Raised circular cycling path gives 360-degree views of Belgium forest

Belgian studios BuroLandschap and De Gregorio & Partners have created a circular track called Cycling Through The Trees as part of the cycling network in the province of Limburg.

As its name suggests, Cycling Through The Trees is a raised path that takes cyclists up to a height of 10 metres above the ground so that they can ride amongst the treetops.

The circular path in Belgium has been shortlisted for infrastructure project of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

Cycling Through The Trees is a circular raised track

Built for tourism organisation Visit Limburg in the Pijnven nature reserve, the structure is a double circle that is 100 metres in diameter.

The three-metre-wide path is almost 700 metres long and rises at a gentle gradient to a height of 10 metres before descending back to the forest floor.

The cycle track is in a forest in Limburg

Landscape architect BuroLandschap and architect De Gregorio & Partners designed the structure to enable people to engage with the forest but were mindful that the attraction should have the least possible impact on its surroundings.

To reduce the impact on the forest, the structure was built using a single crane that was mounted at the centre of the circle. The weathering steel structure was built with screw pile foundations meaning that no concrete was used.

Several trees did have to be felled and these were incorporated into a rest stop built near the attraction.

It gently rises to 10 metres high

"The most important thing for us was to build a structure with the lowest possible impact on the environment and the sensitive nature present," explained BuroLandschap founder Pieter Daenen. "This was the starting point!"

"The trees were of course very important," said Daenen. "After all, cycling through the trees would no longer make sense if trees were damaged or destroyed after the construction of the structure," he continued.

"Something that is not easy for a construction with a diameter of more than 100 meters and a height of 10 meters."

Cycling Through The Trees is supported on weathering steel columns

The unusual visitor attraction was designed to be a magical experience for those cycling through the nature reserve near the town of Bosland.

"The nice thing about the construction is the round spiral shape. Cycling around in combination with cycling in height has something magical," said Daenen.

"It seems as if visitors are becoming children again. You often see visitors who drive around several times. Moreover, the ride of 600 meters is quite pleasant and not too hard, even if your condition is not too good."

These columns were designed to resemble tree trunks

The structure's deck and supports are made from weathered steel, which has a browny orange colour that is similar to the colour of the pine tree trunks in the forest.

"Brown is the colour of the earth, after 'green' this is the most common colour in nature," explained Daenen. "Brown always blends well in an environment."

"The poles are like tree trunks," he continued. "You have to get quite close to see the construction in its surroundings. From 100 meters away you can hardly see the construction."

A shelter was built near the track

Daenen hopes that Cycling Through The Trees will draw people to the forest who may not usually come and draw attention to the forests near Bosland. This in turn will ensure that the environment is preserved.

"Bosland is the largest continuous forest in Flanders, which is still known by relatively few inhabitants," he said. "The construction attracts a separate audience that normally does not move quickly to this environment."

"These people also help advance the local economy," he continued. "Governments are also enthusiastic about this and are convinced that forests can also offer economic added value. As a result, they will also support the conservation of the forests more."

It is topped with the trees felled that were felled to make the track

Cycling Through The Tree is shortlisted for a Dezeen Award against projects including a curved cycling bridge in Copenhagen designed by WilkinsonEyre and Urban Agency and a weathering steel footbridge by Useful Studio in London.

Photography is by Toerisme Limburg.

The post Raised circular cycling path gives 360-degree views of Belgium forest appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3fel1mU

Ten key projects by Indian architect Anupama Kundoo

Here's a look at 10 pivotal projects by Indian architect Anupama Kundoo, whose work is currently on show in a retrospective at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark.

Kundoo's architecture centres around traditional craft traditions and construction techniques. Her buildings features handmade materials assembled by local craftsmen, which she favours over mass-produced production methods.

Many of her buildings can be found in Auroville, southeastern India. Kundoo moved to this experimental city after graduating from the University of Mumbai in 1989, and it has had a strong influence on her work.

It was in Auroville where she met modernist architect Roger Anger, who became a long-time collaborator. It was also here that she built her first house, Hut Petite Ferme, experimenting with materials including granite, clay and coconut fibre.

Although she now lives in Berlin, Kundoo is still heavily involved in the planning of this city. She has designed many of its institutional buildings, including the town hall.

She has also designed a range of other influential projects for India, including her affordable housing concept Full Fill Homes, which allows new homes to be erected in a matter of days.

Here's a look at 10 of her key projects, captured by photographer Javier Callejas:

---

Wall House, 2000, Auroville, India

The second house that Kundoo built for herself became a prototype for many of her subsequent projects.

