Innovation Tower at Hong Kong Polytechnic University by Zaha Hadid

Architect Zaha Hadid was appointed last month to design a new building on the campus of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.



Called the Innovation Tower, the building will house the institute’s School of Design.



Below is text on the project from Zaha Hadid Architects, followed by a press release from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University:

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INNOVATION TOWER, HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY [HONG KONG, CHINA] 2007-2011



The fluid character of the Innovation Tower is generated through an intrinsic composition of its landscape, floor plates and louvers, that dissolves the classic typology of the tower and the podium into an iconic seamless piece. These fluid internal and external courtyards create new public spaces of an intimate scale which complement the large open exhibition forums and outdoor recreational facilities to promote a diversity of civic spaces.



Urbanism

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) is an urban endeavour by virtue of addition and growth over the last 40 years. The rich patchwork of various faculties, communities and facilities are strung together by a community of visually coherent yet different buildings. From a process of outward expansion, the HK PolyU is now looking inwards to develop itself by making creative use of its remaining void on the North side of the campus.



The Innovation Tower aims to use these voids to create an accessible urban space which will transform how the Hong Kong Poly University is perceived and the way it will be used. The building unashamedly aims to stimulate and project a vision of possibilities for its future, as well as reflect the history of the HK PolyU by encapsulating in its architecture the process of change.



Architecture

The proposed vision of the new Innovation Tower presents a unique opportunity to re-examine and address a creative, multidisciplinary environment. Our concept in its first instance, collects the variety of programmes of the school. Having undergone a strict process of examination of the multiple relationships amongst their unique identities they have been arranged in accordance to their ‘collateral flexibilities’. Priority lies in the drawing in of the campus staff, students and public into a welcoming new space that acts as both the building’s entrance and organiser for the existing complex.



The first architectural gesture is to raise the landscape of the existing football field and tennis grounds, so as to place the main pedestrian entrance of the new school building on a level open to it’s immediate context at podium level. The free ground below becomes accessible from the established main campus route (Yuk Choi Road) to proposed workshops, parking and access to future development on ‘Phase 8’. The new Innovation Tower on podium level is established as an open public foyer that channels deep into the building through a column-free, open showcase forum. The long integrated path from Suen Chi Sun Memorial Square guides the visitor to the main entrance and from here, a generous and welcoming space openly leads its visitors access to supporting public facilities (shop, cafeteria, museum) through a generous open exhibition ‘showcase’ spanning over two levels between podium and ground level.



The podium level is a route that ramps and stretches through towards the open ground with relocated recreational outdoor facilities. From the entry foyer, a long escalator penetrates deep upwards through four levels of openly glazed workspaces. The myriad of workspaces accommodated within the new school offer themselves as a variety of visual showcases.



The route through the building becomes a clear upward cascade of showcases and events allowing the student or visitor to visually covet and engage work and exhibits throughout its circulation passage. These routes aims to promote new opportunities of interaction between the diverse types of users through its spaces through every level.



Voids bring in natural daylight, fresh air and the sense of continuity of space. In this way, the programmes of the tower, which comprise of learning clusters and central facilities, are allowed to create coordinated repertoires and dialogue between respective volumes.

PROGRAM: Innovation Tower, School of Design Development
CLIENT: Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ARCHITECT:
Design Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Director Woody K.T.Yao
Project Leader Simon Yu
Competition team Hinki Kwong, Melodie Leung, Long Jiang, Zhenjiang Guo, Yang Jingwen, Miron Mutyaba, Pavlos Xanthopoulus, Margarita Yordanova Valova

CONSULTANTS:
Local Architect: AGC Design Ltd AD+RG
Structural & Geotechnical: Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Ltd
Building Services: Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Ltd
Landscape: Team 73 Hong Kong Ltd
Acoustic: Westwood Hong & Associates Ltd

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Press release from Hong Kong Polytechnic University:

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PolyU appoints Ms Zaha Hadid as Chief Architect of “Innovation Tower”

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has appointed world-renowned architect Ms Zaha Hadid as Chief Architect of its new “Innovation Tower”.

