UNIT 5 CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE PDF

Syllabus UNIT V CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Overview of larger changes in society from late 20th century and their influence on architecture. Outline of architecture related to parametric design and digital processes, sustainability, globalisation, phenomenology, complexity. Ideas and...

Syllabus UNIT V CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Overview of larger changes in society from late 20th century and their influence on architecture. Outline of architecture related to parametric design and digital processes, sustainability, globalisation, phenomenology, complexity. Ideas and works of ZHA, contemporary Dutch architecture, Bjarke Engels and BIG, OMA and Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl, Mcdonough, Yeong, Zumthor, Pallasma, Murcutt. Outline of contemporary architecture in the non Western world. Large scale changes in India from the 90s. Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. ARCHITECTURE FROM THE LATE 20TH CENTURY However, the means of representation The invasion of digital technology into our daily in architectural design greatly affects the result of lives in the age of modern technology, especially the design process since such means are what computers, is an essential irresistible matter. The Overview of larger changes in society from late express the design and transfer it from the use of such technologies in the designing process 20th century and their influence on architecture: imagination of the designer to the visual world. The adds a new dimension to the architectural product, ambition and creativity of the designer would not which enables us to materialize our ideas that are lead anywhere without the animation means not fully expressed. capable of expressing it in an efficient way. In the last years, Many new software programs When the architect uses the computer in the launched for digital models having Building and process of design and representation, he connects Recently, a camera has been produced provided modelling information, which could be used for to it creating a coupled cognitive system, where the with a computer enabling it, while directed to the building the model and producing the 2D drawings man and the machine exchange ideas and building or the construction, to compare the reality simultaneously. In addition to installing technical information. The elements of the system affect one with digital design and to project an image information on parts of the project in a way that another that each changes by the change of the including the parts constructed and those they are able to identify the building parts and the other. Thus, any change that occurs on the remaining of the design to integrate reality and the constituting materials such as the columns computer or the designer leads to a change in the and walls. Thus, the process of calculating the virtual reality. outcome of the design. quantities and the specifications is facilitated.  ARCHITECTURE FROM THE LATE 20TH CENTURY Overview of larger changes in society from late 20th century and their influence on architecture: Technology is changing architecture. The world of computational design means architects are pursing new frontiers where architecture can be generated through the writing of algorithms and software, where interactive physical mechanisms can be built that respond to their environment, adapting and evolving as necessary. Digital Fabrication While the focus of Smartgeometry is on digital tools and design, increasingly hardware is being used including electronics, robotics, sensing, and a range of fabrication machines. The linking of computational design to computational manufacture is redefining the practice of architecture. Simulation and Design new design techniques incorporate material properties, energy flows, and structural performance with an agent-based simulation system. Exploration of a bottom-up approach to construction where rules guided the assembly of the structure. Custom software analysed the emerging structure, simulated alternative rules, and applied these to evolve the construction. Interactive and Responsive Architecture The physical setup for the immersive design environment links multiple projectors, infrared motion sensors, and visualization and analysis software. 5  Phenomenology Designing an experience is a unique responsibility of an architect. The theory of phenomenology acknowledges this responsibility by implementing sensory design in order to establish experiential, architectural space. Phenomenology demonstrated in architecture is the manipulation of space, material, and light and shadow to create a memorable encounter through an impact on the human senses. This theory promotes the integration of sensory perception as a function of a built form. This creates an experience that is beyond tangible, but rather abstract, observed and perceived. The major phenomenological theorists are- Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Peter Zumthor and Steven Holl, highlight its fundamental characteristics as a theory, in contrast to a more rationalist design approach. Phenomenological concept strategies in architectural design intend to develop a unique experience of the phenomena of space, light and form. Zumthor often describes some of his most vivid memories through the expression of texture and material. He begins, “There was once a time when I experienced architecture without even thinking about it”, before he goes on to reveal a vivid illustration on childhood memories of the texture of a “particular door handle”, “gravel under his feet” and “soft asphalt warmed by the sun”.  ZHA – Zaha Hadid Architectects Zaha Hadid Architects is a British international architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid, with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London ZHA undoubtedly redefines architecture for the 21st century with a repertoire of projects in every scale and form that have captured imaginations across the globe. Exploring formal concepts at all scales - from city masterplans and skyscrapers to furniture pieces, product designs and jewellery, as a result of a comprehensive research are inscribed within every design. "Receiving the highest honours from civic, professional and academic institutions worldwide, ZHA is one of the world’s most consistently inventive architectural studios—and has been for four decades.“ These 40 years of research are inscribed within every design. Marrying innovative digital design methods with ecologically sound materials and sustainable construction practices, ZHA does not look at the disparate parts, but works to understand them as a whole to build the aspirations of a new generation. ZHA – Beijing Daxing InternationalAirport (2014 – 2019) 9 ZHA – Beijing Daxing InternationalAirport (2014 – 2019) ZHA – Aljada Central Hub (2018 – TBC) ZHA – Aljada Central Hub (2018 – TBC)  Bjarke Ingels and BIG Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). In Denmark, Ingels became well known after designing two housing complexes in Ørestad: VM Houses and Mountain Dwellings. In 2006 he founded Bjarke Ingels Group, which grew to a staff of 400 by 2015. Design Philosophy: Ingels and BIG "has abandoned 20th-century Danish modernism to explore the more fertile world of bigness and baroque eccentricity... BIG's world is also an optimistic vision of the future where art, architecture, urbanism and nature magically find a new kind of balance. Yet while the rhetoric is loud, the underlying messages are serious ones about global warming, community life, post-petroleum-age architecture and the youth of the city.”  BIG – Mountain Dwellings APARTMENTS, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK The Mountain Dwellings are the 2nd generation of the VM Houses - same client, same size and same street. The program, however, is 2/3 parking and 1/3 living. What if the parking area became the base upon which to place terraced housing - like a concrete hillside covered by a thin layer of housing, cascading from the 11th floor to the street edge? Rather than doing two separate buildings next to each other - a parking and a housing block - we decided to merge the two functions into a symbiotic relationship. The parking area needs to be connected to the street, and the homes require sunlight, fresh air and views, thus all apartments have roof gardens facing the sun, amazing views and parking on the 10th floor. The Mountain Dwellings appear as a suburban neighbourhood of garden homes flowing over a 10-storey building - suburban living with urban density.  