As the first phase in a wider redevelopment programme, the mixed-use complex is intended to signify the presence of the town to passing drivers. At present a number of oversized shopping malls are the only thing visible from the motorway, so the architects wanted to create a visual reference for the town centre.

Buildings are to be arranged around a series of grassy courtyards and will contain shops, offices and a new hotel. Surface parking areas that currently occupy the site will be relocated underground, freeing up space for pedestrian pathways.

MVRDV and de Alzua+ are progressing the plans alongside development corporation ADIM Nord. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2015.

MVRDV has completed a number of projects in recent months, including a shop and office complex disguised as an old farmhouse and a public library inside a glass pyramid. See more architecture by MVRDV.

Here's a project description from MVRDV:

MVRDV win Competition with 'The Beam', Marking the Urban Renewal of Villeneuve d'Ascq, France

Development corporation ADIM Nord with MVRDV and de Alzua+ have been announced the winners of an urban renewal competition in the French town of Villeneuve d'Ascq, beating four other entries. The masterplan for a crucial site in the town centre adjacent to an inner city motorway, is the starting point of a wider regeneration of the area's public space. An iconic building, The Beam, will hover over the motorway signalling urban renewal and acting as visual reference point for the town's centre. A hotel, offices and retail space, totalling 15.000 m2, will be built on the site of a former petrol station, with construction expected to start in 2015.

Villeneuve d'Ascq is a new town located near Lille in the very north of France. The Beam will be icon of a larger urban generation effort in the town centre which is currently characterised by parking lots, large volumes and undefined green spaces. On an urban level the masterplan aims at a more sustainable form of development by densifying the town centre and adding identity and diversity to the site. The creation of pedestrian zones, and the demarcation and connection of the existing green spaces together also form part of the plan.

The parking spaces on the main square will be relocated into a 274 space underground car park on the new site. The adjacent buildings, which face away from the site will be extended to form urban blocks; each with a green patio at its centre. At the corner of the inner city motorway and the service road leading towards the main square of Villeneuve d'Ascq, The Beam will create an address for the town centre on the motorway.

The site, one of the few places visible from this sunken dual-carriageway, allows the town centre to be visible to drivers passing by. The project is currently under development and will contain offices, a hotel and some retail space with a total area of around 15,000 m2, and the underground car park offering 274 parking spaces. The team ADIM with MVRDV and co-architect Jérôme de Alzua beat four competitors in a competition organised by Commune de Villeneuve d'Ascq.

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and de Alzua+ appeared first on Dezeen.

Containing just five suites and a cafe, the small concrete hotel sits beside the seafront in the small fishing village and was designed to give each guest a different view of the surrounding archipelago.

"We planned the building to be recognised as a single mass as one approaches, yet we wanted the five units to be independent and private," AND's senior researcher Lee, Kyoung Tae told Dezeen. "The intention has resulted in a building form that reminds you of fingers pointing at the archipelago, or a sea creature like an octopus."

The entire structure appears as a solid mass of concrete, including the balconies. Windows sit in deep recesses, revealing the thickness of the walls.

"The monolithic quality of concrete reflects the architectural concept well," said Lee. "Also, the pattern left on the surface after taking off the formwork gives the building an organic quality."

Guest rooms inside the three-storey building are arranged over five split levels and each suite comes with a balcony and a small kitchen.

The hotel is one of several planned additions to the village intended to encourage tourism.

South Korean studio AND is based in Seoul. Past projects include the cedar-clad Villa Topoject and the Skinspace art studio with a wall of wooden scales.

See more architecture in South Korea »

Photography is by Kim, Yong Gwan.

Above: concept diagram

Here's a project description from AND:

Aggrenad

Sea + Archipelago

The site sits in front of the sea where the famous sea battle between Korea and Japan took place in the 16th century, which caused the return of General Lee Sun Shin back to the Korean navy. There still are attempts to search the remains of the historic Turtle Ship in the sea.

Above: site plan

While listening to the famous story from the client, the winding coastline and the varying water level of the archipelago create the continuously changing landscape. The small islands are like buildings and the sea is like streets and squares.

