Commenter calls Heatherwick Studio's 1,000 Trees development "sublime"

In this week's comments update, readers are analysing Heatherwick Studio's 1,000 Trees development and discussing other top stories.

The first section of the plant-covered 1,000 Trees development, designed by British designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio, has opened in Shanghai, China.

Designed for developer Tian An, the mixed-use development has been described as "Shanghai's Hanging Gardens of Babylon" and features up to 1,000 pillars, each with a tree planted on top.

"Like the trees were retrofitted onto a 1970s hotel"

Commenters are divided. "Sublime," said Don Bronkema.

FMB agreed: "Great building, and unique in its own right. This is one to stay. So much to discover and to wander around and through. I guess all the dissing architects will keep dissing, but average people and visitors to this beautiful site will just love it."

"What a conceptually moribund and fundamentally ugly project," disagreed Ralph Kent.

"Intense and clunky," concluded JZ. "Like the trees were retrofitted onto a 1970s hotel to Disneyfy the place."

Are readers being harsh? Join the discussion ›

Mario Cucinella Architects creates "serene and monolithic" church in Italian hill top town

Commenter says "it's unimaginable that somebody can be this creative"

Readers are worshipping the Mario Cucinella Architects-designed Santa Maria Goretti Church in the town of Mormanno in southern Italy. The building features a cross-shaped entrance.

"I honestly think it's unimaginable that somebody could be this creative," said Roelatmac. "Impressive, very beautiful."

Elvie Rubio agreed: "Wonderful building! Great architecture!"

"I would go out of my way, to view and experience this church," added Art Bray. "Modern is so hard to do. The interior, with the heavens above and the crucifix rising finish it off."

Are you delighted by Santa Maria Goretti Church? Join the discussion ›

Claywood by Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt is a wheelchair-friendly house in disguise

"Great designers find ways to create architecture out of any given challenge" says reader

Commenters are debating Claywood, a Hampshire house that British architecture studio Ayre Chamberlain Gaunthas designed for a client who became a wheelchair user after suffering a spinal cord injury.

"I am very happy that the client had the means to execute the perfect house for their circumstances, nicely done," said Puzzello. "Architecture should not be narrowly defined as buildings for typical able-bodied individuals. Great designers find ways to create architecture out of any given challenge."

Zea Newland was more cynical: "A brand-new sprawling modernist mansion with a lot of space is almost inherently wheelchair friendly, if I may say this from an able-bodied person's perspective."

"For me, this design just doesn't seem to reach that magical moment where the brief becomes more than the sum of its parts and truly architectural and inspiring," concluded Sim.

What do you think of Claywood? Join the discussion ›

Retractable screens shelter seafront apartment block in Australia by Koichi Takada Architects

Commenter calls apartment block "the prettiest thing on the Gold Coast"

Readers are discussing a mixed-use apartment block on Queensland's Gold Coast featuring retractable slatted wooden screens and thin balconies that reference the form of a pine cone. It was designed by Koichi Takada Architects.

"The prettiest thing on the Gold Coast," said Yourastar. "It should feature in their tourism ads."

Arthur Mamou-Mani was also impressed: "This architect is a breath of fresh air."

Heywood Flioyd was less keen though: "Watered-down ZHA."

Are you wowed by the building? Join the discussion ›

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Venice to replace glass tiles on Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge amid "almost daily" falls

The city of Venice is set to replace the glass floor of Santiago Calatrava's Ponte della Costituzione bridge over the Grand Canal with stone, due to the high numbers of pedestrians slipping and falling.

The Spanish architect's 94-metre Ponte della Costituzione – Constitution Bridge in English – opened in 2008 and is made from steel and glass.

Venice's municipal authority has now decided to allocate €500,000 to replace the bridge's tempered glass paving with trachyte stone in order to make it safer for pedestrians, as reported by the New York Times.

Francesca Zaccariotto, a councillor with responsibility for public works, told the newspaper that the action is intended to prevent "almost daily" falls.

The city of Venice will pay €500,000 to replace the glass paving with stone

"People hurt themselves, and they sue the administration," she said. "We have to intervene."

In a letter shared with Dezeen, which was sent shortly before Christmas by Calatrava's office to the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, Calatrava's studio expressed support for the plan and offered to assist with the design.

"Given the tradition of beautiful stone patterns already present in your beautiful city (such as those on the Piazza San Marco and within the Basilica di San Marco), the idea of giving such a transformation also an artistic touch is something that we would like to propose for this transformation," the letter said.

