Bonetti/Kozerski designs flagship location for Pace Gallery in New York

Volcanic stone, grey metal and large stretches of glass form the facades of this eight-storey building in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood, which serves as the global headquarters for Pace Gallery.

Open to the public, the building is located in Manhattan on 25th Street, just steps away from the High Line park. It serves as the headquarters for Pace Gallery, founded in 1960 by art dealer Arne Glimcher and now run by his son, Marc. Pace has seven locations worldwide, including galleries in London, Hong Kong and Seoul.

The new flagship location was designed by New York firm Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture. Encompassing 75,000 square feet (6,968 square metres), the building contains galleries, storage, a library and event space.

"The building has been designed as an integrated and dynamic space for artists, collectors, curators, gallery-goers and Pace's international team alike," the team said in a statement.

Five of the eight storeys are held in a chunky box with a gridded facade. The upper levels step back, forming a crown of sorts with a tall glazed wall. The team carved away the sixth level to create an outdoor terrace and exhibition space that is open on two sides, enabling sweeping views of the city.

Facades are wrapped in volcanic stone and grey aluminium panels that were carefully fabricated.

"Both the volcanic stone facade panels and the aluminium side panels were pre-assembled under precise factory conditions, resulting in very high-quality control and performance for thermal, acoustical and water barrier factors," the gallery said.

The building contains column-free galleries that allow for "a broad range of installation styles and artistic media". The largest gallery, located at the ground level, encompasses 3,600 square feet (334 square metres). It features 18-foot (5.4-metre) ceilings, a polished concrete floor and an oversized pivot door that opens directly onto the street.

The ground floor also holds a 10,000-volume research library, which is open to the public by appointment.

Above the ground level, the team created galleries of varying sizes, including outdoor exhibition areas. High ceilings, large windows and white oak flooring are found throughout the building.

The lighting scheme was designed by Arnold Chan of Isometrix Lighting Design, a London studio known for its work in galleries and museums. A mix of natural and artificial light provides illumination that is tailored to each space.

"Hidden fixtures deliver ambient light that can be adjusted in terms of intensity and colour temperature," the team said.

"This is combined with a sophisticated system of spot and flood lighting that is adjustable within the same parameters, allowing for an extremely high level of flexibility and customisation."

The building has been designed to achieve LEED Silver certification from the US Green Building Council.

In September, the gallery celebrated the building's opening with a concert on the sixth-floor terrace by British rock band The Who.

Other art-related buildings in New York include Lisson Gallery by Studio MDA and Studio Christian Wassmann, which features exposed structural elements, and the SO-IL designed Tina Kim Gallery, which features a corbelled brick entrance. The design gallery The Future Perfect recently opened an exhibition space featuring a staircase designed by David Chipperfield.

Photography is by Thomas Loof.

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Project credits:

Architect: Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture DPC
Project team: Enrico Bonetti AIA (co-design partner), Dominic Kozerski RIBA (co-design partner), Matteo Fraticelli (associate in charge/project architect)
Lighting design: Arnold Chan, Isometrix Lighting Design
Structural engineer: WSP
Mechanical engineer: ADS
Construction manager: AECOM Tishman
Owner and developer: Weinberg Properties

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Waterfrom Design builds tea house with a basement hidden beneath a water pool

Architecture studio Waterfrom Design has completed the Tea Community Centre, a multipurpose building in Xiamen, China, that is partially concealed beneath the surface of a pool of water.

Above ground, the tea house takes the form of a simple pavilion for preparing and serving tea. But a staircase leads down into a much larger basement, which can be used for a variety of different activities.

A shallow pool of water covers the roof of this space but it's possible to see down into it, as it's punctured by a large circular courtyard.

Waterfrom Design designed the Tea Community Centre to reference The Peach Blossom Spring, a Chinese story in which a fisherman discovers a utopia where humans live in complete peace with nature.

"In the Peach Garden, people are simple and honest, and live a harmonious atmosphere," said the firm, which has offices in Shanghai and Taipei.

"We hope this scene will reappear here, which will become a precious life connotation in the community," it continued.

"No matter how bustling the outside world is and how the city is changed, find the entrance to Arcadia and dive to the bottom of the lake, and you will always find tranquility from an unusual perspective."

The building was commissioned by real-estate developer Zhong Nan Group, to serve as a sales office for a new residential development. But in the long term, it will serve purely as a community centre for the neighbourhood.

The tea pavilion provides the entrance space, with a reception desk on one side and an area for tea ceremonies on the other. It has glass walls, so visitors can see out to plants and the water pool outside.