Ms Hadid has made a trip from London to Hong Kong to present her design concepts at a press conference hosted by Mr Victor Lo Chung-wing, Chairman of PolyU Council; and Mr Alexander Tzang, Deputy President of PolyU.

Addressing the press conference, Mr Victor Lo said PolyU’s new “Innovation Tower” will serve as a driving force in the development of Hong Kong as a design hub in Asia. The new Tower will also provide additional space to facilitate inter-disciplinary research and education in the field of design.

The new Tower will be located at the northeast side of the university campus. Construction work will begin in 2009 and the whole project is expected to be completed by 2011. Upon completion, the Tower will provide some 12,000 square metres of net floor area and able to accommodate more than 1,500 students. This Tower will be the first permanent architectural design in Hong Kong by Ms Hadid.

“I am delighted to be working in Hong Kong again. The city has such diversity in its landscapes and history; this is reflected in an urbanism of layering and porosity. Our own explorations and research into an architecture of seamless fluidity follows this paradigm so evident in Hong Kong. One of our seminal projects was designed for the city exactly 25 years ago, and the Innovation Tower design is a realization of this continued research.” states Zaha Hadid.

“The Innovation Tower design dissolves the classic typology of the tower and the podium into a seamless piece. The design unashamedly aims to stimulate a vision of possibilities for the future whilst reflecting the history of the institution.”

Zaha Hadid is one of the most influential figures in the world of modern architecture. She is also the first female recipient of the coveted Pritzker Architecture prize, which is known in architecture as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize. She established her professional practice in London and her architectural designs can be found in major cities around the world. These include the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany; the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome; and the Olympics Aquatics Centre to be built in London.

PolyU Deputy President Mr Alexander Tzang added that the University has gone through stringent procedures in selecting Ms Hadid as Chief Architect of the project. The University has appointed a 10-member selection panel to screen some 48 submissions from local and overseas architectures and short-listed five proposals, taking into consideration both technical feasibility of the project and cost.

The new Tower will house the School of Design (SD) and support the development of its specialisms, namely Environmental Design, Industrial and Product Design, Visual Communication, Advertising as well as Digital Design. It will provide a congenial environment to support SD staff and students in their pursuit of excellence.

In this new “Innovation Tower”, there will be an advanced Car Design Studio; Fashion Accessories Materials Labs; a Sound Studio for Multi-media and Entertainment Design; a Museum to showcase local and international design classics; and a public gallery to exhibit works of staff and students of SD as well as local talents.

In Hong Kong, PolyU is the sole provider of design tertiary education and the city’s most important hub of design education and development. In recent years, SD has scaled new heights under the directorship of Prof. Lorraine Justice, who was named as the world’s top 40 influential designers by the ID magazine in the US.

SD has also made its mark, for two consecutive years since 2006, as one of the top 60 design schools in the world, according to independent surveys of design schools and design programmes conducted by BusinessWeek.

Design talents groomed by PolyU have won worldwide recognition and achieved astounding successes with their creativity and innovations. Famous graduates of SD include Oscar-winner and Supervising Animator for Shrek Mr Raman Hui, founder of the jewellery brand Qeelin Mr Dennis Chan, and Partner of Kan & Lau Design Consultants Mr Freeman Lau, to name but a few.

 

 

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Green Climate Building

Focus sur L.A.V.A qui est l’acronyme pour désigner le Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, structure qui cherche à anticiper l’avenir de l’architecture et penser les bâtiments de demain. Ces derniers ont pu proposer ce design pour le gouvernement allemand ce projet du secrétariat du Green Climate Fund à Bonn.

Images Galerie (5)

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Colorful French School

Lock housing and Leclere Architects us to discover Pajol Kindergarten School located in Paris a new look fresh and colorful. This project visually successful and has been designed by the same opportunity for school children to add light and mood. More images after the jump.

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New Korea Hydro Nuclear Power " KHNP " HEADQUARTERS / H Architecture

KHNP Headquarters, render courtesy H Architecture

Located in the mountainous landscape of Gyeongju, South Korea, the Korea Hydro Nuclear Power Headquarters avoids becoming an obtrusive landmark tower in order to respect the geographic and historic aspects of the site.

