#rediscover nature photo competition 2020

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Butterflyflower - taken in Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia.

Nature on My Doorstep, winner.

(Photo by Jaroslav Vyhnička/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[architectnews]

Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Docklands Park Yangtze River by BAU, Jiangyin, Jiangsu Building Development, Chinese Architecture Photos

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China

20 May 2021

Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Architects: Designed by BAU Brearley Architects + Urbanists

Location: Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Ship Building Park:

Introduction

Jiangyin is on the Yangtze, the world’s busiest working river. The city is regenerating part of its industrial docklands as a high density live-work district. Stage one of this major project is the creation of a 4km public realm along the river edge. The design was selected through invited competition.

Ambitions

re-establish indigenous eco-system corridors;

preserve the industrial character;

maintain presence of the historic past;

introduce leisure infrastructure for the new era

link beyond the site for the emergence of a city park network.

  Soft edges and eco corridors

The Yangtze at this location is tidal. This project rehabilitates, preserves, enhances and extends a raft of microhabitats. Complexity of the existing river edge is formally maintained, enhanced and secured with loose rock scaled for habitat. A new corridor of indigenous trees and plants weaves through the project’s length to connect the Ebizui mountain ecological node to the east with the canal eco corridor towards the west.

Shiyu Port Docklands Park:

  Post-industrial poetics

The vast worn concrete wharves are colored by the brown earth washed down the Yangtze. Overlooking the two-kilometer river from the prosaic empty docks presents an overwhelming scale and sense of the sublime. This design preserves even the most brutal of structures. Necessary new interventions on and around the wharves share the scale, robustness and clarity of this industrial context. Whilst the future district promises to be filled with vibrancy, and much of the landscape is rich in complexity, the wharf edges provide a rare escape.

  Continuity with the Past

Palimpsest – Ship Building Park

Whilst the majority of the site was open and flat for stockpiling raw materials, the eastern portion of the site was recently a functioning ship building facility. The design strategy maintained traces of the site’s history and overlaid a number of ecological, circulation and programmatic layers. The result is a complex palimpsest supporting inclusive and diverse open spaces and activities.

The history layer includes ship slipways; gantry cranes and rails; ship building factory structures; jetties; a Chinese garden; a tree lined road; and numerous other artefacts. Other layers across the site include: connections (pedestrian paths, bike paths, water boardwalk, extensions of views to and from the site, and paths from the new districts – all maximizing links between the city and the water); active leisure (sports courts and skate park); play (children’s adventure playground in the form of a ship, and elderly exercise area); social gathering (large plaza, visitor center, and large pavilions); relaxation (small pavilions, intimate seating, picnic tables, and  ship interpretation installation); and ecological (rain gardens, water edge habitats, eco-corridor).

Shiyu Port:

Jiucai Port:

Hungtian Port:

Three Historic Ports

Jiangyin’s origins as a port city date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Research revealed the location of three historic ports. The site of Huang Tian Port, reputedly dating back nearly 2000 years, has been developed as the dockland’s major open space for public events. Interpretive mapping of the Yangtze River is integrated in its paving. Historic Jiu Cai Port has been named and restored in its most recent iteration, as industrial port. A new restaurant designed as an urban hill provides a lookout point. Shiyu Port dates from the 1500s and was a renowned fish market. The new landscape here establishes a plaza, park, and fish restaurant. An integrated paving artwork provides further interpretation.

new era of leisure

After a hiatus of nearly fifty years China is prospering and its citizens are rediscovering all variety of leisure pursuits. This landscape introduces opportunities for the very young to the very old. It is the city’s largest playground. Linked by a 4km jogging track are dozens of outdoor sports courts and frequent gym equipment stations for public use. A more leisurely path weaves the length of the site and connects several large children’s playgrounds, a skate park, and numerous groupings of exercise equipment for the elderly. Frequent throughout the landscape are dancing plazas, a popular local pursuit. A host of pavilions, tables for games, and lawns for picnics, tents and programs yet to come. The park ushers in a novel, exotic era of health and play.

Emerging park network

The bicycle path in this docklands park has initiated a 20km bicycle loop tracing existing and proposed lineal parks in the city. Linking the disparate parks with this loop, or greenway, brings about an accompanying ecological link. An extensive eco-system network is emerging. Pedestrian paths extend along the Yangtze either way. To the east a narrow boardwalk has been installed to enable people to pass around the steep mountain edge. The docklands park is also designed to smoothly connect to the urban district under construction. The circulation of the foreshore is coupled with the urban circulation. Plazas and city-river view corridors are located on street axis from where landscape paths radiate.

Hungtian Port:

Project Data：

Project Status: Completed 2020

Location: Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, China

Year: 2012-2020

Client: Jiangyin Urban Planning Bureau

Construction Area: 36.7 Ha (Ship Building Park 7.6Ha; Shiyu Port Park 6.9 Ha; Jiucai Port Park 7.2 Ha; Huangtian Port Park 15 Ha)

Construction Cost: RMB 369 million (Ship Building Park RMB 30 million; Shiyu Port Park RMB 59 million; Jiucai Port Park RMB 70 million; Huangtian Port Park RMB 210 million)

Typology: Public park, sports park, waterfront

Program: Sustainable urban drainage, city garden, wetland, parkland, heritage preservation, plazas, emergency docks, skate park adventure playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, gate ball courts, table tennis courts, soccer fields, outdoor swimming pool, outdoor theater, bike paths, running track, pavilions, commercial and amenities buildings and tourist information centers.