The tea area consists of a long table, with a hollow that allows water to flow across. Made from copper, this table extends out through the one of the glass walls, so water can flow through from inside to the pool outside.

Waterfrom Design sees this element as being like a river. "The flowing stream of the river accentuates the quietness of the interior, which brings a sense of tranquility for people after they step in," it said.

"When the tea is being brewed on the table, the sound of the water flowing continually into the lake stretches all over the room."

At the centre of the room is the staircase leading down to the basement, described by the architects as "the cave below the lake". It is an internationally dark space, creating a distinctive contrast with the sunlit courtyard at the end.

A tree stands in the centre of the Tea Community Centre's courtyard, symbolic of a traditional gathering space in a village.

The rooms on this floor are designed to be multipurpose, although possible uses are suggested. A serving counter and tables can be used for dining, while a lounge space surrounded by bookshelves is highlighted as a reading area.

There's also a seating space intended for lectures, and an area likely to be used for exhibitions held in the Tea Community Centre.

"The daylight makes the tree shadow wander indoors, where people could leave behind their busy schedules and slow down," said the design team.

"They could gather under the tree, enjoy the time together, observe the day and night, and the four seasons."

The architects tried to select natural materials to strengthen their narrative. As well as the various copper details, elements are made from fir wood, natural stone and rattan. Handmade ceramics also feature.

"When people look up, they could see the lake water over the roof. The reflection of water creates ever-changing shadows on the wall; the silent swaying beam seems like hiding under the lake," said the architects.

"Quietly keeping the distance from the busy traffic on the ground, this space is free from the stress of daily life."

Waterfrom Design is led by architecture Nic Lee. The firm also recently completely an office where old gas containers double-up as table legs and plant pots.

Its other projects include a colourful factory renovation and a pharmacy designed in the spirit of the laboratory.

Photography is by Yuchen Chao.

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Project credits:

Architecture: Waterfrom Design (https://ift.tt/19RdR3Y)
Decoration: Waterfrom Design + Gravity Company
Client: Zhong Nan Group

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Herzog & de Meuron reveals visuals of museum complex beside China's Grand Canal

Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled its proposal for a linear museum complex in Hangzhou that will sit beside China's Grand Canal and celebrate the history of the artificial river.

It is the winning entry in a design competition for the Grand Canal Museum Complex, and will be built at the junction of the Hanggang River and south end of the Grand Canal – the longest and oldest artificial river in the world that runs over 1,000 miles between Beijing and Hangzhou.

Once complete, the museum will be distinguished by its long, linear form and a rippling glass facade that is designed by Herzog & de Meuron to resemble water.

"Our proposal aims to reflect the Grand Canal's importance in Chinese cultural and natural landscapes, and to create a vibrant, contemporary gathering place at the Grand Canal," explained the Swiss architecture studio.

"Inspired by the Grand Canal itself, our proposal starts with a significant line. This bold line, recalling an elegant Chinese brush stroke, houses the museum telling the story of the Grand Canal," it continued.

"The water and the museum face each other, creating a visual and material dialogue between the subject and its narrator. The museum is reflected in the water and the water in the museum's facade."

Surrounded by water on three sides, the Grand Canal Museum Complex will contain 50,000-square-metres of exhibition spaces split over two levels. It is designed so that each floor can operate independently.

The galleries will be raised 12 metres above ground and wrapped by an "elegantly curved" facade, composed of concave cast glass elements that are intended to evoke rippling water.

Below the elevated galleries, the site will be transformed into a series of accessible meeting places and public event spaces.

These facilities will all be enclosed in "veil-like glass" walls, and Herzog & de Meuron hopes their position at the base of the complex will help to attract people to the site.

"Large public functions such as a grand ballroom and a banquet room are strategically located under the elevated museum, within a veil-like glass facade, and serve as magnets for activities as well as facilitate access for crowd-drawing events," explained the studio.

Disrupting the linear form of the museum, the proposal is topped with a vertical cone-shape structure enveloped by a staggered facade.

This structure, described by the studio as a "mountain", will puncture each storey of the Grand Canal Museum to connect them – forming a "vertical city in which different functions complement one another to form a synergistic whole".

The Grand Canal Museum Complex will be complete with a series of restaurants, hotel and a terrace at roof level. The terrace will feature landscaping that will incorporate a rainwater management system.

Outside, the project will also introduce a tree covered promenade and a large urban plaza to the site that will feature various plants and flowers found throughout China.

For over 2500 years, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has assisted with China's agricultural, economic and cultural development. In 2014 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Herzog & de Meuron hopes the Grand Canal Museum Complex's appeal "will not only be in the cultural program it offers", but also in the panoramic views it will provide of the water system.