BIG - Mountain Dwellings APARTMENTS,COPENHAGEN, DENMARK The roof gardens consist of a terrace and a garden with plants changing character according to the changing seasons. The building has a huge watering system which maintains the roof gardens. The only thing that separates the apartment and the garden is a glass façade with sliding doors to provide light and fresh air. The residents of the 80 apartments will be the first in Orestaden to have the possibility of parking directly outside their homes. The gigantic parking area contains 480 parking spots and a sloping elevator that moves along the mountain's inner walls. In some places the ceiling height is up to 16 meters which gives the impression of a cathedral-like space. The north and west facades are covered by perforated aluminium plates, which let in air and light to the parking area. The holes in the facade form a huge reproduction of Mount Everest. At day the holes in the aluminium plates will appear black on the bright aluminium, and the gigantic picture will resemble that of a rough rasterized photo. At night time the facade will be lit from the inside and appear as a photo negative in different colours as each floor in the parking area has different colours BIG - Mountain Dwellings APARTMENTS, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK 17  BIG - Danish National Maritime Museum MUSEUM HELSINGOR, DENMARK The Danish Maritime Museum had to find its place in a unique historic and spatial context; between one of Denmark’s most important and famous buildings and a new, ambitious cultural centre. This is the context in which the museum has proven itself with an understanding of the character of the region. Like a subterranean museum in a dry dock. Leaving the 60 year old dock walls untouched, the galleries are placed below ground and arranged in a continuous loop around the dry dock walls - making the dock the centerpiece of the exhibition - an open, outdoor area where visitors experience the scale of ship building. A series of three double-level bridges span the dry dock, serving both as an urban connection, as well as providing visitors with short-cuts to different sections of the museum. 18  BIG - Danish National Maritime Museum MUSEUM HELSINGOR, DENMARK The harbor bridge closes off the dock while serving as harbor promenade; the museum’s auditorium serves as a bridge connecting the adjacent Culture Yard with the Kronborg Castle; and the sloping zig-zag bridge navigates visitors to the main entrance. This bridge unites the old and new as the visitors descend into the museum space overlooking the majestic surroundings above and below ground. The long and noble history of the Danish Maritime unfolds in a continuous motion within and around the dock, 7 meters (23 ft.) below the ground. All floors - connecting exhibition spaces with the auditorium, classroom, offices, café and the dock floor within the museum - slope gently creating exciting and sculptural spaces. 19 Rem Koolhaas and OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) Koolhaas now heads offices in Europe (OMA*AMO Rotterdam), North America (OMA*AMO Architecture PC New York) and Asia (OMA Beijing). Rem Koolhaas and OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) Philosophies - Considered one of the most important architectural theorists and urbanists of his generation, Koolhaas, in a presentation at the CTBUH Awards Symposium (2013), said: "When I published my last book, "Content", in 2003, one chapter was called "Kill the Skyscraper". Basically it was an expression of disappointment at the way the skyscraper typology was used and applied. I didn’t think there was a lot of creative life left in skyscrapers. Therefore, I tried to launch a campaign against the skyscraper in its more uninspired form.“ When it comes to transforming observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).  Rem Koolhaas and OMA- Qatar National Library The building is 138 meters long. From the beginning the idea was to make reading as accessible and as stimulating as possible to the population of Qatar as a whole. “We thought we could achieve that by creating a building that was almost a single room, not divided in different sections, certainly not into separate floors”. We took a plate and folded its corners up to create terraces for the books, but also to enable access in the center of the room. You emerge immediately surrounded by literally every book – all physically present, visible, and accessible, without any particular effort. The library is a space that could contain an entire population, and also an entire population of books...  Rem Koolhaas and OMA- Qatar National Library Project Description Qatar National Library contains Doha’s National Library, Public Library and University Library, and preserves the Heritage Collection, which consists of valuable texts and manuscripts related to the Arab-Islamic civilization. The public library will house over a million books and space for thousands of readers over an area of 42,000 m2. The library is part of the Education City, a new academic campus which hosts satellite campuses from leading universities and institutions from around the world. Qatar National library is the latest expression of OMA’s long-term interest in the library. “With Qatar National Library, we wanted to express the vitality of the book by creating a design that brings study, research, collaboration and interaction within the collection itself – a collection that consists of over one million volumes, among which are some of the most important and rare manuscripts in the Middle East”. The library is conceived as a single room which houses both people and books. The edges of the building are lifted from the ground creating three aisles which accommodate the book collection and, at the same time, enclose a central triangular space. This configuration also allows the visitor to access the building at its center, rather than laboriously entering from the perimeter. The aisles are designed as a topography of shelving, interspersed with spaces for reading, socializing and browsing.  Qatar National Library Project Description The bookshelves are meant to be part of the building both in terms of materiality – they are made of the same white marble as the floors – and of infrastructure – they incorporate artificial lighting, ventilation, and the book return system. A column-free bridge connects the library’s main aisles, allowing for a variety of routes throughout the building. The bridge is also a meeting space: it hosts media and study rooms, reading tables, exhibition displays, a circular conference table, and a large multipurpose auditorium, enclosed by a retractable curtain designed by Amsterdam studio InsideOutside, who were also responsible for the landscaping. The heritage collection is placed at the center of the library in a six- meter-deep excavated-like space, clad in beige travertine. The collection can also operate autonomously, directly accessible from the outside. The corrugated-glass façade filters the otherwise bright natural light, creating a tranquil atmosphere for reading. The diffuse light is directed further into the core of the building by a reflecting aluminium ceiling. Outside, a sunken patio provides light to the staff office space in the basement, and at the same time acts as 25 transition space before entering the world of books. Rem Koolhaas andOMA- Qatar National Library Plan at level 1 Plan at level 2 Plan at level 3 Section 26 Rem Koolhaas and OMA- CCTV Headquarters, Beijing The CCTV headquarters aims at an alternative to the exhausted typology of the skyscraper. Instead of competing in the race for ultimate height and style within a traditional two-dimensional tower 'soaring' skyward, CCTV's loop poses a truly three-dimensional experience, culminating in a 75-metre cantilever. The building is visible from most of Beijing; it sometimes comes across as big and sometimes small, from some angles strong and from others soft. CCTV's form facilitates the combination of the entire process of TV-making in a loop of interconnected activities. Two towers rise from a common production studio platform, the Plinth. Each tower has a different character: Tower 1 serves as editing area and offices, and the lower Tower 2 is dedicated to news broadcasting. They are joined by a 27 cantilevering bridge for administration, the Overhang Rem Koolhaas and OMA- CCTV Headquarters, Beijing The innovative structure of the building is the result of long term collaboration between European and Chinese engineers to achieve new possibilities for the high-rise. The forces at work within the structure are rendered visible on the façade: a web of triangulated steel tubes - diagrids - that, instead of forming a regular pattern of diamonds, become dense in areas of greater stress, looser and more open in areas requiring less support. The façade itself becomes a visual manifestation of the building's structure. The self-supporting hybrid facade structure features high performance glass panels with a sun shading of 70 percent open ceramic frit, creating the soft silver-grey color that gives the building a surprisingly subtle presence in the Beijing skyline. 28 Rem Koolhaas and OMA- CCTV Headquarters, Beijing The 10,000-square metre main lobby, in Tower 1, is an atrium stretching three floors underground, and three floors up. It has a direct connection with Beijing's subway network, and will be the arrival and departure hub for the 10,000 workers inside CCTV headquarters. Connected to the lobby, 12 studios (the largest is 2,000 square metres) perform the main function of the building: TV making. The CCTV headquarters also facilitates an unprecedented degree of public access to the production of China's media: a Public Loop takes visitors on a dedicated path through the building, revealing everyday studio work as well as the history of CCTV, and culminating at the edge of the cantilever, with spectacular views towards the CBD, the Forbidden City, and the rest of Beijing. 