skylights slot into the roof's ridge

Lighting and acoustic baffles that follow the folds of the roof help to break up the overall scale of the internal space. Skylights slotted into the roof's ridge cast natural light onto the timber beams and the concrete floor below.

Graal Architecture was founded by Carlo Grispello and Nadine Lebeau. The firm has previously designed an energy-efficient and economical facility for small children that was longlisted in the civic building category of Dezeen Awards 2021, and a sports hall for a nursery in western Paris comprising three corrugated zinc and galvanised steel cabins.

The photography is byClément Guillaume.

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Levitt Bernstein and TKMT cover Neutron Research Centre in perforated metal fins

Perforated metal fins cover the facade of this new visitor centre designed by Levitt Bernstein and TKMT Architects for the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) science facility in Grenoble, France.

Won through an international competition in 2019, the project provides the world-leading neutron facility's campus with a range of new spaces for visiting researchers, as part of a pan-European initiative to provide neutrons to those carrying out molecular experiments.

The Neutron Research Centre is located in France and was designed by Levitt Bernstein and TKMT Architects

London and Manchester-based Levitt Bernstein teamed up with local architects TKMT to develop the design, which combines an exposed concrete structure with a lightweight metal skin.

One side of the building overlooks a car park, while the other connects to the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) campus via covered walkways.

The building has a lightweight metal exterior and concrete interiors

"The new building has a delicate and intricate appearance, underpinned by a solid, muscular structure," described Levitt Bernstein.

"Slender white perforated fins on the exterior modulate daylight and privacy and are arranged in a lenticular pattern inspired by the process of neutron diffraction," it continued.

"The fins alter the appearance of the facade, from morning to evening, during different weather conditions and when viewed from alternative angles."

One side of the site comprises covered white-painted walkways

A need for security in certain areas, combined with a desire for openness in the public spaces, saw the design divided into two public and private zones.

A double-height, glazed foyer space that welcomes visitors is centred around a helical, exposed concrete staircase and a circular cut-out in the first floor.

"The staircase becomes a sculptural object when viewed from the outside and reveals the life and activity within the building as people move through each level day and night," said the practice.

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Interiors throughout have been kept simple and crisp, combining white-painted walls and exposed concrete with elements of exposed wood used in shelving and cupboards to create "moments of warmth and texture".

"With scientists forming the client group, even small changes could have a large impact on how the occupants could use various spaces," the practice continued.

Skylights and clerestory windows provide the interior with light and privacy

This extends to the fittings themselves, with spaces left simple, open and flexible, including moving walls in the events spaces that allow them to be subdivided.

A large, singular skylight along with strips of clerestory glazing continue the strategy of creating open, well-lit spaces while still maintaining a sense of privacy.

The interior boasts a minimal and clean look

Levitt Bernstein is a London and Manchester-based landscape and architecture practice that was founded in 1968.

Other recently completed science facilities include the Edmond and Lily Safra Centre for Brain Sciences in Jerusalem by architecture studio Foster + Partners, which features an exterior of decorative aluminium screens designed to evoke neurons.

Photography is by Benjamin Gremen.

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SANAA's courtyard-filled campus for Bocconi University is informed by Milanese palazzi

Curved forms clad in perforated metal wrap green courtyards at this campus for Bocconi University in Milan, designed by Japanese practice SANAA.

Occupying the site of a former milk processing plant next to the existing university, the campus provides a headquarters for the Bocconi School of Management alongside a sports centre.

Bocconi Campus is a university campus in Milan that was designed by SANAA. Photo is by Filippo Fortis

Instead of filling the 350,000-square-metre site, SANAA broke the programme into a cluster of organic, transluscent white forms that surround a public park cut through by a winding, covered walkway.

Informed by historical Milanese palazzi, each of these buildings has its own courtyard, and integrates landscaped routes, porticos and balconies.

Perforated metal sheets blanket the exterior of the university buildings

"Every floor has balconies along its perimeter, screened by an undulating metal mesh that creates a porous relationship with the city," said the studio.

"Each volume has an interior courtyard, typical in Milanese architecture, and each is designed to have its own distinct character while being part of a larger system," it continued.

"These are lined with porticos at the ground level offering peaceful environments for socialising, studying and gathering in the open air".

The mesh sheets aid to reduce solar gain

The business school occupies four interconnected buildings in the northeast of the site, with the sports centre to the south and residence hall – of which SANAA only designed the exterior – to the east.

