Over a construction period of two years, Bangor University is hoping to incorporate a 500+ seat theatre, a rehearsal studio, teaching rooms, a cinema and an outdoor amphitheatre, alongside social spaces such as a new Student Union, bars, cafes and restaurants.
Beating strong contesters Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Dominique Perrault Architecture, 3xN, Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects and Gottlieb Paludan Architects to the punch, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been selected by a unanimous jury panel as the winner of an international competition to replace the 40 year old industrial Amagerforbraending plant in Copenhagen.
The Waste-to-Energy plant has been deemed an ‘exemplary model in the field of waste management and energy production’, spanning 95,000 sq m and boasting the latest technologies in waste treatment and environmental performance. BIG has encouraged an active relationship between the new plant and the public by exploiting vacant roof space as a 31,000 sq m ski slope.
Director of Amagerforbraending, Ulla Röttger, explains: “BIG’s proposal contributes to the city with something useful and beautiful. We see this creating a lot of opportunities and with this unique building we can brand the Danish knowledge and technology to show the world our abilities within the environment and energy issues.”
Visitors to the facility access the rooftop slopes via a lift along the plant’s smokestack which allows a glimpse into the internal activities of the plant. Traditionally viewed as a symbol of the industrial era, the smokestack has been transformed into an educational tool; every time one tonne of fossil CO2 is released, the smokestack discharges a 30m smoke ring into the air ‘as a gentle reminder of the impact of consumption and a measuring stick that will allow the common Copenhagener to grasp the CO2 emission in a straightforward way’. When darkness falls, heat tracking lights continue to illuminate these smoke rings.
Soft pastel shades of pink, yellow and green punctuate the monochrome cladding, with particular sections such as the 'matkuben' (dining cube) protruding from the core of the building in the form of glass cubes sealed in a steel frame. On the top floor of the building, a conference room and outdoor terrace are enclosed in a long bridge of the truss plant-steel construction, from which users are afforded a 270 degree view over the surrounding wooded landscape.
Within the generous entrance hall is located a large staircase, framed by high, painted steel walls decorated in a specific pattern resembling the white glow from welding. The entrance flooring is composed of black ceramic tiles in three differing sizes, extending outside in a welcoming gesture to visitors and employees alike.
The tower's 17 above-ground levels, each turned a few degrees on their axis, allow all 58 apartments spectacular views over the harbour and the city. Apartments are between 60 and 340 sq m in area. Generous perimeter terraces and balconies extend the living areas out into a soft play of lines, and lend the tower its distinctive sculptural image. External variations in appearance are reflected in the interiors, in that no level, or apartment, is quite like any other. Load-bearing structural elements and necessary fixed services have all been reduced as much as possible, so that the residents themselves can decide where they want to sleep, cook, eat, bathe or relax. On entering the apartment one has an uninterrupted view over an open plan living room landscape, through generously sized glass panels, to the outside world and Hamburg's roofscape.
The apartments are sold design-ready. Clients can design their new home, with the help of an interior architect, according to their own taste. The concept for residential spaces proposed by the Behnisch Architekten emphasises natural light and views. The Marco Polo Tower brings together high-class living accommodation and a holistic ecological building concept. The recessed façades are protected from direct sun by the overhanging terraces above so that additional sunshades are not necessary. Vacuum collectors on the roof, using a heat exchanger, turn heat into a cooling system for the apartments. Innovative sound insulated air louvres in the sleeping areas make natural ventilation possible without increased noise pollution from outside.
Architect Pedro Sousa has been awarded first prize in an international competition entitled ‘A House in Luanda: Patio and Pavilion’. Launched by Lisbon Architecture Triennale and promoted in collaboration with the Luanda Triennale, the brief challenged architects and designers to compose an inexpensive family unit with external patio suitable for a family of 7-9 individuals.
Aimed at severely deprived families in Luanda, the scheme aims to incorporate ‘evolutionary solutions, and possibly self-construction, which are therefore adapted to the speed of transformation of the social fabric of Angola and Luanda’. A jury composed of Álvaro Siza Vieira (president of the jury), João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Fernando Mello Franco, Barry Bergdoll and Ângela Mingas selected Sousa’s concept design from a total of 599 proposals, noting that it ‘distinguished itself from others by the way it questions and rethinks THE HOUSE AS A CITY, THE CITY AS A HOME’.
Sousa’s design approach takes the image of a city as a transferable entity, considering architecture and ‘the city’ as ‘different manifestations of the same theme’. To the architect, the home must not only act as a supporting factor of the larger urban environment (defining streets, squares and so forth) but also capture the metropolitan feel of a city with 4.5m residents whilst retaining an individual identity.
Souza expands: “Our goal would be to create an architecture that contains diversity and simplicity; architecture that when lived-in, has the capability of generating the curiosity that leads to the discovery of a series of intimate and unexpected places.”