29  Steven Holl - Philosophies As the founder of Steven Holl Architects, Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is recognized as one of the world's leading architects, having received prestigious awards for his contributions to design over the course of nearly forty years in practice, including the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal in 1998, the AIA Gold Medal in in 2012, and the 2014 Praemium Imperiale. In 1991, Time Magazine named Holl America's Best Architect. He is revered for his ability to harness light to create structures with remarkable sensitivity to their locations, while his written works have been published in many preeminent volumes, sometimes collaborating with world-renowned architectural thinkers such as Juhani Pallasmaa and Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Immediately after completing his studies, Holl founded his practice in New York City in 1976. The firm now has offices in New York and Beijing under the direction of Steven Holl and Senior Partner Chris McVoy. Holl and the firm have been the subject of dozens of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and London's Design Museum. Since 1981, Holl has been a tenured professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. Steven Holl Architects is known for its typological and phenomenological approaches to design, aiming to transcend the human experience through the firm's unique approach to location-driven design and programmatic specificity. On their design approach, the firm's mission states that "the phenomena of the space of a room, the sunlight entering through a window, and the color and reflection of materials on a wall and floor all have integral relationships," adding that "the materials of architecture communicate through resonance and dissonance, just as instruments in musical composition, producing thought and sense- 31 provoking qualities in the experience of a place."  Steven Holl - Philosophies “Architecture is an art. For me, it’s not a corporate activity. I don’t like corporate architecture”. “I think that you must, in a way, bring the mind and the hand together to begin a project. This seed that starts the project is something you’re emotionally feeling as well as intellectually feeling. The concept sketch, via watercolour, is a perfect way to begin”. Often Steven Holl will sketch 20 or 30 different concept ideas in this manner before he settles on one of them. “I am uneasy until I define the concept. But once the decision is taken, I stick to it and the entire team works to reinforce it”. In addition to his watercolour sketches, the second important constant in Steven Holl’s work is his use of the golden ratio as a proportioning system. For 40 years, all of his designs have been based on the Fibonacci series and an aspect ratio of 1:1.618. “This proportion is in our blood and in our bones, where it determines the lengths of the individual joints of our fingers, for example. You will find it in a nautilus shell, a pine cone, and even in the spiral of the solar wind. For me it is a fine-tuning device. I don’t start with it ever, but introduce it during the design process to bring the individual elements and openings of a building in balance. Proportions in architecture are very important. Unfortunately, they are often neglected in our era of computer drawings that are inherently scaleless”. “Models are an excellent way to experiment with materials, their translucency or transparency, and the reflections and refractions they produce. The models that we build are full of different properties of light. This is something you can never achieve in computer renderings.” “To me, light is to space what sound is to music. The experience of architecture, the overlapping perspectives – it is the equivalent of spatial acoustics to light.”  Steven Holl – Cofco Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai Designed in 2016, the project was designed to become a social condenser, fostering community among the residents of the surrounding new housing blocks with a public space and park along an existing canal. Centering on public space, the projects features an exoskeletal concrete construction. As the SHA team states, while the adjacent housing blocks are repetitive, the Cofco center architecture was made to embrace spatial energy and openness, inviting the whole community in for recreational and cultural programs. Subtractive cuts in the concrete structure shape its architectural language. The Health Center is also shaped by the curves of the landscape. Both buildings have green sedum roofs, which merges them with the landscape when seen from the surrounding apartment buildings.  Steven Holl – Cofco Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai The landscape and two new public buildings are merged by the concept of “clocks and clouds.” The landscape is organized in large, clocklike circles forming a central public space, and the buildings take on a porous and open quality. The Cultural Center hovers over a transparent glass base that exposes a café and game and recreation rooms. A curved ramp, climbing up to the second floor, creates a continuous experience of overlooking and views.  Steven Holl – Cofco Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai The Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center is expected to be completed in fall 2020. The Cultural Center has been designed for maximum community interaction, featuring a library, gym, exhibition areas and recreational facilities. The white mass of the upper floors hovers above a transparent glass base, exposing a café and game rooms. From the base, a curved ramp leads visitors up to the second floor. A variety of openings along the facade provide a connection between the interior and the wider neighborhood outside. Across the plaza, the footprint of the Health Center has been dedicated by the curves of the landscape, strengthening its relationship to the plan’s core concept of “Clouds & Time.” Within, the building will house a health consultation and education center, which will include a pharmacy, consultation and examination rooms, a nursery area and 35 lounges. Steven Holl – Cofco Cultural and Health Center Sustainability Axonometry  Steven Holl – Chapel of St. Ignatius The Chapel of St. Ignatius, designed by Steven Holl Architects, is a Jesuit chapel for Seattle University. A series of light volume corresponds to a part of Jesuit Catholic worship service, such as the south facing light corresponds to the procession, a fundamental part of the mass. The chapel is sited to form a new campus quadrangle green space to the north, the west, and in the future, to the east. The elongated rectangular plan is especially suited to defining campus space as well as the processional and gathering space within. Directly to the south of the chapel is a reflecting pond. In the Jesuits "spiritual exercises", no single method is prescribed - "different methods helped different people...". Here a unity of differences is gathered into one. The light is sculpted by a number of different volumes emerging from the roof. Each of these irregularities aims at different qualities of light. East facing, South facing, West and North facing, all gather together for one united ceremony.  Steven Holl – Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle The city facing north light corresponds to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and to the mission of outreach to the community. The main worship space has a volume of east and west light. The concept of Different Lights is further developed in the dialectic combination of a pure colored lens and a field of reflected color within each light volume. A baffle is constructed opposite the large window of each “bottle of light.” Each of the baffles is back painted in a bright color; only the reflected color can be seen from within the chapel. This colored light pulses with life when a cloud passes over the sun. Each bottle combines the reflected color with a colored lens of the complementary color. At night, which is the time of gatherings for mass in this university chapel, the light volumes shine in all directions out across the campus like colored beacons. On occasion, for those in vigilant prayer, light will shine throughout the night. The visual phenomena of complementary colors can be experienced by staring at a blue rectangle and then a white surface. One will see a yellow rectangle; this complimentarily contributes to the two-fold merging of concept and phenomena in the chapel.  