"Mr Calatrava would be more than happy to work out a proposal pro bono should you be considering this appropriate."

Plan to replace glass tiles awaits approval

City officials have previously tried to reduce accidents on the Ponte della Costituzione with resin and non-slip stickers, while during wet weather last month signs appeared on the bridge advising pedestrians to keep off the glass tiles.

The plan to replace the paving with stone is still subject to structural tests and must be approved by Venice's architectural authority.

In the letter to the mayor, Calatrava's office said there is a "realistic chance that the extra load of the stone pavers could be supported by the current structure".

It added that the bridge's original glass paving "consisted of an anti-slippery upper surface that complied with all local regulations."

However, it said that "the use of the bridge with some inadequate elements and even some acts of vandalism resulted in the fracture of numerous pieces of the original glass, that unfortunately had subsequently been replaced with other inappropriate glass panes".

Read:

Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Center church illuminated for first time

The glass-and-steel curved footbridge is heavily used by tourists, due partly to its close proximity to Venice's main train station.

There are around 400 bridges in Venice, with Ponte della Costituzione only the fourth to be built on the Grand Canal since the 16th century.

Calatrava was commissioned to design the structure in 1999, with the project subject to delays and ballooning costs during construction. The bridge has been hit by repeated controversies since it opened.

It was criticised for the lack of wheelchair access, despite the architect having initially proposed to incorporate a stairlift in his design, leading to a mobility lift being built alongside the bridge in 2013.

The bridge was the first to be built on the Grand Canal since the 16th century

But the lift, a €1.5 million cable car not designed by Calatrava, has since been closed and dismantled over complaints that it was too slow and unbearably hot in the summer.

In 2019, the Court of Auditors in Italy fined Calatrava €78,000 for negligence during the design of the bridge, accusing the architect of "gross negligence" and being responsible for decisions that led to the project being over budget and incurring higher-than-anticipated maintenance costs.

Calatrava has designed more than 40 bridges, including the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Bac de Roda Bridge in Barcelona and the Jerusalem Chords Bridge, but the Ponte della Costituzione is not the first to have problems with slipperiness.

A non-slip carpet was installed across the deck of the architect's Zubizuri bridge in Bilbao over concerns about its slick glass tiles.

The photography is by Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz

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Foster + Partners criticises RIBA climate report over "deviation" from global treaty

The UK's largest architecture firm, Foster + Partners, has criticised a RIBA sustainability report backed by nearly 250 built environment organisations, claiming that it contradicts the watershed Paris Agreement treaty on climate change.

Foster + Partners is one of only two architecture studios among the country's top 10 largest that have failed to endorse the report – the other being Zaha Hadid Architects.

The studio told Dezeen that by calling for calculations about buildings' carbon impact to be based on whole life-cycle consumption, rather than only operational emissions data, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) report diverges from the Paris Agreement.

RIBA presented its climate report at COP26

Signed by nearly 200 countries in 2015 and the basis for global climate negotiations at COP26, the Paris Agreement set a landmark ambition to "pursue efforts" to keep global temperature rises within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, with an emphasis on governments setting targets to limit their own greenhouse gas emissions.

A consumption-based approach, as advocated by the RIBA report, would instead see nations' carbon footprints measured based on the total emissions associated with the goods and services they use, not just those they directly emit.

For example, that would mean the UK would have to include the carbon impact of producing concrete manufactured by other countries but used in UK buildings – known as embodied carbon – when assessing its own progress against environmental targets.

Embodied carbon and the issue of consumption-based emissions were poorly understood until recently but became a major point of discussion in the climate debate during 2021.

RIBA report calls for whole-life carbon assessments

"At this critical moment, we are concerned that the RIBA's document Built for the Environment proposes a deviation from the Paris Agreement by its call for a change from emissions-based to consumption-based as a basis for carbon calculations," a spokesperson for Foster + Partners told Dezeen.

"This could lead to confusion and at its worst might create an opportunity for some nations to rethink their current commitments to the agreement. For this fundamental reason we have hesitated to endorse the RIBA report."

Published by industry body RIBA and pressure group Architects Declare, the report is titled "Built for the Environment" and urges governments to overhaul building codes to better regulate buildings' energy performance, as well as including targets relating to the built environment in their climate pledges.