BAU Project Team:

Principal: James Brearley

Hungtian Port:

Landscape

Project Leader: Fang Huang

Landscape Architecture Team: Robin Armstrong, Wang Can, Xiong Juan, Li Shuyun, Lu Yinghong, Fang Xujie, Chen Yanling, Wang Chenlei, Huang Junbiao, Liu Xiaobo, Lisa Ann Gray, Alexander Abke, Wang Tiankui, Luo Li, Cheng Yedian

Docklands Park Yangtze River by BAU, Jiangyin, Jiangsu:

Architecture

Project Manager: Jiang Han

Architecture Team: Steve Whitford, Joseph Tran, Zhang Xu, Gao Weiguo, Ni Wei, Hou Huilin, Tatjana Djordjevic, Li Fuming, Wang Keming, Li Dongdong, Yang Tai, Pu Lengfeng

Contractor: Jiangsu Natural Environment Construction Group Co., Ltd., Changshu Traditional Chinese Architecture & Landscaping Construction Co.,Ltd., Suzhou Wu Lin Landscape Development Co., Ltd.

Engineer: Jiangyin Urban and Rural Planning Design Institute

Landscape Construction Documentation: Jiangyin Urban and Rural Planning Design Institute

3D Rendering: BAU

Photographs: Zeng Jianghe, Xiazhi

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin images / information received 200521

Location: Jiangyin, Nanjing, China

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[sciencespies]

Long-lost, priceless fossil turns out to be a 30-million-year-old vampire squid

https://sciencespies.com/nature/long-lost-priceless-fossil-turns-out-to-be-a-30-million-year-old-vampire-squid/

Long-lost, priceless fossil turns out to be a 30-million-year-old vampire squid

Vampire squid have been lurking in the dark corners of the ocean for 30 million years, a new analysis of a long-lost fossil finds. 

Modern-day vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) can thrive in deep, oxygen-poor ocean water, unlike many other squid species that require shallower habitat along continental shelves.

Few fossil ancestors of today’s vampire squid survive, though, so scientists aren’t sure when these elusive cephalopods evolved the ability to live with little oxygen. 

The new fossil analysis helps to fill a 120-million-year gap in vampire squid evolution, revealing that the ancestors of modern-day vampire squid already lived in the deep oceans during the Oligocene, 23 million to 34 million years ago.

These squid probably evolved adaptations to low-oxygen water during the Jurassic, said study co-author Martin Košťák, a paleontologist at Charles University in Prague.

“Life in stable low-oxygen levels brings evolutionary advantages — low predation pressure and less competition,” Košťák wrote in an email to Live Science.

Related: Photos of the vampire squid from hell

A rediscovered fossil 

Košťák and his colleagues found the long-lost fossil in the collections of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in 2019 while looking for fossils of cuttlefish ancestors. The fossil was originally discovered in 1942 by Hungarian paleontologist Miklós Kretzoi, who identified it as a squid dating back around 30 million years and named it Necroteuthis hungarica. Later researchers, though, argued that it was a cuttlefish ancestor.

In 1956, during the Hungarian Revolution, the museum was burned, and the fossil was thought to be destroyed. The rediscovery was a happy surprise.

“It was a great moment,” Košťák said of the rediscovery, “to see something previously suggested to be definitely lost.” 

The fossil. (Košťák et al., Communications Biology, 2021)

Košťák and his colleagues studied the fossil with scanning electron microscopy and conducted a geochemical analysis. They first found that Kretzoi’s initial identification was right: The fossil is from a squid, not a cuttlefish ancestor.

The animal’s internal shell, or gladius, which forms the backbone of its body, was about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long, suggesting the squid grew to about 13.7 inches (35 cm) long with arms included. That’s just a bit bigger than modern vampire squid, which reach about 11 inches (28 cm) in total body length.

The sediments surrounding the fossil showed no traces of microfossils often found on the seafloor, suggesting that the squid was not living in shallow waters. The researchers also analyzed levels of variations in carbon in the sediment and found that the sediment likely came from an anoxic, or low-oxygen, environment. 

Those conditions are characteristic of the deep ocean floor. By looking at rock layers above where the fossil was deposited outside of what is today Budapest, the researchers were also able to show that the squid probably couldn’t have survived in the shallower seas of the time.

The shallow-sea deposits showed very high levels of a particular plankton that blooms in low-salt, high-nutrient environments – conditions that modern-day vampire squid can’t tolerate. 

(Researchers from the Monterey Bay Research Institute discovered that while lurking in the deep sea, these squid don’t behave like the nightmare predators their name suggests; rather, they wait in their dark habitats for crumbs of organic matter to flutter down. Then, they capture those bits with mucus-covered suckers, MBARI found.)

Adapting to the deep 

The new research, published Thursday (Feb 18) in the journal Communications Biology, hints at how vampire squid ancestors learned to live where other squids couldn’t.

Looking deeper in the fossil record, the oldest fossils from this group of squid are found in the Jurassic period, between 201 million and 174 million years ago, Košťák said, and they are typically found in anoxic sediments. 

“The major differences is that these oxygen-depleted conditions were established in the shelf, [a] shallow water environment,” he said. “This means that the ancestors were inhabitants of shallow-water environs, but they were already adapted to low-oxygen conditions.” 