Steven Holl – Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle The concept of “Seven Bottles of Light in a Stone Box” is expressed through the tilt-up method of construction. The integral color tilt-up concrete slab provides a more direct and economical tectonic than stone veneer. The building’s outer envelope is divided into 21 interlocking concrete panels cast flat on the chapel’s floor slab and on the reflecting pond slab. Over the course of two days these panels were put in place by a hydraulic crane, which strained at the ponderous weights of up to 80,000 lbs. “Pick pockets,” or hooks inset into the panels were capped with bronze covers once the panels were upright. Windows were formed as a result of the interlocking of the tilt-up slabs, allowing the 5/8” open slab joint to be resolved in an interlocking detail. 39  William McDonough Sometimes referred to as “the leading environmental architect of our time,” in his roles as architect, designer, author, educator and social leader, William McDonough (born 20 February 1951) has provided a renewed look at the things that we make and their impact on both our bodies and the world. Through his Cradle to Cradle philosophy, McDonough’s buildings are designed to function for a predetermined lifespan, after which they can be broken down into their various parts whose core elements can be used anew to solve a different design problem. Upon finishing his architectural education at Dartmouth and Yale, McDonough opened his own firm, now called William McDonough + Partners, in 1981 in New York City. Sustainability became a theme early in his career, with projects including the design of a solar house in Ireland, and in 1985, the commission for the first “green office” in New York for the Environmental Defense Fund. The EDF brief called for strict air quality requirements, prompting McDonough to begin his lifelong investigation into healthy materials. McDonough’s design set in motion the trend of green building in the United States and lead to the formation of the US Green Building Council. The subsequent decade saw further variations on sustainable design, with projects ranging from Herman Miller’s “Greenhouse” Factory and Offices (1995); the Corporate Campus for Gap, Inc. (1997); Nike’s European Headquarters (1999); and the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College (2001) as well as McDonough’s first treatise on sustainable design, The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability in 1992. In 1994, McDonough moved his practice to Charlottesville, Virginia after being named Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia.  William McDonough In 2002, McDonough co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The manifesto proposed to upend the traditional adage of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” calling instead for materials to be “upcycled” at the end of their initial useful life span. To design products able to be upcycled, materials should be composed of what McDonough refers to as “technical” and “biological nutrients.” Technical nutrients consist of materials that can be reused in a closed-loop industrial system, while biological nutrients refer to materials that can break down to reenter the environment. Since that breakthrough, McDonough has continued to focus on environmentally and socially-conscious design, helping to establish criteria for the environmental mission of Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation in their bid to provide architect-designed homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Recent projects of McDonough’s have included ICEhouse (2016), a transportable “wonderframe” that uses any available materials to create shelter; Method Manufacturing Facility (2014), a new factory for sustainable products on a Chicago brownfield site; and the NASA Sustainability Base (2011), a “living laboratory” for the space program that outperforms LEED platinum standards. McDonough is also the subject of Stanford University's first "living archive," where nearly all of the architect’s daily moments are recorded in an effort to change the way we as humans remember and record our daily lives. Through his successes, McDonough has changed the discourse on architecture’s relationship to the environment, a relationship he believes is only sustainable through a symbiotic attitude: “What I’m trying to look at is how do we make humans supportive of the natural world, the way the natural world is supportive of us.”  William McDonough - NASA Sustainability Base NASA and William McDonough + Partners have teamed up to create Earth’s first high- performance space station. William McDonough stated, “Design is the first signal of human intention.” With that in mind, the team set out to design a building that that embodies NASA’s spirit, fosters collaboration, supports health and well- being, and goes beyond LEED Platinum in its pursuit of Cradle to Cradle solutions. The innovative, 50,000 square-foot office building is located at the entrance to NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The most iconic feature of the building is its structure. Inspired by the wind tunnels of NASA Ames Campus and the images of NASA satellites, the exoskeleton approach gives the building increased structural performance during seismic events, provides a framework for daylighting and shading strategies, and creates a column-free interior space that facilitates workplace flexibility.  William McDonough - NASA Sustainability Base The building site is designed to be net energy positive. Through the two strategies of optimizing energy demand and providing the needed supply through renewable sources, the Sustainably Base’s overall goal is to rely only on renewable forms of energy as they become cost effective. Although natural daylighting and ventilation is maximized, the building still has an active heating and cooling system to maintain comfort throughout the year. The highlighted energy systems used include the following: Ground Source Heat Pump: 106 well bores, 58º F ground temperature year round 4 heat pumps Radiant Heating/Cooling: Radiant cooling ceiling panels, 40% less energy use than typical VAV systems Hot water radiant wall heating panels Natural ventilation with automated windows to allow flushing during evening hours Intelligent, High-Performance Lighting Systems: LED fixtures in many areas of the building Sophisticated lighting control system automatically dims lights to adjust for ambient conditions and time of day.  William McDonough - NASA Sustainability Base Solar Photovoltaic and Thermal Panels: 432 panels in 24 strings of 9 modules on each building (north and south) Photovoltaic panels are designed to generate up to 30% of building electricity requirements Solar thermal panels provide domestic hot water Bloom’s Energy ServerTM Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Solid oxide fuel cell currently utilizes natural gas as fuel; future plan for methane capture. The overall water goal is to create a closed loop system that will allow water that falls on the site to leave at the same rate, volume and cleanliness of predevelopment conditions. Water fixtures used throughout the building optimize performance, including quality and quantity of flow and automated control systems. Groundwater reduces the demand for potable water. An existing facility to pump and cleanse contaminated MEW groundwater is located near the building site. Sustainability Base uses this cleansed water to irrigate the landscape. A forward osmosis water recycling system, developed by NASA for use on the International Space Station, purifies water to drinking quality. Intelligent landscape design includes native and drought-tolerant species selection, drip irrigation systems and the design of water cleansing systems. William McDonough – NASA Sustainability Base 46  William McDonough - NASA Sustainability Base The interior of the Sustainability Base actively supports the health and well-being of all occupants. Large floor to floor windows and narrow building floor plates provide excellent natural lighting deep into the interior of the building. Modeling suggests users will only need to use the building’s electrical lighting 42 days out of the year. Second floor skylights provide additional natural light, while exterior horizontal and vertical aluminum shades reduce heat gain and mitigate glare. Super insulated exterior metal panel system with high performance glazing provides a tight, warm envelope for cool Bay Area mornings. When the interior gets too warm, operable windows controlled by users and building management systems create gentle cross-ventilation. Localized heating or cooling is provided by radiant panels, allowing for longer periods of natural ventilation. A raised access floor throughout the open area allows for user and system flexibility and is connected to a dedicated outdoor air system to provide fresh air distribution when the building’s windows are closed.  