Open Air Library | KARO Architekten

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The open air library, we established in 2005 in an abandoned district centre in East Germany has been started with a public intervention, using beer crates as building material: On the fallow site of the former district library a 1:1 model of a possible Open-Air-Library has been build up for two days and the shelves have been filled with book donations.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Photographs : Anja Schlamann

The residents took over the energy of the temporary project and opened up an informal district library near the site which now offers more than 20.000 books. The outdoor space as an addition has been designed together with the residents and opened in June this year.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Photographs : Anja Schlamann

The southeast of Magdeburg belongs to these urban areas in Eastern Germany which are characterized by abandoned industrial plants and fallow land. A post-industrial city landscape with high unemployment and figures of vacancy up to 80%. This also concerns the district Salbke. The spatially intact city center stands almost completely empty. Its image is shaped by pasted over shop windows and fallow land. The encountered reality served us as a resource and starting point for an urbanistic experiment.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Photographs : Anja Schlamann

In collaboration with the local residents the fallow zones of the former village library are developed as a “bookmark”. Remembrance, history and narratives provided the background for the “re-occupation” of the abandoned expanse. An old empty shop was used as base for a temporary library and camp for a building workshop. There, books were collected and design strategies for reclaiming the site were developed.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Photographs : Anja Schlamann

With more than 1.000 lent beer crates the favorite draft was constructed together with the locals in the scale 1:1 . The shelves of the temporary library were filled by the residents with books. A festival followed with poetry slam and readings to prove the everyday suitability of the new urban situation. Since 2005 more than 20.000 books were collected and the local residents pursue a reading café quite near the site. But it took some years to organize the money to build this so called “bookmark” for real. Since 2006 the project is part of a research project of the federal government and is funded as a pilot project for realization.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Plan

In June this year the outdoor-library opened officially. The residents which take care for the reading-café as well as for the open-air-library call it a “library of confidence”: There is no registration needed. You can just take a book away and should bring it back voluntary or at least another one. The shelves are never closed; you can go there and take a book when ever you want – 24 hours a day.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Photographs : Anja Schlamann

As another communal function a stage is included. This is used by the elementary school for theatre plays, as well as for public readings, for concert-gigs of local youth bands and other cultural and communal events.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Model

Beside the social aspects, the architectural kick is the re-use of the modernist facade of the old HORTEN warehouse of the City of Hamm , which has been knocked down in 2007.

Courtesy of KARO Architekten – Elevation

Project Info :

Architects : KARO Architekten
Project Year : 2009
Budget : $325,000 Euro
Project Area : 488.0 sqm
Photographs : Anja Schlamann
Consultant : Ruth Gierhake, Köln
Commissioner : City of Magdeburg
Project Location : Magdeburg, Germany
Structural Engineer : Michael Kurt, Leipzig
Light Conception : Jürgen Meier, architektur&medien, Leipzig
Project Partners : Bürgerverein Salbke, Fermersleben, Westerhüsen e.V.
Collaborators : Christian Burkhardt, Gregor Schneider, Mandy Neuenfeld
Architects : KARO Architecten / Antje Heuer, Stefan Rettich, Bert Hafermalz, Leipzig Architektur+Netzwerk, Sabine Eling-Saalmann, Magdeburg

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5 Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings That Featured in Popular Movies and TV Shows

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World famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright has influenced the American culture and global architecture with his characteristic style. The list of his built works includes more than 500 structures most of which are houses. Wright’s style may have notably changed throughout his career, but his architecture never failed to be unique and inspirational. The inspiration extended from architects to movie makers and directors who were motivated to use his architecture as a setting for their films or TV Show episodes. Some even went to the extent of recreating items and elements from the architect’s work in their filming studios. Here are 6 Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings That Featured in Popular Movies and TV Shows.

1. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Photography: Jean-Christophe BENOIST via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Manhattan’s iconic landmark in the Upper East Side in the mid-40s, and the building was completed in 1959. The museum is famous for its interior which features a spiraling ramp that starts from the ground floor and reaches to the upper most floor. It is also known for its massive glass dome on top of a 92-foot-high atrium. Artists and museum visitors back in the time did not seem to perceive the unconventional design in a positive manner. However, as time passed, the museum received its fine share of fame, and it became a source of inspiration. Here are some popular movies which had scenes filmed in the Guggenheim Museum.

