Projects Wanted - Kollaskolan, Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Projects Wanted is an initiative promoted by Void Matters, in which we invite Architecture offices to share their new projects with us. We are open to receive projects from all around the world, regardless of their dimension or typology. Please send us high quality photos (indicating their authors), drawings and descriptive texts in English by e-mail - mc@dimscale.com. It will be our pleasure to help spreading new Architecture concepts and ideas!

KOLLASKOLAN 

Kollastaden, Kungsbacka, Sweden
Kjellgren Kaminsky,  Sweden
Year: 2014
Area: 6.500 sqm (school) + 4.500 sqm (athletic hall)
Cost: 220.000.000 SEK (21.584.300 €)

"The new school consists of a school building of ca 6500m², a sports-block of ca 2500m² as well as additional smaller buildings. The school is executed as a passive-house, thus becoming one of the largest passive-house buildings in Sweden and probably the largest passive-house school built in the country.

The school utilizes the existing energy within the building generated from people and household appliances which then reduces the overall heating requirements of the building.

Architecturally the school is sited as a backdrop to the centrally located park south of the building, filling one of the planned blocks of the future area of Kollastaden.

On the north side of the school, a communal schoolyard is placed to connect the new and old school-building. The schoolyard is designed to be actively used by students participating in activities which support learning. There is parking, both for cars and bicycles, and zones for the school-taxi.

The School building which is based on the design program of Kollastaden, has its own strong character. The street facades of pale brick are kept relatively restrained while the facades facing the yard have a more playful expression, both in the facade design and in the volume.

The school-yard facade is dressed with stucco and panels. To give the relatively large building a human scale the street façade has a variation in composition. This is shown in both window-setting and the artistic decoration of the brick as well as high-lighted entrances and windows with red façade-panels.

A distinct entrance leads the visitor into the entrance hall with an atrium that is open in three planes. All communal areas are situated around the atrium as well as the more public function rooms. In the wings of the building, the permanent classrooms are situated furthest away from the more public areas so they have more privacy and less unnecessary disruptions.

Kollaskolan is a playful, inspiring and sustainable school environment centered around the students, with a building volume that is well suited to its purpose and context.

The new school is built as a supplement to an existing school where the schoolyard serves as a linking passage and provides a creative outdoor environment. The schoolyard facades are clad with façade-panels in a colorful and playful pattern, while the street facade in brick has a more sober expression to establish a close dialogue with the surrounding areas.

The new school houses 360 students from ages 12-15 and is the result of 1st prize in an architecture competition. The building is now one of Sweden's largest passive houses."

-  Kjellgren Kaminsk

A2OFFICE, Architecture and Design from the north of Portugal

A2OFFICE participated in one of Projects Wanted series with the project Plataforma Zero. Today we share in our blog a couple of Architecture and Design projects sent by A2OFFICE, that somehow sum up the creative approach of this office from the north of Portugal.

Apartment Renovation VdC01

Vila do Conde, Portugal
Photos: AL.MA Fotografia | Alexandra Marques

"This intervention was made in an apartment located in a rooftop penthouse, with 18 years old, with a dark and heavy interior. It was asked to do the best intervention possible spending a small budget, previously defined.Two decades ago, the initial design did not anticipate the need for a toilet placed in the social area of the home to serve the visitors and the daily use. It was therefore necessary to perform both, a division and a multiplication (depending on the point of view): one of the toilets was divided into two, one of the toilets has led to two. And with this need, a new door entered in the house: an event!Moreover, the apartment was already pretty well divided, social and private areas of the house were hierarchically organized. Some existing residual spaces were transformed into storage lockers, and mirrors were placed to increase the sense of visual space.All existing carpentry was painted white. All of toilet ceramics have been reused in an economic way: the black and beige colors gave rise to the dominant painted white; the ceilings have been designed with openings that the imagination does believe that are made of natural light.The ceramic floor in the existing social areas of the house was all covered and homogenized with white cork plates. This new material covered entrance hall, kitchen, laundry, pantry, living room and ended on the walls of the new toilet. In the area of the bedrooms remained the existing floor.The exterior balcony and terrace with about 110m2 of floor area were redesigned. It was used natural wood, that brought it´s smell and comfort. The 270º view did the rest."