Read:

UK industry group calls for new rules to force architects to calculate embodied carbon emissions

"Failing to account for the balance of net importers and net exporters of emissions makes the context for policymaking less clear and promotes international inequality," the report argued.

"These policies have led to embodied carbon emissions rarely being accounted for, meaning that opportunities for reducing emissions from the built environment sector have been missed."

Foster + Partners said that it is "sympathetic and supportive of the overall objectives of the RIBA" and that its founder, Norman Foster, has discussed the matter with the RIBA's president, Simon Allford.

RIBA "keen to continue dialogue"

"We have followed this up with a letter setting out our concerns in more detail and offering assistance in amending, as appropriate, the relevant clauses in the report, taking a more holistic view of the process to enable change that is deliverable and sustainable in the long term," the firm added.

Allford said the issue will be discussed in "a public forum".

"I have been speaking to Lord Foster and we agree that our shared mission to decarbonise will not be successful unless we challenge others and prepare to be challenged ourselves," he told Dezeen. "We are both keen to continue the dialogue about this particular issue and bring it to a public forum. And we will."

Read:

Government rejects Foster + Partners' "highly unsustainable" Tulip tower

Speaking at COP26, Foster called for "higher standards" on embodied carbon, while his studio's head of sustainability recently said it was an issue on which "the world is still catching up".

When first published on 2 November, Built for the Environment had been endorsed by around 220 organisations – but only three of the 10 largest architecture practices operating in the UK.

After the RIBA temporarily reopened endorsements amid "further positive interest", the number of signatories rose to 248 with only Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects now missing from the list among the top 10.

Architects Declare tensions

Zaha Hadid Architects, which is the country's third-largest studio, previously said its low carbon group and sustainability teams were "reviewing the report".

The firm did not respond to Dezeen's requests for comment about why it had chosen not to back the report.

Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects were part of a small group of founding members of Architects Declare in 2019, but left the network last year amid a row over their work on large airports.

The top photo is by Nigel Young courtesy of the Norman Foster Foundation.

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PARA Project designs surreal pavilion floating on a Belgian canal

American studio PARA Project has designed a wooden pavilion on a canal in Bruges, Belgium, to be an uncanny "doppelgänger" of an adjacent 15th-century canal house.

The pavilion, called Bruges Diptych, was designed as an events space for the 2021 Bruges Triennial, which for its third edition invited responses to the curatorial theme of "TraumA".

Top image: the pavilion floats on the canal. Above: it was designed for the Bruges Triennial. Photo is by Iwan Baan

According to its curators, this was an exploration of the "hidden spaces" that reveal the reality of life behind the outward image of the city's famous medieval centre, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"What is going on behind those stately facades?" asked the Biennial's curatorial statement. "How is the 'medieval city' actually being experienced and lived in?"

The pavilion is split into two intersecting forms. Photo is by Jasper van het Groenewoud

PARA responded by designing a pavilion with a form that, from a distance, appears to mimic the form and scale of the neighbouring medieval canal houses.

On closer inspection, the pavilion is split into two intersecting forms that give the illusion of being pulled apart, a conceptual response to the idea of "revealing" what lies behind the city's facades.

It serves as an interactive events space

"The Diptych serves as an event space for the Triennale's programming, addressing issues in urban trauma, and was one of several international commissions open within the city through late fall [2021]," said the practice.

"Its brief proximity with the canal house is a study in formal estrangements," it continued. "Still, through orientation, material, scale, posture, the pavilion recognised something of itself in its new neighbour."

PARA built the pavilion from a timber frame structure

Due to the site's heritage status, the pavilion floats atop 15 connected pontoons in the canal to avoid any impact on the existing buildings, with just a slim gap between it and the adjacent canal house.

It was built from a timber frame structure, which has been left exposed internally to reveal where the roof beams of the pavilion's two gabled forms intersect.

Read:

Trolle Rudebeck Haar floats prefabricated sauna on Lake Geneva

Large openings at one end of this timber structure frame the facade of the historic canal building, and small projecting areas on either side create spaces for looking out over the canal.

Externally, the timber frame is partially clad with plywood panels, and features on the neighbouring canal house such as the gabled dormer windows and other openings have been left as geometric outlines.

The pavilion floats on pontoons. Photo is by Iwan Baan

This creates the illusion that the Bruges Diptych is a doppelgänger, a double, of the existing buildings.

Thin mirrors installed on the interior columns add to the surreal feel of the pavilion, reflecting fragments of the historic surroundings through the space.

