Catalonia’s National Theatre, known by the abbreviation TNC, is a public theatre located in the Plaça de les Arts, near Plaça de Glòries, in Barcelona. It is one of the city’s most prestigious buildings and one of the most important cultural institutions in Catalonia.
As the post-pandemic generation of the workplace takes shape, office comfort is fast becoming its main selling point. But that can’t just mean big, comfy ‘working’ sofas and a few scatter cushions. With the hybrid options of home, office, or third space on the table, the majority of employees still choose to spend a large proportion of their working time together, benefitting from the community feeling and creative atmosphere, but most of all the professional working environment and interior. So while comfortably cozy spaces help them feel at home, the traditional set-up with individual desks and chairs for quiet focus, can’t be underestimated
On January 21, 1958, three women sat down as contestants for an episode of the popular television show “To Tell the Truth”, a quiz game in which a panel tries to guess which of the three contestants is who they say they are by asking them a series of questions. The announcer reveals the true identity of the person is a registered architect, has so far designed a Hilton hotel, and is a married mother of four. Each of the women, dressed formally in pencil skirts and blouses, introduces themselves as Natalie De Blois. As the panelists reveal their lack of knowledge about architecture, only firing off questions about Frank Lloyd Wright, one asks “What is the name of the building that was torn down to build Union Carbide?” The real Natalie De Blois, at the time a senior designer at SOM, firmly answers, “Hotel Margery.”
Most architects design projects in the comfort of their offices, sitting behind their desks, making decisions by looking at their flatscreens, never visiting a construction site, and managing everything remotely. This attitude may lead to a design of a sleek and even objectively beautiful building. But such a solution can’t be anywhere near a genuine response to what any given site may require. How do you even find out? Is it possible to build something new as if it were an extension of what is already there in the most innate, consequential, yet original form? The only way to find out is to start from the site itself, says Vinu Daniel, the founder of Wallmakers, an award-winning architectural practice in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Soiva – meaning resonant or musical – is a building for making music. It houses two music schools teaching rhythmic and classical music. The institutions provide playschool for children and education for amateurs and professional students ranging from instrumental and vocal music to music technology and production.
The University of Melbourne – End of Trip facilities are part of the recent transformation of the Southbank Campus, home to the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Located between the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, bounded by a new Linear Park, the project is a unique part of an educational precinct that combines world-class contemporary architecture with long-standing Melbourne heritage architecture.
Hangzhou Damei creative park is located in the north of Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art（CAA）, it backed by the rolling Longwu tea mountain. It is a gathering place of many cultural companies. One year later, our studio realized its second design here – Yitang Music Hub. The construction of the two projects (Front Hall of Tianmei Theater and Yitang Music Hub) caught up with the hottest months in Hangzhou. We received the Commission for the design project of Yitang Music Hub at the end of April this year（2022）. Because the owner hopes to open it in mid-July, we only have one month for design and one and a half months for construction. Admittedly, the high temperature and short cycle put a lot of pressure on us, but in Hangzhou, there is a rule that the worse the weather, the better the sky. Therefore, when I went to the site, I saw the most beautiful sunset and tea mountain in Hangzhou in July.
Project background
As a pilot area for the network integration of rail transit, bus and slow traffic system proposed by Shenzhen Municipal Government, the “Three Pavilions and One City” area in Longgang stipulates that the major developers must plan and implement the “Tri-Network Integration” transportation system within the scope of 0.8 square kilometers through the restriction of land development conditions. FCHA collaborates with Vanke Urban Research Institute to plan, design and implement the system, a total of 9 overpasses and weatherproof corridors along the street are set up in the central urban area of Longgang, connecting subway stations, bus stations, businesses and residential areas, which has the originally isolated and closed urban functional groups connected together in a three-dimensional way, which realizes the all-weather three-dimensional and convenient traffic network.
The site is located at a corner of an intersection on Sharosu-gil where both narrow alleys and wide roads meet. Because of the law enacted to secure better sight at intersections, the building was built to have a plan type with a cut corner, which serves as the front of the building from the main road and creates a distorted pentagonal plane. We began our design with this cut-corner floor plan.
Meeting with the client – In June 2021, the client suddenly visited our company without reservation. The first thing he said to us was that he wanted to build a detached house but build it well. That’s what most architects say. Who wouldn’t want to make it well? In the architecture market of distrust, we feel sorry for the client, saying, ‘I won’t be fooled.’ The client, who returned after asking some questions, didn’t contact us for a long time as we expected. Finally, after about a month, the client revisited us and said, “I was torn between low design costs and local builders’ houses, but now I want to stop thinking about it and want to be with us”….
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