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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New Hologram Technology To Help You “See-through” Buildings

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Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine

Superpowers like scanning a room from the outside of the building and knowing what’s inside have never been closer to reality than now. A team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich created a new hologram technology that could work in a similar pattern to superpowers.

Meet the new technology

“It can basically scan a room with someone’s Wi-Fi transmission,” says Philipp Holl-one of the technology developers. Philipp Holl and professor Friedemann Reinhard – from TUM – published their research in the Physical Review Letters journal.

The concept of this technology involves the capability of Wi-Fi signal to penetrate walls. Two antennas are utilized to create a Wi-Fi field around the desired area to be scanned. The antennas would detect the phase and the intensity of the field from the source location and the items it reflects from. Eventually, you would get a hologram-like picture of the room.

Pros and Cons

Naturally, the idea of such technology might be of concern to many, but it can also be misused for the invasion of privacy.

“Of course, this raises privacy questions. After all, to a certain degree even encrypted signals transmit an image of their surroundings to the outside world,” explains professor Friedemann Reinhard, “However, it is rather unlikely that this process will be used for the view into foreign bedrooms in the near future. For that, you would need to go around the building with a large antenna, which would hardly go unnoticed. There are simpler ways available.”

On the other hand, the futuristic feature can be a lifesaver in many situations like saving people, after natural disasters, from rubbled buildings. A truck or a van can carry the antennas and go around the wreckage to search for survivors. Also, it can be used by governments and intelligence agencies to accurately detect the location of terrorists and fugitives.

“These antennas don’t need to be big. They can be very small, like the ones in a smartphone,” added Holl. This is great of course because this means that the antennas can be easily carried and transported from one place to the other.

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Omotesando Keyaki Building | Norihiko Dan and Associates

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This eight-story commercial building—located on a corner lot at right angles to an alleyway and Omotesando Avenue—is actually surrounded by Tod’s L-shaped Omotesando Building by Toyo Ito. The façade of the former old building faced Omotesando exclusively, so the side façade, facing the alleyway, was exposed awkwardly like the backside of a building.

Courtesy of Norihiko Dan and Associates – Kozo Takayama

Thus, this project tries to change this relationship to the Tod’s building by creating a diagonal orientation with an irregularly shaped circle. This is to maximize the corner lot feature of the premises, and to accentuate the inner vertical façade of the adjacent Tod’s building, in order to create a certain “symbiotic” synergy. The building’s structure is composed of multiple leaf-shaped columns made from steel reinforced concrete and arranged on the outer shell. The wood-like texture on these columns was developed by pouring concrete into a wooden mold.

Courtesy of Norihiko Dan and Associates – Detail

Omotesando is the heart of Tokyo’s fashion scene, and it is distinctive for its beautiful rows of zelkova (keyaki) trees, which bring continuity to the avenue. On the other hand, the rows of exquisitely designed and eye-catching buildings express themselves so uniquely that they are all unrelated to each other.

Courtesy of Norihiko Dan and Associates – Kozo Takayama

The Keyaki Building, however, was designed to relate to its context: as pedestrians walk by, it gradually changes its expression, to find a meaning through this movement. Furthermore, by bringing intervening elements into the context, such as the vertical scale made possible by its torchshaped form provided by the concrete columns, the project aimed to liven and enrich the ki (whole atmosphere)—not only of the building itself, but also of the Omotesando streetscape.

Courtesy of Norihiko Dan and Associates – Kozo Takayama

 

Project Info :

Architects : Norihiko Dan and Associates
Project Year : 2013
Project Area : 955.0 sqm
Structural Engineer :  ARUP
Photographs : Kozo Takayama
Electrical Engineer : Setubikeikaku
Landscape : Norihiko Dan and Associates
Supervision : Norihiko Dan and Associates
Architect in Charge :  Norihiko Dan ,Norihiko Dan and Associates
Design Team : Norihiko Dan ,Nobuaki Yamada ,Eiji Sawano ,Yoshitaka Tenmizu
Project Location : 5 Chome-1 Jingūmae, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0001, Japan

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