Men in Black (1997)

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The International (2009)

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011)

Penguins Surf the Guggenheim Spiral Ramp – Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

2. Ennis House

Photography: Mike Dillon via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the exotic Ennis House for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and built it in 1924. It is one of four houses which Wright built around the same time in Los Angeles California, known as the ‘textile block houses’. In these houses, he used interlocking pre-cast concrete blocks, carrying Mayan-inspired patterns. The architectural style of these houses came to be known as ‘Mayan Revival’, not only because of the pattern but also owing to their Mayan Temple-like appearance. The house’s interior and exterior façade have featured in several movies throughout the past 80 years. Here are some of them;

Blade Runner (1982)

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Courtesy of Allied Artists

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

The exterior of Ennis House made an appearance in the fantasy TV series, under the name of Crawford Street Mansion. It was inhabited by antagonist vampires Angelus, Spike, and Drusilla.

Karate Kid III in Ennis House – Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The house’s interior also features in a number of films, like Karate Kid III, Rush Hour, Grand Canyon, and Black Rain.

3. Marin County Civic Center

Photography: Fizbin via Wikimedia Commons

This civic center in San Rafael, California was Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commission and largest public project. He was hired in 1957 to design the center that serves both Marin County and San Francisco, which has been recently linked to the county via the Golden Gate Bridge. Wright did not just design the building but also went through with every single detail, designing the furniture, signs, doors, and all. He intended for the building’s massive roof to be colored in gold, but that turned out to be impossible, and Wright had died before the construction was finished. So, his wife Olgivanna Wright decided to have it colored in light blue, believing that color would blend with the sky and the building’s natural surroundings.

Photography: nandhp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

The building seemed to catch the interest of Sci-fi writers and movie directors in particular, and it was used as a setting for these two films.

THX 1138 (1971)

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Gattaca (1997)

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Some elements from the building were recreated and included in the design of Planet Naboo structures in Star Wars Universe.

4. Millard House

Courtesy of Scott Mayoral/CentralMeridian

This is the first of Wright’s four Textile block houses, built in 1923-24 for rare-book dealer Alice Millard. The house marks Wright’s deviation from the famous Prairie style which characterized most of his houses before then. It introduces his new approach towards nature, in which he experimented with natural materials and built from the surrounding resources. He used sand, gravel, and minerals from the building’s site to manufacture the concrete blocks which he used to build the house. Thanks to its unconventional style and building materials, the Millard House design can be described as timeless. More than 90 years have passed since its completion, and yet it managed to retain a modern up-to-date look.

Courtesy of Scott Mayoral/CentralMeridian

The house featured as the alien villain “The Albino’s” house in:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) 

Courtesy of CBS Television

It was also a source of inspiration, along with Frank Lloyd Wright’s other Mayan revival masterpieces, for the architecture of the Meereen palace, in the TV series:

Game of Thrones (2011- )

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

5. Storer House

Courtesy of Crosby Doe Associates

Here is another house from Wright’s four textile block houses. He built it on a Hollywood hillside location in 1923 for physician Dr. John Storer. Wright tried to fit the house within its natural context using patterned concrete blocks. Like the two other houses, the Store House design introduces Mayan revival elements. Its façade is characteristic for the Mayan columns and long narrow windows. In 1984, Joel Silver, producer of The Matrix movie franchise, acquired the long-neglected house. He worked on its restoration under the supervision of Wright’s grandson Eric Lloyd Wright and restoration architect Martin Eli Weil.

Courtesy of Crosby Doe Associates

Although the house itself may not have been in any movies, yet one of its patterned blocks was used as the logo of Silver Pictures from 1991 to 2005.

Courtesy of Silver Pictures

Among the movies that featured the Storer House-inspired logo at the end are The Matrix Trilogy, Swordfish, Conspiracy Theory, Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 the Grave.