- A2OFFICE

Puzzle Table

Client: KUB | cubic things

Photos: AL.MA Fotografia | Alexandra Marques  

"PUZZLE TABLE is not an usual table. We could say that it's not just a table...

This object consists of five distinct parts: a combining core and 4 removable components. Altogether there are 125 cubes, all equal, which are part of a larger cube. It is a signed piece, handcrafted, in a close connection between creator and performer. The PUZZLE TABLE lives of the interaction with its users. It needs to be discovered and experienced. It challenges different uses and proposes alternatives: it is a game to be played!"

- A2OFFICE

5-OC.STRIPES - experimental exhibition module

Exponor, Matosinhos, Portugal
Construction: Materfut S.A.
Photos: AL.MA Fotografia | Alexandra Marques

"This project was developed for the Work in Progress'12 contest, for selecting the best proposals for experimental exhibition modules at the architecture and design event Projecto Casa'12.The main intent was to explore the thermo formable property of Corian ©.

The piece was not intended to be narrative in its intended function, but rather, and in contrast, be a creative basis allowing the observer to be more interested in the plastic potential of the material.

Such as a Duchamp readymade, if we remove the functional significance, one gains a certain plastic essence piece completely autonomous that tends to assert itself.The aim was not just to give an answer, but put the viewer asking the question!"

- A2OFFICE

White on White

Ermensinde, Portugal
Photos: AL.MA Fotografia | Alexandra Marques

"This small project is about the design of an addition to an original kitchen. It integrates a balcony for quick meals and additional storage space."

- A2OFFICE

PROJECTS WANTED - CALL FOR ENTRIES 4

Our daily cost management consulting work is completely based on Architecture. We always seek to safeguard the conceptual side of the project, balancing it with its financial and technical performance goals.

Since 2012 we’ve been challenging international offices to send us their projects for our blog Void Matters. The feedback we have received has been increasingly rewarding every year, concerning the project submissions and the number of people who consult the blog, which has been visited by about 750 000 people from all around the world.

On this fourth Call for Entries we are looking for new projects, built during the years of 2014 and 2015, of any typology and dimension. Submissions must be made through WeTransfer platform and be composed of the following elements: photographic images and respective authors, descriptive texts (in English, if available) and other complementary elements. The projects should be addressed to the e-mail david.cardoso@dimscale.com.

Thank you all!

Projects Wanted - High Voltage Laboratoty, IDOM / ACXT

Projects Wanted is an initiative promoted by Void Matters, in which we invite Architecture offices to share their new projects with us. We are open to receive projects from all around the world, regardless of their dimension or typology. Please send us high quality photos (indicating their authors), drawings and descriptive texts in English to our Marketing e-mail - david.cardoso@dimscale.com. It will be our pleasure to help spreading new Architecture concepts and ideas.

HIGH VOLTAGE LABORATORY 

Mungía, Spain
IDOM / ACXT
Built area: 2.285 sqm
Cost: 3.421.080,80 €
Photos: Aitor Ortiz

"This building is a High Voltage Laboratory, for testing dielectric transformers up to 850 kV, which requires to be a diaphanous vessel of 57 m long, 30 m wide and 27 m high (inner dimensions), surrounded completely by a Faraday cage needed for the extremely  precision measurements performed inside.

 

The main hall can be divided into three main spaces, suitable for carrying out the Impulse and Resonant Tests, and SF6 equipment tests. Annex to the main space, there is a technical block with views into the testing room, which features two control rooms / reception, a meeting room and space for presentations and meetings for up to 60 people.

The new Laboratory is intended as both a laboratory of the most advanced technology in the sector, a representation of the ARTECHE bet on innovation, reflected in a polished metal facade that vibrates and breaks along its perimeter, allowing integration in a volume so important in the environment that is characterized by buildings significantly lower than this building, which reaches 30 meters."

- IDOM / ACXT