Founded by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in 1978, Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron is a Swiss architecture studio known for numerous projects around the world including the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and the Tate Modern extension in London.

Other recent projects by the practice include the Museum of the 20th Century in Berlin and two "horizontal skyscrapers" in Moscow.

Visuals courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

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Apple, Google and Amazon unite to make all smart home products talk to each other

Apple, Google, Amazon and the Zigbee Alliance have joined forces to develop a smart-home standard that will mean new devices are likely to be compatible with any of their hubs and voice assistants.

Overseen by the Zigbee Alliance, whose board members include representatives of IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy and Wulian,  the Project Connected Home Over IP initiative aims to create a unified connectivity protocol that is open-source and royalty-free.

The goal is to make it easier both for consumers to build their ideal smart-home environment and also for manufacturers to develop new products.

Aim is to create a standardised system

As it stands, developers need to build integration for Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and any smart-home service separately, resulting in a situation where few products are universally compatible.

With a standardised system, the barriers to building and buying such devices should be lowered, and consumers will be able to choose Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant and others according to their preference.

"Technology in everyday homes has evolved since the start of the decade," wrote Google vice-president of engineering Nik Sathe and Google Nest principal engineer Grant Erickson in a blog post announcing the initiative. "Almost every part of the home can be connected to the internet, allowing local or remote control of thermostats, cameras, locks, lights, switches, sensors and even doggy doors,"

"While smart home devices are abundant, the lack of an industry-wide connectivity standard leaves people confused and frustrated when trying to understand what devices work with each smart home ecosystem. It also places a heavy burden on manufacturers to make sure all devices are compatible with each other," the post continued.

Draft standard to be published in 2020

The companies have formed an independent working group and aim to deliver a draft standard by late 2020.

The standard will be based on technologies that already on the market, including Amazon's Alexa Smart Home, Google's Weave and Thread, Apple's HomeKit and Zigbee Alliance's Dotdot data models, so the companies envision a fast development process.

They will use internet protocol (IP) as the foundation of the standard and will focus on connecting products over wifi to begin with. Support for Bluetooth Low Energy, Ethernet, Cellular and Broadband connections is likely to follow in the future.

The standardised protocol is likely to benefit the smaller players in the market. For smart home products that includes Apple, which only released its HomePod speaker in 2017 and whose HomeKit compatibility only extends to a few hundred third-party devices.

Amazon's Alexa, by comparison, works with more than 100,000 current smart home gadgets.

Architects and designer have been creating a wide variety of connected, smart products. Danish architecture studio BIG recently designed a smart lock, while technology start up Bryte created a smart bed that adjusts throughout the night to help people sleep.

Main image is Panasonic's smart GA10 speaker.

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Competition: win a wireless Small Transparent Speaker by Transparent Sound

In our latest competition, we're offering two readers the chance to win a wireless speaker from Transparent Sound's latest collection.

The Stockholm-based audio brand has developed the Small Transparent Speaker so that many of its parts are replaceable and can be upgraded as technology advances.

Two winners will receive one speaker each.

As its name suggests, the speaker is transparent. It is contained within two tempered glass panels, secured together on an aluminium uni-frame.

The product's left/right audio outputs are located next to each other on the glass front. They have a diameter of 7.5 centimetres and are fixed to the clear body using contrasting black screws. Two visible wires connect the speakers to the base, which contains a Class D built-in amplifier with two 15 Watt outputs.

The brand has designed the components of the speaker so that new developments can be swapped or added in. According to Transparent Sound, this means that the Small Transparent Speaker can last forever.

Through its "sustainable closed-loop" design system, users are able to update their product by changing a small part,  rather than the whole unit, and can still keep up with the latest technology.

"It's our belief that products and objects for the home should not feel outdated after just a year," stated the brand. "We want our products to get better with age, rather than become obsolete."

Every Small Transparent Speaker features high-quality signal processing. This feature aims create deliver clear audio through maintaining a balance between low, medium and high frequencies and therefore helping the user hear more details in the music or recording.

The product can be connected to devices through a Bluetooth connection. It can be paired with Amazon's Alexa Echo, or added to an existing Sonos setup. Transparent Sound designed the base compartment of the speaker to house the modules for Alexa's wireless connections, which can be replaced with the newest technology as it upgrades.

Founded by Per Brickstad and Martin Willers, Transparent Sound's name refers to the transparent panes on its products but also as an objective for an "honest, open and sustainable" business.

Small Transparent Speakers are available to buy at retailers including the Conran Shop and Mr Porter, and are also sold online.

Competition closes 31 January 2020. Two winners will be selected at random and notified by email, and their names will be published at the top of this page.

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