Bruges Diptych has been left exposed internally. Photo is by Iwan Baan

PARA Project was founded by Jon Lott in 2007 and has offices in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lott is also a cofounding member of Collective-LOK, with which his previous projects include a flexible home for the Val Alen Institute in New York.

The photography is by Stijn Bollaert unless otherwise stated. 

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Adjaye Associates completes rose-hued cultural hub in Florida

British architecture firm Adjaye Associates has designed a collection of pigmented-concrete pavilions in Winter Park, Florida, to house a library and an events centre.

Located on the northwestern corner of the 23-acre (9.3 hectares) Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Florida, the Winter Park Library and Events Center comprises three pavilions and was described as a "micro-village" by Adjaye Associates.

Winter Park Library and Events Center is a cultural hub in Florida that was designed by Adjaye Associates

The cultural hub, which replaced an existing civic centre, was developed as part of an extensive revitalisation of the park and first announced in 2017.

It comprises a 35,155 square-foot (3,266 square-metre) library, an 18,200 square-foot (1,690 square-metre) events centre and a 2,457 square-foot (228 square-metre) Porte Cochère, a portico-style canopy that will be used as a pick-up and drop-off point.

The three structures were constructed using pigmented concrete

The pavilions were designed as square and rectangular buildings with exterior walls that are angled inwards at their base. Large vaulted arches on the sides of the buildings provide views from the interior across to the parkland.

Materials used were locally sourced, with the precast concrete used across the facade sourced from within 25 miles of the site.

Vaulted arches were fitted with large windows

The project's design also references its surroundings, with the vaulted arches informed by the park's plant life and local architecture.

"Arches, inspired both by local fauna and the region's vernacular architecture, establish the form of the pavilions, with vaulted rooflines and sweeping windows creating a porous relationship between interior and exterior, drawing natural light deep into the buildings," said Adjaye Associates.

The events centre features space for performances

The two-storey library houses collection spaces, a computer lab, an indoor auditorium, a recording studio and youth spaces. It has an open-plan design to aid accessibility throughout and four timber-lined cores that hold archival collections, reading rooms and support zones.

The events centre contains a rooftop terrace and a large auditorium surrounded by flexible open spaces, as well as an amphitheatre and a rooftop meeting room.

Read:

Adjaye Associates designs monolithic campus for The Africa Institute in Sharjah

Dramatic black-painted spiral staircases sit at the centre of each structure, contrasting against red-painted walls and connecting the upper levels of the buildings.

Rose-pigmented concrete covers the ceiling above the event centre and the library's mezzanine-style second floor, tying the interior of the buildings together with the exterior walls.

The cultural hub was informed by local architecture

The event centre rooftop terrace overlooks the park, as well as a nearby lake and the concrete embossed roofline of the adjacent library and Porte Cochère.

"As an ensemble, the Winter Park Library and Events Center comes together as a space of social gathering, intellectual nourishment, and enhanced connection to its natural tropical context," the practice said.

Rose-coloured concrete covers the events centre ceiling

The Porte Cochère pavilion is situated beside the events centre and library and has the same rose-pigmented concrete material palette and a similar tapered, square form.

Unlike the library and events spaces, however, the pavilion has no glazing between its vaulted arches. Instead, it functions as an open canopy under which visitors can rest. A large circular opening pierces the roof of the pavilion, adding a sculptural quality.

Materials and concrete used at the cultural hub were sourced locally

The structures were designed with large overhangs to ensure visitors are given shade from the Florida sun, while an on-site solar energy system is projected to produce around 37,865-kilowatt-hours of energy annually.

The project also has a stormwater irrigation system that lets the stormwater filter through its parking lot structure, before being collected in a nearby lake and reused to water the landscape around the buildings.

Other red-hued projects by Adjaye Associates include the proposed campus for The Africa Institute in downtown Sharjah, UAE, and eight rammed-earth domes that the practice designed for the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in South Africa.

Photography is by Dror Baldinger.

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Project credits:

Design architect: Adjaye Associates
Architect of record: HuntonBrady Architects
Acoustical design: Gary Seibein
Civil engineer and landscape architect: Land Design
Envelope consultant: Thornton Tomasetti
Food service design: Phil Bean
General contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie
Owner’s representative: The Pizzutti Companies
Signage consultant: Poblocki
Structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineer + audio visual and security: TLC Engineering

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