There’s a gap in the fossil record in the Lower Cretaceous, starting about 145 million years ago. The squid may have already shifted to the deeper ocean by this point, Košťák said, primed by their experiences with anoxic conditions in the Jurassic. This deep-water lifestyle might explain why the squid survived the crisis that killed the nonavian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, he added.

The deep-living squid from 30 million years ago helps link recent history with the deep past, Košťák said. He and his colleagues are now attempting to make similar connections for cuttlefish, a group of cute, color-changing cephalopods whose origins are similarly murky.

Related Content:

 Cuttlefish cuties: Photos of color-changing cephalopods

Photos: The vampire squid from hell

10 strange animals that washed ashore in 2020 

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

#Nature

[kwfinder]

NASA Mission study the world of venus NASA has chosen two new missions to Venus, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor. Part of NASA’s Discovery Program, the missions goal to apprehend how Venus grew to become an inferno-like world when it has so many different traits comparable to ours – and might also have been the first liveable world in the photo voltaic system, whole with an ocean and Earth-like climate. These investigations are the remaining preferences from 4 mission standards NASA picked in February 2020 as phase of the agency’s Discovery 2019 competition. Following a competitive, peer-review process, the two missions have been chosen primarily based on their attainable scientific cost and the feasibility of their improvement plans. The challenge groups will now work to finalize their requirements, designs, and improvement plans. NASA is awarding about $500 million per mission for development. Each is predicted to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe. The chosen missions are: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of Venus’ surroundings to apprehend how it fashioned and evolved, as properly as decide whether or not the planet ever had an ocean. The mission consists of a descent sphere that will plunge thru the planet’s thick atmosphere, making particular measurements of noble gases and different factors to apprehend why Venus’ surroundings is a runaway hothouse in contrast the Earth’s. In addition, DAVINCI+ will return the first excessive decision snap shots of the special geological facets on Venus regarded as “tesserae,” which might also be similar to Earth’s continents, suggesting that Venus has plate tectonics. This would be the first U.S.-led mission to Venus’ surroundings for the reason that 1978, and the consequences from DAVINCI+ may want to reshape our grasp of terrestrial planet formation in our photo voltaic machine and beyond. James Garvin of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the most important investigator. Goddard offers undertaking management. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) VERITAS will map Venus’ floor to decide the planet’s geologic records and recognize why it developed so otherwise than Earth. Orbiting Venus with a artificial aperture radar, VERITAS will chart floor elevations over almost the complete planet to create 3D reconstructions of topography and verify whether or not tactics such as plate tectonics and volcanism are nonetheless energetic on Venus. VERITAS additionally will map infrared emissions from Venus’ floor to map its rock type, which is mostly unknown, and decide whether or not energetic volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. Suzanne Smrekar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is the primary investigator. JPL gives challenge management. The German Aerospace Center will furnish the infrared mapper with the Italian Space Agency and France’s Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales contributing to the radar and different components of the mission. “We’re revving up our planetary science software with excessive exploration of a world that NASA hasn’t visited in over 30 years,” stated Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s companion administrator for science. “Using modern day applied sciences that NASA has developed and subtle over many years of missions and science programs, we’re ushering in a new decade of Venus to recognize how an Earth-like planet can turn out to be a hothouse. Our desires are profound. It is now not simply appreciation the evolution of planets and habitability in our very own photo voltaic system, however extending past these boundaries to exoplanets, an interesting and rising place of lookup for NASA.” Zurbuchen introduced that he expects effective synergies throughout NASA’s science programs, inclusive of the James Webb Space Telescope. He anticipates information from these missions will be used with the aid of the broadest viable pass area of the scientific community. “It is amazing how little we be aware of about Venus, however the blended outcomes of these missions will inform us about the planet from the clouds in its sky via the volcanoes on its floor all the way down to its very core,” stated Tom Wagner, NASA’s Discovery Program scientist. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.” In addition to the two missions, NASA chosen a pair of science demonstrations to fly alongside with them. VERITAS will host the Deep Space Atomic Clock-2, constructed by way of JPL and funded by using NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The ultra-precise clock sign generated with this science will sooner or later assist allow self sustaining spacecraft maneuvers and decorate radio science observations. DAVINCI+ will host the Compact Ultraviolet to Visible Imaging Spectrometer (CUVIS) constructed by using Goddard. CUVIS will make excessive decision measurements of ultraviolet mild the use of a new instrument based totally on freeform optics. These observations will be used to decide the nature of the unknown ultraviolet absorber in Venus’ surroundings that absorbs up to half of the incoming solar energy. Established in 1992, NASA’s Discovery Program has supported the improvement and implementation of over 20 missions and instruments. These alternatives are section of the ninth Discovery Program competition. The standards had been chosen from proposals submitted in 2019 underneath NASA Announcement of Opportunity NNH19ZDA010O. The chosen investigations will be managed by way of the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as section of the Discovery Program. The Discovery Program conducts area science investigations in the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The desires of the software are to supply widely wide-spread possibilities for main investigator-led investigations in planetary sciences that can be performed below a not-to-exceed price cap. by: superSEOarticle Created: -- Category: Art & Design Viewed: 70

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[sitting-on-me-bum]

Farewell to the Sun - taken in Western Tatras, Slovakia.