Working with local craftsman, she opted to use preindustrial "achakal" mud bricks, which are less energy-intensive to produce than factory bricks. She also developed vaulted terracotta roofing systems, to utilise the skills of Auroville's potters.

---

Residence Kranti Kanade, 2003, Pune, India

This family villa consists of various indoor and outdoor spaces, all sheltered beneath a single large roof.

Rooms are interspersed with verandas and terraces that provide plenty of cross ventilation, but that also create natural separation between the domains of the house's various occupants.

---

Shah Houses, 2003, Brahmangarh, India

This pair of houses is built from natural basalt stone – a readily available material in the area – and locally crafted terracotta tubes.

Glass-fronted social spaces are located beneath the vaulted roofs, while more private spaces are embedded within the solid masonry walls.

---

Creativity, An Urban Eco-Community, 2003, Auroville, India

Designed as a prototype for a co-housing community, this complex provides diverse facilities for between 50 and 60 residents.

Raised walkways create space for interaction without compromising the privacy of the individual homes, and also allow the buildings to incorporate natural ventilation techniques.

---

Multipurpose Hall SAWCHU, 2000, Auroville, India

The Sri Aurobindo World Centre for Human Unity is a concrete pavilion, designed as a community space for the residents of Auroville.

The structure is supported by eight leaning pillars and is surrounded on three of its four quadrants by amphitheatre seating. At its centre is a circular skylight, which is mirrored by the patterns in the flooring below.

---

Town Hall Complex, 2005, Auroville, India

Kundoo collaborated with Roger Anger, who was Auroville's chief architect, to create a group of three buildings to house the town hall.

The complex intersperses offices with public facilities and service areas, allowing spaces to take on an urban character. Shaded walkways connect the buildings, which are primarily built from concrete and brick.

---

Mitra Youth Hostel, 2005, Auroville, India

Located very close to the town hall, this three-storey building accommodates young people arriving in Auroville for short- and medium-term stays.

The building is organised around open-air corridors that follow its kinked form. Rooms have balconies, plus there are various communal terraces, to encourage interaction between residents.

---

Voluntariat Homes for Homeless Children, 2008, Pondicherry, India

These dome-shaped housing units were designed to accommodate children from challenged backgrounds.

Here, Kundoo explores an innovative form of construction that is both low-cost and environmentally friendly. The structures are built from mud bricks made on site, which are then fired in-situ to make them more durable and water resistant.

---

Full Fill Homes, 2015, Auroville, India

Kundoo uses ferrocement – a low-tech form of reinforced concrete – to create the modules of these affordable housing units, which are designed to combat the homelessness problem in India.

The box-shaped modules can be assembled in a matter of days, and incorporate niches that become highly functional for storage.

---

Sharana Daycare Facility, 2019, Pondicherry, India

Reinforced concrete slabs were paired with modular terracotta screens to create the structure of this daycare centre.

The building was designed for a charitable organisation that aims to provide education to disadvantaged communities and children. It centres around a garden courtyard used for a variety of different activities.

The post Ten key projects by Indian architect Anupama Kundoo appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2UMgY7L

Anupama Kundoo's handmade architecture features in Louisiana Museum exhibition

A major exhibition at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark shines a spotlight on Anupama Kundoo, an Indian architect with an unique knowledge of traditional materials and craft traditions.

Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time offers an insight into the ideas driving Kundoo's "slow architecture" approach, which she has applied to both housing and community infrastructure.

The first room, The Architecture of Time, is dedicated to archive material

Favouring hand-made elements over mass-produced components, her work centres around ongoing, intensive research into sustainable practices and materials.

This is revealed here through the inclusion of Kundoo's architectural archive, which not only contains a number of intricate models but also various construction tools and material samples.

Architectural models reveal the design of Kundoo's own home, Wall House

Exhibition highlights include a full-scale mockup of Kundoo's affordable housing concept, Full Fill Home, which debuted at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016.

There are also detailed models of Kundoo's own home, Wall House, a building that champions regional building traditions like achakal bricks and terracotta roofing systems.

Wall House was built with local traditions like achakal bricks and terracotta roofing

Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time is the latest instalment in a series of exhibitions titled The Architect's Studio, curated by Kjeld Kjeldsen and Mette Marie Kallehauge. In each, the aim has been to reveal the process behind the buildings.

"Kundoo tries to return qualitative time to the production of architecture – by human work and human hand, which naturally takes longer than machines but involves a far better sense of materials, detail, space and the building’s relationship to the site," said the curators.

