cite-de-l’ocean-et-du-surf-by-steven-holl-architects-and-solange-fabiao

Steven Holl Architects have collaborated with Brazilian architect Solange Fabião on this wave-shaped museum of the sea in Biarritz, France, which opened this week.

The Cité de l’Océan et du Surf has a cobbled plaza over the concave roof, which gently descends to meet the sloping ground.

The galleries of the museum are contained within this curving concrete block, while two acid-etched glass boxes at one end accomodate restaurants and a surfer’s kiosk.

The museum houses exhibitions about scientific issues associated with the sea and tides.

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Above photograph is by Steven Holl Architects

Photography is by Iwan Baan apart from where otherwise stated.

Here are some more details from the architects:

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Cité de l’Océan et du Surf opens in Biarritz, France

The Cité de l’Océan et du Surf, located in Biarritz, France will open to the public on June 26, 2011.

Above photograph is by Steven Holl Architects

The museum, a design by Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Brazilian artist and architect Solange Fabião, aims to raise awareness of oceanic issues and scientific aspects of surf and sea.

Above photograph is by Steven Holl Architects

Derived from the spatial concept “under the sky” / “under the sea”, the museum’s concave exterior creates a central gathering plaza, open to the sky and sea, with the horizon in the distance.

Above photograph is by Steven Holl Architects

On the interior, the inverse convex curve becomes the ceiling of the main exhibition space, evoking the sense of being “under the sea.”

san-telmo-museum-extension-by-nieto-sobejano-arquitectos

Moss is expected to grow on the perforated aluminium skin of this museum extension in San Sebastián by Spanish studio Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos.

With its rear wall pushed into the edge of the hillside, the new two-storey block stretches out at a right-angle to the San Telmo Museum.

A staircase ascends across the block, allowing vistors to climb over the roof and onto the landscape.

The museum extension contains galleries for temporary exhibitions as well as an auditorium, library, teaching areas, cloakroom, shop and cafeteria.

See also: our story from yesterday on the Moritzburg Museum Extension in Germany by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos.

Photography is by Fernando Alda. See more images of this project onAlda’s website.

This information is from the architects:

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San Telmo Museum Extension
Competition 1st Prize 2005

The Museum of San Telmo, in its present condition, represents the result of a long process of successive modifications which has partially altered its physical and functional character over the years.

Its location on the fringe where the urban structure meets the topography of Monte Urgull is a reflection, on the other hand, of an urban problem very characteristic of San Sebastian: the solution of a division never completely solved between natural and artificial landscape.

How to approach a contemporary extension of San Telmo in response to new requirements for space and stringent landscaping conditions, while expressing its connection to the location with the passing of time?

The direct and radical gesture which defines out proposal implies paradoxically its practical dissolution in the landscape of Monte Urgull.

We will limit ourselves to building a new green wall, deep and light, which is defined by the existing topography, and which hides in its interior two pavilions which will house the new programme.

This decision heighten the appreciation both of the historical buildings as well as the new entrance to the museum, which offers access to the old building – which will incorporate the permanent exhibitions – as well as to the new pavilion for temporary exhibitions.

The main vestibule will therefore constitute a natural link with the new areas for cloakrooms, shop, auditorium, mediatheque, didactic hall and cafeteria which complete the necessary areas in a museum with these characteristics.

A “green wall”: on certain occasions the metaphor associated with an architectural idea gives a sense to each and every aspect of the project.

Hence the slight changes of direction of the wall are sufficient to provide a natural solution to pedestrian access to Monte Urgull, to configure an open air exhibition space, or to house a café-terrace open to the landscape and to the town.

House for elderly people by Aires Mateus Arquitectos

Architectural photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us his images of a nursing home in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal, by Portuguese studio Aires Mateus Arquitectos.

The façade is reminiscent of a checkerboard, with its white surface punctured at intervals by recesses to shade its glazing.

The long building meanders over the site, rising and falling with the topography of the landscape.

A surrounding landscaped garden reaches up to the roof of at some parts, giving access to the top of the building.

Photographs are by Fernando Guerra.

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Here’s some information from the architects:

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ALCÁCER DO SAL FORM

The project is based on a attentive reading of the life of a very specific kind of community, a sort of a micro-society with its own rules.

It is a program, somewhere in between a hotel and a hospital, that seeks to comprehend and reinterpret the combination social/private, answering to the needs of a social life, and at the same time of solitude.

Independents unities aggregate into a unique body, whose design is expressive and clear.

The reduct mobility of those who will live in the building suggests that any displacement should be an emotive and variable experience.

The distance between the independent units is measured and drawn to turn the idea of path into life, and its time into form.

The building, designed path, is a wall that naturally rises from the topography: it limits and defines the open space, organizing the entire plot.

Name of the project: Residências assistidas em Alcácer do Sal. Houses for eldery people in Alcácer do Sal.

Location: Alcácer do Sal (Portugal)

Date of project: 2006-2007

Date of construction: 2008-2010

Brief project description: Authors: Francisco Aires Mateus, Manuel Aires Mateus

Collaborators: Giacomo Brenna, Paola Marini, Anna Bacchetta, Miguel Pereira

Client: Santa Casa da Misericordia de Alcácer do Sal

Engineer: Engitarget, lda

Constructor: Ramos Catarino, Sa

Landscape architecture: ABAP Luis Alçada Batista

Footprint Area: 1560 m2

Floor Gross Area: 3640 m2