Youth prize, winner.

(Photo by Filip Hrebenda/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[sitting-on-me-bum]

 Via Diagonalis - taken in Pamporovo, Bulgaria.

Zoom Out on Nature, finalist.

(Photo by Radoslav Sviretsov/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Surfing on the Waves - taken in Genoa, Italy.

Zoom Out on Nature, finalist.

(Photo by Gabriella Motta/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[sitting-on-me-bum]

The Arabesques of Glencoe - taken in Glencoe, England.

Youth prize, finalist.

(Photo by Chiara Bonvento/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[sitting-on-me-bum]

My Red Home - taken in national park of Circeo, Latina, Italy.

Close-ups of Nature, finalist.

(Photo by Biagio Alberto Scalia/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Horses in Galicia - taken in Galicia, Spain.

Zoom Out on Nature, winner.

(Photo by Javier Arcenillas/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Rediscover Nature Photo Competition 2020 - European Environment Agency

[architectnews]

Le Pavillon of Romainville, Paris

Le Pavillon of Romainville, Parisian Auditorium, Show Room Building, French Architecture Photos

Le Pavillon of Romainville in Paris

19 Feb 2021

Le Pavillon of Romainville

Design: Miralles-Tagliabue EMBT and ilimelgo

Location: Romainville, Paris, France

Le Pavillon of Romainville, the green revelation for cultural heritage

• Through an organic response, Le Pavillon’s new architecture for citizenship creates green spaces connected to the forest and a place of life in the heart of Romainville. • The sensitive architecture, respectful with the memory of the place, offers a tribute to the industrial past of Romainville and becomes a citizen meeting point that facilitates access to culture. • The highly sustainable proposal dialogues and points out the value of the existing historical structure of the Polish Pavilion that belonged to the Universal Exhibition of 1937.

The transformation of Le Palais des Fêtes into Le Pavillon has been completed as the patrimonial protagonist of the city of Romainville in Paris, designed by Benedetta Tagliabue and her architecture studio Miralles-Tagliabue EMBT in collaboration with the french studio ilimelgo. The commission comes through a won competition to transform and give new functions to the small pre-existing building that needed a new life. New volumes have been added to the rehabilitated preexistence creating a complex that links the city, the new garden and the nearby forest. The cultural center is one more example of how Benedetta Tagliabue’s studio materialize its projects: an organic gesture capable of connecting with the most sustainable aspects for urban integration and the insertion of green in the city, taking care of the environment and the memory of the place.

Intertwined synergies: memory, culture and sustainability The sensitive and adaptable architecture of Le Pavillon revalues the existing historical legacy and creates heritage for the enjoyment of the public. It is a space for coexistence for all audiences, open to different artistic expressions and practices, which strengthens the cultural fabric of Romainville. The community identifies with this space for which it feels a special collective pride, now renewed with the synergies between green and culture in an open place of life, in the heart of the city.

This new cultural center joins the different interventions that Benedetta Tagliabue’s studio develops in le Grand Paris, a metropolitan project that is redefining the city of the future under the values of accessibility, respect for the environment and the improvement of quality of life. Recently Benedetta Tagliabue has been awarded with the ARVHA 2020 Prix des Femmes Architectes, ex aequo with Anna Heringer, launched by the French Association for Research on the City and Habitat. The award shows the value that the French Ministry of Culture, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal and the National Council of the Order of French Architects give to the architect’s latest projects.

Dialogues with heritage for new organic connections Taking care of what already exists, the project rehabilitates the structure of the Polish Pavilion for the Universal Exhibition of 1937, that formed the old Palais de Fêtes with a façade accessible from the street. The history of the Pavilion is thus incorporated into the new set of pieces, maintaining its leading role as the city’s cultural heritage and dialoguing with the new faceted volumes.

The sensitivity of the project strategy consists in creating new volumes organically connected with the old pieces, the new garden and the city. The value of ideas prevails over any excessive gesture. The care for the memory of the place determines the fit of the project, which is resolved with an accompaniment to the citizen: from the city to the garden and to the forest. With the designed garden, the green arrives to the city through the entrance hall that serves as a link at the street level. The street façade has been treated as a fundamental interface to allow this permeability with the urban environment. A game of opacities and transparencies in the apertures invites you to enter. The hall is both a meeting place and the articulation with the built volumes. On a larger urban scale, the new pieces that make up Le Pavillon connect with the landscape of the old quarries of the city and are located on the link between the periphery and the center of Paris.

Integration in the heart of the city, culture at street level If the project on an urban scale attends and takes care of the connections with the environment and the city of Paris, on a small scale it prioritizes the user experience. Le Pavillon program is solved with the design of different pieces that allow multiplying the scenic and activity possibilities. The spatial organization favors a continuous and simultaneous use of its spaces: entrance and connection hall, event room and modular room. In addition, the center houses La maison de la filo, a unique space in France that promotes resources for the dissemination of philosophical thought and practices.

Le Pavillon is a highly sustainable project both for the idea of reusing the pre-existing pieces in a careful way, and for its integration into the environment creating new green spaces and the use of the materials produced in it. The two new volumes built have a double skin as a façade: exposed concrete and metallic layer with green shadows that remind us the proximity of the forest. The play of colors on the façade is integrated into the garden landscape and dialogues with the pre-existing pieces. The façade responds to a sustainable choice linked to the nature of Romainville in which the industry has had a transcendent historical and social role. It is a tribute to Romainville’s industrial past.