KHNP Headquarters, render courtesy H Architecture

A simple, clean design that represents the rich culture of Gyeongju also becomes a symbol of KHNP as the creator of the world’s cleanest and safest means of energy production. Wrapped in a shell of Corten Steel, the headquarter building is a subtle architecture that blends with and emerges from the adjacent mountainside.

KHNP Headquarters, render courtesy H Architecture

Derived from the orbital lines of electrons, the design captures the nature of hydro nuclear power with elliptical and radiating forms and lines. The primary building mass gradually slopes upward as if growing from the adjacent elevated landscape, creating a form large enough for the required program that does not disturb the nature or the rural context.

KHNP Headquarters, render courtesy H Architecture

The façade takes on contrasting inner and outer designs. On the inner façade which faces south, a modular system of prefabricated 3 dimensional fins allows for optimal sunlight within the office spaces while preventing excessive direct solar radiation and heat gain. On the outer façade which primarily faces the north, a panelized elliptical surface of perforated oxidized steel articulates a continuous curvilinear wall. The steel is articulated with a pattern created from the image on the Emille Bell, a national treasure and well-known local cultural icon. The building creates a relationship between the history of Gyeonju and the advanced technologies of the hydro nuclear power.








basement



L1 floor plan 



L4 floor plan  


L 8 , 10 , 12 floor plan

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Back to School in the Green Schoolhouse – Interview with Co-Founder Jeff Zotara

Following a series of films and a flurry of media inquiry in recent years, the American education system has once again found itself standing squarely in the spotlight and scrutinized from a number of different angles. Most recently, the documentary Bully (2011) addressed the growing problem of school bullying that plagues thousands of students a year, and before that the award-winning film Waiting for Superman(2010) made headlines by exploring the failing school system and the struggle students face to be admitted to academically-superior charter schools.

However, despite these troubling exposés, there is at least one development in schooling that provides good reason for hope, and it comes from innovating a most unlikely aspect of education – school architecture. The Green Schoolhouse Series project is a revolutionary new idea that hopes to transform a number of American schools from utilitarian “grade factories” into state-of-the-art facilities. The schools are built entirely using volunteers and donated money, they are environmentally friendly, and are aesthetically pleasing in addition to being supremely functional. And with over 20 of these schoolhouses in the works, Jeff Zotara – a senior partner of the project – hopes that they will inspire other schools to follow suit.

Speaking with Zotara, he elicits a tangible enthusiasm for his work, and with their first groundbreaking having just been held this month in Phoenix, AZ, there is reason for him to be excited.

What’s your involvement in the project?

Jeff Zotara: I’m one of the senior partners of Cause and Effect Evolutions [which represents the Green Schoolhouse Series] and my role is to bring together all the partners to make it a reality. I work with architects and engineers as well as corporations such as Cisco and Devry [who sponsor the project]. So far we have about 20 schools being built around the country over the next four years and then plan on continuing to build more schools after that. So we’re building two schools this year and then about four schools a year after, and then six per year across the country.

How would you describe the project and how it got started?

The project initially started in 1998 when we were unifying homes for low income seniors and public schools. We took the concept of Extreme Home Makeover of revitalizing homes and in 2008, through collaborating with partners, we decided to start building a schoolhouse on an existing public school campus that was very needy. We thought we could incorporate green technology because so many of the schools are currently built with portables or trailers [to accommodate] extra children, and the children develop asthmatic conditions and coughing and it creates an unhealthy learning environment, because the design of these portables were such that they had no windows and poor air circulation, not the best acoustics, etc. So we did away with the trailers and we have now created this concept which will be world’s first LEED platinum schoolhouses – and they are built entirely by volunteers and donated free of charge to the school district.

What are some of the green features your schoolhouse offers?

