Author Archives: DEZzz.ME

Electricity Hangar & Ras al Ain Art Gallery

“Adaptive Reuse of the Old Electricity Company Hangar & The New Ras al Ain Art Gallery Building ” Amman, Jordan
Client: Jabal Amman Residents Association (JARA) & Greater Amman Municipality (GAM).
Year: 2008-2009

299697_229750953753029_507533703_n300148_229750927086365_935614207_n310806_229759023752222_2023013724_n311387_229751030419688_423968161_n313198_229750870419704_1597271036_n316058_229750890419702_1411924064_n319120_229750857086372_196863781_n320735_229767193751405_1579065022_n320735_229767207084737_605670606_n324960_229752793752845_1621100270_o324960_229752800419511_1799524268_o324960_229752807086177_361915287_o324960_229752813752843_1139069777_o334948_229762033751921_56309122_o334948_229762037085254_1270706025_o339714_229759010418890_1577645239_o393798_289550074439783_349838319_n427575_289549907773133_117543387_n324960_229752810419510_1597716732_o332986_229765540418237_1707153472_o330307_229767203751404_1700725387_o334948_229762027085255_2089806302_o396419_289549994439791_382581382_n

Tiger-Stone Paving Machine

Tiger-Stone is a Dutch made paving machine that uses gravity and an electric motor to print stone and brick roads. It is capable of laying 300 square meters (400 yards) of road a day.

Henk van Kuijk, director of Dutch industrial company Vanku, evidently decided that squatting/kneeling and shoving the bricks into place on the ground was just a little too slow, so he invented the Tiger-Stone paving machine. The road-wide device is fed loose bricks, and lays them out onto the road as it slowly moves along. A quick going-over with a tamper, and you’ve got an instant brick road.

One to three human operators stand on the platform of the Tiger Stone, and move loose bricks by hand from its hopper to its sloping “pusher” slot – the bricks do have to be fed into the pusher in the desired finished pattern. From there, gravity causes them to slide together, in one road-wide sheet, down onto the sand.

533873_187527951371731_520713563_ntiger-stone-paving-machine-by-vanku-01tiger-stone-paving-machine-by-vanku-02tiger-stone-paving-machine-by-vanku-03

Grand Park Hotel

Ramallah, Palestine

A contracting agreement between PRICO and Grand Park for the renovation, extension and finishing of the hotel.

Completed in 2011.

This is a six month renovation and extension project for the Grand Park Hotel located in Al-Masyoun area of Ramallah.

Estimated cost US $ 5.5 million.

 

75275_270553933037476_579993588_n154487_270552253037644_809928864_n301791_270554346370768_465598286_n303320_270553973037472_780277118_n398918_270552506370952_611327945_n403558_270551649704371_380072325_n

485646_270554463037423_697641444_n522904_270553726370830_1921383918_n523882_270554079704128_761277545_n525467_270553853037484_2061715814_n533134_270554153037454_1849907995_n548438_270554649704071_664527800_n540051_270554226370780_2094501656_n535676_270551773037692_1160999164_n552003_270552693037600_550254953_n555687_270553236370879_1488112227_n560572_270554746370728_1888894809_n562925_270552856370917_324651094_n564178_270553893037480_1499592643_n575125_270553413037528_895297766_n578425_270553596370843_964039651_n581229_270552373037632_1444384524_n580590_270554559704080_1181823359_n579073_270553786370824_1030745196_n

399067_274814235944779_519794890_n546420_274811722611697_819865287_n574846_274811305945072_263296049_n577711_274811992611670_190980424_n

Islamic Architecture

Gallery
Info
1 Comment

Alternative Social Housing: Prefab, Add-On Homes to Densify Suburbs

As masses of people get out of poverty in developing countries, they are also getting out of slums (sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically). But as social housing is built in vacant lots in the outskirts of urban centers, it presents all the problems of suburban sprawl.

Argentine architects Adamo Faiden have created a concept which adds an interesting, controversial spin to the conversation. What if, instead of building new houses on virgin ground, we added prefabricated units on top of existing homes?


© Adamo-Faiden


© Adamo-Faiden

Before asking why in the world would someone want to sell their rooftop to another family, it’s good to note the architects came up with the concept by considering biological mutualism: those cases in which two species have a symbiotic relationship which benefits each other.

Thus, they expose some situations in which they believe this could work: a small business owner who has had the same employee for years and could benefit from such person being closer to work and looking after the shop when closed, a young family who could benefit from having a single mother living above and helping with child-care, an elder couple who could use the liveliness of a new family when their own children have left the house.


© Adamo-Faiden

Apart from decreasing the impact of social housing building in new environments and improving neighborhoods economies with densification, the add-on houses would prevent the ghetto-effect that new housing complexes usually create.