Above: ground floor plan

Mass + Individual

Unlike other well-known beaches in the island, the site is located in a small fishing village slightly off from the major tourist area. The residents of the village mostly work in the fishing industry and have long been living in the area for generations. Recently, there have been changes in the village. The town plans to construct the Battle of Chilchunryang Memorial Park and a beach to attract more tourists.

Above: first floor plan

Within these changes the owner plans to build a small Guesthouse. Soon, the site will be a place where the public (mass) visits and the memories are accumulated. Isn’ it better to offer individual frames of the landscape for them rather than to offer a monotonous scene like a souvenir photograph? How shall we construct an architectural device that produces different images of the same place?

Above: second floor plan

Aggregation + Monad

The building is formed like how fingers are branched out from a hand forming different parts. It is the aggregation of unique rooms, yet at the same time, it is an organic monad. Each unit is cantilevered out towards the sea as if fingers are pointing at the nearby islands. This allows each unit to frame the surrounding landscape in a unique way. This three story building is consisted of five rooms and a small cafe, and the rooms stacked in five split levels. The floor and the ceiling of each unit are stretched out toward the different directions, and at the end of each unit is a small balcony, which opens up toward the sea and the sky.

Above: front elevation

Project Name: Aggrenad
Design: AND
Construction: Kim, Dong Shik
Location: Geojesi, Gyeongsangnamdo, Korea
Site: 433.00m2
Construction Area: 121.26m2
Gross Area: 198.55m2
Floors: 3
Structure: RC
Materials: Exposed Concrete

Above: north elevation

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by AND appeared first on Dezeen.

Nest and Cave House overlooks the sea in the Opatija Riviera, where houses typically follow a vernacular style with gabled profiles and clay roof tiles, but Idis Turato wanted to create a building with more of a dominance over the hillside.

"The main question is how to control the space encompassed; and subsequently how to develop selective control of encompassed space," Turato says, explaining his concept to frame parts of the landscape using architecture.

The irregular angle of the cantilever divides the two storeys of the house into two distinct volumes. The ground floor is a rugged concrete building set into the lawn, while the steel frame of the upper level is coated with white cladding panels that help to create a lightweight structure.

An angled chimney acts as a lightwell for a central staircase, which sits at the meeting point of the two floors and connects living and dining rooms on the top floor with bedrooms downstairs.

We recently published proposals for a wine museum that projects from the side of a mountain, which prompted a few readers to question if cantilevers are old news.

Other cantilevers we've featured include a periscope-like office building and a museum at a Celtic burial mound.

See all our stories about cantilevers »

Here's a project description from architect Iva Marčetić:

Nest and Cave House
Idis Turato

The hinterland of the Opatija Riviera in Croatia is dotted with villas (built within a century and a half). Their upper, front side reveals nothing but entrances beyond which we can only imagine their spaciousness.

Their scale and relation to the bay are entirely dependent on the seafront slope (perhaps, it is the tension arising from the assumption of something hidden what gives the spatial frame of Opatija’s hinterland its appeal).

Although the Nest and Cave remains typologically and morphologically true to the surrounding space as a whole, it develops its "hidden" side through the dialectics of domination over and subordination to the landscape.

So, the house and the place it renders are not structured solely by the slope onto which they are built (as it is the case with most villas in Opatija). Instead, it actively constructs the landscape and intertwines with it by laying down the ground level (landscape) and by placing on it an upper object which hovers above as a displaced level.

Therefore, the house consists of an entrenched concrete bunker (the sleeping area) on which a steel spatial grid structure is placed and which elongates into a 17 meter long console.

Despite it being constructed within a reductive registry of functions, with only two structural elements and with its apparent division into the sleeping and living area, the house creates a wondrous, ever shifting experience and interspaces.

This is achieved by a simple dislocation of the upper segment in relation to the lower one and by inscribing it into the depth of the parcel.