One of the many green elements our schools offer will be solar technology. So it turns energy back to the grid and it generates its own lighting. Another will be energy efficient HVAC systems and doors and windows. That’s very important – to have a well insulated school. Since we’re building our first schools in Phoenix, it’s 100 degrees outside and lot of air leaks out. Other green features include Energy Star appliances, good lighting, motion detectors, and next-gen restrooms that have water efficient bathroom components and plumbing. The school has eco-friendly flooring and different partners that sponsor different classrooms. For instance, Kraft Foods is sponsoring the kitchen and promoting healthy eating.

The green aspect is so important because the largest line items of a school from a financial standpoint is energy usage so when we can reduce energy it can be used to create other programs – and they see a reduction in savings in cash.

And of course there is the educational aspect as well. These children – from kindergarteners to seniors in high school – will learn about going green and sustainable energy and then educate their parents on what to do at home.

So it’s multifold – there’s a lot of intertwined messaging components that go into it but the biggest is promoting sustainability. It’s also a community center. So it’s a school from 7am to 3pm then from 3pm to 7pm it’s an afterschool programming facility. They don’t have to go home to an empty house they can go to the Green Schoolhouse. So a parent who’s unemployed and needs a resume, they can come at night and take care of that.

What do you see as the relationship between education and architecture?

There’s a very tight connection. We don’t design something and then give it to the school. The school helps us design it, and when I say us I mean the architects. We have multiple design meetings with students, parents, teachers, and end users to ensure that their school house is what they want and not something duplicated around the country. The school in Chicago is going to be drastically different than the one in Phoenix. Our main focus is to bring on an architectural firm that is open to be influenced and take those suggestions to heart. They are all engaged in the local community.

For example, our second school is more of a performing arts center because that’s what the community wanted. So we made changes in our plan to make sure we could mirror the desires and the needs of that particular school district.

What are some unique architectural qualities you have implemented into the school?

Some of the bigger ones are definitely open spaces, what they call flexible use space. Meaning schools want to be able to use space for more than one reason. It ties well into community usage too. They may have a [math and science] education classroom during day that can be transformed to a CPR training room in the evening. And if they open all doors, it can be used as a setting for prom, it can be a meeting space for nonprofits, anything. So flexibility and open spaces are both very important – walls collapse, all classrooms are able to be seen from center of school, there’s a lot of daylight, a lot of windows and this all helps create a better environment. Furniture also has to be flexible because we may have 5th grade using it in the morning and then 50 year olds using it in the evening.

One thing we learned is that students don’t want their school to look like a traditional school. So we make it look more hip and cool and unique, and we present that challenge to architects, and our architects are artists and do a great job so that our schools look like state of the art buildings. What we’re doing has never been done before. We’re building LEED platinum schools, and these aren’t just payed for by taxpayer dollars, these are donated and built by professional volunteers. It’s really an inspiring collaboration of all these people coming together to make this project a reality.

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St. Kristoforus Kindergarten / Chrystalline Artchitect

© Chrystalline Artchitect

Architects: Chrystalline Artchitect

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Principal Architect: Mr. Christophorus Jauhari

Team Design: Suryo Adi W., Ade S.

Lighting Design: Chrystalline Artchitect

Project area: 1,200 sqm

Project year: 2010

Photographs: Courtesy of Chrystalline Artchitect

© Chrystalline Artchitect

Constructed three stories high, with level one designed for principal’s office, swimming pool and playgrounds, the second floor is built for classrooms and third story is where all the facilities are located.

The design of the look for the kindergarten is simple and yet, abstract. It uses a double layer skin cover made from aluminum composite shaped into a folding layer, which follows the shape of the roof. As the position of the building is toward the sun from the west, this is used to buffer the striking heat from the sun.

first floor plan

second  floor plan


Third floor plan 

The structure of the building is built with high consideration towards the safety of the children. The principal’s office is specifically positioned in the first level near the playgrounds and pool to ease the principal for monitoring the children with their activities. The tile of the playground itself uses rubber tiles with 1.5 cm thickness and the swimming pool is fenced to prevent accidents with the children.

© Chrystalline Artchitect

Vertical circulation is constructed with inclining ramp covered in rubber carpet to ensure the safety of children from falling off the stairs. The handrail is placed between the ramps, and can be used with.

The school uses natural lightning from the skylights to light up the space within the school.



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