To reduce the exposure and heat-gain of the primarily glass-walled buildings, each is wrapped in a metal screen with diamond-shaped perforations, giving a silvery-white finish during the day and a lantern-like effect at night that visually unifies the campus.

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These mesh screens sit slightly raised above the ground level of the buildings, creating a strip of exposed glass at the base of each that visually connects them at the height of the covered walkway across the park.

"We wanted to make the building part of the park," said SANAA principal Kazuyo Sejima.

Teaching spaces are sunken below ground. Photo is by Filippo Fortis

Facing inwards to the courtyards, these mesh screens have been swapped for alternating bands of glass and opaque-panelled sections, which extend outwards to create sun-shading eaves.

A cylindrical structure called the Pod forms the entrance to the business school's buildings, where the ground floors have been given over to large lobbies and a public cafe, restaurant and book shop lined with an undulating glass wall.

The campus was designed to become one with the park surroundings

Classrooms and sunken meeting spaces follow the geometry of the buildings, with curving desks and cloud-like arrangements of circular acoustic panels on the ceilings.

The large steel columns that support the concrete slabs of the structure define the edges of these spaces, and have been spaced to avoid disrupting lines of sight across the interiors.

Curved walls create interior courtyards

To the south, the three-storey sports centre contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool in its basement and an upper-level sports court, surrounded by a raised balcony for spectators accessed via spiral staircases.

SANAA's new campus is the latest high-profile architectural project for the University of Bocconi, which is already the site of the 2008 School of Economics building by fellow Pritzker Architecture-prize winning studio Grafton Architects.

The practice recently unveiled plans to reconstruct Moscow's Hexagon Pavilion for the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

Photography is by Philippe Ruault unless stated otherwise. The top image is courtesy of SANAA.

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#education #all #architecture #milan #sanaa #universities #perforatedmetalfacades #perforatedmetal

Wutopia Lab wraps bookstore in perforated facade to mimic clouds

Architecture studio Wutopia Lab has used layers of perforated metal to transform two disused buildings on the banks of Taizhou's Yongning River into a bright and modern bookshop.

Rather than demolishing the existing buildings or attempting to perform "cosmetic surgery" on their cluttered, commercial facades, the studio decided to simply wrap the structures in white aluminium panels.

Duoyun Bookstore's Taizhou outpost (above) features a perforated aluminium facade (top image)

The resulting facade offers varying levels of translucency, revealing traces of the original buildings that now house Chinese retailer Duoyun Bookstore's first outpost outside Shanghai.

"By controlling the perforation rate, the facade creates a cloud of layers hiding the bookstore," explained Wutopia Lab founder and chief architect Yu Ting.

"The continuous white aluminium wall is used as an addition to create a serene and pleasant visual subtraction. A cloud rises over the riverside and the readers of the bookstore are in the cloud."

Undulating cutouts in the facade suggest the shape of clouds

The original plan of the site, which Ting describes as "scattered and unfocused", was reimagined to house a number of small gardens as well as a central courtyard to connect the buildings into a single complex.

In the process, Wutopia Lab had to work around two other, privately owned buildings on the site, using the fence between them to mark out a small front yard and entrance for the bookshop.

The internal courtyard is organised around a central tree

The site's original trees and plants are left intact in the courtyard, surrounded by white pebbles that reference the work of Ming dynasty artist Qiu Ying.

Places for rest are provided by two "cloud stools", one white and one blue, made from recycled marine plastic.

The floor outdoors is lined in white pebbles

Inside, the Duoyun Bookstore is split across two levels and five different colour-coded zones.

The first floor is home to a pink and purple exhibition space and a red stepped lecture theatre as well as a neutral-toned meeting room, all connected to each other via different terraces.

These accommodate a children's play platform, a discussion terrace with a fire pit and a labyrinthian terrace that serves as an outdoor cafe.

Here, the architects installed a blue glasshouse made from a special glass that was developed locally for use in the automotive industry. At the touch of a button, it becomes colourless to reveal views of the Yongning River beyond.

Circular orange booths feature in the cafe on the ground floor

On the ground floor, customers can find a section dedicated to lifestyle books, displayed on a triangular orange stand.

This pays homage to a 1967 installation by South African artist Roelof Louw, in which 6,000 oranges were stacked into a towering pyramid.

Books are displayed on pyramid-shaped stands

The same vibrant orange is also picked up in the children's play area upstairs and in the circular booths of the coffee pavilion, which sits further east near the water.

