MUSÉE DES CONFLUENCES

 

On 20 December 2014, the futuristic Musée des Confluences opened in the French city of Lyon. This science centre will shed light on questions concerning future society and the interplay of the natural and social sciences. The museum was built on a headland at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône: hence the name of the museum. 

Architect: Wolf D. Prix / Coop Himmelb(l)au
Location: 86, quai Perrache, Lyon 69002, France

Photo: Karin Jobst

This special location is also reflected in the long, triangular shape of the building. The museum, which was erected on supports, rises above a plot of land measuring around 21,000 m². With dimensions of 180 metres in length, 90 metres in width and up to 37 metres in height, the building offers about 30,000 m² of usable space and a gross floor space of about 46,000 m². Visitors can meander, like a river, among both closed-off and open exhibition spaces and can access new currents of knowledge by means of countless passages, ramps and levels.

The steel-and-glass façade of the city’s new trademark was constructed by the German company Josef Gartner GmbH. The complex shape of the building, designed by the Viennese architects surrounding Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au, consists of a crystal and a cloud. In order to build such free architectural shapes, Gartner’s engineers had to overcome several statics-related and structural problems and develop entirely new solutions. 

Photo: Karin Jobst

The architects and Gartner engineers worked together to make a 30-metre-high funnel of steel and glass for the entryway and optimize the nodes of the steel construction. Using a 3D computer model, every single one of the 160 nodes was individually designed, into each of which six steel struts made of rectangular hollow profiles flow together. The direction and axis of each splice plate were determined for each node at the computer; this enabled both the correct cutting of the hollow profiles and a more elegant design for the nodes themselves.

Photo: Karin Jobst

The 30-metre-high funnel required the manufacture of spherically formed panes, which pushed the designers to the edge of what is technically possible. Until now, curvatures with radii of under 500 millimetres existed only for the cockpit windows of jet planes. The museum’s extra-large panes, which have an edge length of up to 4.5 metres, underwent a complex manufacturing process and were curved while warm in order to achieve the desired shape. Only then could the edges be sanded to the exact measurements so they would fit to the millimetre. 

Photo: Karin Jobst

The steel construction of the ‘crystal’ in the entrance area comprises 32 differently inclined surfaces which Gartner created from about 650 tonnes of steel. In order to avoid gaping joints in the complex geometry, parts of the primary and secondary steel structure were connected with screws inserted in profile. The upper plate was set back a few millimetres before being welded to the pipe. The steel components are force-locked so that the high pressure will be transferred only over the wall of the pipe. A strictly controlled prestress sequence ensures a homogeneous distribution of tension at the junction points in a cross-section of pipe. After painting the pipe walls, these joints are no longer visible on the completed structure.

Photo: Karin Jobst

Furthermore, Gartner developed a new technique for connection and assembly: rods with two-sided ball joints which balance out installation tolerances in all directions. Many trips with special transport were required to get the building components from Gundelfingen an der Donau to the construction site: the largest steel pieces were up to 4.5 metres wide and 20 metres long.

Reference : www.detail-online.com/architecture/topics/crystal-and-cloud-musee-des-confluences-by-coop-himmelblau-024549

Albi Grand Theater

Albi GrandTheater / Dominique Perrault Architecture 

 

© Georges Fessy

Architects: Dominique Perrault Architecture
Location: Grand Théâtre, 81000 Albi, France
Area: 34000.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Georges Fessy, Vincent Boutin



Local Architect: Christian Astruc Architects
Structure: VP GREEN
Mechanical Engineering: ETCO
Economist: RPO
Scenograph: Changement à vue
Acoustics: Jean-Paul Lamoureux

© Vincent Boutin

From the architect. The Albi Grand Theatre is going to transform the texture of the city as well as its cultural influence.

This building appears as an outstanding architectural symbol, on the outskirts of the historic

 centre.

© Vincent Boutin

We have given priority to the presence of the Grand Theatre instead of the cinemas, in order to organize around it a network of public spaces and of cultural facilities. The Grand Theatre will be its centre.Site Plan

Along the Alley of Culture, different public spaces will follow one another, punctuating a walkway going from the cathedral to the Rochegude big public park. This path begins with the creation of a square at the level of the Sibille Boulevard, then arrives on the theatre place, and continues on the cinemas place in front of the Athanor, to finally open onto the public garden. That’s the idea of an « urban walkway » animated by the succession, the juxtaposition and the interaction of several cultural buildings.

© Georges Fessy

We chose to clearly identify those different buildings with places which give them an address in the city. Therefore, the preserved Athanor building is modified to create the entrance of the cinemas. It becomes the visible part of this « iceberg », offering a big lobby, with maybe some shops and a café at the square level. In the basements, we find all the screening rooms. So the base of the theatre place is totally occupied by the cinematographic complex. This layout allows us to liberate all the public space and to open it generously to the urban activity and the population.

Ground Floor Plan

The very simple geometry of the theatre allows a setting up along the Général de Gaulle Avenue, in an attempt of urban continuity and proximity with the multimedia library, generating two more or less triangular places on the side of the “cultural alley”. Those two public spaces, new in this urban infrastructure, are laid around the theatre: one is opened towards the historic centre and the other towards the neighbourhood.

We searched a compact volume which allows the theatre‘s dimension to fit for the best into its urban surrounding. We also searched some functional, simple, direct and immediate principles, especially for the access, by the public space, of the trucks, on the same level than the stage and the backstage.

© Georges Fessy

It doesn't necessarily means that this back side of the theatre is « dead », because upstairs we can find the boxes and the administration, and above the experimental room. So, the four sides of the prism are opened and inhabited.

