Located beside the Seine to the south of the city, the Évry Water-Treatment Plant was first established in the 1970s. Following a design competition in 2003, AWP developed a new masterplan for the site, adding four new buildings and a surrounding landscape of trees and gardens that will all be accesible to visitors.

Each of the buildings has a prefabricated concrete structure, with timber screens wrapping the upper sections to soften the industrial appearance of the facades. These screens surround large external ducts, as well as a number of balcony corridors.

The smallest of the four buildings functions as an entrance and exhibition centre for tourists, who will be able to tour the plant when it opens to the public later this year.

We've featured a few water-treatment plants designed by architects on Dezeen, including a combined garden and plant in Germany and a floating island that purifies river water.

See more industrial buildings »
See more architecture in France »

Photography is by Anna Positano.

Here's a project description from AWP:

Water-Treatment Plant, Évry

Construction and renovation of four industrial buildings and a water park

Located on the Seine river front, close to a key metropolitan route (the Francilienne), Évry water depuration plant is a major infrastructural element that is at once symbolic and highly functional, reflecting environmental, technical and urban considerations.

The first plant was built in the 70s and the aim of this renovation is to increase and optimise its capacity. The urban dimension of the equipment has guided us towards a strategy of opening-up and hospitality. Previously rejected and hidden, this infrastructure is now relocated on the urban scene, so as to have a public role and to become symbolic. Regularly open to visitors, this equipment will become both a landmark and an experiential water filtering park.

The formal strategy consists of a main axis along the river where gardens, new buildings and tanks are located. Buildings will be renovated and their façades completely redesigned as urban scale filters.

Location: Évry, France
Client: Communauté d'agglomération d'Évry
Architects: AWP (leading architect) + Ithaques

Team AWP: Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, Alessandra Cianchetta (partners), Miguel La Parra Knapman, Joseph Jabbour, David Perez (project team)

Engineering: Bonnard & Gardel (leading engineer)
Net surface: 6000 sqm (buildings)
Budget: €42 million
Competition: 2003
Delivery: 2012

The post Water-Treatment Plant
by AWP appeared first on Dezeen.

News: America's largest bicycle sharing scheme will begin this month in New York City, with 6000 bikes available to rent from docking stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The scheme, dubbed Citi Bike after its multi-million-dollar sponsorship from Citibank, will invite commuters and tourists to take advantage of New York's 700 miles of cycle lanes.

The May launch will see bikes placed in 330 docking stations across the city, spanning from 59th Street in Manhattan down to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.

City officials plan to eventually expand the scheme to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Thousands of New Yorkers have already signed up as Citi Bike members, paying an annual fee of $95 for access to unlimited rides of 45 minutes.

Cyclists who don't have a membership will be able to purchase a 24-hour pass for about $10, or a seven-day pass for $25, allowing an unlimited number of half-hour trips.

The three-speed aluminium-frame Citi Bike has front and rear LEDs that flash when the wheels are in motion and an adjustable seatpost to accommodate riders of different heights.

Both the bikes and docking stations are part of a system called Bixi, which was first developed by French Canadian designer Michel Dallaire as a cycle-share scheme for Montreal.

A Citi Bike app will also help cyclists to locate their nearest docking station, plan their route on a map and find local shops, services and restaurants.

The launch follows the successful roll-out of bike-share schemes in cities including London, Washington D.C., Paris and Barcelona, while Chicago and San Francisco are both preparing to launch their own schemes later this year.

French designer Philippe Starck recently unveiled a prototype bicycle crossed with a scooter for a free cycle scheme in Bordeaux, France.

Other city bikes we've featured include an folding electric bicycle by auto maker BMW and another folding bike with full-sized wheels – see all bicycles on Dezeen.

The post New York launches
bike-share scheme appeared first on Dezeen.

First established in the 1940s to accommodate refugees from the Lake Huleh area of northern Palestine, the 19-hectare Nahr el-Bared refugee camp was almost entirely destroyed during the 2007 conflict between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the extremist group Fatah Al-Islam. Thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and seek temporary refuge at another nearby camp.

In 2008 the United Nations Relief & Works Agency embarked on an ambitious project to replace the buildings that had been destroyed. Working alongside the community-based Nahr el-Bared Reconstruction Commission, the team developed an eight-phase masterplan for 5000 houses, 1500 shops and six school complexes.

The reconstruction includes the replacement of all infrastructure for the camp, including water and sewage networks as well as electricity.

The agency has also been able to increase the amount of public space around the buildings from 11 to 35 per cent by introducing a system of independent structures that can be extended up to four storeys.

The first families began returning to their homes in 2011 and the first three completed schools opened to students later the same year.

The Nahr el-Bared reconstruction is one of 20 projects on the shortlist for the Aga Khan Award 2013. Five or six finalists will be revealed later this year and will compete to win the $1 million prize. Other projects on the shortlist include an Islamic cemetery in Austria and a museum of paper in China.

