Archi-Union surrounds internet conference centre with robot-built pavilions

Archi-Union has surrounded the Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre in Wuzhen, China, with pavilions that were built using robotic construction techniques.

The conference centre, which has a curving tiled roof and a facade of angled glass, sits in a landscaped park on a site northwest of the town surrounded by farm houses.

The main conference centre has an undulating tiled roof

Wuzhen has hosted the World Internet Conference since 2014, and the growing popularity has led to the demand for a new dedicated venue.

Archi-Union gave the Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre a tiled roof that sweeps up to meet in four tent-like peaks to echo the rooflines of historic structures in the area.

3D-printed plastic parts make up the canopy of the Cloud pavilion

Surrounding this hall are four themed pavilions, the Water Pavilion, Moon Pavilion, Red Pavilion and Cloud Pavilion. The design and construction of each employed experimental, robot-based construction techniques.

They provide amenity spaces for conference attendees that demonstrate the potential of digital technologies for architecture.

Robots were used to construct the brick forms of the Water Pavilion

For the Cloud Pavilion, prefabricated 3D-printed plastic components were used to create a cluster of umbrella-shaped canopies that shelter a cafe. The pavilion was built in two weeks by four robots.

The Water Pavilion, constructed in-situ by robots using bricks, provides a series of cylindrical toiled cubicles topped by weathered-steel roofs.

A stepped brick archway leads to the viewing area at the top of the Red pavilion

The Red Pavilion, also made from redbrick, takes its cue from the undulating roofline of the centre to create a sweeping, stepped archway leading up to a viewing platform that shelters a seating area below. 3D-printing was used to build the complex scaffolding required during the build.

A a seating area surrounded by pale wood shelves built with robotic timber construction sits beneath a translucent polycarbonate roof of the Moon Pavilion.

Pale wooded shelves line the Moon Pavilion

The main centre's beam string structure allows for a large column-free space inside.

This large hall can be divided into up to four smaller exhibition spaces, or be combined into a single large space.

The main conference hall can be left open as one vast space

Archi-Union used the double-skin envelope to make thin corridors between the exterior screen and the glazed walls of the conference halls.

Slender structural components finished in white highlight the dimensions of the space, and strips of lighting sweep down from the central truss to emphasise the curve of the roof.

The roof of the Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre is made of 700,000 tiles

The roof is clad in 700,000 tiles and the exterior is covered in glass panels that are angled away from the building like exaggerated shingles.

Shanghai-based Archi-Union has previously made use of robot-assisted design and construction for an AI conference centre in the city's West Bund, which featured a coffee pavilion covered by translucent arches.

Photography is by Schran Images.

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Project credits:

Architect: Archi-Union Architecture Design Co., Ltd.
Principal architect: Philip F. Yuan
Project architects: Alex Han, Xiangping Kong, Jinyu Huang, Huajian Gu, Hao Chen, Haobo Zhang, Yuying Li, Yu Lou, Xi Tao, Jinxi Jin
Digital construction manager: Wen Zhang
Interiors team: Fuzi He, Ju Wang, Yifei Wang, Tuomeng Wang, Luwen Liu, Jingyan Tang, Mengmeng Cui, Haiyan Jiang
Structures team: Zhun Zhang, Tao Huang, Rui Wang
MEP: Yong Wang, Dawei Wei, Qing Zhang, Zhengwen Chen, Xiao Yu, Jiandong Chen
Landscape designers: Nannan Dong, Weixuan Wei, Jun Ye
Lighting designers: Guojian Hu, Hongbo Qiang, Zhenjiang Wang, Xiaohua Wu, Tingting Ge
Signage system: Jiaqing Wu, Yue Han, Shiqing Wang
Digital fabrication: Fab-Union Architectural Technology and Digital Fabrication Co., Ltd
Structural consultant: AND office
Facade consultant: Zhejiang Provincial Wulin Construction Group Co., Ltd.
Landscape consultant: Innovative Urban Green
Lighting consultant: RDI Lighting
Signage system: VENP Brand Design
Green building consultant: Shanghai ShunGu Architecture Engineering Technology Co.,Ltd
Land surveyor: Zhejiang Earth Geotechnical Investigation & Design Institute Co., Ltd
Building surveyor: Zhejiang Engineering Construction Manage Company
Contractor: Yadu Construction Group

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Explore winter retreats on this week's Pinterest board

Our updated winter retreats Pinterest board showcases architecture in cold locations, including luxury treehouses in Austria and an Alpine chalet with panoramic views. Follow Dezeen on Pinterest or visit our updated board to see more.

A-framed cabins in the Eastwind Hotel offer a cosy retreat in New York's Catskill Mountains

New additions to the Pinterest board include holiday resorts designed to offer escape from cities, such as the glamping pods at Eastwood Hotel in New York and a renovated New Jersey lodge by Chad and Courtney Ludeman.

Residents of this ski lodge in Val Saint-Côme can warm themselves around a central fireplace

Other images you can find on the board show buildings designed for winter-sports enthusiasts, including the sloping roofs of YH2's cabin in Montreal, which is designed to make the most of views of the snowy scenery, and a ski lodge in Val Saint-Côme with a black fireplace at its centre.

Dezeen's Pinterest account features thousands of images, organised into hundreds of boards. Follow us on Pinterest to keep up to date with our latest pins.

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Townew bin seals and changes garbage bags at the push of a button

Canadian company Knectek Labs has automated an often messy and unhygienic part of household waste collection with the Townew bin, which seals and changes its own bags.

Set to launch at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2020, the Townew bin is self-sealing at the push of a button.