"Looking at Kundoo's buildings, it is impossible not to sense that they are unique works, the epitome of site-specific architecture."

There is a full-scale mockup of Kundoo's affordable housing concept, Full Fill Home

The exhibition consists of two parts. The first room, called The Architecture of Time, is dedicated to archive material. Here, 13 building models are displayed alongside an assortment of artefacts.

There are three tables of materials: one featuring a mix of natural stones and wood, one covered in earth (both rammed and fired), and one exploring cement and concrete.

Also in this room is a model of the Volontariat Homes for Homeless Children, a cluster of dome-shaped housing units made from handmade mud bricks, and Hut Petite Ferme, the first house Kundoo designed for herself.

Other featured projects include the domed Volontariat Homes for Homeless Children

The second room, titled Co-creation, hones in on Auroville – the city where Kundoo has been based for the majority of her career, and where many of her buildings are located.

Here, the focus is on Kundoo's largest project to date – the 240,000-square-metre housing development, Lines of Goodwill. A large model, along with 1:1 scale material samples, reveals Kundoo's strategies for environmentally sensitive homes that connect residents to nature.

The Co-creation room reveals Kundoo's masterplan for Lines of Goodwill in Auroville

This is the fourth exhibition that the Louisiana has hosted as part of The Architect's Studio series, following retrospectives of Chinese architect Wang Shu, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena and Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao.

"Of course, the whole exhibition series is to do with different cultures," Kjeldsen previously told Dezeen.

Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time opened on 8 October and continues until 31 January at the Louisiana Museum. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The post Anupama Kundoo's handmade architecture features in Louisiana Museum exhibition appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2Kru6gQ

Arthur Mamou-Mani collaborates with Dassault Systèmes to explore "lifecycle of materials"

Arthur Mamou-Mani explains how he is partnering with Dassault Systèmes to investigate "cradle-to-cradle" architecture in the latest video of our Design for Life collaboration with the software brand.

Mamou-Mani, founder of London-based studio Mamou-Mani Architects, is the fourth designer to feature in the Design for Life collaboration between Dezeen and Dassault Systèmes, which highlights designers who are using technology and research to build a better world.

Mamou-Mani has embarked on a sustainability-focussed collaboration with Dassault Systèmes that uses the brand's software to investigate how different 3D-printable materials can be manufactured sustainably and printed into structures that can be recycled or repurposed.

Arthur Mamou-Mani and Dassault Systèmes are collaborating on an experimental research project

The project is part of an ongoing initiative at Dassault Systèmes that connects the brand with designers to help them generate and realise projects using its technology.

Dassault Systèmes offers a suite of 3D software for designers, architects and engineers called 3DExperience, which includes well-known CAD products such as Solidworks and Catia, as well as virtual reality tools that are used in a wide range of industries.

"We're collaborating with Dassault Systèmes on an experimental research project that will end up as an installation, which will describe the lifecycle of materials and apply technology to understand the science behind it," explains Mamou-Mani in the video interview, which was filmed by Dezeen for Dassault Systèmes at the architect's studio in London.

Mamou-Mani is developing an installation that demonstrates the findings of the research project, which will feature a structure comprised of 3D-printed modules that are printed, broken down and re-printed on site.

Mamou-Mani is using Dassault Systèmes' technology to explore the lifecycles of 3D-printable materials

"The installation is made of a dynamic grid of 3D-printed modules, and cascades through the space as if it was taken by the wind," said Mamou-Mani. "As part of the installation, we'll have a 3D printer on site that will be printing modules in a bioplastic called PLA, which is made from fermented sugar."

"The material is renewable and it comes from renewable sources that are sustainable, contrary to petroleum based plastic," he continued.

The project includes an installation made of 3D-printed modules made of a bioplastic called PLA

The architect discussed the project with Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Dassault Systèmes' vice president of design experience Anne Asensio in a live talk that launched the Design for Life collaboration.

According to Mamou-Mani, 3D printing structures could allow architects to reduce their impact on the environment by reducing waste and the need for structures to be transported to building sites.

"The advantage of building with 3D printing in architecture is that you can print on-site," he said. "It's also much more efficient because it's directly linked to your computer models."

The PLA modules can be reused, recycled or composted

In order to demonstrate the full lifecycle of the material used, the installation will also feature a plastic crusher that breaks down the modules so that the PLA can be reused.

"There will also be a plastic crusher on site, showing people how recycling can be done on a small scale," explained Mamou-Mani. "The plastic crusher allows us to take a piece that's already printed and bring it back into its pellet form, allowing us to print again."

