ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES: Queen Alia International Airport, Foster + Partners

Queen Alia International Airport
Amman, Jordan
Foster + Partners, United Kingdom

Year: 2013
Photos: Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

Project's description on ArchDaily:
"The airport has a highly efficient passive design, which has been inspired by local traditions, and is based on a flexible modular solution that allows for future expansion – the new building secures the city’s position as the main hub for the Levant region and allows the airport to grow by 6 per cent per annum for the next twenty-five years, increasing capacity from 3.5 million to 12 million passengers per annum by 2030.

In response to Amman’s climate, where summer temperatures vary markedly between day and night time, the building is constructed largely from concrete, the high thermal mass of the material providing passive environmental control. The tessellated roof canopy comprises a series of shallow concrete domes, which extend to shade the facades – each dome provided a modular unit for construction. The domes branch out from the supporting columns like the leaves of a desert palm and daylight floods the concourse through split beams at the column junctions. Echoing the veins of a leaf, a geometric pattern based on traditional Islamic forms is applied to each exposed soffit. The complex geometry of the roof shells and fabrication strategy was developed in conjunction with Foster + Partners in-house geometry specialists.

Two piers of departure gates run along either side of the central building, which contains the main processing areas and shops, lounges and restaurants. Between these volumes, open-air courtyards – a feature of vernacular architecture in the region – contribute to the terminal’s environmental strategy: the plants and trees help to filter pollution and pre-condition the air before it is drawn into the air handling system and reflecting pools bounce indirect natural light into the airport.

The terminal is glazed on all sides to allow views of the aircraft on the apron and to aid orientation. Horizontal louvres shade the facades from direct sunlight – to eliminate glare, the louvres become concentrated in more exposed areas close to the columns. The concrete structure incorporates local gravel to reduce maintenance requirements and the embodied energy of the material, and to harmonise with the natural shades of local sand. 

Amman is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world – the airport’s design resonates with a sense of place and local architecture, particularly in the domed roof, which from the air echoes the black flowing fabric of a Bedouin tent. There are also references to the Jordanian tradition of hospitality – in celebration of the custom for family groups to congregate at the airport, the forecourt has been enlarged to create a landscaped plaza with seating, shaded by trees, where people can gather to bid farewell or welcome returning travellers.

“Queen Alia International Airport has been an extraordinary project – it has transformed Amman into a niche hub, while offering critical growth for the wider economy through regional links. The new terminal building is energy efficient, will accommodate phased expansion and provides a dynamic symbol for Jordan. Our early involvement from the conceptual design stage, supporting the selection of operators, and through detailed design and work on site has involved many of our specialist in-house teams, from architects to climate analysts, space planners and geometry specialists. It has been a pleasure to work with our Jordanian colleagues and the team at AIG, and it is great to see the results of this work come to life today.”

Level 1 Floor Plan

Level 2 Floor Plan

Level 3 Floor Plan

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The fifth team of Arrebita is already in Porto

Coming from Ireland, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, the fifth team of Arrebita!Porto will have the responsibility of initiate the work on site process. More news on our blog as soon as we get to know this team better and as soon as the works on site begin.

The fifth team with the partner INFOR

ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES: Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art, Oscar Niemeyer

"The MAC-Niterói project reveals the daring of an experienced artist, responsible for a production that presents a very personal reading of the precepts of rationalist architecture lecorbusiana matrix.
In the 80s, the democratic regime was recovered in Brazil and Oscar Niemeyer returned. He found a different country than it was when he was summoned to design Brasilia, a country whose population is spread in the peripheries of cities. In the works of this period Niemeyer continues to work with types already explored, winding slabs, domes, arches and platforms, in short, the vocabulary of curved universe.

Located at the top of Mirante da Boa Viagem (Boa Viagem viewpoint) on Avenida Almirante Benjamin Sodré of the city of Niteroi, enjoying a splendid view of Sugar Loaf and Corcovado, as the city of Niteroi is opposite Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, accessed via an impressive bridge or ferry.

The architect Oscar Niemeyer summarizes his project for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi: "The field was narrow, surrounded by the sea and the solution came naturally, with the inevitable starting point the central support. From him, architecture occurred spontaneously as a flower. The sea view was beautiful and had to take it. I failed the building and beneath it stretched the picture even more rich. I defined then the profile of the museum. A line created from the ground and continuously grows and spreads, sensual, even coverage. The shape of the building, which always imagined circular , was fixed and I stopped inside passionate. Around the museum created a gallery open to the sea, repeated on the second floor, a mezzanine bent over the large exhibition hall. "
Also in the words of its creator, the museum emerges like a flower in the rock that holds them.

Created from a revolutionary figure of double curvature, the Museum stands on the cliff as a symbolic lighthouse built overlooking the bay.The combination of the elements that surround it, an open square of 2500 square meters, a reflecting pool at its base with 817 square meters and 60 meters deep, thereby giving the structure an appearance of lightness. The modernist structure with circular lines and saucer-shaped, has sometimes been likened to a UFO. The structure rests on a water source from which emerge the flying saucer appears white, pretending to be suspended in the air."
- text from WikiArquitectura
 

André Chiote's illustration on the Niemeyer's project

The engineering challenges of Capital Gate's project, Abu Dhabi

The TV show "Megastructures" recorded an episode in Abu Dhabi, focusing in the Capital Gate's project. With its 18 degree inclination to the west, the building is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world’s furthest leaning man-made tower".

ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES: V House, BaksvanWengerden Architecten

V House
Alkmaar, Netherlands
BaksvanWengerden Architecten, Netherlands

Year: 2012
Site Area: 210 sqm
Photos: Yvonne Brandwijk
 
Project description on ArchDaily:
"BaksvanWengerden Architecten is commissioned to design a single-family house on a self-build plot in Nollen-Oost, located to the north east of Alkmaar.

The position and proportions of the building plot as well as the different views and privacy aspects resulted in a north-south orientation on ground floor level and an east-west orientation on the upper level. The ground floor is organised around a free-standing box, containing the supporting hardware for the spaces around it. The living area on the south opens to a more formal front yard; the kitchen has a central position and the eating area is oriented to the generous back yard.

On the upper level the sleeping rooms are orientated to the roof gardens on both the east and west side. The small programme on this floor; the bigger programme on the ground floor and the pitched roof define the pleasantly awkward shape. Anthracite, ceramic tiles completely enwrap the house. It appears simultaneously confident and humble."