Updated perspectives and diagrams the villa in Stabekk.

Today we have submitted a revised concept design for the Villa in stabekk to the client. Changes from the original scheme were mostly minor adjustments requested by the client. These include a new sunken outdoor terrace, split level living room, adjustment of room sizes, and inclusion of a library attached to the second floor apartment.

Prior to planning approval of the house, the  site boundary between the existing and new site needs adjustment. The appropriate forms have been sent to the planning department. Schematic design to commence in late September.

The Mobile Performance Venue has qualified for the final round of the Spark Awards.

The Spark Awards is a multi-discpiplinary design award for architecture, product design, graphic design, and interaction design. The Arts Alliance Mobile Performance Venue has been selected as a finalist «challenger» in the temporary architecture category. The complete list of challengers will be announced on August 26’th. Visit the Spark Online Gallery of entries to see our competition.

Final layout materials must be sent to San Francisco for Phase II judging on Sept 8. Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Spark Exhibition Premiere announced on October 3, 2008.

 

The Arts Alliance Mobile Performance Venue was featured in a two-page article today in the norwegian newspaper VG (Verdens Gang).

The article, written by journalist Lars Elton, begins «Henrik Ibsen, an architecture background from Snøhetta, and the british Oscar-winner Vanessa Redgrave are ingredients in a story about stunning architecture and norwegian financed cultural innovation»

Elton goes on to present the concept behind the performance ID – Identity of the Soul and to tell about the design of the building. Martine Rød from Arts Alliance is quoted as saying «Performance arenas are often so ugly. This will be a beautiful building which will be noticed and give the public a positive experience».

Tragically the poet Mahmoud Darwish died last saturday during a heart operation. His poem «A Soldier Dreams of White Lillies» is the basis of the second half of the ID performance.

In other news, the MPV has already appeared in Building magazine and Iidea. It will also be featured in Architectural Record, Surface, A10, Viewpoint, Baumeister, Archistorm, Design Interiør, and several others. Various Architects have also been selected to be included in the upcoming book «Famous Architects 2008» by Hong Kong RIHAN publishers.

 

«Grizzled» refers to the first line of Henrik Ibsen’s Terje Vigen – «There dwelt a lone man, grizzled and wierd, On the bare isle furthest out». Complete poem text HERE in 13 languages.

Included above is the group photo of us they didn’t have room to publish with the article.

The Mobile Performance Venue has been featured on design blogs worldwide.

Wednesday of last week the Arts Alliance Mobile Performance Venue project was picked up byDeZeen.com and has since been featured at many others, such as World Architecture News,Designboom, and ArchDaily. Green design blog Inhabitat.com has a well written article that focuses on the sustainable aspects of the project while also complimenting it’s «stunning» design. Other blogs in Chinese, Dutch, Hungarian, Spanish, and Japanese have also featured the project in their languages. The articles and comments so far have been very positive and our webpage has seen over 2000 new visitors in the last few days.

Magazines from Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, England, UAE and the US have also been in contact with us, so we are looking forward to seeing the project published on glossy paper soon as well.

Download our official project press release HERE.

Various Architects advance to phase two!

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has published the shortlist of the design contest for a sound barrier, to be built west of Runway 18R-36L (Polderbaan). The barrier must present an innovative solution for the complex problem of ground noise in Hoofddorp-Noord produced by aircraft taking off from Runway 18R-36L.

Design agencies, businesses, educational institutions and individuals had until 5 June to submit a rough plan for the design. In total ninety-seven designs were submitted. From these submissions the jury, headed by Mr. Gerlach Cerfontaine, CEO& President of Schiphol Group, selected the best for each category. The designs on the shortlist are (in alphabetical order):

Category 1: Educational Institutions and individuals

Design “Ecobarrier” by Mr. A.N.J.M. van Goethem (NL)

Design “Slangenfiguur” by Mr. A.P.H.W. Habraken (NL)

Design “WAVES” by Mr. Ir. E.A. Hermans (NL)

Category 2: Design agencies

Design “Dobber” by Brandes en Meurs industrial design bv (NL)

Design “M.A.S.H.” by SPF:architects (USA)

Design “Silent Blue” by the participants combination:

KOW Groep B.V. (NL)

LeVel Acoustics B.V. (NL)

Studiodd (NL)

Bouwhaven Consultants B.V. (NL)

Fabrique Public Design B.V. (NL)

Category 3: Businesses

Design “Dynamic Sculpture” by the participants combination:

Ramboll Whitbybird Ltd. (UK)

Various Architects AS (NO)

Pivot Produktdesign (NO)

Brekke & Strand Akustik AS (NO)

Bioforsk Jord og Miljø, Public Research Institute (NO)

Ramboll Danmark A/S (DK)

Gruppen för urban landskaporganisation AB (SE)

Design“Elevation” by the participants combination:

Dura Vermeer Groep NV (NL)

Arup BV (NL)

ONL (Oosterhuis_Lénárd) BV (NL)

Design “Verdedigingslinies“ by BAM Wegen bv (NL)

These participants will be invited to develop their rough plan into a preliminary design. The panel of judges will select a winner for each category. The winning design will be selected from these designs in January 2009.