Rehabilitation And Extension Of Romainville’s Event Hall Transformation Of The Events Hall To A Pavilion

A place steeped in history The history of this building begins in 1937 with the construction of the Polish Pavilion in the « Universal Exhibition of Arts and Techniques Applied to Modern Life” in Paris. The mayor of Romainville, Pierre Kerautret, elected in 1935, bought the structure which was being dismantled. Its metal frame, originally being part of the Halls of the Pavilion, is therefore a precious witness to the history of Romainville. The mayor wanted to turn it into a gymnasium and the new building was the first institutional building to adorn Avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier. The framework was therefore flanked by two new buildings, the main facade of which, dressed in an “art deco” style, corresponds to the canons of this period. The construction was completed after the war, and was used as a cinema, festivities hall and cultural events. Over time, the original metal structure remained hidden and the volumes were altered and modified inside to respond to transient functional demands.

Rediscover and revalue The project approach starts from the constant dialogue between the intervention and the existing parts of the building. The aim of the architectural intervention is to highlight the most important historical part (the metal structure) and to keep as much free space as possible on the plot to convert it into an accessible garden and open it to the public. An important point to be resolved was accessibility from the street, since the existing building was raised above the current level of the sidewalk.

Based on these guiding ideas, the new program is located in two new independent volumes, which perfectly meet the requirements of the program and which are in the form of two large crystals with angular shapes, different from the existing volumes and minimizing the impact. on the future garden.

Light, transparency and colours The complete reordination of the blind facade towards the street led us to create a rhythm of large openings which connect the existing space of the old performance hall to the city. The historic metallic structure is unveiled and freed from any foreign element, reborn as the protagonist of this generous space, designed between the facade open to the street and the garden connected to the Corniche des Forts.

The old village hall is transformed, on the one hand, into a new reception area for future theatres and, on the other hand, into a porch open to the street which allows the public to access the back garden during the day. The old volume becomes transparent, permeable, without losing its character, and allows the garden to be seen from the street. This space becomes diaphanous, fills with natural light through the openings of the facade and becomes a porch and an access hall to the performance halls, offices, or the association “Maison de la Philosophie” installed in the west wing. The current levels are lowered to street level, thus making it possible to connect the street, the garden and the rest of the spaces on the ground floor on the same level.

The technical and storage spaces are in a separate volume, following the existing east wing. The artists’ access is separated by an independent entrance through the garden, as well as the access to the delivery area, completely separated from the flow of spectators and the public.

Each performance hall has a different atmosphere. The event room, open to the garden, has large bay windows that bring light and a feeling of space. The volume of the room penetrates the existing building and its completely new metal roof structure interprets the historic structure in a modern way. The acoustic treatment in irregular wooden battens becomes decorative. This room can be extended to the outside, leaving the garden doors open.

The second room is modular, intended for theatrical performances and concerts, dark in colour to better meet the needs of the program. The room configuration allows its use with modulated stands or without stands. It is accessed by 2 vestibules, one on each side, which lead directly to the middle of the room, and the volume is separated from the rest of the building by a small patio which illuminates the foyer and the spaces for the artists.

The two rooms have in common the treatment of the facades, carried out with 2 independent layers – one in exposed concrete painted in colours, which corresponds to the interior layer, and the other in sheet metal with different perforations and colours that make up the exterior volume. of the room. The material of the roof is the same as that of the facades, forming the irregular and singular volumes of the rooms. The designs on concrete are inspired by human figures dancing in motion, while the design of the perforated sheet metal in different colours and transparencies is inspired by a collage made from the combination of fragments of images of the city of Romainville – with fragments of its emblematic buildings such as its telecommunications tower, its historic buildings, its factories, the shed roofs… The use of metallic materials is a direct reference to the industrial and working-class past of this small town in eastern Paris.

All the interventions of the project are visible, and the new architecture can be read perfectly in the use of materials and in the volumetric composition. The building is completely transformed, opens towards the city and offers a recomposed image of the old volume, creating a dialogue between historical memory and the intervention of the project.

The intentions of the project can be read in the final result of this rehabilitation, and the people of Romainville of all ages have already appropriated the new cultural and social centre, as well as the garden. The generous and well-lit reception and circulation areas are privileged places for new scheduled or spontaneous activities.

Le Pavillon of Romainville in Paris, France – Building Information

Design: Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Location: Romainville, Paris, France Dates: 2017–2019

Client: Romainville Town Hall Architects: Benedetta Tagliabue, chief architect Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Elena Nedelcu, project director Local architects:ilimelgo architectes Valerian Amalric Maxime Potiron

Bureau d’études TCE: EPDC Structural Engineer: IETI Economist consultant: MEBI Acoustic consultant: AVLS Scenography: Tourny Landscape consultant: Land’Act Photography: Duccio Malagamba, Marcela Grassi, Paul Lengereau

Collaborators EMBT: Ana Otelea, Marzia Faranda, Vincenzo Larocca, Alessia Apicella, Marilena Petropoulou, Gabriele Rotelli, Ana Dinca, Andrea Marchesin, Antonio Soreca, Cristina Ghigheanu, Damiano Rigoni, Diana Santana, Eliza Neagu, Iago Pérez Fernández, Manousos Kakouris, Marco Loretelli, Marco Molinari, Marion Delaporte, Máté Géhberger, Salvatore Sapienza, Sara Mucciola, Silvia Plesea, Valentina Frigeni, Verónica Donà, Yasmine Fahmy.

