because you get not only the models, all presented by themselves in the same way so that you can compare, but also get access to the materials on the boards, you can really see what the presentations were about.
this looks like a tough competition - basically because there is too much program for the site and a lot of the results look out of scale. you can see the various strategies for dealing with this included:
-carving out the corner on the church axis (aedas, rau, hadid),
-pushing the larger part of the volume to the other side of the site (mecanoo),
-attempting to break apart/'dematerialize' the volume (dsr/soil, hadid),
-and accepting a big block but then trying to cut voids out of it to break down scale (oma, arets, simpson/klinkhamer).
some other strategies that are less clear, but still dealing with the same issues (coenen, neutlings/riedijk).
obviously, the same base strategy in different hands can work completely differently.
i've got my opinions about what works, but i'll keep 'em to myself for this first post.
[don't miss the 'see more', folks. pdf downloads aren't the fastest, but worth it.]
I stumbled upon the results on Bustler this morning... I was extremely impressed with the results of this competition. That was one of the most interesting things... that all the models are photographed in the exact same way, even when you click on "see more" there are more photographs at the same angle throughout each submission. Impressive projects. I'm actually heading over to Holland next weekend to start an internship (at one of the offices that was shorlisted for this competition) and am really hoping to get a chance to head over to Den Haag to see it all in person.
Very good documentation indeed. From a perfunctory point of view, the entries I liked the most were:
Diller and Scofidio: Very 'elegant'. Not terribly innovative of them, with the warped world-sheets, but in this case, it really seems to work very well, with the 'blurring' of the landscape and the interior program.
OMA: Out of the big-block-subtracting entries, this one seems to be the most successful. Somehow, this is also not very innovative in that, this is what one expects out of OMA.
The biggest disappointment for me was Aedas - but what does one expect out of them anyways?
what is more interesting about the competition is that this is a competition to replace one of oma's more famous buildings, one that started the office off in fact.
Wow Zaha. Way to recycle yet again. Someone should really make sure her interns are getting fed and maybe occasionally see some sunlight. Worst submission of the competition, hands down.
I actually liked the Aedas submission but maybe because it was one of the few that didn't look an OMA knock-off.
I personally like Zaha's design - don't know how her interns are treated. The design that seems Capita Architecture's proposal is lackluster and not in a good way. There are also elements in the design that seems contradictory and out of place... once again, not in a good way. (I would like to read the proposal but it's not in english.)
I personally like Zaha's design - don't know how her interns are treated. Capita Architecture's proposal is lackluster and not in a good way. There are also elements in the design that seems contradictory and out of place... once again, not in a good way. (I would like to read the proposal but it's not in english.)
either the plans were just left out of the presentation boards or zaha's design didn't delve into programming and schematics. looking at the plans of the other submissions, it shows how massive the program really is. for zaha to not present any kind of schematics makes me think her design is just another exercise in photogenicism.
capita's proposal look the most different from the group of submissions. their plans also look the most refined. I agree that the elevations are nothing impressive...but that shifts my focus to wanting to find out more about the interiors...as opposed to reacting primarily on the massing and elevations.
I like oma's model, especially the color scheme. the design is predictable; eerie hovering mass, open plan, blah blah blah.
RAU reminds me of nouvel's reina sofia. it's a "losing face" design. don't know if i like it.
mecanoo's highlight seems to be the ramps and the 'quilt'-like pattern the spaces create on the elevations. seems generic though...
aedas' building looks like it's relying heavily on compositional devices...might not be an OMA knockoff but definitely a lebbeus woods and morphosis with a splash of coop himmelblau imitation.
the cruz y ortiz design looks like a corbusian revival...nothing really new or exciting.
I like wiel arets'. I also like the "doll house" idea of henning larsen. it's the only design where there's an attempt to make visible the program into the elevation. the composition could be better though.
Strlt_typ, I agree with you on most except for Capita's submission. Yes, by "refined" the plans looks the most ready to be conceived, however the elevations are so abstract and, what seems to be, variations of multiple schemes, that I have no little interest in the development of the plans since the approach to the building is relatively unappealing.
it seems to be that the colors are also making capita's submission unappealing but i'm not sure. the monochromatic model doesn't look as strange as the colored renderings. maybe if they kept the mondrian motif throughout and changed the shape of those other windows....and eliminated the arches at the entry...
if they eliminated the mondrian motif all together and clad it with perforated something then...wow, all roads lead to oma...
The mondrian motif resembles Nouvel's NY residential building. The center is OMAish w/out the perforation. I agree with the color/material selection. Is that stucco? Whatever it is, it has a really bad Predock feel.
It's basically the vestiges of a Nouvel, Rem, Predock collage that was blown up and pieced together.
