You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone is a site-specific installation developed for Arts-Up and the Flagler Arts Center.

You Are Not Alone focuses on the relationships that exist all around us, emphasizing the need for conversation and interaction in our daily lives. Only by participation will a dialogue occur: without one, the other does not exist.

At the center of the gallery a single, floating object.

When approached it engages. A dialogue between object and observer begins, a conversation based on pauses and movement that continuously alters the space they both occupy.

 

Managed by Q-HQ

Managed by Q-HQ

Managed by Q merges two sides of a business that rarely meet: the high tech IT headquarters with the daily grit of office cleaning and management.

The new Managed By Q HQ office is located in SoHo, New York and is designed to reflect the Q brand directly, emphasizing simultaneously hard work and an inclusive and inviting office environment.

Designed around two main ideas, the flexible office space and the program specific wall, the new MBQ-HQ creates a balance that caters to core of the MBQ brand: an office that has the ability to evolve and change on a daily basis while still maintaining its core design identity.

Throughout the main space, natural materials and an array of flexible and operable objects allow for a light and playful interior that can change at any given moment on both larger and smaller scales.

The flexible office space allows for a continuous ebb and flow of activity throughout the day with the only fixed element being the centrally placed Q station, a combined standing meeting and reception desk that act as a fulcrum for the diversity around it.

Within the main space, movable full-height raked seating bleachers can be rolled around to physically alter the main space in scale and set up a variety of configurations ranging from smaller scale meeting areas to the monthly all-hands gatherings for hundreds of people.

In addition, smaller clusters of movable lounge furniture and planters are designed to create constantly changing configurations and opportunities throughout the day for employees to meet and work in any way imaginable. This compliments the existing exterior walls, which have been built out to create cushioned seating areas allowing people to enjoy the dynamic views in all directions.

As a backbone to the flexible main space, the fixed, programmed, back wall provides all the key elements needed to run the office efficiently on a daily basis along with a few hidden spaces for the employees to use.

Towards the main space, along the full length of the back wall, a series of corian-clad niches provide room for impromptu standing meetings as well as serving stations for events. Carved into the wall, hidden away from the hectic activity of the main space is a working library combined with individual phone booths for deep work. In addition, the wall creates specific niches for the kitchen, wardrobe, bathrooms, IT rooms and smaller staff meeting rooms.

Hamburg Sky Park

Hamburg Sky Park

For the Hamburg Hybrid Housing competition we propose a building that optimizes possibilities for its inhabitants and folds seamlessly into the existing urban fabric, a building that is simultaneously 100% public and 100% private. Situated along Reeperbahn, the building dips down to become a continuation of the existing street, creating a continuous public loop, a Sky Park, that encourages visitors to explore, rest and play along its path. Commercial programs and community spaces, sports facilities, cafes and childrens play spaces, engage the Sky Park along the walk and at the top the building provides restaurant space with ground level elevator access and a 360 degree view of Reeperbahn, Hafen City and Hamburg as a whole.

Stacked under the sky park towards the action filled Reeperbahn and Taubenstrasse, the university students and the hostel make up the majority of the apartments with single and one family apartments towards the top. Towards Kastanienallee the majority of the elderly apartments and larger family units enjoy the relative piece and quite of the existing residential neighborhood. Continuous interior stacked parking allow residents to drive straight in, up and park in front of their apartments while also connecting directly to sports and community programs such as cafes, basketball and tennis courts and kindergartens to name a few.

At its core, the Hamburg Sky Park is a mixed use exploratorium that offers private and secluded living areas while embracing its vibrant surroundings.

Performa City

Performa City

The Performa 15 Hub proposes a merger of design and performance, a Performa City with architecture as performers, composed of two theatrical and architectural archetypes: the Players and the Field.

Similar to the diversity of the city, the Players and the Field allows for simultaneous activity of varying intensities within the same space at the same time. The Players are simultaneously specific and flexible, providing opportunities both as stand-alone objects and as part of a larger interplay with the Field, creating virtually endless opportunities for exploration, playfulness, intimacy, discovery and surprise.

The Field defines the stage for the Players, adding a combination of fixed elements as a backdrop for the changing Player configurations. In the front, the lounge pillow provides opportunities for casual meetings; in the back the forum creates a backdrop for larger performances. The five Players each hold specific interior program and lighting, can be opened to create dynamic relationships between interior and exterior, can be moved to set up flexible spaces, serve as projection backdrops, or simply nest along the edge of the Field to allow for a clean space.

Katerva Awards

Katerva Awards

We are happy to announce that HAO has been nominated for this years Katerva Award. Katerva’s mission is to find, evaluate and accelerate sustainable innovations from around the world, looking for ideas that leap efficiency, lifestyle, and create action that is a generation ahead of current thinking.

“The Katerva Awards are the pinnacle of global sustainability recognition. Through them, the best ideas on the planet are identified, refined and accelerated toward impact at a global level.

Katerva isn’t looking for ideas that will improve the world in small increments. We are looking for game-changers and industry breakers; ideas that leap efficiency, lifestyle, consumption and action a generation ahead of current thinking. Single-digit percent change isn’t enough. We’re looking for triple-digit and beyond. We’re looking for what are truly the most promising and impactful ideas!”.

http://www.katerva.net/

Mark Magazine #57

Mark Magazine #57

HAO is in good company in-between OMA and BIG  on the noticeboard of the of the new Mark Magazine #57.

“When it comes to Expo 2015, Milan seems to be unaffected by the economic crisis. Giovanna Dunmall describes the event as ‘an extravagant temple to consumption, waste and the corporate dollar’. However, at the same time, Expo 2015 was the perfect opportunity for other cultural institutions to open their doors, three of which are highlighted in Mark #57.”

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-57

Performa Art Hub

Performa Art Hub

HAO has been invited as one of eleven teams to create a proposal for the Performa 15 Hub in New York city. The exhibition and performance space is set to open on November 1.st 2015.

“Performa is a multidisciplinary non-profit arts organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. Part of Performa’s mission is to present a biennial of visual art performance in New York City that illuminates the critical role of performance in the history of art as well as its enormous significance in the international world of contemporary art.”

http://performa-arts.org/

Performa Arts Hub

Performa Arts Hub

LW Magazine #76

LW Magazine #76

HAO’s 1.st prize, WAN award nominated project for the Binhai Eco City, is featured in the new issue of Landscape World Magazine.

http://archiworld1995.com/books/landscape.php

“The Eco City Binhai Master Plan is situated outside Tianjin in Northern China covering an area of 50 acres. The plan incorporates a new Central Business District (CBD) as well as five new cultural buildings, ranging from 15.000 M2 to 25.000 M2, including a Library, Planning Museum, Technology Exhibition Museum and a Sports & Cultural Center.

The proposed ‘finger plan’ mimics an open, outstretched, hand, creating an environment that directly integrates nature and living. This design allows the green areas to slide in-between each finger, inviting direct interaction throughout the day and night and creates five islands that house the cultural buildings. The direct access to the green surroundings makes the Eco City Master Plan distinctive and affords its future inhabitants a vibrant and healthy place to live, work and play.”

Wave Villa

Wave Villa

The Wave Villa is situated at the very edge of land and see on the west coast of Denmark. The area is known for its rough inland beauty and some of the best beaches in the country, making it a destination for tourists and locals alike.

The design of the villa takes its cue from the rolling waves of the North Sea and the surrounding dunes, creating a layout that connect seamlessly with the open landscape and set up spectacular views of the water. All he interior rooms are arranged along a North / South axis with each room overlooking the sea and beach directly with direct access to the exterior terrace that runs the full length of the house.

The villa has three bedrooms as well as two guest bedrooms. On the ground floor of the villa, an interior garage space connects directly to the kitchen and from there, the dining and living room. On the upper level the master bedroom and two children’s bedrooms have separate bathrooms.To allow for maximal privacy for both the family and guests, the guest residence is pushed out from the main building and connected by the undulating roof. This sets up the buildings unique roof shape and creates a natural centralized entry point that frames views of the setting sun.

Sukkah Wheel

Sukkah Wheel

The Sukkah Wheel design takes its inspiration from the idea of a spiritual and physical journey. The Sukkah Wheel is mobile, allowing you to easily move it from place to place on your travels. Whether you’re in the city the forest or the desert, the Sukkah Wheel can be rolled up and positioned so the interior space fits your needs both day and night: be it reading and eating during the day, having a friend over in the evening or resting at night, each position is achieved by a simple turn of the wheel.

The Sukkah Wheel exterior is created from two wooden outer rings connected by wood spokes. The interior is made from a combination of woven straw & branch mats that creates both cushioning and shade for the occupants while allowing for diffuse light to shine through. The interior shape is designed to fit three specific positions in which you can occupy the sukkah: resting, sitting and bench.

The Sukkah Wheel has an overall diameter of 8’ with the two outer sides of the wheel spaced 50” apart. The interior wheel sides provides two walls to the sukkah with protected views to the sky, while a mesh screen can be attached to provide a third side to create a fuller enclosure as well as additional shading.