Of course, the only opening on the theatre place is fully glazed like a big window towards the city, welcoming all the lobbies, the galleries, the balconies and the big auditorium.

© Vincent Boutin

From this transparent volume, we’ll reach the experimental room on one hand and on the other hand the roof-terrace, where will be set up the hanging garden and its restaurant. From this height, we’ll have an open view on the outline of the city of Albi and on the surrounding landscape.

The building is made of concrete, covered with bricks. We will use this material for the outside as much as the inside, for the floors as much as the walls and the ceilings, to create a mono material architecture.

Section 2

To the solidity of the brick, we oppose a smooth and lightweight cover, which will dress up the prism of the theatre. This cover of metal mesh, red copper coloured, which doesn’t rust, like clothing, will take on the verticality of the building on two sides, and will take away from it on the other sides, to open like a big drop cloth on the theatre place and the cinemas one.

© Georges Fessy

The curves and counter curves required for this static mesh create a free, happy and lyric architecture. We’ll also see there the metaphor of the drop cloth or the evocation of an opera stage design.

© Georges Fessy

But most of all we’ll find there some brilliance, reflection, colour, which reminds an architecture « dressed in a bright light ».

This metallic woven skin, as a lace, is going to protect the functions of the theatre without separating them from the functions of the city. It’s going to filter the light and to break the wind and the rain.

© Georges Fessy

This big ornament has some sustainable qualities. The mesh will adjust to the spaces and the uses that it covers. It will be possible to weave it larger to offer some views from inside to outside or tighter on other parts, to hide some structural walls, or to filter, like a sun break, the light in the big foyers.

© Vincent Boutin

This tight veil will clear up some big arks at the public spaces level, to let the visitors and spectators come in, and then will rise up in the sky over the built volume to create an immaterial figure coming up in the landscape from the roofs of the city of Albi.

Axonometric Third Floor Plan

As a conclusion, the measures that will be taken are:

- The use of the basement to inset there some car parks and movie theatre,

- The qualification at the ground level of public spaces dedicated to each cultural building,

- The search of simplicity and compactness, offering an efficient, flexible and economic theatrical instrument.

Reference : http://www.archdaily.com/563798/albi-grand-theater-dominique-perrault-architecture/

Aspen Art Museum

1. ASPEN ART MUSEUM

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3. ASPEN ART MUSEUM (AAM)  Aspen, Colorado

4. Architects: Shigeru Ban Architects
   Location: 637 East Hyman Avenue, Aspen, CO 81611, USA
   Area: 33000.0 ft2
   Year: 2014
   Photographs: Michael Moran / OTTO, Derek Skalko
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From the architect. Located on the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue in Aspen’s downtown core, the new AAM is Shigeru Ban’s first permanent U.S. museum to be constructed. Ban’s vision for the new AAM is based on transparency and open view planes—inviting those outside to engage with the building’s interior, and providing those inside the opportunity to see their exterior surroundings.

The main entrance is located on the north side of the building along East Hyman Avenue, which allows access to the reception area and two ground-floor galleries. From there, visitors may choose their path through museum spaces—ascending to upper levels either via Ban’s Moving Room glass elevator in the northeast corner, or the Grand Stair on the east side. The Grand Stair—a three-level passageway between the building’s woven exterior screen and its interior structure—is intersected by a glass wall dividing it into a ten-foot-wide exterior space and a six-foot-wide interior space. The unique passage allows for the natural blending of outdoor and indoor spaces, and will also feature mobile pedestals for exhibiting art. The exterior Woven Wood Screen is made of the composite material Prodema—an amalgam of paper and resin encased within a dual-sided wood veneer.

From the roof-deck sculpture garden, visitors will enjoy unparalleled vistas of Aspen’s environment and the only unobstructed public rooftop view of Ajax Mountain. The roof deck will also be an activated exhibition and event space featuring the café, So, a bar, and an outdoor screening space.

Other new AAM amenities include an education space, the AAM shop/bookstore, and an on-site artist apartment, as well as art storage and preparation spaces. The AAM Shop is collaborating with New York’s iconic nonprofit art bookseller Printed Matter to feature artist-produced titles alongside its own AAM imprint publications, as well as featuring a number of unique and collectible artist-edition offerings.

The Building Project

In recent years, the AAM’s annual attendance has increased by 110%, its staff tripled, and the institution has seen the number of students served by museum educational programming skyrocket with a 1,140% increase. A longstanding strategic goal for the AAM—the expansion of its facility and relocation to the downtown Aspen core—became a necessity.

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In 2007, the AAM appointed an Architect Selection Committee (which included ASC chair and then-acting Secretary of AAM’s Board of Trustees, the late Frances Dittmer; 2007 AAM Board of Trustees President Nancy Magoon and AAM Board members Larry Marx and Gayle Stoffel; and AAM National Council members Stefan T. Edlis and Diane Halle), who unanimously selected Shigeru Ban (Shigeru Ban Architects) for the project.

In August 2010, the AAM moved forward with the acquisition of property at the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue. A groundbreaking event was held on the new site on “Aspen’s Day” 8/16/11, and construction began in October 2012, with international construction team Turner Construction in the leading role, and a goal of completion established for summer 2014.

Construction of the new AAM facility and its endowment is 100% privately funded, with overall Capital and Endowment pledges of nearly $70 million raised—$45 million in building project funds and $25 million for the museum’s endowment.

References : http://www.archdaily.com/546446/aspen-art-museum-shigeru-ban-architects/