Pre-fabricated with a steel framing structure, MuReRe houses are extremely light, fast to deploy, and adaptable. Once installed, they become new infrastructure for the house underneath: for example, allowing rainwater collection and the installation of solar panels with their pending roof. (It’s important to note that the predominant architecture in Argentine-cities’ suburbs is the concrete box, with flat rooftop.)


© Adamo-Faiden

The architects accept that the project is not an alternative city model, but more of an intermediate solution: even duplicating the existing density, the houses wouldn’t be enough to reach the optimal parameters of a sustainable city. However, they could bring about improvements in very short periods of time.


© Adamo-Faiden

What do you guys think of this idea?

John Lennon – Imagine

 

 

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum / Ateliers Jean Nouvel

 

The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, aims at creating a welcoming world which associates lights and shadows as well as shimmers and calm places in a serene atmosphere. Its objective is to belong to its country, to its history, to its geography, avoiding being either a dull translation of this reality or a pleonasm meaning boredom and convention. It also aims at emphasizing the fascination generated by rare encounters. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Every climate likes exceptions. Warmer when the weather is cold, cooler in the tropics. Men have a bad resistance to thermal shocks, as do works of art. The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum was influenced by such basic observations. It is rather unusual to find a built archipelago in the sea; it is even more uncommon to see that it is protected by a parasol flooded with a rain of lights.

It is not evident to access a museum by boat, or to find pontoons to reach it on foot from the coast, before being welcomed like a much-awaited visitor willing to see unique collections, to consult books in the tempting bookstores, or to stay longer and enjoy the teas, coffees, and local gastronomy. It is both a calm and complex place which clearly stands out in a series of museums that make a point of maintaining their differences and their authenticities.

The project is based on one of the major symbols of Arabic architecture: the Cupola. But here, it is a modern proposal made evident by its obvious gap with tradition. The dome is doubled and flat with a 180-meter diameter, offering a perfect luminous geometry drilled in a more random weaved material which creates a shadow punctuated with sun bursts. It shines in the sun of Abu Dhabi. At night, the protected landscape turns into a haven of light under a star-spangled cupola.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi becomes the final destination of an urban promenade, a garden on the coast, and a fresh refuge. A shelter of light in the daytime, it aesthetically takes on at night its function of sanc

tuary for the most valuable works of art.

Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Text: Jean Nouvel

Casablanca Sustainable Market Square by TomDavid Architecten

Casablanca Sustainable Market Square

Context

The site is situated right next to the Medina and in consequence interwoven with the indispensable social and economic structures of the Old City. Both legal and illegal markets dominate the streetscape and are vital to the local economy. The downside of this density of commercial street business is the pollution and the decay of the public space. The design will have to serve as an example on how to improve the practical aspects of the market but leaving the existing social economic structures intact.

Concept

We combine indigenous techniques for shelter and heat control, the accountability of it’s residence and innovative low-maintenance materials. In this way, we create an efficient and pragmatic icon for the next generation market which serves as a catalyst for improvement.

Design

The shape of the canopy refers to nature, providing shade and shelter like a tree. The overlapping of the canopy-leaves ensures the cascading drain of the rainwater and allows air circulation. The curved concrete forms of the design are both a tribute to modern Casablanca architecture from the 50s and an endorsement of the beauty of the female form, as a nod to the dominant male culture on the street.

Sustainability / Positive development

How to define sustainability in the broader context of the reality of Casablanca? Besides solely as a design-tool, in this case sustainability should be a societal journey. This journey brought about by acquiring new awareness and perceptions, by generating new solutions, activating new behavioural patterns and, hence, cultural change. This process must be seen as a positive development under the responsibility of the local residents to increase economic, social and ecological capital.

In our design proposal therefore, our sustainable contribution is twofold. First by using low-tech techniques to collect and reuse rainwater to flush the toilets, clean the market-floor and applying evaporate cooling by using the heat of the sun and the wind to freshen the air under the roof. Second, to be sure sustainability will be a collective agenda, negative environmental impact must be eliminated. By implementing a refuse and waste handling system for the market and using low-maintenance materials, liveability and durability will be improved.

 

All entries here: http://www.ac-ca.org/en/casablanca05winners

Didden Village / MVRDV

Architects: MVRDV
Project location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Date: 2002-2006
Client: Didden Family
Program: 45 sqm extension private residence and 120 sqm terrace

 

source: http://www.mvrdv.nl

 

Eifini / SAKO Architects

Architects: SAKO Architects / Keiichiro SAKO, Ken-ichi KURIMOTO, Liang JU
Location: Chengdu, 
Lighting Design: Masahide Kakudate Lighting Architect & Associates,Inc.
Building area: 160 sqm
Budget: US $25,000
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Misae Hiromatsu

“Building for Social Change”

 

ARCHITECT: Elisa Marin and Manfred Barboza.

BUDGET: $8,000 per classroom, including furnishings.

CONTEXT: The town of Shiroles lies in the Costa Rican county of Talamanca. Much of Shiroles consists of reservations for the country’s indigenous peoples. The school serves the youth of these low-income agricultural communities.