Architectural Blog

People are able to in-fill and complete the house given a well designed framework from which to start. 

An angled colonnade directs visitors into the building, where a full-height atrium leads through to laboratories and lecture rooms.

One of the tallest skyscrapers in the world has become one of the tallest slums. The building was illegally occupied by more than 300 people. People started building walls around empty spaces. Families has created their own world. People inhabit first 28 floors and they need to climb up by foot, due to lack of elevator.

Torre de David is a symbol of what had happened in Venezuelan cities. A sad symbol. This is not a better or nice use of an abandoned structure. Because this is a slum, which means that it is poorly protected. It is a very violent place. It is completely outside the authority of  the law, and they have their own law there. Newspapers publish that people get raped in Torre de David. Afterwards, when they investigate, it turns out that it was somewhere nearby, not exactly in Torre de David. Of course people hear them saying that “this is a slum, and only criminals live there.” 

The studio responds to the needs of people and the most important is that it makes the housing affordable. The economic inequality in South Africa remains high.  Around 7.5 million people live in 2,700 informal settlements scattered across the country, which faces an overall shortage of 2.5 million houses.

What makes the Empower Shack different from similar housing solutions is the architects have placed as much focus on the infrastructure of the community as they have on the house itself.

The shape of this building protects the campus from the wind. Rather than raising the roof, like in his earlier buildings, Kere decides to use creative approach in a ventilation system. Because, in his region they have lots of terracotta pots, he constructed the roof out of them. These pots are cut into halves and casted in the ceiling. This technique creates holes which help air flow through the building and cool it down.

And again, whole village was involved in helping the construction.

While he studied in Berlin, he wanted to raise money so that he could bring those buildings to his native country, so he sold drawings. Afterwards he persuaded his roommate to quit smoking and donate this money to him instead. As the result, after 2 years he collected $50,000 and was ready to return home and start building.

The reason of doing this was in persuading with people who werent educated at all.  He had to teach them architectural techniques and convince them that, with the right engineering skills, a building made of clay could could stand even in the rainy season.

The roof of the primary school is raised slightly off the wall so that air will continuously flow through the building and keep it cool.

It was a surprising fact that Wang Shu was not widely known until he received the 2012 Pritzker Prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. In this building he combined the concepts of a traditional Chinese building technique, called wa pan. This technique uses found material fragments, mainly ceramic brick and tile and was developed by the region’s farmers to speed up reconstruction after damage from typhoons.

The museum is three-story, 30,000-square-metre block. It reminds a box, but its sides are deformed and large pieces are missing. As I said the materials are re-used. The facade is set with small windows that don't really show any meaning. It is an awkward building, but the fact that it is touching, almost heart-warming building, stays true.

The main reason why the museum looks like this is, from the architects words -

The unornamented structure is implemented into the landscape, with only the stone roof and a tall minaret visible from certain points around the perimeter.

The combination of concrete partitions, stone walls and tall hedges in a form of a box, low level gardens lead you across a pool to the entrance.

A large concrete prayer hall forms the centre space of the building, while secondary spaces like foyer, shoe-storage room and washrooms are arranged around its periphery.

Due to muslim mores, male and female worshippers are separated by a black screen in the prayer hall.

Ito was focusing the building on the beauty of the outdoors instead of trying to create beauty indoors. Thus, the outer walls are lined with windows to allow large views towards the exterior.

The arches, ranging from 275cm-1490cm in width, are formed along intersecting arcs, with the columns being at intersection points.They are spaced evenly enough to provide strong structural integrity.

The columns supporting these arches are very thin. The arches are comprised of steel plates anywhere between 1-1,5 cm thick, covered in concrete. While the standard is 30 cm, Ito and structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki specially designed the walls at just 20 cm in depth, while still providing enough support for the large loads above.

At a first glance a building seems like it was dropped into the city landscape somewhere from the space. In fact, Zaha is from the type of architects who uses the approach “Architecture is not something neutral, staying in the background. Architecture makes a statement.”

Photo taken by Hufton + Crow

Photo taken by Iwaan Baan

The building is made out of folds of glass-fibre-reinforced concrete panels. It is incredible how this simple materials can look beautiful and inspiring. You can feel the clear vision of the architect and perfect sense of using materials.

The curves of the bulding continue their way through the interior.

Here you can see the part of Tony Cragg’s exhibition which has totally engaged with the building.