William McDonough - NASA Sustainability Base A rigorous materials selection protocol for Sustainability Base was implemented. Strategies included: Material use considerations included utilizing an external braced frame to reduce the amount of steel (by weight) in the building. The lightweight insulated metal panel cladding also reduced the amount of material required for construction. Material health concerns resulted in a specification process that favored materials that were beneficial to human health, ecological health, and were designed for technical and/or biological cycles. When these materials were not available due to performance requirements, remaining materials were evaluated for obvious risks to the biosphere. Material content considerations included recyclable/recycled materials, salvaged materials, locally available and/or rapidly renewable materials and certified wood. The main components of the design (concrete, steel, glass, aluminum) had high recycled content and were regionally available, thereby reducing transportation energy. Design for disassembly was facilitated by choosing a steel structure (rather than concrete) that can be easily dismantled as well as repaired after a seismic event. Exterior cladding was provided in pre-fabricated unitized components. To assist with the achievement of a high-performance building, Sustainability Base incorporates software developed by NA SA for projects such as the Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. NA SA software has been adapted to monitor the building through a wireless sensor network which will provide real time data to the building  William McDonough - Manufacturing Facility for Method William McDonough + Partners has been selected to design Method’s first U.S. manufacturing facility on a brownfield site in Chicago’s historic Pullman community. The company, known for producing environmentally conscious cleaning products, commissioned McDonough to design an ultra clean, LEED Platinum facility constructed from Cradle to Cradle Certified materials and powered entirely by renewable energy. “So often, in the first industrial revolution, factories were dirty. We have these images of factories as gritty buildings with smokestacks—facilities that no families would want in or near their neighborhoods,” explained William McDonough.  William McDonough - Manufacturing Facility for Method “Method’s new manufacturing home is a clean home—using clean energy, water and materials to create innovative household products. The manifestation of ‘industrial hygiene’ at this scale is beneficial to communities; it provides jobs and it is embodied by a facility that is a delightful neighbor—your kids can play safely here. Entrepreneurial companies like Method are modeling a new, clean industrial model for our country. It’s a genuine pleasure to work with them.” Equipped with refurbished wind turbines, solar photovoltaic tree-like car canopies and solar thermal panels, the state-of- the-art site will also facilitate native land renewal across the 22 acres while extending into the surrounding communities to enhance pedestrian access and connect workers to mass transit opportunities. In addition to this, the team will focus on utilizing Cradle to Cradle Certified building materials that are safe for human and ecological health, as well as providing ample amounts of natural light and visual outdoor exposure for their workers.  KenYeang Ken Yeang is an architect, planner and ecologist who is best known for green architecture and masterplans that are driven by an ecology based approach and design work with a distinctive green aesthetic that performances beyond conventional rating systems. He trained at the AA School (Architectural Association) and received his doctorate from Cambridge University on ‘ecological design and planning’, Yeang is celebrated as a founder of the sustainable architecture movement. In 1995 he published his major theoretical work Designing with Nature that evolved out his Cambridge thesis and it is one of the first texts on ecological architecture. The fundamental underlying premise is that ecoarchitecture, if it is to fully embrace the natural world, must be designed to be ‘living constructed ecosystems’ and not inert denatured structures. His key buildings include the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Extension (UK), Solaris (Singapore), National Library (Singapore), Mesiniaga Tower (Malaysia), Spire Edge Tower (India), Genome Research Building (Hong Kong), Suasana Putrajaya (Malaysia). He is principal of T. R. Hamzah & Yeang Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia) with offices in the UK and China. The UK Guardian newspaper named him as one of 50 individuals who could save the planet (2008). Ken Yeang  KenYeang - Spire Edge office tower, Manesar, Gurgaon, India Spire Edge office tower stands as an iconic landmark on a new IT park located in Manesar, Gurgaon, India. The tower is a 21 storey building accommodating offices, auditorium, gallery and other facilities. Ecoinfrastructure The key design feature of the iconic tower is a continuous green ecoinfrastructure at the north façade, ascending up the tower through green ramps from the basement, infusing it with an ecological and social terraces and garden and back down on the rear facade by a series of ramps around a meeting room. The greenery is brought up to the roof garden by a series of vertical landscaping systems, ie. vegetated green walls, green planter ramps with a pedestrian walkway, and a series of sky terraces. The south facade of the building also has a continuous green ramp that brings pedestrian and vegetation from the ground all the way up to a lush roof garden located at the top of the iconic tower and connects to the north façade green ecoinfrastructure.  KenYeang - Spire Edge office tower, Manesar, Gurgaon, India Water Infrastructure The tower is designed as a self sufficient water reuse/recycling system within the building. Both of the green ramps act as a water filter/collecting device to channel rainwater collected from the roof garden to the water tank located at the basement of the building, hence being recycled and reused by the users of the building. Rainwater Harvesting/Recycling: The building's extensive landscaped areas are irrigated via a large-scale rainwater recycling system. Rainwater is collected from the perimeter landscaped ramps and roof garden. It is channeled and stored at the lowest basement level, beneath the Eco-cell, and reused as recycled water within the building. Eco-cells There are two eco-cells located at north and south side of the building where the spiral ramps meet the ground and continue to the basement levels. The Eco-cells allow vegetation, daylight and natural ventilation to extend into the car-park levels below. The lowest level of the Eco-cell contains the storage tank and pump room for the rainwater recycling system.  KenYeang - Spire Edge office tower, Manesar, Gurgaon, India Sun-Shading Devices The project's climate-responsive façade design originated with the analysis of the local sun-path. Facade studies analyzing the solar-path determined the shape and depth of the sunshade louvers, which also double as light-shelves. The light shelves merge into single louvers at the north facade creating a slick look for the façade. In conjunction with the south spiral landscaped ramp, north green walls and ramps, and sky gardens, the sunshade louvers also assist in establishing comfortable micro-climates in habitable spaces along the building's exterior Roof Gardens, Creative Meeting Spaces and Sky Courts The south spiral landscaped ramp acts as a thermal buffer protecting the south façade from direct heat gain, and creates areas for relaxation and event spaces. These extensive gardens allow for interaction between the building's occupants and nature, offering opportunities to experience the external environment housed within the tower and to enjoy views of the IT Park. As it reaches each corner of the building the spiral ramp leads the users into Creative Meeting Spaces and terraces for multi uses. A series of sky courts at the north façade also create an outdoor environment for the office users’ creative and social interaction. Internal life The internal typical office spaces have large span floor beams to eliminate any in- between columns. The floor configuration seeks to create a new form internal iife for  Peter Zumthor Peter Zumthor (born 26 April 1943) is a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal. Zumthor was born in Basel, Switzerland. His father was a cabinet-maker, which exposed him to design from an early age and he later became an apprentice for a carpenter in 1958. In 1966, Zumthor studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute in New York. In 1968, he became conservationist architect for the Department for the Preservation of Monuments of the canton of Graubünden. This work on historic restoration projects gave him a further understanding of construction and the qualities of different rustic building materials. As his practice developed, Zumthor was able to incorporate his knowledge of materials into Modernist construction and detailing. His buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel. His best known projects are the Kunsthaus Bregenz (1997), a shimmering glass and concrete cube that overlooks Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Austria; the cave-like thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland (1999); the Swiss 58 Pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hannover, an