c.Luna

The New York based practice, Pompei A.D., was hired to design the firsts Tanishq stores in the U.S. and sent us some pictures of the one located in Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, N.J.

More pictures and some drawings after the break.

The concept for the Tanishq store developed out of a study of the relationship between the customer and the jewelry, along with the role that nature plays in binding them together. Jewelry is created by taking elements from nature and refining them. Human beings are similar in that we are products of nature but have spent our lives refining ourselves. The design of the store brings these two together in a “garden”, an oasis where the customer is free to relax while her senses are enlivened by the depth of the experience.

Customers are initially drawn to the store by the sculptural storefront. From a distance views into the store are diffused by a delicate laser cut screen.

An organic non orthogonal layout inside the store encourages customers to meander through the space. With multiple pathways, the customer creates her own unique experience as she walks around sculptural elements with jewelry displayed. Plants cascade over the tops of white concrete and terra-cotta colored plaster walls with a wall of plants cutting the space into two distinct areas.

By rethinking the entire jewelry buying experience, the store design creates opportunities for better interaction between the employees and customers. As customers walk along the wall mounted jewelry display niches, the store employees are able to stand next to them and talk to them about the jewelry. Additionally, there are tables and a lounge spread around the store encouraging customers to sit and relax while shopping.

Architects: URBANA - José Fernando Vázquez-Pérez & Rafael Castro Montes de Oca
Location: Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Project Team: Carlos Cruz-Ortiz, Luis Cruz de la Paz, Yalmari Tirado-López, Miguel Moreno
Contractor: Sharp Construction, S.E.
Electrical Engineering: Carlos Requena, PE, Requena & Asociados
Structural Engineering: Carlos Lázaro-León, PE, Lázaro & Gandía Consultores
Mechanical Engineering: Francisco Maté, PE, Maté & Asociados
Project year: 2007-2009
Photographs: José Fernando Vázquez-Pérez

Location/Context

The project is located in a mid-century development of Río Piedras [San Juan]. The neighborhood, typical of upper middle class housing developments of the time, is composed of lots averaging 1,500 m2, with individually designed custom houses. The house sits on a corner parcel, defined by a local main-street on the south-east, and by a cul-de-sac on the north side.

Site/Zoning

The site is characterized by densely vegetated lots, dominated by large, older trees, and by a rising topography which flattens out on the northern side of the property. The zoning restrictions favor single-family, single-story occupancies.

Concept

The residence, commissioned by a young family with two kids, initially started as a substantial remodeling-addition to a 1950’s house. But after the initial rehabilitation concepts proved economically unfeasible, it became a “new-house” project. The clients were particularly specific in describing their architectural intentions for the project: “…a structure that would evoke the clarity of mid-century Puertorrican modernism, with the charm and climatic responsiveness of their courtyarded, Moorish-styled, Old San Juan loft. Ironically, the initial design concept started by emulating the essence of the original house [as evidenced by the dominant horizontal rooflines, the use of ironwork as privacy/security/illumination screen, the location of the main structure installed on a pedestal, etc.]. Slowly, the project became one of reconsidering the “Spanish courtyard house” typology, itself an offspring of the Islamic influence on southern Spanish architecture, and an emblematic model of some of the early, native urbanización [development] projects in Puerto Rico like Villa Caparra, and Sagrado Corazón developments.

The neo-Islamic-modernist strategy played off a peripheral massing around a central patio and pool, with minimal perforations on the street side, and a gradual aperture from the interior towards the outside, similar to the Persian Iwan [a three-sided space, open on the fourth side, usually containing a water-feature] , and the Arabic Sahn [a courtyard]. The plot was conceptualized as a perfect square, divided into a 9-square grid, with a central void representing the patio; the grid was then expanded into a 16-square grid, with public, semi-public, and private massings, a central patio, an oasis [pool], a gazebo, and secondary yards, with a lateral multi-square sleeve for possible future expansion [the clients plan to purchase the north-side cul-de-sac from the city].

Architecturally, the resulting house is dominated by a main, squarish volume, defined by the massive, “floating” roof plane, and a series of lesser rectangular bodies that seem to protrude from the larger mass. The frontal façade also features a monumental, triangular Mashrabiya, or screen, which, like the modern brise soleil, or like the native rejas [ironwork], functions both for privacy and ventilation. The posterior façade also features a series of wooden brise soleils that modulate the interior-exterior transition on the rear, and help mitigate the entrance of sunlight. In terms of spatial organization, the larger, main volume houses the public spaces of the residence [living, dining, family room, kitchen], while the private rooms are mainly contained by a secondary, enclosed and partially solid bar-shape structure. The outdoor terrace, pool, and gazebo are conceptually punctured out of the massive, main volume, and are defined by a smaller floating roof, and perforated end wall.

Sustainable Features

In addition of taking advantage of natural cross-ventilation, the house features a green roof [on the main volume and gazebo], a rain-water recovery cistern, solar water-heaters, and a high efficiency air-conditioning system; the house was built using fly-ash concrete [for walls and ceilings].

Architects: Coll-Barreu Arquitectos - Juan Coll-Barreu & Daniel Gutiérrez Zarza
Location: Jaca (Huesca), Spain
Collaborators: Pablo Castro, Gorka García, Estibaliz Sanz Reyero, Jorge Bilbao
Project year: 2004-2005
Construction year: 2005-2008
Constructed area: 18,123 sqm
Budget: 24,418,149 EURO (US $32,97M)
Structure: Arup
Ice Production: Ati
Contractor: Vías
Photographs: Aleix Bagué

The City of Jaca Hockey Arena has been the most representative facility of the European Youth Olimpic Festival of Jaca 2007, the first event in the Pyrennes.

Two ice rinks allow the pavillion to celebrate hockey, figure skating, short track curling competitions, being simultaneously a recreational ice center.

The building has reinforced the relevance of the ice in Jaca.It has regenerate an undeveloped area of the city and it has become a successful reference of the Future of Jaca.

Throught the sipirit of the First Winter Games, the project suggestes the idea of natural landscape recovering its great relevance in this kind of indoor activities.

The Dome takes the strength of the nearby Oroel Mount and the Pyrenee peaks, and meets directly the ground without any sort of façade. As a drop of water, the content is contained by no container at all.

The membrane is perceived as a soft crystal of Ice, and it must be crossed to accede, like a natural experience. This membrane groups roof, facade, structure, lightning, electrical, security and air conditioning systems (the latest included into the main structure), and organizes the movements and uses of the pavillion.

Under that delicate efficient shell there is only concrete, brick and ice, with no constructive details.