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Community Center Serra Dourada | Gustavo Penna

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The intervention proposed at the Community Center Serra Dourada stablishes a very respectful relationship with the original elements of the ranch, giving it a unique character to this place. The new buildings were conceived to minimize the interventions on the topography and to preserve the maximum of the original vegetation.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Photographs : Jomar Bragança

The Club Pavilion lands on the existent plateau, where previously were the barn. While keeping the original trees, a natural barrier for the morning and late afternoon sun is created through the landscape design.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Photographs : Jomar Bragança

The functional organization of the pavilion is in line, with one side with access of pedestrians and vehicles, parking lot and technical and support areas, connected to the rest of the club through a series of living verandas and circulation spaces. Generous ceiling heights define the character of spaces like the Ballroom, Game room, Spa and Fitness rom. In some spaces, like the sauna and the restrooms, this ceiling allows the creation of technical stories for water reservoirs and equipment.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Site Plan

These spaces are interconnected to the swimming pool terrace by a big veranda, creating open spaces and permitting, by many areas of the club, the view to the woods and to the areas of permanent preservation of the condominium. A wood deck, interconnected to the veranda and the swimming pool terraces, following the topography in different levels, embracing many jabuticabeiras existents in the local. Creating then a sun shaded open area, ideal for parents to relax while their kids play on the adjacent playground.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Photographs : Jomar Bragança

A small patio creates a nice ambience for the fitness and makes the transition to an isolated gourmet area, making its way through a wooden deck until the lake.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Photographs : Jomar Bragança

Metallic Structure was the chosen structure for the Club Pavilion, because it can make big spaces with thin structural pieces, allowing, without major interferences, the use of big glass panels on the facades of the spaces. The ceiling is made by a thin layer of a thermal acoustic metal tiles, with wood tiles on the inside, with the same wood tiles on the outside but with more space between them.

Courtesy of Gustavo Penna – Photographs : Jomar Bragança

Project Info :

Architects : Gustavo Penna
Project Year : 2015
BUDGET : $50K – 100K
Project Area : 1077.35 m2
Photographs : Jomar Bragança
Manufacturers : Cebrace, Cerâmica Atlas, Deca, Eliane
Project Location : MG-010, Km 21,5, Vespasiano – MG, 33200-000, Brazil

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St. Aloysius Church | Erdy McHenry Architecture

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The new Church of Saint Aloysius tells the story of its purpose through its architectural expression. Two significant conceptual explorations gave form to the design for this church: “re-pitching the tent”, expressed in the delicate soaring roof lines evoking the concept of simple worship and the Four Devotions of Saint Aloysius: Blessed Sacrament, Passion of Our Lord, Love of Our Lady, and Choir of Angels, which sit within the church adjacent to the large concrete buttresses anchoring the roof.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft

The project began as a master plan to understand the nature of the church’s needs today and into the future. The master plan addressed site circulation, service entries, expansion of the existing school and the construction of a new church for the parish.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Site Plan

The entry sequence exploits the social implications of gathering for worship. The relationship to parking dictates a singular approach through a series of increasingly intimate spaces preparing congregants for worship in communion with their fellow parishioners. Individuals become one with each other as they are reoriented to the altar and renew their baptismal commitment by anointing themselves with holy water from the same baptismal font used for Christian initiation rites.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft

Locating the Church at the front of the site allows the church to be a more recognizable icon within the community. It also creates a relationship with the existing rectory and lends to a gathering area between the church and rectory.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft

The hyperbolic paraboloid roof is used most often as an inexpensive solution to long-span roof requirements. As such, it is used for utilitarian purposes, such as sports arenas and athletic facilities. Both the project team and the Owner were enamored with the elegance of its form and the fluid lines consistent with those that one might expect to see in a fabric tent. The tent of St. Aloysius Church is fabricated from standing seam metal panels.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft

Careful consideration was given to the sacraments and their adjacencies. Also considered was the orientation of the altar and the daily chapel to the baptismal font at the entry to the Sanctuary. The floating roof structure is metaphorically grounded by the four devotions whose locations provide the foundation to both the building and to this faithful congregation.

Courtesy of Erdy McHenry Architecture – Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft

Project Info :

Architects : Erdy McHenry Architecture
Project Year : 2009
Project Area : 17,800 sq.feet
Manufacturers : Bega, Daltile
Civil Engineering : LGA Engineering
Electrical : Van Praet and Weisgerber
Photographs : Alan Schindler, Pixelcraft
Landscape Architect : LGA Engineering, Inc.
Construction Manager : Woodward Construction
Mechanical Engineering : Van Praet and Weisgerber
Structural Engineering  : Bala Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Project Location : 935 Bennetts Mills Rd, Jackson, NJ 08527, United States
Design Team : Scott Erdy, FAIA, LEED AP; David McHenry, FAIA, LEED AP; Mark Miller, R.A.; David Niemiec, R.A.; Kristy Balliet, MArch

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