It uses heat to seal the thermoplastic rubbish bag. The user then removes the closed bag and disposes of it, while the bin automatically replaces it with a new one. The bags come from a refill unit of up to 25 bags that sits under the bin lid.

Knectek Labs claims Townew saves its users time while also cutting down on odour and mess.

"Whether you're throwing leftover sloppy-joes or stinky diapers, nothing will escape the moisture and water-resistant sealing capability of this trash can," said Knectek Labs head of sales William Wong.

Hygiene is also improved by the presence of movement-detecting infrared sensors, which open the lid in response to approaching rubbish. For times when users need increased access to the bin, there is a "Lid Open Mode".

All the controls are activated by one button on the front of the bin – one tap activates Lid Open Mode, while holding it for three seconds triggers self-sealing.

Available in white or teal, the 4.02-metre-tall bin is made of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic, which Knectek Labs says it chose because the material is resistant to chemicals and impact and withstands humidity and different temperatures.

It runs on rechargeable 2000 mAh battery, getting about a month's power from a 10-hour charge.

Founded in 2016 and based in Toronto, Knectek Labs makes smarthome and other consumer electronics. Its previous products are the Cubinote sticky note printer and the CubiTag tracker.

The Townew bin is a 2020 CES Innovation Award honouree, which means it has scored highly in its product category. CES, the world's biggest consumer tech show, is on in Las Vegas from January 7 to 10.

Among other advanced bin designs in recent years is Simplehuman's automatically opening ST2015 bin and PearsonLloyd's stackable Intelligent Waste mix of rubbish, recycling and composting bins.

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Garden Room by Indra Janda features translucent white walls

Belgian architect Indra Janda has used translucent polycarbonate shingles to create a garden room at her parent's home.

The young architect, co-founder of Atelier Janda Vanderghote, designed the small building to replace another on the brink of collapse.

Simply named Garden Room, it creates a space for dining or relaxation in the garden of the farmhouse property in northern Belgium.

White polycarbonate shingles cover the walls and pitched roof of the small timber-framed structure. These square panels overlap, making them reminiscent of a reptile's scaly skin.

The material is one commonly used for cladding small garden structures, said Janda, but she wanted to make it feel more special.

"We wanted to give the material a new vibe," she told Dezeen. "My father cut the cladding pieces himself, because they don't exist to buy."

The architect said the result was worth the effort: "The material is semi-transparant, which is nice in summer and winter, and gives a totally different feeling from day to night."

Other architectural detailing is kept to a minimum, to amplify the affect. The windows openings are frameless, and the entrance door is covered in the shingles. The edge of the roof is also flush with the walls below.

The building is one of four that make up the property, and it completes a small courtyard. The other buildings include a barn, which Janda also renovated as part of the project.

The brick building was given a new floor, its walls were painted with chalk and a new supporting structure was added for the clay tiled roof.

An extension on one side provides space for a new swimming pool.

The water extends out through a gap in one of the walls to connect with a plant-filled pool in the garden, which helps to naturally clean the water.

The original part of the building contains a sauna, a changing room, a shower and a toilet, all contained within a block that slots in underneath the wooden roof truss.

"The monumentality of the old barn is totally preserved," said Janda. "It's not just restoration, it's reorientation."

Janda runs Atelier Janda Vanderghote in partnership with Menno Vanderghote. The pair's other projects include a Ghent house transformed into a bed and breakfast.

Photography is by Tim Van de Velde.

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Project credits:

Architect: Atelier Janda Vanderghote
Engineering consultant: Arthur De Roover

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Bernardo Richter arranges his brickwork house in Brazil around a courtyard

Architect Bernardo Richter took cues from a holiday home by Alvar Aalto when designing this brick house in Curitiba, Brazil.

Courtyard House is located in a residential condominium in the Brazilian city. Richter, the founder of Brazilian studio Arquea Arquitetos built the one storey, 250 square-metre residence for himself.

Richter designed the property to reference Alvar Aalto's experimental Muuratsalo house, which the Finnish architect also completed for himself in 1953 as a summer holiday home.

"Almost in parallel to the experimental home of Muuratsalo of Alvar Aalto, the admiration for the work of the Finnish architect is seen in the inspiration of volumetry and the sum of small gestures that create a genuinely hospitable architecture," Richter said.

A large outdoor courtyard is placed the centre of the house with the social, private and mechanical areas branching off from it. Grey stone pavers cover the patio surface, which is punctured by a large fire pit in its centre.

"From the entrance hall, it is possible to quickly understand the space since the whole house is drawn around a central square, the courtyard," Richter added.

The front of Courtyard House has no windows. Instead, a large recessed wooden garage door connects to a monolithic brick volume to form the residence's front.

Windows and sliding glass are placed along the sides of the residence facing the yard to bring in natural light. Additional illumination is provided by windows that wrap around the courtyard and skylights.

Other design features include three private decks that protrude from the bedroom suites located on the rear side of the house, brises soleil screens that provide privacy without disturbing the courtyard view and wood-clad ceilings in the main living area.

The architect also implemented environmentally friendly practices when designing the house's plan, form and use of materials.

"The concern for sustainability is present in the house plan, form, and materials," he said.

"The design in "C" form deployment significantly increases sun incidence since we have more rooms warmed and illuminated by the sun, in this way we have a passive solar house."

Bricks were sourced from local potteries in a bid to reduce the construction's carbon footprint. There is also a rainwater collection system located on the roof and the water is reused in the house.

Curitiba is the capital of Brazilian state Paraná, Other residential projects in the area include a sustainable white dwelling with photovoltaic panels and a rainwater collection system and the renovation of a compact apartment by Leandro Garcia.

Photography is by Federico Cairoli.

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