Above: entrance axo diagrams - click above for larger image

The dislocated upper part and its hypertrophic console express, by alternating the shadow and the hidden with openness and hospitality, the quintessential tension of a Mediterranean house: the battle of the sun and the shadow. The Nest and Cave house becomes a reinterpretation of its heritage by achieving a full form via projecting the object (the shadow) and opening the void in the body (landscape).

Above: space usage plan diagrams - click above for larger image

The console leaves behind a shadow which (depending on the time of day) gives volume to the living area (“the heart of the house”, as the author calls it) and, by alternating the intersection of its axes (as much as the angle of the sun will allow it), it shifts around thus constantly creating yet another intimate area of the house.

Above: lower level plan - click above for larger image

Through its fenestration facing away from the road and surrounding structures and by carefully framing the landscape that penetrates and dictates the depth or flatness of the interior, the visually (and statically) dominant white shape (the aluminum covered steel grid) invites the Kvarner Bay inside.

Above: upper level plan - click above for larger image

Idis Turato, the architect, having to face such a dominant landscape, attempts to explain his raison d'être behind it in the words of Buckminster Fuller,: "(...) The main question is how to control the space compassed; and subsequently how to develop selective control of compassed space (...)" How to simultaneously capture broadness, enable intimacy, while continuously standing on the edge in front of unobstructed views?

Above: roo plan - click above for larger image

Above: section - click above for larger image

The view of the house and the view from the house are in a constant clash of inclusion and exclusion. Beneath someone's nest and cave we are able to observe the sculptural relationship between the landscape and the house (the other place).

Above: section - click above for larger image

On the other hand, when being inside it, we become beneficiaries of witnessing the subliminal beauty enabled by the controlled landscape frames - carefully planned axes and angles successfully separate the "initial resources from the final product" *.

Above: section - click above for larger image

The control over a spatial frame allows for "passionate uncertainties of thought", regardless of whether we are the observers or the users and of which story we are telling.

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by Idis Turato appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Mauro Turin initially came up with the designs as an imaginary project for a page in Swiss design magazine Hochparterre. "The space is given to architects for a dream of something that could be interesting, or could reveal some parts of an area or idea," said Turin's collaborator Martine Laprise.

Turin chose to design a wine museum dedicated to the historic vineyard terraces, which date back to the eleventh century and step down the side of the landscape to meet Lake Geneva on the western border of the country.

The architect explains how he wanted to create something that would not only tell the story of the World Heritage Site, but also create a landmark that would attract tourists from all around the world. A museum that "offers a walk in the air, allowing an unforgettable experience of Lavaux, Lake Geneva and the Alps could be the answer," he says.

After capturing the attention of the local press and politicians, the architects are now in discussions to develop the building for construction.

Other extreme cantilevers on Dezeen include a glass viewing platform over a glacial valley in Canada and a ski jump in Norway.

Above: site plan - click above for larger image

See all our stories about cantilevers »

See all our stories about museums »

Above: section - click above for larger image

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Mauro Turin Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

As the home to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the Busan Cinema Centre sandwiches a 4000-seat outdoor cinema between the two halves of the building, while the column-free roof measures 85 metres from end to end.

"Once we build architecture like aircraft wings we will no longer need columns," Coop Himmelb(l)au Principal Wolf D.Prix told Dezeen. "The cantilevered part of the roof with its 85 meters is twice as long as one wing of the Airbus 380."

LED lights glow from behind the canopy's glass underside, creating a rainbow of colours over the heads of visitors and guests arriving across the public square at the front of the complex.

A funnel-like structure punctures the roof on one side, while a ramp spirals around it to create a red carpet route into the reception hall in the south-eastern block.

A triangulated metal lattice clads this column, concealing a cafe at ground floor level and a staircase leading to a bar and restaurant above.

An indoor cinema and theatre are contained within the north-western block and are stacked on top of one another.

"The basic concept of this project was the discourse about the overlapping of open and closed spaces and of public and private areas," said Prix. "While the movie theatres are located in a mountain-like building, the centre's public space is shared between an outdoor cinema and a huge reception area."

Prix recently caused a stir by launching an attack on this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, claiming it's "no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture."

See all our stories about Coop Himmelb(l)au » 

Photography is by Duccio Malagamba.