all-timber structure intended to be  Peter Zumthor - Kunsthaus Bregenz, AUSTRIA (1997) The Kunsthaus museum in Bregenz, Austria is always in a constant state of flux always changing its exhibition spaces to accommodate international contemporary art. Zumthor’s minimalist design adapts its spaces to the art that is showcased in its exhibits creating a coexisting and redefining relationship between art and architecture. The Kunsthaus Bregenz has two main principles to their permanent collection: archives of art architecture and a collection of Contemporary art, which complements the changing exhibition spaces. The museum strives to be the intersection of art and architecture that opens itself to culture and international influence. "The art museum stands in the light of Lake Constance. It is made of glass and steel and a cast concrete stone mass which endows the interior of the building with texture and spatial composition. From the outside, the building looks like a lamp. It absorbs the changing light of the sky, the haze of the lake, it reflects light and colour and gives an intimation of its inner life according to the angle of vision, the daylight and the weather." - Peter Zumthor The minimalist structure stands as a light box that absorbs, reflects, and filters light across the façade and throughout the building. The facades etched, translucent glass glows as it is illuminated by the sunlight, or the interior lighting, becoming a dynamic part of the building as it reacts differently according to the light, time of day, weather, and the surrounding context.  Peter Zumthor - Kunsthaus Bregenz, AUSTRIA (1997) The light that is captured by the glass façade gets filtered through a light plenum that catches and distributes the light through the gallery spaces. The plenum creates atmospheric conditions within the gallery spaces that have a conditional relationship with the exterior, and vice versa. The interior of the museum complements the exterior simplicity and minimalist aesthetic. The gallery spaces are composed of materials that are minimal in design, but highly effectual in detail and atmospheric conditions. The walls and floor are made of polished concrete, and the ceiling, that filters the light from the plenum, is made of frosted glass. The basic materials of the interior give the gallery spaces a stark, cold feeling that works to accommodate the art working in the space. When the light enters through the plenum, the polished concrete seems to dematerialize and wash away allowing for the closed off galleries to become flooded with light. The interior works as a fusion between art and architecture that although extremely different in materiality and composition, the mixture of combination of diffused natural light and the neutral material palette come together cohesively as a contemporary art museum where art nor architecture overshadow the other. The buildings structure is minimalist and reductive in the sense that only three walls support the museum and all of its floor plates. The three concrete walls enclose the gallery spaces and section off the circulation spaces to the perimeter of the  Peter Zumthor - The ThermeVals, SWITZERLAND (1996) Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland, The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa in one which combines a complete sensory experience designed by Peter Zumthor. Peter Zumthor designed the spa/baths which opened in 1996 to pre date the existing hotel complex. The idea was to create a form of cave or quarry like structure. Working with the natural surroundings the bath rooms lay below a grass roof structure half buried into the hillside. The Therme Vals is built from layer upon layer of locally quarried Valser Quarzite slabs. This stone became the driving inspiration for the design, and is used with great dignity and respect. “Mountain, stone, water – building in the stone, building with the stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain – how can the implications and the sensuality of the association of these words be interpreted, architecturally?” Peter Zumthor This space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience.  Peter Zumthor - The ThermeVals, SWITZERLAND (1996) The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modelled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view. “The meander, as we call it, is a designed negative space between the blocks, a space that connects everything as it flows throughout the entire building, creating a peacefully pulsating rhythm. Moving around this space means making discoveries. You are walking as if in the woods. Everyone there is looking for a path of their own.” Peter Zumthor The fascination for the mystic qualities of a world of stone within the mountain, for darkness and light, for light reflections on the water or in the steam saturated air, pleasure in the unique acoustics of the bubbling water in a world of stone, a feeling of warm stones and naked skin, the ritual of bathing – these notions guided the architect. Their intention to work with these elements, to implement them consciously and to lend them to a special form was there from the outset. The stone rooms were designed not to compete with the body, but to flatter the human form  Juhani Pallasma During his wildly prolific career, Juhani Pallasmaa has designed more than buildings. Through books, essays, and lectures, Pallasmaa has created an empire of ideas. Many young architects have been inspired by Pallasmaa's teaching and his classic text. Architecture is a craft and an art to Pallasmaa. It has to be both, which makes architecture an "impure" or "messy" discipline. Juhani Pallasmaa has formulated and described the essence of architecture all of his life. Philosophies: He promotes a back-to-basics, evolutionary approach to architecture that has become revolutionary in the 21st century. He told interviewer Rachel Hurst that computers have been misused to replace human thought and imagination: "The computer has no capacity for empathy, for compassion. The computer cannot imagine the use of space. But the most important thing is that the computer cannot hesitate. Working between the mind and the hand we often hesitate, and we reveal our own answers in our hesitations." In spite of the many architecture projects he has completed, Pallasmaa may be best-known as a theorist and educator. He has taught at universities all over the world. He has written and lectured extensively on cultural philosophy, environmental psychology, and architectural theory. His works are read in many architecture classrooms around the world. Some examples: 1. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture by Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez  Juhani Pallasma In terms of architectural production, the work Juhani Pallasmaa has undergone a shift during his career. His early career is characterised by concerns with rationalism, standardization and prefabrication. Pallasmaa's first key work demonstrating these principles was the Moduli 225 (with Kristian Gullichsen), an industrial-produced summer house, 1969-1971, of which around six were built in Finland. However, the key models for this type of architecture were both Japanese architecture and the refined abstractions of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In Finland, Juhani Pallasmaa is known as a Constructivist. But the interest in Japan also contained the seeds for Pallasmaa's later concerns; materiality and a phenomenology of experience. It was after returning from teaching in Africa that Pallasmaa turned away from pure constructivism, and took up his concerns with psychology, culture, and phenomenology. His concern for details and small works such as exhibition design has sometimes earned him the label "jewel-box architect". 2006 saw the completion of his largest ever work, the Kamppi Center, incorporating the main bus station, a shopping centre and housing in central Helsinki, though the work was split up into different sections involving various architects, and overall design  Juhani Pallasma Works : Pallasmaa became universally known through his lectures and books on architectural theory and his interest in phenomenology. In his widely read 1996 book "The Eyes of the Skin. Architecture and the Senses." he stresses the importance of experience in architectural production which today is neglected by most practitioners. Juhani Pallasmaa is currently a member of the Pritzker Prize Award jury. Architectural works: 2003 to 2006: Kamppi Centre, Helsinki. 