c.Luna

The Baupiloten are a group of students at the architectural faculty of the Berlin Technical University who carry out building projects under Susanne Hofmann’s guidance and supervision.

They have completed their third project. It is already the second one for the client ASB Kinder.- and Jugendhilfe GmbH, Berlin. Within the scope of the refurbishment the Baupiloten created a completely new conceived world from the temporary structure of the kindergarten as imagined by the children. The results are interactive and communicative interior spaces as well as a multifunctional façade according to Astrid Lindgren’s story. The construction costs were extremely low due to the recycling of material and the economical renewal of the damaged building substance. Concept design started in 2005 and completion was in March 2007.

Atmosphere defined by a communal design strategy

Pippi Longstockings’s “Taka-Tuka-Land”, according to Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book of the same title, not only bestowed the name to the kindergarten but turned into architecture. The Baupiloten and the child minder inspired the children to design their own vision of “Taka-Tuka-Land”. Their concepts of singing bridges as well as huts, the merry-go-round made of petals and the shell-throne belonging to Pippi’s father gave the Baupiloten an inkling of spatial qualities the children imagined for their new kindergarten. With the help of collages and architectural models the Baupiloten then communicated their views to the staff and the children. Thus the end users had had a direct involvement in the design of their newly built environment. The daily observation of the children’s play and the routine was a further inspiration to the Baupiloten.

Sensually immediate Architecture

The original temporary structure of the kindergarten has been turned into an everlasting oak tree where lemonade grows and flows. The flow of lemonade has seven intervals where the children can enjoy it, for example, the large-scale windows where the midday sun turns the room into a glittering environment due to the crystals that have been mounted in the windows. As a matter of fact, yellow is the dominant colour, be it in the entrance or the corridors with the lemonade gallery where the children can show their parents their latest achievements. In the hall the children’s clothes are accommodated in lemon-coloured cupboards. The architectural highpoint is the “lemonade-island” where the children are taller than the grown-ups. It’s oblique surfaces invite every child to play and “drown” in streams of yellow lemonade. In one of the rooms the stream of lemonade literally bursts out bounds and floods into the garden. Metaphorically Pippi Longstocking’s old oak tree has been turned into an interactive façade. It has become an oblique climbing frame made of green oak wood covered by yellow membrane with plenty of spaces to hide. The entire construction is protected against the elements by a transparent yellow membrane that sheds the inside with a warm light.

Architects: Atelier Bow-Wow / Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Momoyo kaijima, Shun Takagi
Location: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Contractor: Nichinan Tekkou Corporation
Construction year: 2005
Structural Engineer: Structural Design Office Oak Inc.
Site Area: 109 sqm
Constructed area: 61 sqm

As it is hard to run 3 places including the university laboratory, we were looking for a site for our house and atelier and ‘a flag shape site’ was up for nomination. A flag shape site is surrounded by buildings and only connected to the road by a narrow strip of land. It is therefore hard to plan or construct on and it is cheaper.

It is a chance to utilize our past experience having changed challenging conditions into positive characteristics of houses. Aiming not to separate the house and the atelier portion, we reached the composition with lower 2 floors for the atelier and upper 2 floors for the house connected with a staircase, the landing of which can be a split-level house itself after studying the conditions. The areas of the stair landings vary from 3 to 10 sqm, and the styles of the stairs also vary to give each space a different degree of privacy.

To fit the exterior wall inclined by regulations, the interior columns of the 1st and the 3rd floor also incline, and affect the behavior of the people inside. The unexpected forms of spaces inspire our imagination of use. We also dug a well and use the water for radiant cooling and heating. The well water pumped up to the roof streams down on surface of the external wall, cooling the wall by vaporization in the summer. The external wall is covered with granule-faced asphalt to hold the water. It is fun to think of the building as a massive rock sweating, with a dragon like internal water vein, which can be glimpsed between the houses. Vegetable will be planted at the top of the “rock”, and a tall tree and a bench will be at the “flagpole” approach. Our occupation of the place to imprint our memory has just begun.