Landscape World Magazine #54

Landscape World Magazine #54

HAO’s work is featured in Landscape World magazine Vol. 54.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

Concept Magazine #191

Concept Magazine #191

HAO’s project for the Bolong Meadiatek is featured in CONCEPT magazine Vol. 191.

http://www.capress.co.kr/shopping/good_view.asp?prodid=659&cagid=5 

“The building design takes it inspiration from the clouds, emphasizing ideas of creativity and inspiration. Each of the buildings programs is encapsulated in its own sphere, creating a series of unique spatial experiences as visitors move through the building. Entering the lobby, visitors are asked to explore the interior universe via series of different public paths, each offering its own unique way of exploring the building.

The Bolong 3D museum offers state of the art projection capabilities mixed with playful and engaging architectural design. The building will serve as the pivot point for the new Bolong Film Festival as well as house the James Cameron Avatar Experience Center.”

MARK Magazine #54

MARK Magazine #54

HAO’s project for the Bolong Mediatek is featured in MARK magazine #54

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-54

“The building design takes it inspiration from the clouds, emphasizing ideas of creativity and inspiration.

Each of the buildings programs is encapsulated in its own sphere, creating a series of unique spatial experiences as visitors move through the building. Entering the lobby, visitors are asked to explore the interior universe via series of different public paths, each offering its own unique way of exploring the building.

The Bolong 3D museum offers state of the art projection capabilities mixed with playful and engaging architectural design. The building will serve as the pivot point for the new Bolong Film Festival as well as house the James Cameron Avatar Experience Center.”

Big Box Warehouse

Big Box Warehouse

The Big Box project is situated at the coast in Hualien, a short drive from Taipei in Taiwan. The project is designed as an adaptive reuse project around an existing shed structure, re purposing all of the existing structure, and adapting the building to become a flexible exhibition and storage space.

A series of modular, extruded aluminium, boxes create a consistent pattern that defines the entire shed volume. On the interior the roof and parts of the shed sides have glazed facades to allow for control of changing weather conditions. The boxes as units provide a blank, pattern, canvas for exhibitions, events and storage allowing for the maximum possible flexibility for future use.

On the exterior each box holds prepackaged seeds creating a living and seasonal changing façade that directly engages the existing green surroundings while helping to create a temperate climate within the building.

Bolong Mediatek

Bolong Mediatek

China has in recent years become the second largest producer and consumer of movies. With this as a starting point, the Bolong 3D Movie Museum and Mediatek is imagined as the cornerstone of a new media park in Tianjin.

The building design takes it inspiration from the clouds, emphasizing ideas of creativity and inspiration.

Each of the buildings programs is encapsulated in its own sphere, creating a series of unique spatial experiences as visitors move through the building. Entering the lobby, visitors are asked to explore the interior universe via series of different public paths, each offering its own unique way of exploring the building.

The Bolong 3D museum offers state of the art projection capabilities mixed with playful and engaging architectural design. The building will serve as the pivot point for the new Bolong Film Festival as well as house the James Cameron Avatar Experience Center.

Wood Shed Exhibition Space

Wood Shed Exhibition Space

The Wood Shed project is situated at the coast in Hualien, a short drive from Taipei in Taiwan. The project is designed as an adaptive reuse project around an existing shed structure, re purposing all of the existing structure, and adapting the building to become a flexible exhibition and storage space.

A series of modular, vertical aluminium fins, create natural shading for the shed interior and creates a consistent pattern that defines the entire shed volume. On the interior the roof and parts of the shed sides have glazed facades to allow for control of changing weather conditions.

Each fin has a series of small extrusions that, when stacked horizontally, creates the forest pattern that defines the shed exterior. The new facade pattern creates a seamless integration into the natural surroundings of the shed making the building one with its surroundings.

DQZ Exhibition Center

DQZ Exhibition Center

The DQZ Culture Center sits on a site in a newly developed area of the city of Daqiuzhuang situated approximately 200 kilometres south of Beijing, China. A rural village in a desolated salty marshland only 30 years ago, Daqiuzhuang has rapidly grown from village to city due to its early investments in and production of the city’s main commodity: steel.

The DQZ Culture Center building occupies a redesigned plaza that mimics the historic marshland of the city in its tone and variety of plant life, combining landscape, trees, flexible water features, and gathering spaces into a new urban center with the DQZ Cultural Center at its core.

The building takes its form from the traditional Chinese courtyard square. By lifting the square in the diagonal corners, dual entry points to the building are created, leading visitors through the building’s ground level public programs to the mid- and upper-level exhibition spaces while extending the existing North-South axis of the surrounding city.

The buildings courtyard creates an interior landscape occupied by cherry trees and terraces. This area can be used as an outdoor venue for local theater and festival events. The central exhibition space of the building opens visually through glass facades to the courtyard connecting interior and exterior spaces.

Eco City Master Plan

Eco City Master Plan

The Eco City Binhai Master Plan is situated outside Tianjin in Northern China covering an area of 50 acres. The plan incorporates a new Central Business District (CBD) as well as five new cultural buildings, ranging from 15.000 M2 to 25.000 M2, including a Library, Planning Museum, Technology Exhibition Museum and a Sports & Cultural Center.

The proposed ‘finger plan’ mimics an open, outstretched, hand, creating an environment that directly integrates nature and living. This design allows the green areas to slide in-between each finger, inviting direct interaction throughout the day and night and creates five islands that house the cultural buildings. The direct access to the green surroundings makes the Eco City Master Plan distinctive and affords its future inhabitants a vibrant and healthy place to live, work and play.

The entire master plan sits on a raised plateau, allocating traffic and service to a lower level, establishing the new Eco City Master Plan as a green pedestrian oasis within the new Binhai area development. In this way, each of the new cultural buildings are closely connected to the new Central Business District below the raised plateau, sharing both loading and parking areas.

As part of the design strategy, both the CBD and the cultural buildings are all designed to minimize energy use and incorporate ideas of passive building design, utilizes solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling. These strategies allow for the overall master plan to achieve near zero CO2 impact on the environment.

Dongjiang Harbor Master Plan

Dongjiang Harbor Master Plan

The Dongjiang Master Plan site is situated within the new Binhai Harbour area, 60 kilometres outside of the city of Tianjin in Northern China on a newly developed section of the coastline. The Dongjiang Master Plan aims to develop a new, high density, housing typology that emulates the natural surroundings of the site.

The dune-shaped residential development is designed to maximize sunlight and views, assuring that each apartment receives a minimum of two hours of direct sunlight daily and take full advantage of natural ventilation. The western edge of the site provides vehicular access with drop off as well as access to below-ground parking areas freeing up the interior of the site to pedestrians, while the northern part of the site is developed as a mixed-use office and retail development.

The design evolves around the prime beach location with a central pedestrian boardwalk that services both the low and mid rise residential housing blocks. The central boardwalk runs parallel to the beach, creating views of the water while taking the visitor through areas of gardens and retail within the new development.

Qingdao Master Plan

Qingdao Master Plan

In addition to its famous Qingdao beer, the city of Qingdao has long been a key tourist and film-production destination in northern China. The design for the Qingdao Master Plan seeks to further develop and expand the existing elements of the city; the site is situated within the city of Qingdao and is conveniently located five minutes drive from the airport.

The site is divided into three main areas separated by existing roads. Site A is defined as a new cultural center with sites B & C comprising of mixed use residential program. To link the three areas together, we have introduced a sunken cultural path that leads visitors through the entire programmatic experience of the new master plan.

The Culture Path contains three courtyards creating possibilities for flexible outdoor venues, assuring a constantly changing experience for the visitor. From the individual courtyards, there is direct access to a rich blend of high-end retail, grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and museums.

Sites B&C create a diverse urban mix of high, medium and low-income housing set in a lush landscape. Within the residential area, community and recreational programs such as kindergartens and sports facilities are placed throughout to activate the area as a whole and create unique neighbourhood experiences. Each of the residential units in sites B&C are situated to maximize use of sunlight and natural ventilation.

Samaranch Memorial Museum

Samaranch Memorial Museum

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, devoted his life to the Olympic spirit. Throughout his presidency of the IOC he advocated for reform and inclusion, and he was a strong supporter of China’s bid as host city for the 2008 Olympic Games.

With the design of the Samaranch Memorial Museum two existing typologies merge: the memorial and the museum. The five interlocking rings of the Olympic Logo serves as the foundation for the building’s design: together the five rings create a continuous loop, taking the visitor through both the exhibition and memorial areas. This combination allows the building to both honour the life of Juan Antonio Samaranch while simultaneously creating a place that focuses on the true legacy of the Olympics: creating opportunities for people to meet and celebrate across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The museum is designed to take full advantage of green technologies and utilizes ZIP panels connected to a Geo Thermal system for heating and cooling as well as integrated PV cells on the roof to generate solar powered electricity. These combined technologies should enable the museum to reduce its energy dependency by a minimum of 40 percent.

Strand Bag

Strand Bag

Montreal Cultural Center

Montreal Cultural Center

Location: Montreal, Canada.
Program: Housing, Conference Center, Restaurant, Government, Concerthall, Parking.
Type: Invited Competition.
Size: 68,000 M2 / 740,000 SF.
Client: Montreal Municipality.

