Instead of designing an opaque barricade, the architects came up with a concept for a perforated gateway that would be both secure and ornamental.

The elaborate designs draw inspiration from textile designer William Morris and artist Kara Walker, and are laser-cut into the 10 millimetre-thick steel.

Bureau A also recently worked with students to create a travelling commune inside a collection of shipping containers - see the project here.

Photography is by Federal Studio.

Here's some more text from Bureau A:

The realization of THE PORTAL, the latest design of Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide of BUREAU A, has just been completed. Located in the centre of Geneva, Switzerland. Régis Golay from federal studio has produced some images of the design piece.

Designer’s statement:

NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE

Like many places within the urban fabric the tiny area of intervention was of problematic nature. By the slight retreat of the street it formed a dark entrance close to some of the hot places in Geneva, hidden from direct views. It constituted thus a perfect place to hide and realize some of the things that are not allowed in our institutional life, a perfect nightspot for illegal activities. The portal appeared thus as a problem-resolution sort of project, the sort of project that is best served by the design of a wall with the pragmatic ambition to solve social issues or report them somewhere else. Within the modest size of the intervention it emerged during the short process of design a belief in the utopian decoration claimed by William Morris. The portal wanted to demonstrate the pleasure of designing and fabricating a decorated surface that could scape from the problem solving design formula. The modest utopia in this case would be to replace vandalism and nightlife odours by a naïvely ornamented pleasure. The same ingenuity sincerely believed in the Alice in wonderland effect that transforms a simple door into a magical threshold to be enjoyed on a daily basis. The portal proposes a game of light and shadows, appearance and disappearance through a very classical pattern that has been playfully modified by filling in or emptying the metal surface.

On another angle, the project was confronted to urban and city regulations and official commissions that lack of real competence on historical matters when it comes to intervene on sensitive ancient sites. They tend to find shelter on standards of contemporary recipes and catalogues of possibilities that might or might not be adequate when studied thoroughly. The portal wanted to play around the idea of what is classical and how much the question of contemporaneity needs to be addressed and constitute an issue or not. Manipulating a stereotype pattern borrowed to a traditional French blacksmith the design wanted to address the question of modern craftsmanship as much as the transmission of a certain vernacular classicism in dialogue with our own 2012 culture. The installation of the portal in this context of debate around classical, vernacular and contemporary languages in our city was an attempt to address the absurdity of these debates and place the aesthetic pleasure of design and craftsmanship at the centre of our preoccupations. In a sort of Kara Walker approach (particularly her work on black cut-paper silhouettes in dialogue with folklore traditional images from the south of the United States) the Portal uses the communicative potential of traditional patterns.

'Before I leave this matter of the surroundings of life, I wish to meet a possible objection. I have spoken of machinery being used freely for releasing people from the more mechanical and repulsive part of necessary labour; it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays. And, again, that leads me to my last claim, which is that the material surroundings of my life should be pleasant, generous, and beautiful; that I know is a large claim, but this I will say about it, that if it cannot be satisfied, if every civilized community cannot provide such surroundings for all its members, I do not want the world to go on”

“How We Live and How We Might Live”
William Morris in a lecture of 1884

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Bureau A appeared first on Dezeen.

London designers JamesPlumb present a solo show of their work in Geneva this month, including a three-piece suite made by inserting cast concrete seats between the carved frames of a reclaimed sofa and armchairs.

Called Goodnight Day, the installation at Blancpain Art Contemporain gallery is sealed off from daylight and features lighting by the duo alongside assemblages of rescued furnishings.

The surviving half of a large ornate mirror is combined with a dilapidated chest of drawers while the shades of pendant lamps perch on top of bare wire standard lamps.

JamesPlumb won the retail category at last year's inaugural Inside awards for their Hostem boutique and you can watch an interview that we filmed with them at the award ceremony here.

The exhibtion continues until 17 February.

Here are some more details from the gallery:

Goodnight Day

Galerie Blancpain Art Contemporain and Giancarlo Camerana are proud to present JamesPlumb’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland. Two artists under one name, James Russell & Hannah Plumb will completely transform the traditional white cube gallery for the occasion. Shutting off the space to natural light as they say "Goodnight Day", they will create a unique environment with their signature lighting and assemblage.

The couple welcome the return to exhibiting in a contemporary art gallery – having studied fine art sculpture and resisted the call to define themselves or their work as either "art" or "design". Their emphasis is on one one-off pieces made by hand, and yet their desire is to see the work used and loved day to day. Theirs is a desire to create an experience for the viewer, a journey, an emotion.