Here's a project description from Coop Himmelb(l)au:

Busan Cinema Center / Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea (2005 - 2012)

The Busan Cinema Center – A multifunctional urban plaza

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s design for the Busan Cinema Center and home of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) provides a new intersection between public space, cultural programs, entertainment, technology and architecture creating a vibrant landmark within the urban landscape.

LED saturated outdoor roof elements acting as a virtual sky connect building-objects and plaza-zones into a continuous, multifunctional public urban space.

Media, technology, entertainment and leisure are merged in an open-architecture of changeable and tailored event experiences. The result is a responsive and changing space of flows acting as an urban catalyst for cultural exchange and transformation.

Project Description

The concept envisions an urban plaza of overlapping zones including an Urban Valley, a Red Carpet Zone, a Walk of Fame and the BIFF Canal Park. The urban plaza is formed by building and plaza elements sheltered by two large roofs that are enabled with computer programmed LED outdoor ceiling surfaces. The larger of the roofs includes a column-free cantilever of 85 meters over a multifunctional Memorial Court event plaza. The urban zones of the complex are formed by individual and recognizable building objects placed below the outdoor roofs. The building objects contain theater, indoor and outdoor cinemas, convention halls, office spaces, creative studios and dining areas in a mixture of sheltered and linked indoor and outdoor public spaces. The design of these spaces supports flexible, hybrid functionality that can be used both during the annual festival period and day-to-day use without interruption.

The urban zones defined by functional surfaces in plan are further articulated in a sectional dialogue between stone-clad “ground” forms of the Cinema Mountain and BIFF Hill, and the metal and LED clad “sky” elements of the roofs. The materiality of the building objects differentiates the spaces and articulates the architectural concept. Through their shape, placement and materiality, the various parts create a dynamic and informal tension between the ground and the roof.

Architecture and Cinema – the Main Roof

The dynamic LED lighting surface covering the undulating ceilings of the outdoor roof canopies gives the Busan Cinema Center its symbolic and representative iconographic feature. Artistic lighting programs tailored to events of the BIFF or the Municipality of Busan can be created by visual artists and displayed across the ceiling in full motion graphics, creating a lively urban situation at night, but also visible during the day.

Imbedded in the architecture the lighting surfaces serve as a communication platform for the content of the Busan Cinema Center. Light as art, which is at the very nature of cinema, creates a unique and memorable atmosphere for the public urban plaza and architecture of the BCC.

Double Cone, Café and Roof Restaurant

The Double Cone is the symbolic landmark entrance element to the Busan Cinema Center and serves as the connective element between the Cinema Mountain and the BIFF Hill. Designed as a steel web drum on top of a series of radial concrete fin walls, the Double Cone also is the only vertical structural support for the large cantilevered roof acting as a large, singular column.

During day-to-day use, the ground level of the Double Cone contains a public café with outdoor seating, and the upper level links to a world-class restaurant, bar and lounge within the roof volume with views overlooking the APEC park and river beyond.

During the festival the Double Cone marks the Red Carpet Zone and VIP entrance to the “Busan Cinema Center”, and can be used as a pre-event space for VIP’s on the ground level, or as a pre-staging area for transfer to the Red Carpet procession to the outdoor cinema stage, or to the upper levels of the Cinema Mountain or BIFF Hill foyers via the red carpet spiralling ramp and bridges suspended from the roof.

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image 

Cinema Mountain

The Cinema Mountain is a multifunctional building containing both a 1,000 seat multifunctional theater with fly-tower and full backstage support, and a three-screen multiplex comprised of a 400-seat and two 200-seat Cinemas. Separate entrances and foyers are provided for theater and cinema respectively, however the foyers and circulation are designed so that they can be combined depending on operational preferences.

Complete structural separation between the theater and the cinemas ensures optimal noise isolation for the theater space, which is designed as a first-class, flexible hall with seating on two levels and optimal sight lines and adjustable acoustics. A flexible proscenium type stage with side stages and fly-tower accommodates movable acoustical towers used to close down the stage volume for concerts and operatic theater, but can be easily moved for theater, musicals and other staged events. The stage includes a fore-stage lift that can provide additional seating, an orchestra pit or stage extension as preferred. Horizontally tracking curtains along the walls of the audience chamber can be hidden or deployed to adjust the acoustics of the space.