Collaborators ilimelgo: Félicie Botton, Paul Lengereau, Héloïse Debroissia, Morgane Hamel, Marine Amand

Area: 2.735 sqm Cost: 8.414.521,22 € Typology: Rehabilitation and extension Scope: Complete Program: Auditorium, show room, offices, foyer, artists dressing rooms, services

Le Pavillon of Romainville, Paris images / information received 190221

Location: Paris, France

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2024 Paris Olympics’ Aquatic Center Design: MAD Architects ; Jacques Rougerie Architecture ; Atelier Phileas Architecture ; Apma Architecture image courtesy of MIR 2024 Paris Olympics Aquatic Center Building

Public Condenser, Ile-de-France, new campus of Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, Ile-de-France Design: Muoto Architects photograph : Maxime Delvaux Public Condenser in Gif-sur-Yvette, Paris-Saclay

Paris Architect

Paris Architecture

Comments / photos for the Le Pavillon of Romainville, Paris page welcome

Website: Visit Paris

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AlUla Resort, Sharaan Nature Reserve

AlUla Resort, Sharaan Nature Reserve Hotel, Saudi Arabian Holiday Destination, Middle East Architecture

AlUla Resort, Sharaan Nature Reserve

2 Nov 2020

AlUla Resort

Architect: Jean Nouvel

Location: Sharaan Nature Reserve, Saudi Arabia

New concept designs for the Sharaan by Jean Nouvel resort revealed today offer a deeper understanding of the architect’s daring vision for AlUla, the cultural oasis in north-west Arabia.

Located deep within the Sharaan Nature Reserve, the designs draw on the nearby Nabataean wonders of Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. In a world-first, this 2,000-year-old architectural legacy is being revived by Jean Nouvel for potentially the first time since the Nabataeans carved into the region’s millions-of-years-old sandstone rock.

As the concepts were unveiled, architect Jean Nouvel described AlUla as “The coming together of a landscape and history; The history of past civilisations in an extraordinary landscape – the only place to create such a masterpiece.

Nouvel emphasised the importance of preserving such a unique landscape: “AlUla is a museum. Every wadi and escarpment, every stretch of sand and rocky outline, every geological and archeological site deserves the greatest consideration. It’s vital we keep all its distinctiveness and conserve its attractiveness, which largely rests on its remote and occasionally archaic character. We have to safeguard a little mystery as well as the promise of discoveries to come.”

Nouvel’s commitment to respecting AlUla’s landscape and ancient heritage has not meant shying away from modern architectural ideas. “AlUla deserves to acquire a degree of modernity,” he suggests. “Envisioning the future is a never-ending obligation that requires us to be fully alive to places in the present as well as conjuring up the past.”

Jean Nouvel explains how he’s adapting old ways of life to our modern world, minimising the impacts on natural and urban landscapes. To do this Nouvel has introduced a new typology of architecture never seen before, using abstraction, sculpting within the landscape itself rather than competing with it. Inspired by the Nabateans, it plays on the old ways of living to build on the present and meet the challenges of the future. Jean Nouvel integrates the way Nabateans interacted with their environment, both verticality and horizontality, to reconnect to the earth and build sustainable habitats, away from the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter.

Nouvel views this resort as an opportunity to bring to life a strong spatial, sensorial and emotional experience on the borders of nature, architecture and art – where the sound, musicality, harshness, tactility, power and complexity of nature are everywhere, from finely chopped stones on balconies to the singular granularity of each rock wall, all becomes an artwork in itself.

“Our project should not jeopardise what humanity and time have consecrated,” emphasises Nouvel, “Our project is celebrating the Nabateans spirit without caricaturing it. This creation genuinely becomes a cultural act.”

Taking on a curatorial approach in the museographical sense, Jean Nouvel has created public spaces geared towards the joy of living there, by day, by night, with all the various colours, light, shadow, wind, torrential rain, and the passage of time. He invites travellers to embark on a journey through thousands of years of civilisations and geographical strata within every detail of his designs, from the permanent feel of the rocks to the soft comfort of the armchairs, sofa, and seats.

The end result will see guests immersed deep within in a memorable journey through time and space, offering a true discovery of AlUla’s essence. Through immersive experiences in Sharaan’s wilderness, visitors will have personalised exposure to the hundreds of archaeological sites within AlUla. Yet, this level of luxury will not be at the cost of the natural landscape, as the new resort will draw on emission-free power and new standards in sustainability.

The Sharaan by Jean Nouvel Resort will be a key element of RCU’s strategy to develop AlUla as a global destination for culture, heritage, and ecotourism. It is designed within The Charter of AlUla, a framework document that includes 12 guiding principles that commits The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) to long-term future development. It will also contribute to the region’s diversified economy through a Retreat Summit Centre and restaurants.

Amr AlMadani, CEO of RCU, said: “These concepts, which showcase Jean Nouvel’s masterly innovation in architecture, underscore our commitment to developing AlUla as a global tourism destination without compromising the history, heritage, and landscape of AlUla. We are a destination built by artists. Sharaan by Jean Nouvel will build on that legacy to become a timeless landscape-architecture that will last forever – a gift to the world.”