Amongst the new work presented, the couple will unveil additions to their acclaimed "Concrete Stitches" series which sees them take broken and abandoned furniture and render it functional again by casting concrete in on and around the frames. For the first time they have created a "suite" that constitutes a three seat sofa, with two accompanying armchairs.

The new assemblage presented continues from their desire to marry apparently disparate fragments into new works that appear as if they could have always existed. Half of a battered yet still ornate mirror frame combines with a shattered set of drawers that are barely able to sustain their own weight.

JamesPlumb’s profile continues to rise having recently won a prestigious Inside award, presented to them at the World Festival of Interiors by an esteemed jury of international judges for their interior design of menswear store Hostem. Other high profile projects include a commission for six sculptural chandeliers at Bloomberg’s London offices, international private interior commissions, and the recently launched "Chalk Room", a discreet and quietly beautiful addition to Hostem.

The pair relish creating interiors and unique commissions – bringing an eye for the unusual and a passion for the timeless. Their interiors have traces of history, but with new stories to tell. Their philosophy suggests that all that we need is often already existing, but without sacrificing our modern expectations of taste, comfort, and luxury.

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Swiss architects Group8 have completed this residential block covered in pink sun screens in Geneva.

Called Coral House, the project has a glazed facade that can be covered by fabric sunshades, which roll up into the window frames when not in use.

The building includes 58 housing units and two floors of commercial space, spread over five storeys and a basement level.

More about Group8 on Dezeen »

Photographs are by Régis Golay, FEDERAL studio.

The information below is from Group8:

The site

The Coral house is located in the Chandieu area, formed by a large urban block surrounded by Rue Giuseppe-Motta, Grand-Pré and Chandieu. The site is accessible by the main road Grand-Pré, this avenue lined with trees, cuts straight though the building block. The future underground parking will be accessible by the entrance of the adjacent building, the Azure center, located on the Grand-Pré road.

This new housing estate takes part of the regeneration of a former industrial site and completes, together with the Bamboo Residence, a large city block. At the intersection of the avenue and the Chandieu road, a public square supplemented by a fountain and a sculpture will be built in collaboration between the artiste Fabric Gygi and the architectural office ADR.

The building

The building consists of 6 floors, including a double attic (duplex apartments) and a single basement level. Coral house offers 58 housing units, from 4 to 6 room flats (kitchen counted as a room). The ground floor and the first floor are dedicated to commercial activities.

The construction aims to high quality standards in terms of space and equipments, as well as construction materials and coating. It also seeks the MINERGIE label, by using optimum insulation for the exterior envelope, and highly efficient technical installations (heating is provided by geothermal heat pumps; double flux air system is distributed through the ceiling – ERV). The use of a high energy standard allowed use to obtain 10 % additional net surface, compared to what was requested by the neighborhood plan.

The façade on the road front is entirely glazed, exposing the living rooms to the outside giving the impression that the building has been cut or like section in a doll house. The clients specifically asked for a building without balconies, the most suited solution capable to give an impression of the exterior was to have sizable sliding windows offering the possibility to open large sections of the façade. In the courtyard, each room is indicated by a window perforated in a roughcast wall with exterior insulation. The internal organization of the flats has been developed as typological system, which puts the hall in the center of the plan, allowing it to distribute all the rooms. The volume of the attic is designed as an object on a pedestal, its aluminum materialization tends to blend in with the sky.

Structural work elements

The structural system was sized not only to ensure stability of the building – including all seismic measurements-, but also to ensure a greater sound insulation between apartments but also between the apartments and the common areas. Therefore all bearing walls and slabs generally have a greater thickness than needed for regular stability requirements of the buildings.

All thermal insulation in the facades and roof has been sized to meet the MINERGIE label values, with a clear aim to reduce energy consumption and lower costs for consumers.

All windows in the courtyard were designed as «breathable» windows, meaning: coated aluminum frames with thermal breaks, last generation double glazing, with an additional third glass placed on the exterior in order to provide a ventilated space with a motorized window shade.

Heating and ventilation

The production of the heating and hot water is produced by a heat pumps supplied by geothermal boreholes. The apartment heating is a low temperature floor heating. The coils embedded in the concrete subflooring are fed by a dispenser located in the lobby, which modulates the temperature in each room based on their exposure or their size. In summer, the same network of coils can be supplied with cold water for cooling of the premises.

The ventilation is a type of «double flow system», fresh air (filtered, dusted, moisturized if necessary, heated) is prepared in the central and then fed into each room through a system in the ceiling located above the sanitary and hall. Meanwhile stale air, taken through the sanitary, is returned to central, where its heat is recovered by a heat exchanger, before being discharged.