2004: Snow Show (with Rachel Whiteread), Lapland 2002 to 2003: Bank of Finland Museum, Helsinki 2002: Pedestrian and cycle bridge, Viikki Eco-village, Helsinki 1989 to 1991 Major extensions to Itäkeskus Shopping Centre, Helsinki 1990 to 1991: Outdoor spaces for Ruoholahti Residential Area, Helsinki 1986 to 1991: Institut Finlandais (with Roland Schweitzer), Paris 1987: Phone Booth Design for Helsinki Telephone Association 1986: Renovation of Helsinki Old Market Hall, Helsinki 1984 to 1986: Renovation of the Art Museum in Rovaniemi 66 1970: Summer atelier of artist Tor Arne, Vänö Island  Juhani Pallasma - Moduli 255, Helsinki, Finland The project Moduli 225 initiated in 1968 by Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa takes its name from the basic dimension of the geometric module that organizes the 225 cm. These houses are built of wood, steel and glass. The cubic module forms the edges of the structure and each of these frames is divided into three parts of 75 cm, which can accommodate panels of this dimension: these may contain solid wall panels, doors, windows. The roof is flat and is constructed with panels made of two layers of wooden board including insulation glass wool. Although the design was initially earmarked for summer cottage, the house has been widely used as a primary residence. Through this system of prefabrication sixty houses were built between 1969 and 1973. The first was the summer residence of one of its creators, Kristian Gullichsen, on the outskirts of  Juhani Pallasma - Moduli 255, Helsinki, Finland The foundation is solved with adjustable metal supports, so that the need for on-site work to support the home is avoided. The adjustable supports can absorb topographic differences of up to 1.5 m. The assembly time for the most basic housing was two days and the price was affordable. The roof is flat and is built with panels formed by two layers of wooden board between which the thermal insulation of glass wool is placed, and they have a solid wood piece that works as lateral reinforcement between boards. The roof panels support the beams and alternate their placement direction. Their section is greater than that of the wall modules and they have battens that allow fixing the ceiling cladding. This solution also provides a groove to house the pipes, which run under the beams. Although the design was originally intended for a summer country house, the house has been widely used as a first residence.  Juhani Pallasma – Kamppi Centre, Kamppi Centre is a complex in the Kamppi district in the Helsinki, Finland centre of Helsinki, Finland, designed by various architects, the main designer, however, being Juhani Pallasmaa. It is said to be Helsinki's new downtown commercial and residential centre. As a four-year construction project, it was the largest singular construction site in the history of Finland, involving the extensive and difficult redevelopment of the Kamppi district in downtown Helsinki. The Kamppi Centre combines the commercial need for streamlined, optimized shopping environment with the necessary supply of customers by maximum accessibility and mobility. One of the first of its kind in Europe, the centre consists of: Central bus terminal for local buses Long-distance coach terminal (underground) Kamppi metro station (underground) A freight depot (underground) Internal parking area (underground) 6 floor shopping centre with a supermarket, shops, restaurants, night clubs and service points  Juhani Pallasma – Kamppi Centre, Helsinki, Finland The entire complex was opened in stages, with the new metro station entrance opened on 2 June 2005, the central bus terminal on 5 June, the long-distance bus terminal on 6 June and the shopping centre opened on 2 March 2006. The appearance of the building is a reflection of the main architect Juhani Pallasmaa's ongoing interest in Constructivist architecture and Structuralist architecture, as if the building functions as a machine. The project comes from an international competition the City of Helsinki held in 2002 to redevelop the Kamppi area, which was underused. One of the main aims was to move the bus terminal underground to use the space more efficently. There were particular construction challenges building in the heart of the city over an operating subway, demanding exceptional cooperation  Glenn Murcutt Murcutt is one of Australia's best-known architects, and the only Australian winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, which he won in 2002 in recognition of his innovative and environmentally sensitive buildings. Murcutt, who was a born in London in 1936 before moving to Sydney with his parents at the age of five, established his small practice in 1970. He built his reputation creating a succession of sustainable houses across Australia, before building cultural buildings including the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre near Sydney and the Australian Islamic Centre. Glenn Murcutt is a modernist, a naturalist, an environmentalist, a humanist, an economist and ecologist encompassing all of these distinguished qualities in his practice as a dedicated architect who works alone from concept to realisation of his projects in his native Australia. “When you draw with pen or pencil you can pass emotion in that. You can feel it because you are visualizing what you’re drawing. It’s not just a line on paper, a line represents the beginning of space, and to visualize is the most critical aspect for an architect, to be able to think in those 3 dimensions. The pen or pencil achieve that. It is the same for many people that write poetry… How would you get any emotion out of a mouse? You’re not going to get any emotion because it is totally devoid of it."  Ar Tharangini AMSAA Glenn Murcutt - Works Front view Roof view  Glenn Murcutt + Elevli Plus - Australian Islamic Centre It is the first truly contemporary Australian mosque, the Australian Islamic Centre in Newport, Melbourne, is an architectural and social marker of a new perception of Islam in Australia. By respectfully recalibrating historical Islamic design conventions for contemporary Australia – a country with a well-established and growing Muslim population – this project heralds a new interpretation of mosques as a future part of our suburbs. In designing this building, Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt has drawn on modernist principles while responding to the project’s community and traditional contexts. Through the transparency and openness of its formal design, this Front view mosque offers a new look inside walls traditionally closed to outsiders, and thus acts as a form of communication in itself. The brief was for a modern and Australian building that would contribute to a positive interpretation of the mosque as a welcome architectural feature of suburban Australia. His design for the building draws from the functional and semiotic language of traditional mosque architecture, considering fundamentals such as the orientation towards Mecca of a mihrab (niche) within a qibla wall; a large hypostyle (columned) central prayer hall; bodies of still water; provision of facilities for ablutions completed prior to prayer; and separate spaces, as required culturally, for men and women. Roof view  Glenn Murcutt + Elevli Plus - Australian Islamic Centre The building is organised as a set of interconnecting spaces arranged across two levels. A congregational hall, library, cafe, commercial kitchen, and sporting hall occupy the ground level, and the first floor, accessed via dedicated arrival stairs, provides a set of elevated spaces for women. Murcutt’s design also deviates from time-honoured design principles in important ways: it negates the need for a high domed roof, instead offering a facade that favours transparency over enclosure, and reimagines the form of the minaret – the tower from which the call to prayer was traditionally announced – as an elevated wall demarcating an arrival courtyard. The expansive verandah offers a generous gathering space reminiscent of traditional mosque sahn courtyards and provides additional space for large congregations, such as those that gather during Eid prayer. To the south, the courtyard and verandah are bordered by a slender water pond and shielded on one side by the expansive minaret wall. Beyond the verandah, glass doors open directly onto the double-height volume of the main prayer hall. A clear line of sight is maintained from outside the mosque right through the prayer hall to the main mihrab, qibla wall, and water gardens  Glenn Murcutt + Elevli Plus - Australian Islamic Centre Murcutt’s design for the Australian Islamic Centre arranges twenty-four steel columns to create three bays from east to west and three from north to south, reflecting traditional mosque geometry. A reflective water courtyard to the west and fifty-five three-metre high roof-mounted lanterns naturally illuminate the main prayer hall. Glazed in colours symbolic to Islam (yellow, green, blue and red), these lanterns face the four points of the compass, drawing triangles of coloured daylight into the building in an ever- changing pattern determined by the sun’s movement. Drawing upon the long history of mosques as part of the built fabric of Australia’s multicultural and multidenominational society, the Australian Islamic Centre has deep significance for its community. It symbolises the maturity, vibrancy and permanence of their congregation while also offering a physical and visual manifestation of a new dialect for Islamic architecture. Glenn Murcutt + Elevli Plus - Australian Islamic Centre  Glenn Murcutt – Walsh House, Kangaroo Valley, Australia Walsh House stands on open grassland, with its principal façade addressing a forested ridge to its north, and with its long axis directed precisely towards a large knoll of rock in the distance, to its east. As at a number of other houses by Murcutt, the roof projects deeply to shield the upper, north-facing windows from direct summer sun, allowing these windows to be unscreened, and to frame the view of the ridge clearly throughout the year. Walsh House is not conceived as a single, fluid, interior space but as a series of connected rooms, each clearly identified from the outside by an individual glazed bay, protected by adjustable louvres, which allows the user to individually adjust the daylighting of their room. Each bay is intended for variable use, as for example a day-bed, Front view writing desk, or small greenhouse. The house presents four very different faces. Its southern and western elevations, facing the cold south-western winds of winter, have the character of a working farmhouse, crafted in rustic materials, with a few windows. The northern and eastern façades are of far more refined materials and detailing, and are more open to the luxuriant surrounding view. “The design aspect has allowed the house to be entirely one room in width so that Glenn's unique system of cross ventilation can operate throughout the house.”  