"From 3D printing to crushing to composting, we wanted to show all the states of the material, showing what is ultimately a renewable, cradle-to-cradle and sustainable lifecycle."

As part of the installation, a plastic crusher will return the material used in the modules to its printable form

Mamou-Mani made use of Dassault Systèmes' 3DExperience platform while developing the project, including using parametric tool called xGenerative Design to arrive at the form of the modules, as well as using modelling tools to analyse the lifecycles of different materials.

"Dassault Systèmes had this really wonderful tool that allowed us to put science and metrics behind lifecycle assessments," he explained. "This allowed us to compare different materials, different approaches, and all the different advantages and disadvantages of each."

Mamou-Mani asserts that designers should be considering the "entire lifecycle" of their projects

Mamou-Mani feels that paying close attention to the lifecycle of materials will enable designers to work more sustainably.

"It's very important that designers start thinking beyond the timeframe of their project," he stated. "They need to start thinking of where the material came from, where is it going, how can it be reconfigured - the entire lifecycle of a project needs to be taken into consideration."

Footage of Galaxia Temple at Burning Man is by Matt Emi. Footage of Conifera installation is courtesy of COS.

---

Design for Life

Design For Life is a content collaboration between Dezeen and Dassault Systèmes featuring talks and videos highlighting designers who are using technology and research to build a better world.

The video series began with a profile of Austrian designer Julia Koerner, in which she shows how she uses technology to apply architectural techniques to fashion and costume design.

In the next instalment of the series, Exploration Architecture founder Michael Pawlyn explained how biomimicry allows architects to have a positive impact on the environment.

The most recent episode focussed on Studio INI founder Nassia Inglessis, who described how technology enables her to create interactive spaces that respond to the bodies of their inhabitants.

In the coming weeks, we will also be publishing videos profiling DS Automobiles design director Thierry Metroz and New York design duo Birsel+Seck.

The post Arthur Mamou-Mani collaborates with Dassault Systèmes to explore "lifecycle of materials" appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/334jvyN

Freitag store in Kyoto is designed to resemble the brand's own warehouse

Hazard lines and metal shelving are some of the industrial finishes that Torafu Architects has included in bag brand Freitag's store in Kyoto – which even includes its own workshop.

Freitag's Kyoto store, which is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards, occupies what was formerly two separate retail units in the city's Nakagyo-ku district.

The interiors of the store have been designed by Torafu Architects to look like Freitag's logistics warehouse at the brand's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

Top image: the store's exterior. Above: hazard lines have been painted on some of the store's surfaces

Industrial-style details have been incorporated throughout the 80-square-metre space, which the architecture practice said they left in a "skeleton state". For example, black-and-yellow hazard lines have been painted around one of the store's structural columns.

Similar lines appear beneath the green cash desk. Just opposite sits a matching rubber-topped counter where customers will be able to set down and inspect any potential purchases.

PVC flap curtains were used to screen off the shop's storeroom, which is enclosed by a volume clad in wood-wool boards. Simple strip lights have also been fitted across the ceiling.

Freitag's bags are displayed on metal shelves or stored in drawers

Bags are displayed on metal shelves or on top of pallets which have been stacked up in the store's front window.

Uniform rows of drawers that run across the entire left-hand side of the store contain more Freitag bags, each of which is crafted from recycled truck tarpaulin.

The brand first removes any eyelets or straps left on the tarps before cutting, washing and turning them into a range of different bag models such as backpacks, totes or holdalls.

Towards the rear of the store is a workshop, where customers will be able to experiment with using tarp offcuts themselves and turn them into a small accessory of their choice.

The store includes a workshop where customers can make their own accessories

More industrial touches appear on Freitag's facade, where a red-steel beam has been installed in place of the wall that once divided the two retail units.

A large drawing of a truck has also been created on the store's side elevation so that customers "never forget the origin of every unique specimen".

The store's side elevation features a mural of a truck

Torafu Architects was founded in 2004 by Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro. The practice's Freitag Kyoto store will compete against four other projects in the small interior category of this year's Dezeen Awards.

Amongst them is an Aesop store in Shinjuku, which features a contrasting mix of steel and plaster surfaces.

Also on the list is Small Icon, a tiny bakery in Yokohama that's decorated in the same warm, golden hues as a loaf of bread.

Photography is by Taichi Ano.

The post Freitag store in Kyoto is designed to resemble the brand's own warehouse appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/35NPuFq