Here's a short project description from the Aga Khan Award organisers:

Reconstructing a camp of 27,000 refugees which was 95% destroyed during the 2007 war involved a planning effort with the entire community, followed by a series of eight construction phases. Limited land and the exigency of recreating physical and social fabrics were primary considerations. Established in 1948, the camp followed the extended-family pattern and building typology of the refugees' villages. In a layout where roads provided light and ventilation, the goal was to increase non-built areas from 11% to 35%. It was achieved by giving each building an independent structural system allowing for vertical expansion up to four floors on a reduced footprint.

Location: Tripoli, Lebanon (West Asia)
Architect: United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), Nahr el-Bared Reconstruction Commission for Civil Action and Studies (NBRC)
Client: United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), Beirut, Lebanon
Completed: 2011
Design: 2008
Site size: 190,000 sqm

The post Reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared
Refugee Camp appeared first on Dezeen.

Surrounded by woodland, the Mas d'Enric Penitentiary occupies a sprawling site that is invisible to the nearby town, so the architects planned a series of low-rise cell blocks surrounded by large outdoor spaces.

"The Mas d'Enric Penitentiary is a pioneering socially-inclusive prison like no other, which reclaims the penitentiary as an object of architectural design," explains AiB architect Roger Paez. "It has the potential to spark a debate on how architecture relates to social betterment."

The chiselled rooftops were added by AiB and PSP as a reference to the surrounding topography and are coloured in different shades of green.

The sloping topography also comes into play in the courtyards, where stepped levels differentiate spaces, rather than fenced partitions. The architects expect this to give flexibility between spaces, but also to create a "non-oppressive environment".

Each courtyard borders the perimeter of the site, giving prisoners a view out towards the woodland, and prison cells also face out towards the trees.

Another modern prison design on Dezeen is a competition-winning scheme for a new state prison on a Danish island. Meanwhile, a number of prison conversions have taken place recently, including a boutique hotel in the Netherlands and a civic and cultural centre in Palencia, Spain. See more stories about prisons.

Photography is by Jose Hevia.

Here's some more information from AiB:

Mas d'Enric Penitentiary, El Catllar, Tarragona
A i B arquitectes + Estudi PSP Arquitectura

I

The prison is an uncomfortable institution and its architecture is often subjugated to technocratic criteria. This servility forces the prison out of the sociocultural realm where it belongs, thus erasing it from public discourse. The invisibility of the penitentiary as an institution demonstrates an unresolved contradiction underlying contemporary society. We intend to explore this contradiction through architecture.

A prison must respond to the demand for discipline (confinement) and liberty (reinsertion) at the same time. Within this complex framework, architecture can make use of its ability to synthetically articulate problems that seem contradictory to become an active agent in resolving the paradox of the contemporary penitentiary.

Based on our experience with the Mas d'Enric penitentiary, we claim the prison as an object of critical design and we reclaim architecture's role in multiplying possibilities as opposed to limiting them.

II

Given very strict programmatic requirements, a series of decisions forges a link between the utilitarian and the conceptual: the construction of an appropriable, non-oppressive environment; the introduction of a maximum number of vectors of exteriority; and the generation of open space that is central both formally and conceptually.

Three keys aspects permeate the entire design process and serve as the conceptual horizons that articulate the project:

Totality: Tackling the problem of designing a total environment.
Vibration: Introducing spatial and perceptual diversity
Openness: Celebrating openness in the heart of detention.

III

Both typological and topological design strategies are central to the Mas d'Enric Penitentiary project.

Typological: We aimed to move beyond conventional modern prison architecture by creating a revised mat-building: the prison is extensive in plan and low to the ground. Contiguity eliminates residual spaces between buildings. It also allows for organizational flexibility while generating exterior spaces in the form of courtyards on different scales.

Topological: The topographical adaptation allows for a gentle integration with the terrain. It creates spatial variety while allowing for the absence of any kind of interior fencing. Distant views of the mountains are made possible by an articulation of the ground level. Views of the adjacent woodlands improve conditions in both the cells and the courtyards.

The continuity of the roof works on both a typological and topological level, creating morphological unity for the building and establishing relationships with the large scale of the landscape. The confinement required by the program is not monumentalised; on the contrary, the prison's architecture faces up to the, perhaps impossible, challenge of creating a genuine home and hearth.

Above: location plan

Above: site plan - click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: site sections - click for larger image

Above: courtyard elevations - click for larger image

The post Mas d’Enric Penitentiary
by AiB and PSP appeared first on Dezeen.

The 842-metre-long bridge connects Abu Dhabi Island with the mainland and comprises a sequence of concrete waves that curve up and down from the water to reach a height of 64 metres. A four-lane highway runs across and the two road decks are cantilevered from the sides of the structure.

Zaha Hadid Architects completed the project in 2010 - read more in our earlier story.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers' website.

The post Sheikh Zayed Bridge by Zaha Hadid
photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.