Spectacle Book

Spectacle Book

“This book is a visual essay documenting the notion and history of spectacle, those public performances and happenings that galvanize hordes of people and, if only for a brief moment, express the culture of our time in mass participation. From the dazzling opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games to the surreal circus atmosphere of performance troupes like Cirque du Soleil, from holiday parades like Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to religious events such as the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela, which drew millions of pilgrims in 2001, this volume is a tribute to the art of celebration and ritual. As design impresario David Rockwell notes in the book’s interview, “the focus of this book’s journey is the value of being there. It’s not about something happening to you, it’s about participating…This is looking at things that are temporary and the power of something that can burst and happen and go away.”

http://www.phaidon.com/store/general-non-fiction/spectacle-9780714845746/

Detroit Mixed Use Plan

Detroit Mixed Use Plan

Following the auto industries bust and a steady population decrease of Detroit downtown, Detroit city center has been left virtually deserted. The Detroit Mixed Use complex seeks to infuse vitality and life into the downtown area.

By integrating a diverse programmatic mix including public space, retail, office space and residential units.

To maximize views and access while maintaining a sense of neighborhood, 3 towers occupy the site in close proximity. Each tower leans to provide views for the residential units while maintaining a tight ground floor footprint, ideal for retail and public program. Each tower offers a range of residential units varying from 800sf to 2000sf with at least 2 sides of un obstructed views. Lower levels provide parking for both residential and retail areas.

Wired Magazine

Wired Magazine

Our old ideas about space have exploded. In their place comes a surprising range of domains that will define our future.AMO and Rem Koolhaas guest-edit an issue of the groundbreaking tech magazine, Wired, presenting an atlas of “30 Spaces for the 21st Century”.

The past three decades have produced more change in more cultures than any other time in history. Radically accelerated growth, deregulation, and globalization have redrawn our familiar maps and reset the parameters: Borders are inscribed and permeated, control zones imposed and violated, jurisdictions declared and ignored, markets pumped up and punctured. And at the same time, entirely new spatial conditions, demanding new definitions, have emerged. Where space was considered permanent, it now feels transitory – on its way to becoming. The words and ideas of architecture, once the official language of space, no longer seem capable of describing this proliferation of new conditions.

http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/

Makkah Western Gateway

Makkah Western Gateway

With the predicted doubling of the number of Hajj pilgrims from 2 to 4.5 Million in 2050, Makkah is today facing a challenge like no other city. This competition’s aim is threefold: first, to create a new interior highway and public transportation system; second, to allow development along both sides of this highway and lastly to render the entire development as a grand urban boulevard, which will function as a new “gateway” to Makkah.

By separating the highway from the development, the scheme creates the best of both worlds, a functional expressway as well as a separate “pedestrian highway”: a continuous, shaded walk along the entire length. The experience is punctuated by three public transit stations that act as transfers between private to public transportation as well as social, environmental and cultural condensers. The International Tower, Water Station and Collective Center each give the new MWG a charged new contemporary urban identity.

WTC competition

WTC competition

The WTC proposal proposes an inversion of the typical skyscraper form: the building would grow wider at the top, giving extra space to the more desirable and expensive upper floors.

Struts between each ‘leg’ of the building and its neighbors would serve the dual purpose of connecting them and supporting the lower, thinner and less sturdy floors.

Designed for 24-hour use, the building would contains housing, apartments, hotel rooms and retail and cultural space; the roof would be a green area accesible by all to creating unobstructed views ober the Manhattan Island.

LW Magazine #60

LW Magazine #60

HAO’s competition winning design for the Coleman Oval Park and Skatepark is featured in Landscape World Magazine Vol. 60.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

“The first HAO project in New York is now open. The Coleman Oval Skate Park, situated under the Manhattan Bridge in New York got inaugurated by a crowd of eager skaters. Drop by, bring your board (and your helmet).

By creating a park that emphasizes and underlines local diversity, Coleman Oval Park has the potential to become a one of a kind city park simply by accommodating the potential of the dense urban area within which it sits — the secret is in the mix of programming that appeals to a broad demographic and is relevant to the neighborhood. With the first phase complete, the Coleman Oval Skate Park has become one of the most heavily trafficked skate parks in New York City.”

WAF Finalist 2014

WAF Finalist 2014

HAO’s competition winning design for the Eco City Master Plan has been chosen as a finalist at the 2014 World Architecture Festival held annually in Singapore.

“WAF Awards, the ‘Oscars of Architecture’, sit at the heart of the Festival, the foremost conference and exhibition event in global architecture. In a unique format, keynote talks from the industry’s leading lights sit alongside presentations from award finalists, live judging and multiple conference sessions. And it’s all enjoyed by the WAF community of 2,000 delegates from around the world.”

https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/

“The entire master plan sits on a raised plateau, allocating traffic and service to a lower level, establishing the new Eco City Master Plan as a green pedestrian oasis within the new Binhai area development. In this way, each of the new cultural buildings are closely connected to the new Central Business District below the raised plateau, sharing both loading and parking areas.

As part of the design strategy, both the CBD and the cultural buildings are all designed to minimize energy use and incorporate ideas of passive building design, utilizes solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling. These strategies allow for the overall master plan to achieve near zero CO2 impact on the environment.”

Double Moon Installation

Double Moon Installation

For this year’s Nuit Blanche / Bring The Night to Light Festival in Brooklyn, New York, we propose a similar celebration, this time of the night.

The Double Moon installation aims to inspire imagination and focus attention on things that, while often taken for granted, define our daily—and nightly—lives.

The proposed site was chosen because it offers a well-framed visual connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The forced perspective of the streets creates a set view corridor and the one directionality of the street assures that visitors will have the full visual impact of the installation.

For a few hours on October 6, coinciding with a full moon, viewers in Green point looking toward Manhattan will see not one, but two moons in the sky.

Venice Biennale Hall of Fragments

Venice Biennale Hall of Fragments

Cinema constructs alternate architectural universes, places where designers can create environments that are free from the material and gravitational restraints of corporeal life. Bullets can be dodged, tall buildings leapt in a single bound, and houses dropped on unsuspecting witches with no damage to the young girl inside. This is truly architecture beyond building, a place bound only by imagination and the limits of projection technology.

This interactive installation sets the stage for “Architecture Beyond Building” by exploring how cinema’s freedom from physical restraints influences perception and behavior. The immersive environment is built of images from iconic films, presented in a manner where the visitor’s behavior influences, or authors, the cinema experience: The motion of inhabitants dynamically affects the sound and imagery on two curving screens – in a real-time simulacrum of the feedback loop between cinema and architecture.

As the visitors move between the screens, images from films will appear in a cascade of crystalline fragments. Based on algorithms coupled with motion sensor devices, a visitor can make film fragments grow into columns of three-dimensional textures, whose shapes may expand and overlap those from other visitors to create larger figures and infinite variations. Backstage, behind each screen, visitors find a pool of smaller screens monitoring the 30 film clips that feed the content of the installation. Each visit, each movement will create a distinctive architectural experience of a familiar set of images. Those architectures are not prescriptive. They instead offer opportunities.

Untitled Cafe Whitney Museum

Untitled Cafe Whitney Museum

“Untitled” presents a contemporary take on the classic Manhattan diner within the iconic Marcel Breuer building on the upper east side within the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The overall material palette used in the restaurant follows the look and feel of the existing building while providing a warm and comfortable oasis within the concrete surroundings.

On top of great food, Untitled offers a unique museum and exhibition experience allowing guest to dine while watching some of the great pieces of art from the Whitney’s permanent collection which will be curated on a monthly basis to match the seasonal menu of the restaurant itself.

The restaurant is designed to be flexible and can be completely removed within hours to allow for the space to be used for special exhibitions, performances and events, giving the Whitney Museum the opportunity to increase their revenue potential for the space.

Coleman Oval Skate Park Opening

Coleman Oval Skate Park Opening

The first completed HAO project in New York is now open. The Coleman Oval Skate Park, situated under the Manhattan Bridge in New York got inaugurated by a crowd of eager skaters. Drop by, bring your board (and your helmet).

By creating a park that emphasizes and underlines local diversity, Coleman Oval Park has the potential to become a one of a kind city park simply by accommodating the potential of the dense urban area within which it sits — the secret is in the mix of programming that appeals to a broad demographic and is relevant to the neighborhood. With the first phase complete, the Coleman Oval Skate Park has become one of the most heavily trafficked skate parks in New York City.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/coleman+oval+skatepark+map/@40.7113055,-73.993387,17z/data=!3m1!4b1

Catalyst Architecture Exhibition

Catalyst Architecture Exhibition

HAO is narrating part of the new exhibition, Catalyst Architecture, at the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark. The exhibition looks closely at different architectural projects and their ability to function as urban catalyst and programmatic drivers.

“CATALYST ARCHITECTURE – New York – Copenhagen – Tokyo – Rio de Janeiro. How can architecture promote the enriching experiences of the tolerant, the democratic, and the learning city – a city worth living in, worth supporting and worth investing in?

Catalyst Architecture Comprises architectural projects, which, by virtue of their location, context and their combination of  programs, have a role in mediating positive social and/or cultural development. In this sense, we talk about architecture as a catalyst for: sustainable adaption of the city’s infrastructure, appropriate renovation of dilapidated urban districts, strengthening of social cohesiveness in the city, development of a more inclusive urban life, and development of environments of cultural diversity and learning. The exhibition takes us to some of the fastest growing metropolises on four continents.”

http://www.utzoncenter.dk/en/welcome.htm

Tianjin Hotel

Tianjin Hotel

The Tianjin Hotel project is located in the center of Tianjin in Northern China. The building design incorporates the traditional hotel amenities such as conference rooms, restaurants and fitness areas with a state of the art  exhibition center showcasing local and global artists.

