Top-Up in Amsterdam by Frantzen et al
In the former industrial harbour of Buiksloterham in Amsterdam, a seven-storey timber-concrete hybrid residential building was built on the walls of a former cable warehouse. The living levels can be freely configured by the users.
Natural Building Materials S, M, L
„Naturbaustoffe S, M, L - Natural Building Materials S, M, L" shows 30 pioneering buildings of climate-friendly architecture - constructed from natural materials and in the sizes "small" to "large".
Pioneers of Timber Construction: Hermann Kaufmann Architekten
Hermann Kaufmann and his Vorarlberg team are great proponents of the multistorey wooden building. This new monograph documents their most compelling structures and reveals background information.
Bird Protection on Glass Facades
Birds do not recognise transparent or reflective glass panes as a source of danger - with often fatal consequences. Suitable glass can mitigate this risk while providing high transparency and aesthetically pleasing design options.
Soundproofing for Transparent Architecture
Constant noise causes stress and can have a negative impact on health. Consequently, in busy and densely built-up areas, special attention must be paid to the correct sound insulation of windows and glazing.
Systems of Room Acoustics
An important parameter of space planning is acoustic comfort. Depending on use and requirements, various systems are available here.
Report: Arts and Sciences Centre
With its new arts and sciences centre, Mario Cucinella Architects have enriched the Golinelli Foundation’s cultural and educational institute in Bologna.
School Conversion in Lisbon
Paço de Arcos, on the coast of Portugal west of Lisbon, has transformed itself over the past decades from a fishing village to a dormitory town built into the hillside. The layout of the school complex - consisting of individual atrium structures - and the rough concrete facades recall a type of school architecture that was common in Portugal in the 1980s. Even today, after its refurbishment and extension, the development makes no reference to the multistorey housing blocks and individual villas in the area. The architectural measures were focused on reorganizing the school grounds and unifying the extensive terraced volume.
House in Tokyo
What at first sight looks like a concrete skeleton frame is in fact an encased steel structure. This provides a certain flexibility, for plans exist to widen the adjoining road in 2025, and it will be possible to dismantle the steel stairs, prefabricated floors and skeleton-frame modules and re-erect them on the side. Built according to the traditional Japanese “ma” concept, the different spaces and voids form a unity. The ground floor and the split-level first floor each contain one rental unit, while the upper floors are where the owners live. Flowing boundaries exist between private and public realms, the owners’ dwelling and the rented areas. The house profits from its many spatial links and visual axes.
Administrative Building in Futtsu
Rising against the backdrop of a production and storage hall, the seemingly weightless roof of this administrative pavilion of a steel construction firm consists on the underside of inverted pyramids of 6 mm thick preoxidized steel – a reference to the dune-like surrounding landscape. Erected in 2016 near Tokyo Bay, the building has a steel-frame structure that reflects the identity of the concern. In contrast to the enclosed hall, the pavilion is smaller in scale and glazed on three faces. To the north-east it is closed off by a service tract clad with dark trapezoidal-section metal sheeting, while the light-coloured internal surfaces reflect the white metal facade of the hall. The steel-frame roof structure of the pavilion consists of wide-flange beams and is based on an irregular grid with five different axial dimensions. Slender hollow-section columns bear the loads at the nodes. The pyramidal elements are of different sizes, but always of the same height, and form a planar space frame. The ceiling grid corresponds to the spatial layout. The void within the roof houses warm- and cold-air runs and acts as a thermal buffer.