Even in Zaha's signature style, I can see how her spiel can relate the design to dance and music; or how it is sold to relate. I would like to read how this is related to the program.
not discounting that it's true that there is a lot of oma-influence everywhere - and my pick isn't any less oma-derivative than the others - i'm enamored of the mecanoo solution.
the low block on-line with the church and the tall-but-not-too-thick tower seems a simple and sensible solution, but then the stacked/nested section sells it!
actully, i'm not even sure it's just an oma-homage so much as it ties together a lot of dutch threads, from mvrdv to van den broek/bakema.
--
honestly, i don't mind the forms/solutions represented in the aedas model, but then when it's placed in the context it feels like something's wrong. almost like they worked at the wrong scale.
of the big block solutions, there's something beguiling to me about the wiel arets proposal. it makes the same gestures to the corner facing the church, but it's not at all apologetic about being a big block. but i may be applying to much of my own expectations to it, since i know that the built projects of his that i've seen are handled so skillfully. if this had half the magic of the utrecht library, it'd be gorgeous.
i'm slowly becoming attracted to the de architecten cie / kpmb design. it's doing the relatively common move of nested spaces; auditorium within the atrium. unlike the mecanoo design where the main bulk of the program is compacted into a tower, de architecten cie ties the programs to a central space. not a new idea but still effective. looking at the mecanoo section, you can see how circulation within the tower will predominantly be hallways with doors leading into the individual spaces....i think that's the result of compacting them into a block; the circulation becomes an afterthought and the stacking of the spaces to fit into a tower becomes the main driver. de architecten cie's design centralizes circulation; most of the programs are along the perimeter and you go toward the center to move. another thing that is so attractive is the apparent massiveness of the program translated on the elevation facing the plaza. well, many of the other designs do that but there's something cluttered and messy about the way it's composed that is captivating.
by centralizing the circulation, they were able to make something out of circulation than mere circulation...it almost looks like a secondary plaza within the building.
I also really appreciate how this competition is being covered - especially getting a chance to see people's boards instead of just seeing a few sexy renderings.
There are some really strong projects... It'll take me a while to get through all of them...
SW - I agree about aedas - there are some nice moments, but the exterior seems really "off" to me...
mecanoo's seems like a really nice site solution...
Apr 29, 10 12:33 pm ·
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dance and music center in the hague - competition results
i wanted to post this here so some discussion could come from it. this bustler coverage of the dance and music center at the hague is some of the best competition coverage i've seen in a while:
http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/oma_hadid_dsrso-il_mecanoo/
because you get not only the models, all presented by themselves in the same way so that you can compare, but also get access to the materials on the boards, you can really see what the presentations were about.
this looks like a tough competition - basically because there is too much program for the site and a lot of the results look out of scale. you can see the various strategies for dealing with this included:
-carving out the corner on the church axis (aedas, rau, hadid),
-pushing the larger part of the volume to the other side of the site (mecanoo),
-attempting to break apart/'dematerialize' the volume (dsr/soil, hadid),
-and accepting a big block but then trying to cut voids out of it to break down scale (oma, arets, simpson/klinkhamer).
some other strategies that are less clear, but still dealing with the same issues (coenen, neutlings/riedijk).
obviously, the same base strategy in different hands can work completely differently.
i've got my opinions about what works, but i'll keep 'em to myself for this first post.
[don't miss the 'see more', folks. pdf downloads aren't the fastest, but worth it.]
I stumbled upon the results on Bustler this morning... I was extremely impressed with the results of this competition. That was one of the most interesting things... that all the models are photographed in the exact same way, even when you click on "see more" there are more photographs at the same angle throughout each submission. Impressive projects. I'm actually heading over to Holland next weekend to start an internship (at one of the offices that was shorlisted for this competition) and am really hoping to get a chance to head over to Den Haag to see it all in person.
Very good documentation indeed. From a perfunctory point of view, the entries I liked the most were:
Diller and Scofidio: Very 'elegant'. Not terribly innovative of them, with the warped world-sheets, but in this case, it really seems to work very well, with the 'blurring' of the landscape and the interior program.
OMA: Out of the big-block-subtracting entries, this one seems to be the most successful. Somehow, this is also not very innovative in that, this is what one expects out of OMA.
The biggest disappointment for me was Aedas - but what does one expect out of them anyways?
Will study more later!
what is more interesting about the competition is that this is a competition to replace one of oma's more famous buildings, one that started the office off in fact.
i hope he gets to build the new one.
i like the OMA design, i can already visualize it becoming a hotspot for the populace before and after shows.
I find everyone's choices of model materials to be interesting, like the wooden blocks one.
Wow Zaha. Way to recycle yet again. Someone should really make sure her interns are getting fed and maybe occasionally see some sunlight. Worst submission of the competition, hands down.
I actually liked the Aedas submission but maybe because it was one of the few that didn't look an OMA knock-off.