The hotel lobby functions both as check in for the hotel itself as well as a changing gallery space which offers opportunities to integrate exhibitions, creating a continuously changing lobby environment.

The hotel has a total of 250 rooms including single and double rooms as well as suites with fireplaces. The hotel experience is designed as an extension of the travellers living room incorporating ideas of art, libraries and lunge areas into both the public areas as well as the private rooms.

The hotel amenities  includes garden areas and a roof top pool as well as private terraces for events and celebrations, offering inviting settings for guests and visitors alike.

Creative Diagram Publication

Creative Diagram Publication

HAO’s project for the DQZ cultural centered is featured in the new book, Creative Diagram in Architecture. The book explores diagram as a tool to express and integrate the use of diagrams in the thinking of architectural projects in general.

“In the era of “reading pictures”, the designers must master the ability to convey the tangible or abstract design ideas through symbolized and metaphysical diagram language, so as to help other people better observe and analyze their designs directly. This book includes around a lot of classic projects from international landscape, planning and architectures design firms. These projects, as outstanding examples of diagram designs, manage to show the intention and content of the designs vividly and incisively through appropriate expression elements and creative expression styles.”

http://www.ifengspace.com/books/bookDetails/id/156.html

LW Magazine #70

LW Magazine #70

HAO’s project for the revitalization of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, New York is featured in the Landscape World Magazine volume 70.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

“The Domino Sugar Factory is situated on the East River waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Now abandoned, the original factory dates back to 1856 and was once the epicenter of sugar processing in the US. Since closing in 2004, the site and its buildings have stood empty. Based on models like the Tate Modern and the 798 Art District in Beijing, the proposal for the Domino Culture Factory seeks to promote the adaptive reuse of the existing factory buildings creating a new cultural destination that combines public and private programming.

The buildings are retrofitted with a combination of publicly accessible green roofs and photo voltaic roof panels, which, along with geothermal heating and cooling and the use of wind and wave energy, will help the site achieve a greatly reduced carbon footprint. Once complete, the new Domino Culture Factory will offer approximately 700,000 sf of publicly accessible private museum spaces along with a public promenade, outdoor sculpture areas, educational spaces, and affordable housing.”

 

LW Magazine #74

LW Magazine #74

HAO’s project for the Toender CIty Hall extension is featured in the new LW Magazine #74.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

“The new City hall extension is designed to both maximize interior flexible space while taking full advantage of the beautiful landscape that surrounds it. The new building is designed as a finger plan. This plan layout maximizes views from all the interior office and allows the landscape to extend all the way up to the new building. This mix of building and landscape creates a series exterior seating and gathering spaces that serves both the people that works in the building as well as the city’s inhabitants.

The building is designed to maximize spatial flexibility, enabling the building to change its program over time and incorporating a number of informal work and meeting spaces. The buildings central space is occupied by a combination seating and meeting stair that functions as the buildings de facto interior town square”

Design Bureau

Design Bureau

HAO is featured in Design Bureaus Special Edition magazine: Innovative Spaces Shaping Global Design.

“It’s more than just buildings. This is a collection of the spaces that influence our lives–the homes we live in, the offices where we work, the restaurants and museums and stadiums where we spend our leisure time. This is a dialogue with more than 60 professionals about their inspiration, the details behind their most innovative designs, and the innovations that are shaping the built environment. This is architecture.”

http://www.wearedesignbureau.com/projects/architecture-innovative-spaces-shaping-global-design-design-bureau-special-edition/

Mark Magazine #48

Mark Magazine #48

HAO is featured on the noticeboard of MARK magazine #48

“Danish architecture is experiencing an undeniable heyday. How is it that such a small country has such a high level of architectural success? As you may have already foreseen, favorable socio-economic conditions as well as many other factors come into play when pondering the answer to this question. In all aspects of Danish society, design is greatly valued. Danes have high expectations of the built environment and a strong sense of national pride. A new building should be excellent and should be designed to last.”

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-48

Mark Magazine #53

Mark Magazine #53

HAO is featured on the notice board in MARK magazine #53

“In Mark #53, we survey American low-income housing from coast to coast. Michael Webb provides the historical and cultural context for some recent success stories in affordable development and presents three buildings in California designed by Kevin Daly Architects, OJK Architects and Planners, and Rob Wellington Quigley.”

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-53

New York Times Approval Matrix

New York Times Approval Matrix

HAO’s proposal for the Domino Culture Factory has earned high marks on the New York Magazines approval list, top right corner, just above to the pope!

http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/approval-matrix-2013-12-9/

Samaranch Memorial Museum

Samaranch Memorial Museum

Location: Health Industrial Park, Tuanbo New Town, Jinghai County, Tianjin, China.
Type: Invited Competition. 1st Prize. WAF / World Architecture Festival finalist.
Size: 20,000 M2 / 215,00 SF.
Program: Memorial & Museum.
Client: Municipality of Jinghai.
Budget: $61 Million.
Status: Completed April, 2013.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, devoted his life to the Olympic spirit. Throughout his presidency of the IOC he advocated for reform and inclusion, and he was a strong supporter of China’s bid as host city for the 2008 Olympic Games.

With the design of the Samaranch Memorial Museum two existing typologies merge: the memorial and the museum. The five interlocking rings of the Olympic Logo serves as the foundation for the building’s design: together the five rings create a continuous loop, taking the visitor through both the exhibition and memorial areas. This combination allows the building to both honour the life of Juan Antonio Samaranch while simultaneously creating a place that focuses on the true legacy of the Olympics: creating opportunities for people to meet and celebrate across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The museum is designed to take full advantage of green technologies and utilizes ZIP panels connected to a Geo Thermal system for heating and cooling as well as integrated PV cells on the roof to generate solar powered electricity. These combined technologies should enable the museum to reduce its energy dependency by a minimum of 40 percent.

B1 Magazine #75

B1 Magazine #75

HAO’s work is featured in B1 Magazine Vol. 75.

http://www.b1mag.com/index.php

Daegu Library

Daegu Library

Location: Daegu, Korea.
Program: Library, Media and Community Center.
Collaborators: Jiwoon You.
Size: 3000 M2 / 32,000 SF.
Status: Competition, Result Pending.
Client: Daegu Municipality.

The proposal for the Daegu Library competition site sits in the heart of Daegu city, the 3rd largest city in South Korea. The building consists of a multilayered stacked box that compresses the physical library program and maximizes the open, public space around it.

The building incorporates multifunctional programmatic ideas creating a fully open and flexible ground floor with possibilities for alternative programming and events while the upper floors in the building services specific programs such as reading room, childrens space and office space.

The program elements of the Daegu Library includes performance spaces, meeting rooms and community reading areas. This unification of public programs along with the open design emphasizes the possibility for the community to use the building as a 24 hour facility that  serves all aspects of the local community as both knowledge and information center.

The library design emphasizes traditional Korean building materials, with the library main structure being wood and double layered, insulated glass envelope that creates direct physical connections to the buildings exterior and creates and open and inviting public setting.

Mark Magazine #44

Mark Magazine #44

HAO is featured on the noticeboard of MARK magazine #44

“The past 15 years have seen architecture in Indonesia free itself from the stifling uniformity that defined it during the presidential regimes of Sukarno and Suharto. Large government-controlled architecture firms have made place for small, independent practices that are giving the country a new sense of self-confidence. This issue, Mark focuses on 14 of the nation’s newest projects. Then it’s off to China, where OMA’s stock exchange in Shenzhen has just been completed.”

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-44

 

Concept Magazine #167

Concept Magazine #167

HAO’s design for the DQZ cultural center is featured in Concept Magazine Vol. 167.

http://www.capress.co.kr/shopping/good_view.asp?prodid=581&cagid=5

“The DQZ Culture Center sits on a site in a newly developed area of the city of Daqiuzhuang situated approximately 200 kilometres south of Beijing, China. A rural village in a desolated salty marshland only 30 years ago, Daqiuzhuang has rapidly grown from village to city due to its early investments in and production of the city’s main commodity: steel.

The DQZ Culture Center building occupies a redesigned plaza that mimics the historic marshland of the city in its tone and variety of plant life, combining landscape, trees, flexible water features, and gathering spaces into a new urban center with the DQZ Cultural Center at its core.

The building takes its form from the traditional Chinese courtyard square. By lifting the square in the diagonal corners, dual entry points to the building are created, leading visitors through the building’s ground level public programs to the mid- and upper-level exhibition spaces while extending the existing North-South axis of the surrounding city.

The buildings courtyard creates an interior landscape occupied by cherry trees and terraces. This area can be used as an outdoor venue for local theater and festival events. The central exhibition space of the building opens visually through glass facades to the courtyard connecting interior and exterior spaces.”

MoMA Exhibition

MoMA Exhibition

HAO has been invited to be part of the new Cut N’ Paste exhibition at MoMA.

“Contemporary culture is often described as a relentless rearrangement of multiple historical references, images, and signs. Collage has been referred to as a process that illustrates this specific condition of modernity. Cut ’n’ Paste explores the evolution of collage as both a fundamental yet overlooked technique of architectural representation, and as an extended cultural notion of layering, juxtaposition, and remix that has shaped perceptions of the urban realm over the past century.

