Learning

FLORA is an advanced and ecological observatory built in the Collserola Natural Park (Barcelona) and developed by a team of students and researchers from the “Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities” (MAEBB).

Project Profile – The Jiuzhai Valley National Park Visitor Center project is located at the entrance of the Jiuzhai Valley. Covering around 30,000 m² and a site area of 89,960 m², the project includes the construction of a visitor center and an international communication center, renovation of the Heye Hotel, garden landscaping, embankment reinforcement along the Baishui River and the Feicui River, and construction of overpasses and ramps, etc. As the park’s signature construction and gateway, it will provide access to transportation and support services to up to 41,000 tourists every day after completion. The Jiuzhai Valley National Park Administration Bureau has contracted the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University Co., LTD., SCEGC No.9 Construction Engineering Group Company LTD., and Sichuan Chuanjian Geotechnical Survey and Design Institute to inspect the site, design and carry out the construction. Mr. Zhuang Weimin, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is in charge of the whole project as the project director. As an important natural heritage and a reserve under the Man and the Biosphere Program, Jiuzhai Valley National Park is host to a diverse and unique natural environment. The damaged and collapsed buildings due to the earthquake have inevitably impacted the park’s ecological environment and will in turn impact local tourism, which has been the pillar industry of Jiuzhai Valley and has been providing material support to the locals. If the buildings are not restored in time, it is bound to affect the local tourism revenue, which is the main source of income for many residents.

The new School of Arts of Valladolid is adjacent to the convent of Las Carmelitas Descalzas. According to historical plans, the plot used to be part of the convent’s orchards, a condition which has characterised the project from the beginning. Towards the city, the buildings shows itself as an architecture of walls; towards the inside, an architecture of patios. The project strives to be respectful of its historical context. However, it houses a space for creativity, youth and dreams. The essence of the project is the materialization of this duality. The exterior is clad in black brick; an architecture of texture, materiality and colour, which creates a sort of mystifying atmosphere that surrounds and protects the inner world of creation. The interior is thought of, by opposition, as a technological space, white and bright with formal allusions to industrial architecture, production and creation.

Chengdu National Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center, the world’s leading research institute on panda preservation, has recently completed a significant campus expansion in a national preservation park near the outskirts of Chengdu, China. Designed by Ping Jiang, FAIA, of EID Architecture, a group of four panda pavilions has been newly opened to the public after experiencing some delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These pavilions are built to become the research lab to house and study pandas’ behaviors and activities. It also serves the community for educational and recreational purposes, while attracting millions of panda lovers annually to visit the campus.

Located on a former industrial complex, the Worcester Blackstone Visitor Center narrates a history without the use of historic artifacts. When a fire burned down the last remaining structure of the once-sprawling steel mill on the site, the land was cleared and planning began for a new, purpose-built visitors center to celebrate the history of the site and the surrounding community. The challenge for the design team was to create a place that communicates a rich and layered history, despite all architectural remnants of that history having been erased. The devised solution consists of five key elements:

The Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering is a 190,000 SF signature replacement building for the University of Rhode Island College of Engineering. The building is a result of Ballinger’s strategic master planning for the University, which recommended the demolition of five existing buildings and the creation of a new interdisciplinary teaching and research hub at the center of campus. The resulting Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering is the centerpiece of this transformational vision.

After three years of construction, a visitor center has emerged as a walk-in building sculpture on the premises of Rapunzel Naturkost GmbH in Legau. The new visitor center is designed to be public and inviting and is intended to make Rapunzel’s leitmotif “We make organic out of love” tangible for visitors. A house is full of discoveries that invite guests to linger and participate in varied and emotional imparting of knowledge.

This is an intervention in and restoration of the early 16th-century mill ruins of Betekom. The ruin has been stabilized through a whole series of injections and reinforcements in the stone mass. The ruin is constructed of iron sandstone. This is a local stone that is very expressive in its eroded form.