Architect: Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas
Location: New York, USA
Programme: Emporio Armani, Giorgio Armani, Armani Casa, Armani Dolci, Armani Ristorante
Design Team: Sara Bernardi, Alfio Faro, Andrea D’Antrassi, Chiara Marchionni, Rossella Mastronardi
Furniture Design: Ana Gugic, Farshid Tavakolitehrani, Lucrezia Rendace
Model Makers: Nicola Cabiati, Lucrezia Rendace, Jaim Telias
3D Model & Render: Giuseppe Zaccaria, Jaim Telias, Stratos Christofidellis, Valerio Romondia, Giorgos Machairas
Construction year: 2007-2009
Lighting Consultant: Speirs & Major Associates
Project Consultant on Site: Davide Stolfi
Structural Engineering: Gilberto Sarti
Client: Gruppo Giorgio Armani
Art Work: Mimmo Paladino
Site Area: 7.000 sqm
Constructed Area: 2.500 sqm
Photographs: Studio Fuksas

After Hong Kong Chater House and Tokyo Ginza Tower, Fifth Avenue completes the trilogy of the Armani Stores designed by Doriana e Massimiliano Fuksas for the famous designer.

Situated in the centre of New York, in one of the street more known, the project takes up the first three floors of two buildings localized between the 5th Avenue and the 56th Street.

Besides the basement, the show room develops on four differents levels and it’s conceived of an only space, without clear distinctions, a singing space connected with the power generated by the whirlwind of the staircase.

The nucleus of the project is the staircase that connects the floors. It’s a structure wrought with the radiator grill of steel, covered with plastic material that highlights the look of sculpture. It’s an element completely indipendent that can be assimilated with difficulty to a simple geometric figure, that originates a whirlwind with a great dymanism, and around of it there are the different levels that receives the Armani’s world.
The movement of the ribbons that constitutes it, brings to the different floors, just skimming them and disenchanting the possibility to recognize the geometry and the static.

The same movement arrives to lap the vertical surfaces tranferring to it a share of the dynamism. The general layout of every floor develops on the always different flexures, that enriches of shades the lightness of wall coloured mastic.

No element is extraneus to the internal dynamism, not even the external façade; even if lined up to rigid orthogonal stitch of Manhattan, simulates the movement through images and shades projected on a set of LED thread. This screen, other than being the projection to the outside of the internal space, is also a particolar tribute to New York city, to the inescapable necessity to compare with his modernity and his dynamism.

The fluidity of the internal space is rendered by the wall of continous thread, that are realized with wood panels lacquered monochrome.

The different rays of bends that outlines the threads give rise to fields and handles for the different product areas. On every points the foldings of the threads gives hospitality to the dressing-room and the vip hall, in other points there are areas reserved to the staff, cash desk, or special product areas like Armani Dolci. A particular importance is given by the enlightenment that defines, characterizes and emphasizes the bends of the walls and of the spaces, and highlighting the different functions of the general layout.

Every element of the internal design, from the ehxibitors to the rooms to hang up the clothes, from the desks to the armchairs, follows and satisfied the movement concept generated by the staircase, becoming a part of the same whirlwind. Also the disposition and the route that it implies, outiline singing layout.

There is a conflicting between the shine of the colour of the walls and of the furnishings, and the noir of marble pave and of the false ceiling.

There is also a conflicting between the apparent simplicity of the internal space and the coffe and restaurant area that give advance notice of the elevator’s entrance. The bronze refolded and bended, that covers them, acquires and reflects the colours and the shades that gave notice of a mew atmosphere. Inside the restaurant, filtered by a amber veil, there is a splendid view of the 5th Avenue and in the end of Central Park.

The colours and the materials utilized are the same of the rest of the show room, but the suggestions are new and different. The space become recreational, a line of light on the floor that leads to the entrance of the restaurant underlining the sensuality of the bends of the wall.

A virtual curtain, they active the passage and as a theater… the show begins!