Considered in this diversity, collage offers more than a continuation of drawing practices. Whether through direct evocations of lifestyle or inventive connections to surrounding cultural conditions, it is an aspirational tool by which architects have drawn reality onto their projects from their earliest conception.

Organized by Pedro Gadanho, Curator, and Phoebe Springstubb, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.”

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1369

B1 Magazine #6

B1 Magazine #6

HAO’s work is featured in B1 Magazine, Vol. 6.

http://www.b1mag.com/index.php?p=contact

 

Domino Culture Factory

Domino Culture Factory

The Domino Sugar Factory is situated on the East River waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Now abandoned, the original factory dates back to 1856 and was once the epicenter of sugar processing in the US. Since closing in 2004, the site and its buildings have stood empty. Based on models like the Tate Modern and the 798 Art District in Beijing, the proposal for the Domino Culture Factory seeks to promote the adaptive reuse of the existing factory buildings creating a new cultural destination that combines public and private programming.

Divided into two general zones the project encompasses a green energy technology center, educational, community and hotel-driven programming to the south with publicly accessible private museum space, exhibition and gallery space to the north.

The entire site is accessible to the public; buildings are linked together by large green areas and a new waterfront boardwalk and sculpture park. A marina along with a planned ferry stop emphasizes the site’s unique waterfront location and creates the first of a series of planned ferry stops that link together a variety of outer borough cultural destinations.

The buildings are retrofitted with a combination of publicly accessible green roofs and photo voltaic roof panels, which, along with geothermal heating and cooling and the use of wind and wave energy, will help the site achieve a greatly reduced carbon footprint. Once complete, the new Domino Culture Factory will offer approximately 700,000 sf of publicly accessible private museum spaces along with a public promenade, outdoor sculpture areas, educational spaces, and affordable housing.

LW Magazine #58

LW Magazine #58

HAO’s project for the Dongjiang Harbour Master Plan is featured in Landscape World Magazine Vol. 58.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

“The Dongjiang Master Plan site is situated within the new Binhai Harbour area, 60 kilometres outside of the city of Tianjin in Northern China on a newly developed section of the coastline. The Dongjiang Master Plan aims to develop a new, high density, housing typology that emulates the natural surroundings of the site.

The dune-shaped residential development is designed to maximize sunlight and views, assuring that each apartment receives a minimum of two hours of direct sunlight daily and take full advantage of natural ventilation. The western edge of the site provides vehicular access with drop off as well as access to below-ground parking areas freeing up the interior of the site to pedestrians, while the northern part of the site is developed as a mixed-use office and retail development.

The design evolves around the prime beach location with a central pedestrian boardwalk that services both the low and mid rise residential housing blocks. The central boardwalk runs parallel to the beach, creating views of the water while taking the visitor through areas of gardens and retail within the new development.”

Evolo Magazine

Evolo Magazine

HAO’s project for the Samaranch Memorial Museum is featured in the Evolo Magazine 04, Reimagining the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition & Performance Space.

http://www.evolo.us/magazine/evolo-04/#more-16466

“The variety of programs is as diverse as their location. Steven Holl’s Museum of Ocean and Surf in Biarritz, France creates awareness of the oceans’ fragile state and emulates the kinetic sensibility of water through sweeping walls and carefully articulated volumes. Holm Architecture’s circular Samaranch Olympic Museum in Tianjin, China is a study on framing and juxtaposing artificial and natural landscapes to generate a continuous exhibition loop. X-TU Architects Prehistory Museum in Jeongok, South Korea was parametrically designed as a futuristic vessel erected as a bridge atop hills along the Hantan River preserving the untouched historic landscape. Among other projects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is an interface between exhibition spaces and the city. Other smaller scale projects are WORD’s Holocaust Memorial for Atlantic City’s Boardwalk, which acts as an inscriptive apparatus, which etches the history of the Holocaust in our memory, and the America’s Cup Pavilion by Daniel Carper, which functions as an epicenter for various activities. The design is based on the tectonic and function qualities of high-end sailing vessels.”

City Hall Extension

City Hall Extension

Location: Toender, Denmark.
Program: Official City Hall, Office Space, Meeting Facilities and Public Gathering Space.
Type: Open Competition.
Size: 3000 M2 / 32,000 SF.
Client: Toender City.

The city of Toender is located in southern Denmark, close to the Danish and German border. Due to an influx of inhabitants the city wants to expand its current City Hall building by creating a new extension that is directly linked to the existing building.

The new City hall extension is designed to both maximize interior flexible space while taking full advantage of the beautiful landscape that surrounds it. The new building is designed as a finger plan. This plan layout maximizes views from all the interior office and allows the landscape to extend all the way up to the new building. This mix of building and landscape creates a series exterior seating and gathering spaces that serves both the people that works in the building as well as the city’s inhabitants.

The building is designed to maximize spatial flexibility, enabling the building to change its program over time and incorporating a number of informal work and meeting spaces. The buildings central space is occupied by a combination seating and meeting stair that functions as the buildings de facto interior town square

National Maritime Museum

National Maritime Museum

Location: Tianjin, China.
Type: Invited Competition.
Size: 100,000 M2 / 1 Mill. SF.
Client: Development Comity of Binhai.
Program: Hotel, Residential, Restaurant, Bar, Spa, Conference Room.
Status: Pending.

The proposal for the new National Maritime Museum is situated in Northern China, outside the city of Tianjin. The museum is designed to house both new and old maritime items with a focus on celebrating the historical achievements of Chinese naval exploration through out time.

The National Maritime Museum combines all aspects of the maritime world, from aquarium to sailing to education, combining a series of unique visitor experiences under one roof. The building takes full advantage of the adjacent lake by pulling in and creating a raised exterior marina exhibition that showcase new and old maritime vessels alike.

The building design evolves around the idea of the “Big Sail”, implementing a large, inhabitable, roof that unites all the museum program while creating large undulating skylights and opening up towards the lake that sits directly to the North of the site. The “Big Sail” covers the main exhibition program of the museum, which sits as a collection of wooden exhibition volumes underneath mimicking the look building style of old fishing villages around the world.

Each of the exhibition volumes are linked by an internal path that ensures a well-defined and fully narrated museum experience for visitors, interspersed with views of the surrounding lake and marina. The flexible exhibition areas and new aquarium space is situated below the central interior reflecting pool.

Creative Diagram In Architecture

Creative Diagram In Architecture

HAO is featured in the book titled “Creative Diagram In Architecture”.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Diagram-Architecture-Chinese-Edition/dp/7214085933

Rainbow Pavilion

Rainbow Pavilion

Location: Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island, NY.
Type: Competition.
Size: 100 M2 / 1000 SF.
Program: Lounge.
Budget: $5000.

The original architectural folly of the 19th century created focal points within manicured landscapes. The folly sought to integrate nature and building in a romantic setting, using predetermined views to create points of interest and enable  the visitor to see the surroundings in new ways. With the Rainbow Folly we propose a similar interaction between the real and the romantic.

Deploying utilitarian means and materials, the Rainbow Folly is designed as one continuous band that folds on itself to construct a natural loop, a man made device creating an immersive replica of its natural counterpart. While the Rainbow Folly from afar seems uninhabitable, a singular object without entry points, once approached it reveals three openings, allowing visitors to enter and occupy the rainbow’s center. Once inside, the surrounding world is viewed through undulating colours, at times overlapping, creating new tones, variations and realities. The Rainbow Folly acts as a playful filter upon the outside world.

The Rainbow Folly offers visitors the rare opportunity to see the physical world in a new light by heightening aspects of  the surroundings and creating a completely new perspective: a view from within the Rainbow.

Museum of Art and Design Exhibition

Museum of Art and Design Exhibition

HAO together with Superscript has designed a combined interactive exhibition and lecture series at MAD: After the Museum.

“Transforming the physical and contextual environment of the museum into a focal point for the NYC design community, the Museum of Arts and Design’s annual design program, The Home Front: American Design Now, expands into its first physical exhibition, After the Museum.

Gathering a variety of unique design voices from throughout NYC, After the Museum utilizes the institution as a platform for launching new, radical and unorthodox proposals for contemporary art and design museums in the 21st century.

As artists, designers, and corporations have increasingly begun to stage exhibitions, lectures, and workshops modeled from the role of museums in the 20th century, current museum forms are increasingly called into question.

Reacting to this new cultural reality, After the Museum stages and presents a series of installations and programs that reveal the largely hidden research component of the design practice, while examining cultural institution’s role in the shaping of design past, present, and future.”

http://www.madmuseum.org/exhibition/after-museum

75 Wall Hotel

75 Wall Hotel

Location: New York, US.
Type: Invited Proposal.
Size: 250 Hotel Rooms, 200 Residences.
Program: Hotel, Residential, Restaurant, Bar, Spa, Conference Room.
Collaborators: Rockwellgroup.
Status: Completed 2011.

Wall Street’s rich history as the site of both an early frontier wall and the birthplace of the modern stock exchange inform the project’s design. The concept is based on “breaching the wall,” an idea developed through exposing a series of nature-inspired interiors and by revealing secret glimpses of the diverse programmatic elements integrated throughout the building.