AlUla Resort in the Sharaan Nature Reserve, Saudi – Building Information

Architect: Jean Nouvel

• The new Jean Nouvel resort, set to be completed by 2024, will include 40 guest suites and three resort villas. A retreat summit centre near the resort will feature 14 private pavilions.

• AlUla will be re-opening its heritage sites on 30 October in a significant step to realise its tourism ambitions, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra; the ancient kingdom of Dadan; and the whispering canyons of Jabal Ikmah. Bookings will be available on the Experience AlUla booking site: https://ift.tt/3kQKwN5

• By 2035, RCU expects to host two million visitors annually.

• The new resort is part of the development of AlUla guided by 12 strategic principles drawn from the Commission’s Framework Plan and Charter. This approach to development balances innovation with heritage, arts and culture while unlocking economic potential to provide new opportunities for the local community.

• The collaboration further supports RCU’s Cultural Manifesto for AlUla, which details the principle cultural landscape developments planned for the area over the next 10 years.

• AlUla’s human history began more than 200,000 years ago, yet only recently has modern tourism begun to discover the depth and diversity of its experiences and attractions.

• Archaeologists from Saudi Arabia and around the world are rediscovering this cultural landscape as RCU supports the economic diversification, community empowerment and heritage preservation priorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme.

King Fahad National Library Riyadh, Saudi Arabia images / information received 021120

Location: Sharaan Nature Reserve, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East

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Addiriyah Contemporary Art Center Design: Schiattarella Associati, Architects image courtesy of architects Addiriyah Contemporary Art Center KSA

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Comments / photos for the King Fahad National Library Riyadh, Saudi Arabia page welcome

Website: Saudi Arabia

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Ispace Installation, Rossa

Ispace Installation, Rossa Structure, Grisons, Swiss Timber Architecture, Images, Swiss Design News

Ispace Installation in Rossa, Switzerland

23 Oct 2020

Ispace Installation

Design: Montalba Architects

Location: Rossa, Grisons, Switzerland

Nature-Art-Perception-Territory

Ispace is a project born out of an idea combining art and architecture in the creation of environments that stimulate people to perceive the influence of a space on their moods. It is a re-evaluation of the territory, allowing us to rediscover our bond with nature.

The project consists of the construction of 10 timber architectures / sculptures in the local woods of Rossa. The installation of the first work was completed in October 2020.

Set in the woods of the village of Rossa, in the Calanca Valley, the project, undertaken by Davide Macullo Architects with the support of the RossArte Foundation, the municipality of Rossa and the Swiss National Park Val Calanca has involved the inhabitants of the valley, visitors and institutions in working towards a common goal and contributes to the debate on the enhancement of rural areas. One of the main aims of the RossArte is to foster healthy ambition for social, economic and cultural growth for the future of the region. These architectures / sculptures form part of the wider work of the foundation, giving Rossa and Val Calanca an identity as a destination for work and life, as well as for tourism.

The work of Davide Macullo’s studio is centred on the awareness that architecture is the link between the DNA of a place and its future and that every line drawn that becomes a built space can be nourished with reason, passion and joy, that are released once a space is built, giving a sense of discovery and wonder throughout the life of the inhabitants. Engaged in research on the subject of the relationship between man and nature, the architect uses sketches and illustrations to explore the perception of space and scale. The series of drawings ‘man seeking space’ imagine man’s constant search to find the ideal space and scale at which to feel at ease and it is this idea that informs the architecture and has been translated into Ispace.

Human beings have the extraordinary ability to “feel” space through their senses with their eyes closed. The perception of space through the senses is central to the work of the studio, beginning in the 1980s during Macullo’s studies under professor Luis Flotron in Lugano, who made the perception of space his main focus during a lifetime of research. Flotron’s project was called “the Game of the Dove” (Gioco della Colomba). The name derives from the well-known “game of the goose” which sees players advance along the path by throwing dice and guided by chance. The dove also of course refers to the symbol of peace. (Curiously, the cultural centre “La Cascata” in Rossa hosted seminars relating to this project, directed by Professor Flotron in the 1970s).

The research proposed the construction of a labyrinth on three levels, through which a series of spaces were intuitively “discovered”, each with different characteristics in order to allow the visitor to confront himself with his states of mind and his psychological characteristics. At the end of the experience, the person completed a questionnaire that functioned as an exercise in introspection, in finding his own psychological balance. This project was never realised and remained on paper.

And so, the Gioco della Colomba returns, with an added dimension, to Rossa and is renamed Ispace; a title that combines Italian and English to emphasise the universal message of the project; is pace – is peace, I space – I space, is pace – is rhythm. Here in Rossa Ispace takes on new meanings as it is rooted in the territory that hosts it and combines the reading of ecology (in its broadest sense) with human ecology, in practical terms through the physicality of installations.

Ecology, in a broad sense, is for the architect the discipline that regulates the inclusion of a work in the context that hosts it. The context of the opera is understood as its geography, orography, climatic condition, history, but also economics and politics as the possibilities of a region to grow sustainably. Human ecology too, lies at the heart of the architect’s concerns; as an index of sustainable growth of the inhabitants of the region, not only in numbers but also in the awareness of being protagonists at the forefront of planning for the present and the future of the valley.