This way, the air quality inside the housing is guaranteed at any time, without obligation to open the windows, and energy loss by ventilation is minimized.

CoralHouse Housing estate Area “Chandieu”, Petit-Saconnex 70-70D, Rue du Grand-Pré 1202 Geneva lot 5028 City of Geneva

Programme — Net Area
Housing: 8’450sqm
Commercial premises: 1’930sqm
Basement: 1’029sqm
Total of 58 housing units Commercial premises on the ground and first floors Energy standard Minergie®
Client: A&A Real Estate Grand-Pré SA

Consultants
Project management: PBM Planungs und Baumanagement AG
Civil Engineer: Walt+Galmarini AG, Perreten & Milleret
M&E Engineer: SB Technique
Sanitary Engineer: Mike Humbert ingénieur conseil
Electricity Engineer: MAB-Ingénierie SA
Building Engineering Physics: Basler & Hoffmann Holding AG

Statistical values
Net area: 11’492sqm
Built volume: 38’100m3

See also:

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Cherokee by Pugh + Scarpa	Altis Belém Hotel by Risco	Step Up on Fifth by Pugh + Scarpa

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Designer Natascha Madeiski and architect Alexander Graef used cut-out paper to create this wintry window display for Septieme Etage boutique in Geneva.

Called Naked City Landscape, the installation is an adaptation of paper lanterns the pair presented earlier in the year and depicts buildings and snowy patterns.

More stories about paper on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from Madeiski and Graef:

UK based designer Natascha Madeiski has teamed up with architect Alexander Graef for this year's Christmas display at Septieme Etage boutique in Geneva.

The display utilises full scale moments and situations of their 'Naked City' range of paper lamps, which were first shown at Rossanna Orlandi at last year's fuorisalone and are currently being exibited at Triennale Design Museum in Milan and 'Enlightenment' exhibition in Rotterdam.

The display as well as the lamps are made from Fedrigoni Pergamenata paper using pure ECF cellulose with FSC certification, chosen for its translucence, robustness and environmental performance. Lamps are hand made to order and come in two sizes, 120cm x 70cm x 50 cm and 40cm x 70cm x 50cm.

See also:

.

Lamp shades by Yu Jordy Fu	Dezeen's top ten: paper products	More design for retail

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and Alexander Graef appeared first on Dezeen.

Swiss architects group8 with Guscetti & Tournier structural engineering are building this aviary in the Bois de la Bâtie public park in Geneva, Switzerland.

Located on an island, the aviary consists of a concrete roof supported by tree-like metal columns, which also form perches for the birds.

More about group8 on Dezeen in our previous story, New Andermat.

The following information is from group8:

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Aviary

In the history of zoos and animal Parks, the aviary certainly holds a particular place. Frei Otto’s Munich Aviary and Cedric Price’s in the London zoo are two of the most significant and complex examples. Aviaries are about verticality and flying, they are about three-dimensional space, they are about defining spaces for birds, not for humans.

Two more approaches are essential to the design of this peculiar house: the difficult ethical issue of caging, putting animals in a container partially for the pleasure of the visitors, and that of creating a nature-simulator in order to reproduce some kind of natural-like environment.

These different points have initiated the base of the reflections for the design of a new aviary in Geneva. The first question was where to position the new 'building' on the site.

We chose to install the aviary on an existing small, artificial island to limit access to visitors. The visitors have a strict, limited pathway to go through whereas the birds flow freely in the island, either in the interior or the exterior of the new aviary.

To avoid any kind of determined and one way view of the birds - any central view giving a direct approach to the birds - we have worked on a free non-synthetic form, a volume difficult to apprehend and a sinusoidal path for the visitors.

The final shape is constructed from an abstract analysis of the existing trees surrounding the site. This first analysis has given the shape of the slab which will roof the birds. The slab is then taken 10m high to constitute an abstract roof.

To support the concrete slab, we have imagined and worked out a solution of tree-like pillars. These tree-like pillars function as space-structuring as well as the support for the birds.

An important static and engineering work has been done in order to build up the structure calculations. Following structural experimentations initiated by Gaudi and perfected by Frei Otto, the calculation method has consisted of going from intuition and free form to rationalism and modularity.

This has been done mainly by model analysis. Navigating constantly between these two parameters has been crucial to the project. Every one of the 16 pillars is unique, creating thus a very precise and fragile static equilibrium following the polygon of forces, as a bird standing on a small branch.

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structural engineering appeared first on Dezeen.