Given the building’s unique context, it’s adjacent to the only park in the vicinity and is also the only free-stranding structure in the area, the design draws on Wall Street’s history by invoking the birth of the actual stock exchange, the informal trading that took place under the tree, and the notion of Wall Street as the division between inside and outside, the hidden and the known.

The lobby, lounge bar and restaurant are designed as a continuous flow of levels connected by a central feature staircase. Designed as a sculpted branch, the freestanding staircase takes the guest below to the spa and conference room areas and above to both the lounge and restaurant. Moving along the stair, the visitor will transition from a calm, luxurious lobby to an upscale bar to an relaxed, intimate restaurant.

The hotel rooms focus on a high degree of flexibility allowing the guest to physically change the room to meet personal needs. Each standard room has an spinning wardrobe closets, oversized soaking tub and ample adjustable works pace.

Concept Magazine #148

Concept Magazine #148

WAF Finalist 2013

WAF Finalist 2013

HAO’s competition winning design for Samaranch Memorial Museum has been chosen as a finalist at the 2013 World Architecture Festival held annually in Singapore.

“WAF Awards, the ‘Oscars of Architecture’, sit at the heart of the Festival, the foremost conference and exhibition event in global architecture. In a unique format, keynote talks from the industry’s leading lights sit alongside presentations from award finalists, live judging and multiple conference sessions. And it’s all enjoyed by the WAF community of 2,000 delegates from around the world.”

https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/

“With the design of the Samaranch Memorial Museum two existing typologies merge: the memorial and the museum. The five interlocking rings of the Olympic Logo serves as the foundation for the building’s design: together the five rings create a continuous loop, taking the visitor through both the exhibition and memorial areas. This combination allows the building to both honour the life of Juan Antonio Samaranch while simultaneously creating a place that focuses on the true legacy of the Olympics: creating opportunities for people to meet and celebrate across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The museum is designed to take full advantage of green technologies and utilizes ZIP panels connected to a Geo Thermal system for heating and cooling as well as integrated PV cells on the roof to generate solar powered electricity. These combined technologies should enable the museum to reduce its energy dependency by a minimum of 40 percent.”

Pulsen Community Center

Pulsen Community Center

Location: Balling, Denmark.
Type: Open Competition.
Size: 3500 M2 / 38,000 SF Building. 18,500 M2 / 200.000 SF Landscape.
Program: Community Center & Sports Facility.
Client: City of Balling.

The sports and community center Pulsen unites an array of exiting facilities under one roof. With a combination of baths, fitness areas, doctor offices and a community gathering spaces the design creates a unique new building typology, which aims at promoting interaction and creativity for all the inhabitants of Balling.

Pulsen is designed around a central space that allows for entry from two main access points, uniting the existing pedestrian routes in the area. This central area serves as an informal living room for the city and connects directly to all the new building facilities, providing easy access to all the buildings program elements.

A new sports park area surrounds and interacts with the new building offering a wide array of fitness and sports activities for both winter and summer making the Pulsen the new pivot point for activities and interaction in the city of Balling. The building design incorporates several green building technologies making it close to energy neutral making it a landmark development in green building design.

Play Loop

Play Loop

Location: Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand.
Program: Playground.
Type: Open Competition Size: 300 M2 / 3000 SF.
Budget: $ 5000.

The Playloop focuses on creating an imaginative framework, encouraging children to move, create and interact along a ongoing loop of exploration. By utilizing the perimeter of the site Playloop inverts the traditional, centralized playground layout, creating a path of exploration with a variety of experiences along the way. The Playloop is an ever-changing route, where children can discover and engage through both cognitive and motor skills. Where the Playloop overlaps it defines three zones that can be programmed individually to establish focused areas of play, leaving these interior spaces free for group activities, games and projects. A variety of elevations, slopes, twists and turns incorporated into the Playloop design offers limitless opportunities for children to climb, swing, crawl, slide etc. resulting in new and innovative ways of playing along the path. Along the Playloop route a series of objects and installations interact with the path creating engaging and imaginative possibilities that challenge children to uses both imagination and motor skills to complete the loop. The various installations along the loop that occupies the three defined areas, the Stepping Forest, Tire Towers and Sculpture Park are constructed from eucalyptus logs and recycled tires and can be changed and modified over time as the playground design evolves.

Mark Magazine #42

Mark Magazine #42

HAO is featured on the noticeboard of MARK magazine #42

“What better place to explore inventive homes and innovative architects than a country with a housing crisis? We head to Poland, where we look at an architecture scene in transition, checking in on a 152 cm wide house by Centrala and a drive-in home by Robert Konieczny. Elsewhere, Shintaro Fujiwara and Yoshio Muro discuss the challenges of the Japanese architect, and we visit ‘weird Austin’ to discover a house by Bercy Chen that literally emerges from the bush.”

http://www.frameweb.com/magazines/mark/mark-42

Guardians Institute

Guardians Institute

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana.
Type: Commission.
Size: 350 M2 / 3,200 SF.
Program: Education, Exhibition and Community Center.
Budget: $250.000.
Client: Hearreast Harrison.
Collaborators: Architecture For Humanity.
Status: Ongoing.

When Hearreast Harrison returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, she began the slow process of rebuilding her house and helping to piece together a neighbourhood that had been mostly deserted. Seeing that the neighbourhood had very little to offer returning residents, she decided to utilize her plot of land to create a community center, a place for the neighbourhood to come together and share their experiences. When built, the institute will function as a safe haven for children in the community and a place where reading, cultural traditions and physical fitness is supported, encouraged and celebrated.

The Guardians Institute is designed to mimic the functionality of the traditional “Shotgun House” while integrating new architectural features based on post-Katrina knowledge. The building engages the public through a series of exhibition, education and performance spaces, all tightly interwoven with the possibility of expanding each area as needed. All the interior exhibition and educational  elements are hung from the ceiling on a flexible curtain system. This allows all elements to be raised above the ground safe from any flooding. Should the water rise to the same levels as under Hurricane Katrina, the curtain system allows for the elements to be easily rolled upstairs for safe keeping.

75 Wall Living

75 Wall Living

Location: New York, US.
Type: Invited Proposal.
Size: 250 Hotel Rooms, 200 Residences.
Program: Hotel, Residential, Restaurant, Bar, Spa, Conference Room.
Collaborators: Rockwellgroup.
Status: Completed 2011.

Wall Street’s rich history as the site of both an early frontier wall and the birthplace of the modern stock exchange inform the project’s design. The concept is based on “breaching the wall,” an idea developed through exposing a series of nature-inspired interiors and by revealing secret glimpses of the diverse programmatic elements integrated throughout the building.

Given the building’s unique context, it’s adjacent to the only park in the vicinity and is also the only free-stranding structure in the area, the design draws on Wall Street’s history by invoking the birth of the actual stock exchange, the informal trading that took place under the tree, and the notion of Wall Street as the division between inside and outside, the hidden and the known.

The lobby, lounge bar and restaurant are designed as a continuous flow of levels connected by a central feature staircase. Designed as a sculpted branch, the freestanding staircase takes the guest below to the spa and conference room areas and above to both the lounge and restaurant. Moving along the stair, the visitor will transition from a calm, luxurious lobby to an upscale bar to an relaxed, intimate restaurant.

The hotel rooms focus on a high degree of flexibility allowing the guest to physically change the room to meet personal needs. Each standard room has an spinning wardrobe closets, oversized soaking tub and ample adjustable works pace.

Coleman Oval Skatepark Competition

Coleman Oval Skatepark Competition

Location: Coleman Oval Park, Manhattan, New York.
Type: Invited Competition.
Size: 4500 M2 / 48,000 SF.
Program: Playground, Skate Park, Public Park, Stage, Dog Run, Base Ball Field  & Sports Program.
Client: Architecture for Humanity & Nike.
Completion: First phase completed August, 2012.
Role: HAO Concept Design & Programmatic Planning.

Coleman Oval Park, situated partially under the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, represents one of many areas within densely populated cities that fall in the category of forgotten space. Conceived as a classic public park, years of neglect and under-use has rendered the area derelict and run down. Initially equipped with standard NYC Parks programs, it no longer served the diverse population that now surrounds it.

With the new skate park and seating area as the cornerstone of the revitalization of the larger Coleman Oval Park, the new design proposes a plug-and-play solution that can be developed in phases while still establishing a strong unified architectural solution.

By creating a park that emphasizes and underlines local diversity, Coleman Oval Park has the potential to become a one of a kind city park simply by accommodating the potential of the dense urban area and demographic within which it sits — the secret is in the mix.

With the first phase complete, the Coleman Oval Skate Park has become one of the most heavily trafficked skate parks in New York City.

3as4 Design Studio

3as4 Design Studio

Location: New York, NY.
Type: Fashion Design.
Size: 2500 sf / 750 M2.
Program: Fashion, Runway & Store.
Client: 3as4.
Status: Ongoing.

Located in the Lower East Side in New York the 3 partner’s of 3as4 work out of a 3rd floor walk up studio in which all parts of the fashion design and clothing is produced.

3as4 is facing the same situation as many up and coming fashion designers, they are simultaneously trying to straddle the line of creating extraordinary runway designs with the need for generating everyday fashion lines, establishing them as both couture and casual.