The active participation of the inhabitants and institutions of the municipality and the Calanca valley resounds in the words of Bruno Munari: “a civilized people lives in the midst of their art”. The sharing of properties and activities is an attitude rooted in the history of the Swiss valleys and in particular in these regions, where from the 12th century the territory was tended to and shared by the community to allow the sustenance of all families through its cultivation.

The intervention in the woods acts to counterbalance the current trend of exponential development of technologies that will alter the way humans build their habitat. The selection of native material; larch trees cut on site to deforest the areas on the slopes of the valley involved in the archaeological restoration of the ancient terraces, is the first sign of sensitivity to the environment and uses the material to the best of its evocative power. The purity of design thinking and the almost absence of particular construction techniques remind us of a work that does not need to declare a temporal condition to emphasize the centrality of the relationship between man and nature.

Ispace is an invitation to discover the paths through the valley and reveals the richness of biodiversity and magic hidden corners of the forest. These new living spaces suggest moments of leisure, meditation, observation and even reflection on the theme that interests us most: how to put man back in tune with nature, to which we belong but from which we also distance ourselves.

We live in an era in which this issue is becoming increasingly pressing and it is the duty as citizens to commit ourselves to the development of our living environment and to leave tangible traces of our civil and cultural commitment to those who will follow.

Ispace Installation, Rossa, Switzerland – Building Information

Architect: Davide Macullo Architects Project: Ispace Location: Rossa, Grisons, Switzerland Function: Permanent timber installation

Construction: 17 October 2020 Footprint: 25 sqm Material: Local larch timber

Architect: Davide Macullo Design collaborators: Jung Kim, Lorenza Tallarini, Aileen Forbes-Munnelly Partners: RossArte Foundation, Municipality of Rossa, Grisons, Parco Val Calanca, Swiss Nature Park Timber engineering + construction: Frei Holzbau AG, Kriessern, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photographer: Corrado Griggi

Ispace Installation, Rossa images/information received 231020

Location: Monthey, Switzerland

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Comments / photos for the Ispace Installation, Rossa page welcome

Website: Swiss Alps

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Garden House Nicosia: Christos Pavlou Architecture

Contemporary Garden House Nicosia, New Cyprus Residence, Cypriot Residential Property, Building, Architect

Garden House Nicosia Residence

6 Aug 2020

The Garden House in the City – Nicosia Property

Design: Christos Pavlou Architecture

Location: Nicosia, Cyprus

Cypriot contemporary house wins two prestigious American awards

The ‘’garden house in the city’’ by Christos Pavlou Architecture has been named as a winner of the ‘’Jury’’ and the ‘’popular choice’’ Architizer A+Awards 2020 (residential interior category) in New York City.

About the ‘’garden house in the city’’

Bringing nature back to the city although not a new idea it is a growing imperative especially for cities like Nicosia which has failed to make greenery and communal public areas a priority in its urban planning.

During lockdown we rediscovered the essential value of our houses, realizing once again our need for more outdoor areas, balconies and roof tops to exercise and practise our hobbies.

The need to freely breakout to enjoy open-air spaces and connect with nature and neighbours has become more desirable than ever during the pandemic.

But again the virus issue came only to emphasize what is already known though systematically forgotten and ignored, the urge to accelerate the process of incorporating nature in our cities in creative ways.

A house that brings nature back to the city, promoting shared spaces and social dialogue between its residents is what inspired Christos Pavlou Architecture to design the ‘’garden house’’.

The design emphasises the potential for private urban gardens and the microclimates they create to improve living conditions within cities and slow global warming.

Not hiding behind fences and fully glazed on one side, our proposal aims to form a physical continuation of the adjacent public green area.

The house seeks to establish a unified relationship between the neighbourhood, the private garden and the public park.

Urban elements such as building, street and public space are not treated as absolute activities in isolation but as one single homogeneous configuration as the house becomes part of the park and the park is included in the house.

The integration of green areas into the house incorporates the planting of gardens on 60% of the ground floor, the use of green terrace on first floor, the provision of bee-friendly landscapes and 40 kinds of native wildflowers.

All areas inside flow on the outer spaces and are organized around a green central courtyard placed in-between two white cubic volumes.

Making space for nature in the city not only brings beauty to the urban fabric but encourages the return of local bird species and bees maintaining thus urban biodiversity; furthermore it promotes human health and well-being.

The garden house in the city has also been awarded the Cyprus state architecture award 2019, the silver award at the A’ Design award and competition 2020 in Italy, the S.Arch 2020 award (honourable mention) in Tokyo and is a nominee for the European Union- Mies Van Der Rohe awards 2021.

About architizer ‘’The Architizer A+Awards is the largest awards program focused on promoting and celebrating the year’s best architecture and products. Its mission is to nurture the appreciation of meaningful design in the world and champion its potential for a positive impact on everyday life.

Entries are judged by distinguished luminaries from fields as diverse as design, technology, real estate, fashion, and more. Finalists and winners are recognized in as the year’s most influential visionaries online and in print.’’

Garden House Nicosia: Christos Pavlou Architecture, Cyprus images / information from christos pavlou architecture

Location: Nicosia, Cyprus, south east Europe

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Nicosia Residence photo from architects Nicosia Residence

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Another Cypriot building by christos pavlou architecture on e-architect:

Natuzzi Store Limassol Limassol Building

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Website: Nicosia

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