Actual designs will not be published here or elsewhere until after the jury announcement in January.

Various Architect’s Mobile Performance Venue is featured on Pushpullbar.com

The members of the architecture and design forum Pushpullbar.com have ranked our Mobile Performance Venue as 5-star project, their highest rating. The project has also been given a featured spot on the front page as a «Shot of the Day». We’d like to thank the forum members for their positive response and insightful comments.

Jim has been a member and active contributor at Pushpullbar for the last two years. Pieces of the design process of the MPV can be seen in several threads there. Various Architect’s Cheongna City Tower competition entry has also earned a 5-star rating at Pushpullbar.com in this thread.

A 3D laser scan of the existing building has been produced to aid us in the preservation and restoration of the building facades.

GeoSurvey AS has painstakingly scanned the facades of the historic corner building with a Leica Scanstation 2 scanner. The resulting point cloud of data contains millions of points with an average density of 1 point / 10 mm. This data will be transformed into a usable 3D model consisting of polygonal faces which can be used as a reference for restoration or eventual reconstruction of the facades.

The model in the above images has been reduced to only 45,000 points as an example.

1:250 Architectural drawings from our schematic design presentation.

Drawing list:

A100 – Roof plan

A101 – Ground floor plan

A102 – Mezzanine plan

A201 – Sections

A301 – Long elevations

A302 – Short elevations

A squence of images showing the main elements of the project.

1 – A modular flooring system forms the base of the project to level uneven sites and spread foundation loads. Structural elements of lightweight steel and aluminium form a stiff inner core for the project. All elements can be broken down for transport in standard shipping containers.

2 – The structure is covered by fabric to create an enclosing volume around the performance space. Service functions are carved out of the volume and the upper mezzanine can be used as exhibition or catering space. The five 12 x 7 meter screens are visible on the interior.

3 – Lightweight aluminum portals add horizontal stability and brace the self-supporting inflatable skin.

4 – The exterior skin is made of white inflatable tubes of PVC coated fabric with translucent inflated ‘cushions’ inbetween. The skin is inflated by a controlled bank of fans that monitor and maintain air pressure.

5 – An optional covering for the performance space is created by a 4 meter tall ring beam of varying width. Pairs of cables support an inner tension ring much like a bicycle wheel. A fabric roof is attached to the underside and an optional inflatable cover can be used if weather requires.

Various Architects delivered our schematic design report to the client yesterday at their rehersal studio in London.

Six months of design work have culminated in a dynamic and unique project for the Arts Alliance Mobile Performance Venue. The current design includes 3800m2 of space in a structure that measures 90 x 36 meters making it the largest mobile venue in the world. The covered performance space is designed around the Identity of the Soul performance on five 12 x 7 meter HD video projection screens, but it can also be used for concerts and other live performances. The 2000m2 performance space has a standing capacity of up to 4000 people.

Great care has been taken to reduce the structure to a minimum and a unique inflatable skin (see mock-up) has been proposed to create the front and back-of-house areas. The entire structure can be erected in only two weeks and dismantled again for shipping to the next location in only one week. The unique and ultra lightweight ‘bicycle-wheel’ roof has a free span of 70 x 36 meters.

For maximum flexibility a modular structure makes it possible to build the venue in a number of sizes and configurations, with and without the roof. For outdoor arrangements or festivals it is possible to erect only the back-of-house and screens, with a full-size live stage plus 4 large screens, or multiple live stages.

The images included with this post show the performance venue in a number of well known sites worldwide. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing more detailed information and drawings of the project.

First client presentation of our design for their new two-family house.

 

The design for the house consists of two C shaped volumes floating over each other and the terrain. Each household is represented by a distinct volume. The central stairwell gives access to all levels, from the garage in the basement to the roof terrace. Visitor’s entrance for both houses is from the stairwell and walkway out front. Bedrooms and bathrooms are placed in the northern corner of the site away from the street, whereas the taller and more open living spaces face south towards the views and sun.

 

Rapid prototyping print of the Cheongna 3D model.

We might not have won the competition, but we did manage to «build» our tower design anyway (at a slightly smaller scale). John Harding of Ramboll Whitby-Bird printed the model and photographed it in their London offices. We’ll be printing it’s twin here in Oslo soon.