Glenn Murcutt – Walsh House, Kangaroo Valley, Australia The dining room/kitchen is the only room in the house with both a northerly and southerly aspect. The large southern window frames a view of the ancient tree which surmounts the adjacent hillock, and a small corner window frames a selected, diagonal south-easterly view, past the water tanks, which reveals the sloping form of the land. The two ultimate windows of the north façade can be slid back, and the glazed eastern end-wall can be slid completely away to the south side of the house. This both unites the sitting room with the veranda and sets up a north-easterly diagonal view across a shallow, tranquil pond which Front view plays reflected patterns of sunlight onto the canopy ceiling, and tempers the heat of the summer air. Roof view Large scale changes in India from the 90s. After 1990s the country has undergone profound political and socioeconomic changes. Over the last twenty years, since it adopted liberal economic policies, India has witnessed a pivotal acceleration in growth and more is in sight with current figures indicating that it may well outdo China. India has become a global economy. It is one of the leading software exporters and its technically skilled workforce land good jobs around the world. Foreign investment in a variety of sectors has helped construction activities. International financial institutions such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have backed several projects, including Amaravati, on relatively favourable terms. Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. The architectural development in India cannot be categorised as Modern, Postmodern, New Pragmatism and so on. Its because of the fact that contemporary architecture in India can no Buddhist Centre in Sakarwadi longer be understood through Western viewpoint. Gandhi and Nehru, as political philosopher Bhikhu Parekh remarks, were critical traditionalist and critical Modernist respectively. Both understood that neither tradition nor modernity were sufficient in themselves. Indian Architects growing up in this environment could not entirely embrace either; they searched to find their balance. These practices are not mere counter examples; they represent a committed search for a Health Care Centre in Dharmapuri meaningful architecture. Innovation Young architects who have inherited this legacy no longer conceptualise themselves or their works in stifling categories. They increasingly address issues from first principles and their practice is reflective and grounded at the same time. There is a diverse and healthy crop of talent, from Sameep Padora of sP+a and his Buddhist Centre in Sakarwadi, the Book Building in Chennai by MOAD, Health Care Centre in Dharmapuri by Flying Elephant Studio, the Alila mixed use development in Bengaluru by Hundredhand, DCOOP’s student hostels in Kadapa, Surya Kakani’s office and Anthill Design’s pavilion both in Ahmedabad, SEA’s Sai Temple in Vennached , Abin Chaudhuri’s management institute in Bhubaneswar and the Department of Life Sciences in Chennai by Architecture Red, to name a few. These practices are about sensibility, possibilities and exploration. The practice finds past ways of addressing context and form inadequate. They try to innovate 81 rather than remain trapped in old ideas of regionalism. Anthill Design’s pavilion Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. Challenges 1. Diminishing demand for good design. Despite the emergence of these creative practices, the demand for good design is yet to grow substantially. Without this, as Charles Correa presciently remarked, we have meaningless construction rather than quality architecture. This is evident in the manner the state, the largest builder, chooses design or recognises quality. Either it settles for mediocrity (more on that later) or it is seduced by star architects. The awarding of the capital complex design of Amaravati – the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh – is an example of the latter. They don’t acknowledge the changing conditions of architectural practice in the country. Instead of looking at this new city, coming as it does 60 years after Chandigarh, as a significant opportunity to The winning design for Amaravati by Makki and Associates set new directions in planning and rejuvenate the public interest in architecture, the state settled on iconic names and forms. Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. The Future: A silver lining is the work of sP+a; principal architect Padora has extensively studied the old chawl housing in Mumbai and tried to develop a convincing, empirically based criticism of the deplorable slum redevelopment. In his housing projects, he has creatively incorporated features drawn from his research. They demonstrate how simple design moves can substantially enhance living conditions. It remains to be seen whether such efforts will cascade and have a wider impact on social housing. For Indian architecture, the path is promising, but there are obstacles. Padora says architects must ‘simultaneously and with an open mind engage with research, practice, collaboration and advocacy if they are serious about converting opportunities to meaningful change’. As much as there are numerous bright possibilities in India, the promise is entangled with paradox. Much of the future of Indian architecture will depend on how architects and society navigate these challenges. Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. 2. Another issue is the division of intellectual labour between foreign and local firms. Often the low scale of fees means foreign companies produce the concept and take a disproportionately large slice of the money pie. For them, the pay is insufficient to execute the project completely, so local firms end up dealing with the nuts and bolts for a relatively small fee. Working with star firms may provide the opportunity to engage with new ideas, but do Indian companies want to remain an architectural back office or call centre forever? The way forward is to negotiate a mutually enriching collaboration between all partners. 3. Another challenge is to widen the constituency for good design. The best architectural talent is nurtured by the limited number of commissions for private homes and institutions. For most property developers, a building is a means to maximise profit! With few exceptions, IT companies are the most disappointing clients, with their out of context buildings. Peter Scriver and Amit Srivastava describe the post1990s Architecture in India as having ‘lost the capacity to engage sensibly and poetically articulate’. In this context, architectural institutions have not been effective in rallying for quality buildings. Outline of post 1990s architecture of India. 4. Rising inequality and disproportionate income levels have created geographies of difference within cities. While some are privileged and receive investment and infrastructure, other substantial areas await attention. Land prices have risen steeply and rendered many housepoor. The death of social housing is only too visible. In the last two decades, there has not been a single notable, well designed social housing project. 5. Rapid urbanisation and voluminous construction have brought with them environmental and social challenges. The scale of development has put a strain on resources. In many cities, governments have started to impose restrictions on the use of materials such as sand. In its place, alternatives such as quarry dust are encouraged. Liberal economic policies have increased this problem. New materials have been discovered, Choice has expanded, but many of these materials offer poor environmental performance. Given the pressing energy consumption and climate change issues, architects cannot make design decisions only against the horizon of aesthetics or convenience. An environmentally sensitive design culture is imperative.