With this as a starting point, the project is designed around the parameters of a multifunctional space that on different occasions can serve specific situations. By installing all the workstations on a floor track a rapid spatial transformation allows for the studio to be workspace, store, meeting room and runway with minimal effort.

Infill Housing

Infill Housing

Location: Brooklyn, New York.
Type: Commission.
Size: 1,800 M2 / 19,000 SF.
Program: Residential & Commercial.
Budget: NA.
Status: Ongoing.

The Brooklyn Infill Housing project is designed as a modular alternative to the current housing trends. The building works with a module of 14 x 14 feet with each apartment incorporating a full module of exterior balcony space, large enough for each apartment to maintain a small elevated garden.

The building lifts from the ground to create a public plaza with incorporated bike storage that is served by commercial units on the ground floor and pushes down from the top to create full modules of exterior terraces.

The building designs flexibility allows it to accommodate a variety of sites and can easily be scaled to integrate into zoning regulations of most urban residential neighbourhoods.

LW Magazine #52

LW Magazine #52

HAO’s project for the Samaranch Memorial Museum is featured in Landscape World Magazine Vol. 52.

http://www.archiworld-pa.com/

“Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, devoted his life to the Olympic spirit. Throughout his presidency of the IOC he advocated for reform and inclusion, and he was a strong supporter of China’s bid as host city for the 2008 Olympic Games.

With the design of the Samaranch Memorial Museum two existing typologies merge: the memorial and the museum. The five interlocking rings of the Olympic Logo serves as the foundation for the building’s design: together the five rings create a continuous loop, taking the visitor through both the exhibition and memorial areas. This combination allows the building to both honour the life of Juan Antonio Samaranch while simultaneously creating a place that focuses on the true legacy of the Olympics: creating opportunities for people to meet and celebrate across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The museum is designed to take full advantage of green technologies and utilizes ZIP panels connected to a Geo Thermal system for heating and cooling as well as integrated PV cells on the roof to generate solar powered electricity. These combined technologies should enable the museum to reduce its energy dependency by a minimum of 40 percent.”

 

Box 2 Exhibition

Box 2 Exhibition

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark.
Type: Art Installation.
Size: 100 M2 / 1000 SF.
Budget: $3500.
Collaborators: Lars Arrhenius & Gitte Johannesen / Specta.
Status: Completed 2005.

”You are here” reverses the purpose of the architectural model. The building sits as the only populated place in a typical suburb and exists solely for the life of its numerous inhabitants. Instead of focusing on the outside world, the model concentrates on the inhabitants of the house and relentlessly displays their lives in 220 continuous windows.

The images in the building are inspired by Pictograms, stereotypical figures in stereotypical flats, normally used in architecture to represent where to “Go,” “Eat,” “Park,” “Urinate,” etc. In “You are here” these pictograms no longer represent the clean, formal and abstract but instead create a series of highly personal characters, displaying all sides of human nature, good and bad.

”You are here” is a drama that mixes the everyday and the absurd, humour and seriousness, love and death. The working idea both criticizes a commonly used architectural language which signifies that the architectural model should be devoid of life and populated by odor-free robots, while simultaneously displaying a building populated by people of flesh and blood utilizing the same architectural language with playful exaggeration.       

LACMA Museum

LACMA Museum

Location: Los Angeles, US.
Type: Competition with OMA Rotterdam. Winner, 1st Prize.
Size: 38,000 M2 / 409,000 SF.
Program: Exhibition Space, Screening Room, Office, Library, Shop, Restaurant.
Client: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The LACMA complex is reconceived as a system of horizontal layers, with exhibition spaces stacked above an open-air plaza. The notions of transparency and uplift, essential to a true understanding of LACMA’s mission, are made manifest in the translucent roof that spans the entire museum floor.

LACMA’s current proliferation across its site is a microcosm of Los Angeles: distributed rather than focused, it inhibits the full unfolding of its potential, both as a museum and as a site. This configuration resists critical mass and inhibits the clarity of its collections. Our proposal consolidates the collections into a whole, instead of a series of pavilions. It focuses spending on the reinvention of LACMA’s image rather than renovation of uninspired buildings. It creates the opportunity for multiple paths, manifold interpretations and cross-curatorial exhibits within a single entity.

We discovered that a consolidated LACMA could perform more efficiently, spend less money on renovation, open up more of the park to the city and create a sense of coherence and the much-needed presence that this museum has lacked for decades.

UniverCity Workshop

UniverCity Workshop

Location: Aalborg, Denmark.
Type: Research Masterplan.
Size: NA.
Program: Exhibition, Education & Cultural Facilities.
Client: Allborg School of Architecture.
Completion: Exhibition 2006.

Aalborg is a city uniquely positioned to re-invent itself. Unlike other cities, Aalborg could, by simply enhancing its existing parameters, successfully engage a new and vibrant urban form. We proposed exploring a scenario based on two simple observations: The age of the post-industrial city has begun.

Cities will have to look for new financial and cultural generators in order to remain attractive. To a larger degree than ever before, cities are required to provide and engage on all levels. The growth of any given city is defined by its ability to evolve; if a city fails to engage, it will become obsolete. The role of universities has changed. From the traditional position of educational facilities they are rapidly becoming knowledge generators.

Like industries of the past, an economy of knowledge is growing, transforming universities from passive institutions to defining attractors. Exchanging the traditional industries of the city with knowledge-based institutions would allow Aalborg to emerge as a city of knowledge. A merging of the City and the University would position Aalborg as a global enterprise with the ability to attract global talent. It would engage it inhabitants on new levels of knowledge, economy and exploration.

UNA Global Planning

UNA Global Planning

Location: North America.
Program: Energy Planning.
Type: Buckminster Fuller Competition.
Size: North American Continent.

The UNA proposal looks at the border areas between Mexico, the United States and Canada as shared zones of electrifying potential. The border between Mexico and the United States runs through some of the sunniest land on the planet while the border between the United States and Canada runs through some of the windiest areas in North America. Both of these areas have some of the lowest population levels in North America, rendering vast areas of land available.

By implementing knowledge from existing solar power plants operating in the Mojave Desert and from wind farms operating globally, we are faced with a unique opportunity. By setting aside a 20-mile zone along the borders of Mexico, the United States and Canada, sufficient land with immense energy potential would be available to generate enough clean electricity to completely offset the electricity needs of all three countries combined.

Welcome to UNA – United North America.

Hudson Yards Culture Shed

Hudson Yards Culture Shed

Location: Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York.
Size: 23,000 M2 / 250,000 SF.
Program: Exhibition, Restaurant, Gallery, Event Space.
Client: National Endowment of the Arts.
Budget: $200 Million.
Status: Initiated 2009, Expected Completion 2017.
Collaborators: Diller & Scofidio + Renfro, Rockwellgroup.

The Culture Shed is the cultural anchor of the Hudson Yards development, connecting two public parks: the High Line Park to the south and Hudson Park to the north. Forging an alliance between the arts and commerce the Culture Shed represents a new arts model: independent and financially self- sustainable. Characterized by a dynamic architecture that physically transforms and expands in size, the Culture Shed can uniquely support a large variety of cultural public programs and income- generating events.

The Culture Shed is designed as a five-story base building with museum-quality exhibition spaces and two telescoping outer shells that accommodate a range of programming. When the outer shells are deployed they provide an expanded, multifunctional, space that can accommodate large art exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, and galas. While modest in its nested state, the fully deployed culture shed will be a 21st century Crystal Palace—a tall, structurally expressive, light-filled civic icon that expresses its dynamically changing program.

Target Pop Up Store

Target Pop Up Store

Location: Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, NY.
Type: Commission.
Size: 350 M2 / 3500 SF.
Program: Commercial.
Budget: $400.000.
Client: Target.
Status: Completed 2003.

As Target’s only presence in Manhattan at the time, the new store needed to embody the spirit, sophistication and fun shown in Target’s ad campaigns. At the same time, the store was only meant to be open for six weeks and needed to be cost effective.

The design utilizes everyday materials such as oriented strand board and Tyvek as finishing materials. These are combined with more polished treatments such as a white resin floor and custom designed mirrors and lighting fixtures to  create a understated yet complex backdrop for the new Isaac Mizrahi clothing line.

The space is designed as a wedge, drawing people in from the street. Two walls maximize the amount of space available for hanging display and establishes the dressing room zone that is the center piece of the store. Four custom designed Target lights are installed in the ceiling with floor length curtains attached which creates a series of cylindrical dressing rooms at the center of the store.

Falkoner Gaarden School

Falkoner Gaarden School

Location: Falkoner Gaarden Gymnasium, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Program: Educational.
Type: Open Competition.
Size: 2550 M2
Client: Falkoner Gaarden Gymnasium.
Collaborators: Vamos Architects.

The Falkoner Gaarden Gymnasium was built in 1955 as an example of classic Danish architecture. When it was originally constructed is was designed as two main buildings combined by an entry hall. This configuration poses a series of circulation issues due to long dead end corridors and the inability to move from each of the two main building wings without having to walk all the way back to the main entry point.

The HAO proposal seeks to reunite the two wings of the existing buildings by introducing a learning loop. This new addition allows for better connectivity and the ability to integrate new and unique spaces for learning and sport.

The new building addition sits as a unifying element between the existing school body and the new sports facilities, incorporating new and old elements through connections, program and materials.