Following the path through the store on the ground floor, visitors are guided to a cultural and creative zone. This is identified by the petrol-blue colour palette applied to shelving and display fixtures, including a second pyramid-shaped display unit.

Corrugated aluminium panels the ceiling in Duoyun Bookstore's main retail area

This area also houses two different reading rooms as well as the shop's main retail area with a triangular, translucent acrylic cashier counter.

A luminous canopy of corrugated aluminium panels is installed on ceilings throughout this section to recall the surface of the river outside.

Reproductions of rare books are displayed in a wood-panelled stairwell

The first floor can be accessed from the cafe via an orange spiral staircase or a wood-panelled stairwell with an integrated display area for reproductions of rare books.

Wutopia Lab has designed a number of unusual bookstores in recent years, including one that maps out the human psyche and another with a triangular lightwell that pierces through six stories.

Photography is byCreatAR Images.

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Arched openings connect indoor and outdoor spaces in 1960s Spanish holiday home

Perforated steel doors, generous arched openings and terracotta tile floors help to blend the indoor and outdoor spaces within this Spanish holiday home by Barcelona design studio Bajet Giramé.

Owned by three sisters who bought the property with a view to renovating it to use as a summer home, Las 3 Marías is located in a small 1960s residential development in Mont-roig del Camp near the city of Tarragona. It is surrounded by pine forests and rural landscapes.

Top: the interior used sandy hues throughout. Above: a collection of arches envelop the home

Bajet Giramé was initially invited by the owners to renovate the property's garden and bathrooms.

"We started with the garden, by following the idea of 'garden rooms' and questioning a clear distinction between interior and exterior spaces," the studio, headed by Maria Giramé and Pau Bajet, told Dezeen.

"Ultimately, we ended up working on the whole plot, treating both house and garden as a playful matrix of varied interconnected rooms for the sisters' holiday enjoyment."

Interior and exterior spaces were designed to become one

The interior and exterior spaces are designed to merge seamlessly together. Valencian terracotta tiles are used both inside and out while generous archways, powder-coated perforated doors and rectangular folding window frames further blend the interior with its outdoor spaces.

A terrazzo surface made by Mallorcan tile brand Huguet is used in the kitchen, bathrooms, fireplace and in the outdoor kitchen.

A terrazzo kitchen was finished with white cabinetry

In terms of layout, the studio wanted to open the space up to make it more suitable for modern Mediterranean living while celebrating some of the house's original features.

"The houses [in this residential development] were built in the area decades ago to attract local and European tourism," explained Maria Giramé.

"They followed a kind of modest reinterpretation of Mediterranean architecture with white walls, a few arches and ceramic pitch roofs, but they were planned following functionalist housing doctrines including corridors and small bedrooms – and with a marginal relationship between interior and exterior."

Golden bi-folding doors separate the exterior and interior

"In other words, they had little to do with actual vernacular Mediterranean houses, which are based on generous indeterminate chambers opening up to courtyards and gardens through loggias, porches, and so on," said Giramé.

"So, rather than neglecting them, we decided to enhance the almost caricaturist traits of the house – such as its arches and exterior walls – while recovering vernacular qualities such as threshold spatiality and domestic indeterminacy."

The house's original archways, which were used to divide up the patios, have been echoed inside the house to connect the rooms. The house's original closed layout with individual rooms has been opened up to create an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area with a loggia.

An exposed sand-coloured structure frames the space and merges into the matching window frames.

Areas of the original home were incorporated into the new design

The studio also created openings in the house's pre-existing long corridor to better connect it with the living area, and installed generous pivoting doors at either end to provide spatial continuity.

The front door is superimposed with a sliding perforated steel panel that provides security and privacy but also allows fresh air to flow.

It has an outdoor grill

"In this summer house, without air conditioning, it’s never too hot," explained the studio. "Following ordinary construction methods, the existing pitched roof sits on top of a dense matrix of walls which provide a ventilated cavity while increasing greatly thermal inertia."

"This thermal comfort is improved with additional cross ventilation and sun protection. In the garden, hard surfaces have been reduced to increase greenery, aiming to improve atmospheric humidity and perceived ambient comfort."

Arched walls form a pergola around the outdoor spaces

Dezeen has created a round-up of a number of home interiors that feature arched openings – from an Arts and Crafts-inspired Melbourne house to a renovated Barcelona apartment.

Photography is byJosé Hevia.

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#all #interiors #residential #spain #terracotta #holidayhomes #perforatedmetal #bajetgiraméarchitects