I personally like Zaha's design - don't know how her interns are treated. The design that seems Capita Architecture's proposal is lackluster and not in a good way. There are also elements in the design that seems contradictory and out of place... once again, not in a good way. (I would like to read the proposal but it's not in english.)
man I wanted to edit that...
I personally like Zaha's design - don't know how her interns are treated. Capita Architecture's proposal is lackluster and not in a good way. There are also elements in the design that seems contradictory and out of place... once again, not in a good way. (I would like to read the proposal but it's not in english.)
either the plans were just left out of the presentation boards or zaha's design didn't delve into programming and schematics. looking at the plans of the other submissions, it shows how massive the program really is. for zaha to not present any kind of schematics makes me think her design is just another exercise in photogenicism.
capita's proposal look the most different from the group of submissions. their plans also look the most refined. I agree that the elevations are nothing impressive...but that shifts my focus to wanting to find out more about the interiors...as opposed to reacting primarily on the massing and elevations.
I like oma's model, especially the color scheme. the design is predictable; eerie hovering mass, open plan, blah blah blah.
RAU reminds me of nouvel's reina sofia. it's a "losing face" design. don't know if i like it.
mecanoo's highlight seems to be the ramps and the 'quilt'-like pattern the spaces create on the elevations. seems generic though...
aedas' building looks like it's relying heavily on compositional devices...might not be an OMA knockoff but definitely a lebbeus woods and morphosis with a splash of coop himmelblau imitation.
the cruz y ortiz design looks like a corbusian revival...nothing really new or exciting.
I like wiel arets'. I also like the "doll house" idea of henning larsen. it's the only design where there's an attempt to make visible the program into the elevation. the composition could be better though.
Strlt_typ, I agree with you on most except for Capita's submission. Yes, by "refined" the plans looks the most ready to be conceived, however the elevations are so abstract and, what seems to be, variations of multiple schemes, that I have no little interest in the development of the plans since the approach to the building is relatively unappealing.
(There seriously needs to be an edit function with these posts.)
it seems to be that the colors are also making capita's submission unappealing but i'm not sure. the monochromatic model doesn't look as strange as the colored renderings. maybe if they kept the mondrian motif throughout and changed the shape of those other windows....and eliminated the arches at the entry...
if they eliminated the mondrian motif all together and clad it with perforated something then...wow, all roads lead to oma...
well, oma does open up the site. also, maybe it's their cameraviews, but oma's scheme seems lighter than most of the others.
The mondrian motif resembles Nouvel's NY residential building. The center is OMAish w/out the perforation. I agree with the color/material selection. Is that stucco? Whatever it is, it has a really bad Predock feel.
It's basically the vestiges of a Nouvel, Rem, Predock collage that was blown up and pieced together.
Even in Zaha's signature style, I can see how her spiel can relate the design to dance and music; or how it is sold to relate. I would like to read how this is related to the program.
not discounting that it's true that there is a lot of oma-influence everywhere - and my pick isn't any less oma-derivative than the others - i'm enamored of the mecanoo solution.
the low block on-line with the church and the tall-but-not-too-thick tower seems a simple and sensible solution, but then the stacked/nested section sells it!
actully, i'm not even sure it's just an oma-homage so much as it ties together a lot of dutch threads, from mvrdv to van den broek/bakema.
--
honestly, i don't mind the forms/solutions represented in the aedas model, but then when it's placed in the context it feels like something's wrong. almost like they worked at the wrong scale.
of the big block solutions, there's something beguiling to me about the wiel arets proposal. it makes the same gestures to the corner facing the church, but it's not at all apologetic about being a big block. but i may be applying to much of my own expectations to it, since i know that the built projects of his that i've seen are handled so skillfully. if this had half the magic of the utrecht library, it'd be gorgeous.
i'm slowly becoming attracted to the de architecten cie / kpmb design. it's doing the relatively common move of nested spaces; auditorium within the atrium. unlike the mecanoo design where the main bulk of the program is compacted into a tower, de architecten cie ties the programs to a central space. not a new idea but still effective. looking at the mecanoo section, you can see how circulation within the tower will predominantly be hallways with doors leading into the individual spaces....i think that's the result of compacting them into a block; the circulation becomes an afterthought and the stacking of the spaces to fit into a tower becomes the main driver. de architecten cie's design centralizes circulation; most of the programs are along the perimeter and you go toward the center to move. another thing that is so attractive is the apparent massiveness of the program translated on the elevation facing the plaza. well, many of the other designs do that but there's something cluttered and messy about the way it's composed that is captivating.
to add:
by centralizing the circulation, they were able to make something out of circulation than mere circulation...it almost looks like a secondary plaza within the building.
I also really appreciate how this competition is being covered - especially getting a chance to see people's boards instead of just seeing a few sexy renderings.
There are some really strong projects... It'll take me a while to get through all of them...
SW - I agree about aedas - there are some nice moments, but the exterior seems really "off" to me...
mecanoo's seems like a really nice site solution...
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