Coney Island Master Plan

Coney Island Master Plan

Location: Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
Program: Amusement Park, Housing, Hotel, Retail and Public Park
Type: Commission
Size: 25 HA / 100.000 M2
Client: Coney Island Economic Development Committee, NYC Department of City Planning
Status: Commenced September 2007.

For decades Coney Island has been falling into decay, with a lack of investment in the area and no new attractions to supplement the core of Coney Islands entertainment area. The Coney Island Masterplan project creates and outline for the future development of Coney Island.

The new master plan seeks to re invigorate Coney Island as a whole by expanding the area of public park land and integrating a broad mix of new opportunities. The plan integrates a variety of programs to create a financially viable mix of entertainment, public park and private development while maintaining the existing urban fabric of Coney Island.

In addition to the architectural intervention, a new Calendar of Events was created for the area. Extensive research was done into which new activities would help invigorate the new master plan framework throughout the year

The plan was presented on November 9th 2007 by Major Bloomberg and implementation has begun. The project is currently in the re-zoning stage.

Venice Biennale After the Flood

Venice Biennale After the Flood

Location: 10th Annual Venice Architecture Biennale, American Pavilion.
Program: Exhibition & Content Development.
Client: Architectural Record & Peggy Guggenheim Foundation.
Budget: $10,000.
Size: 2000 M2 / 6000 SF.
Status: Opened September 2006.

“After the Flood: Building on Higher Ground” offers a range of architectural responses to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in August 2005. With a very limited budget HAO created the design and content for the American Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Biennale exhibition.

The exhibition arranges the existing American Pavilion into 6 specific areas that each deal with different aspects of the result of Hurricane Katrina’s path though New Orleans.

The pavilion courtyard shows an installation of inflatable pontoons that are meant as a future relief attempt to use in flooded areas. The interior of the pavilion from room 1 through 5 describes different aspects of New Orleans before and after the hurricane.

The design includes designing the exhibition layout, coordinating the content and the creation of a series of info-graphics that underline the story of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans. The info-graphics are printed on full size photo panels of the destruction left behind by the Hurricane and identifies different categories of the of the issues the city of New Orleans faces today.

Universal HQ

Universal HQ

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA.
Program: Offices, Health Club, Screening Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Parking.
Type: Invited Proposal, With OMA.
Size: 60,000 M2 / 650,000 SF.
Client: Universal Studios

The building contains Universal’s current and future divisions, offers them platforms to interact, laboratories to invent, silos for meeting rooms, places of assembly and relaxation. It is a corporate theatre where groups emerge, are disbanded, and regroup.
By dividing the program into horizontal office floors and vertical towers, the organization of the building becomes a diagram of the unique and the generic: specificity in the vertical direction, generic office space in the horizontal. No matter how turbulent the composition of the company becomes, the office floors provide the necessary flexibility, while the towers guarantee that a single entity is maintained.
At this scale of organization, architecture approaches urbanism. Universal is not so much an office plan as an urban plan, a map: the building as an organizer of different elements. The organizational diagram resonates more with a subway map than with a building plan.
Eric Bland Office

Eric Bland Office

Location: New York, New York.
Program: Office.
Client: Eric Bland.
Budget: $100,000.
Status: Completed 2003.

The law office of Eric Bland recently moved from their existing office in Soho to a new raw space in  the Meatpacking district in New York.

The project aimed to provide multifunctional workspaces, custom designed, as well as 2 private office and a meeting space. In order to allow for light to penetrate through to the entire space, we designed sliding door system with translucent panels assuring that, even when the doors to the individual offices are closed, light will fill up the general work space.

The desks were custom designed and includes built in storage and a white board partition for messages and notes to be taken through the day.

MAB Mixed Use Development

MAB Mixed Use Development

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Type: Commission, with OMA Rotterdam.
Size: 160,000 M2 / 1,7 Mill SF.
Program: 240 Housing Units, Office, Retail, Hotel, Exhibition and
Client: MAB Development.

De Rotterdam is named after the Holland America Line ship that transported thousands of European immigrants from Wilhelmina pier in Rotterdam to the US.

The building is designed as a vertical city with individual volumes protruding and expanding to create a dynamic and iconic building outline. De Rotterdam combines three interconnected towers with a total of 160,000 M2, in a hybrid design where the architecture of the building becomes an expression of modern density and diversity.

At 150 Meters, the building is the tallest building in the Netherlands and is designed as a multifunctional piece of architecture. The program of De Rotterdam includes 72,000 M2 of office area, 240 residential apartments occupying 35,000 M2 and a hotel with an area of 19,000 M2.

The building is located next to the Erasmus Bridge on the banks of the River Maas, De Rotterdam is part of the continuous redevelopment undertaken at the old harbour district of Wilhelmina Pier. The construction of the building was undertaken by MAB Development, OVG Project Development and the Office of the Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and started in 2009 and is now completed.

Big Love Stageset

Big Love Stageset

Location: Dallas Theater.
Program: Stage Set.
Client: Dallas Theater.
Budget: NA.
Size: NA.
Status: Completed 2003.

“Big Love” by Charles Mee is a modern retelling of Aeschylus’ “The Suppliant Women”. The play was directed by artistic director Richard Hamburger, and performed in March 2003 at the Arts District Theater in Dallas, Texas.

The plot evolves around 50 women that flees to Italy to escape from an arranged marriage with their 50 cousins. They come ashore at a house occupied by Piero, an Italian with “connections”, and his mother Bella. The 50 bridegrooms, Greeks who have made their fortune in America, arrive by private helicopter to claim what they believe to be theirs and the play unfolds as an intensely physical war of the sexes.

The set imagines the Italian villa, somewhere between “The Godfather” and the Italian architect Guiseppe Terragni. The elements are all compressed within the frame of a minimalist house that slowly opens up in layers as the play progresses. A combination of artifice and naturalism is choreographed around a “pool” of sky which functions as the filed for confrontation, marriage and death.

Dallas Theater

Dallas Theater

Location: Dallas, Texas.
Type: Commission with OMA Rotterdam.
Size: 10,000 M2 / 110,000 SF.
Program: Exhibition Space, Multiform Theater, Office, Library, Shop, Restaurant.
Client: Dallas Theater.

The Dallas Theater project is situated within the new arts district in downtown Dallas, Texas, next an array of other newly commissioned projects: and opera house by Norman Foster Architects, a sculpture Garden by Renzo Piano and the Booker T. Washington high school by Allied Work Architects.

The Dallas theater is designed to optimise flexibility, allowing the actors and directors to utilize the building in an array of different spatial configurations. The main program, the theater itself occupies the raised ground floor, surrounded by flexible and adjustable seating walls.

Above and below the main theater, office space and rehearsal spaces, loading docks creates a sandwich that defines the buildings footprint. The Dallas theater was eventually redesigned around the same parameters and built in 2009.

Creative Time Pavilion

Creative Time Pavilion

Location: Times Square, New York.
Type: Competition, 1.st Prize. Size: 3500 SF.
Program: Exhibition
Budget: $10.000.
Client: Times Square Alliance.

While small, the Creative Time Information Booth occupies the center of one of the most important and best known public spaces in the world, Times Square.

Creative Time is a non-profit organization that will launch a series of exhibits in Times Square in 2004 and 2005. The Duffy Square Hub will be the central point of the exhibits, providing information and orientation.

The proposal is a floating silver box that hovers three feet above the existing subway grating. Entering by way of one of two openings in the sides, one is immersed in a completely different environment: a cultural grotto in the center of Manhattan. Gently curving display walls, sound environments, an arts library and skylights exposing a bare sky without skyline are designed to allow visitors an entirely different spatial experience.

The building is created from high tech sprayed foam. The light weight allows the structure to be raised during the day, allowing visitors to enter, and lowered during night for security by means of an ordinary car jack.

Marseille Museum

Marseille Museum

Location: Marseille, France.
Program: Exhibition, Conference, Restaurant, Recreational Areas, Retail.
Type: Invited Competition With OMA New York.
Client: Museum For Mediterranean and European Civilizations, Marseille, France.
Collaborators: MOA/Julien Monforte Architects.

MUCEM is a competition entry for a museum of ‘Mediterranean and European Civilizations’ on an unpopulated pier next to one of Marseille’s most important landmarks, the Fort Saint Jean. It is a unique combination of a tabula rasa and a historically loaded site, an opportunity to create a building that thinks globally and acts locally – a museum which embraces new concepts but which breathes and lives in the timeless air of the Mediterranean climate.

The program described a kind of “museum machine” a series of completely flexible and interchangeable galleries, expressed as modules. The contents of the permanent collection were kept secret so as not to tempt the competitors with individuality. The museum was to be placed on both the pier and the fort.

Our project takes the relationship between the Mole and the Fort as its central urban theme. In order to create a context for the new building and to populate the void of the pier, we shifted the entire Museum program to the new building, making the Fort a new public park for the city. The building becomes an urban locus; the Fort becomes more bucolic counterpart.

The building itself extends the modular program of the galleries to the entire building, creating six towers with the same footprint – each attuned to a specific part of the program: permanent collection, temporary exhibition, lobby, library, offices, and conference and education center. The towers are joined back to back by a zone of services and circulation. In the other direction two ‘streets’ are created: one internal to the building connects all of the galleries, the other provides a public path through the building from the Fort to the pier.