Second floor plan - click above for larger image 

Urban Valley / Outdoor Cinema

The Urban Valley combines a flexible flat ground surface and large stepped tribunes of the BIFF Hill as seating for a 4,000 seat Outdoor Cinema. The Valley is sheltered by a large sculpted outdoor roof with an LED ceiling surface and is oriented towards a flexible stage and screen area on the outside of the Eastern façade of the Cinema Mountain. Accommodation for purpose built projection screens, stages, loudspeaker and lighting arrays are provided allowing for exterior performances to share the interior theater’s backstage facilities.

Third floor plan - click above for larger image 

BIFF Hill

The BIFF Hill is a ground surface formation creating the tribune seating space of the outdoor cinema and accommodating the concourse, the convention hall, the BIFF-center, the BIFF-offices and the visual media center. Given the flexible organization of the ground plan, it can be easily adapted to the different requirements during festival and day-to-day usage.

Fifth floor plan - click above for larger image 

Red Carpet Zone

During the BIFF festival, or for other special events, the Red Carpet Zone is created by a special drop-off and media-event processional entrance at the Double Cone entrance element. A red carpet can be extended from the Double Cone event space and photo position to the south through the park and along a pier. VIP’s can enter from limousines along the street edge, or arrive by boat from the pier. Various options are provided for the red carpet circulation from the Double Cone to the different event and performance spaces depending on the scenario preferred, including a vibrant spiralling ramp from the staging level of the event space to the VIP restaurant lounge of the upper roof or to the BIFF Hill and Cinema Mountain on upper levels of the foyers. During non-event periods the Red Carpet Zone acts as the symbolic entryway into the Busan Cinema Center complex.

Seventh floor plan - click above for larger image

Memorial Court & Walk of Fame

The Walk of Fame contains the Memorial Court as a public plaza. Our proposal is to imbed sources in the ground surface projecting holographic images of the stars, directors, producers and the like who have been made a part of the Walk of Fame. Their avatars inhabit the memorial court as permanent residents; however their programs can be changed to show variable aspects of information over time or in relation to specific BIFF- events.

During non-event times the Memorial Court is used as a grand entryway to the Cinema Mountain and contains an outdoor dining area of the Double Cone Café overlooking the park and water beyond.

Due to the column-free sheltered roof above, the public plaza of the Memorial Court is a multi-functional event space that can be utilized for BIFF- or Busan City- events without interrupting the day-to-day activities of the Busan Cinema Center, or simultaneously with other events in the additional spaces.

Long section 1 - click above for larger image

BIFF Canal Park

The BIFF Canal Park is proposed as an extension of the open network of public programs into the planned riverside park, and as a linking element between the river and the cinema complex. A new pedestrian footbridge is proposed to connect the Busan Cinema Center site with the park across the Boulevard to the South connecting the Double Cone with the APEC Park. An additional outdoor event ‘bowl’ is proposed surrounded by canals that can provide public and private boat access to the project site. Space for a future extension of the Busan Cinema Center project is proposed as an island among the canals, further integrating the cultural functions of the Busan Cinema Center project with the surrounding public space and landscape environment.

Long section 2 - click above for larger image

Competition (1st Prize): 11/2005

Start of Planning: 01/2007
Start of Construction: 10/2008
Opening: 29/09/2011
Completion: 2012

Cross section 1 - click above for larger image

Site Area: 32,100 m²
Net Floor Area (interior spaces): 51,067 m²
Gross Floor Area (interior spaces): 57,981 m²
Built-up Area: 10,005 m² (without roofs)
Cubage: 349,708 m³

Cross section 2 - click above for larger image

Building Costs: about EUR 100 Mio
Costs per m²: 1.725 EUR/m² (excl. exterior spaces)

Cross section 3 - click above for larger image

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by Coop Himmelb(l)au appeared first on Dezeen.