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HYBRIDS
II: Low-Rise Mixed-Use Buildings, edited by
Aurora Fernandez Per, Javier Mozas & Javier Arpa
a+t architecture publishers, 2008
The second installment in a+t's exploration
of mixed-use buildings turns the first on its side. Where
Hybrids I looked at
high-rises, the successor presents ten low-rise projects,
ranging from a couple relatively compact buildings in the
urban centers of Madrid and Nuremberg by Nieto
Sobejano Arquitectos to Office
dA's sprawling Sports Shooting Club in Kuwait City.
The movement from small to large points to a predilection
for a new generation of megastructures,
this time realized, diverse in character and -- obviously,
as the title implies -- diverse in function. Yet similarities
can be found in many of these European, Asian and the Middle
Eastern projects, in terms of context, form and program.
Besides a few tabula rasa
and city center conditions found in these pages, most of
the projects are sited in areas of outdated infrastructure,
next to waterways or railroads just beyond the urban core.
Jakob
+ MacFarlane's recently completed Docks de Paris highlights
these conditions, in its conversion of a concrete building
on the Seine into a mix of education, exhibition, office
and retail functions. An undulating green glass exterior
wall unites the different uses, echoing the flowing water
of the river just beyond the glass. Other projects share
the linear form of this dockside building, including Office
dA's long floating canopy, Dominique
Perrault's Ehwa
Campus Complex in Seoul and Steven
Holl's Vanke Center in Shenzhen, China. The last --
a mixed-use building including hotel, offices, condominiums,
and public park -- is referred to by the architect as a
"horizontal skyscraper" with linear pieces composed
into a scattershot arrangement that resembles a stick-figure
animal from above. Raised on formidable pilotis, the design
splits the hotel, offices and condos into three main segments,
a separation of function that the project shares with others
here. Only OMA's
Bryghusprojektet
project in Copenhagen appears to break down the clear distinction
between uses, even though the design is comprised of orthogonal
blocks. Their stacking and adjacencies are so complex that
even the helpful sections and 3d-plans can only go part
of the way towards making ones movement through the various
spaces within the building understandable. The "distinctive
mix of architecture center, foundation headquarters, residential
units, offices, public program and playground facilities"
thrown into a programmatic "heap" is sure to be
a happening place on the city's waterfront.
The projects described above illustrate
how this second installment of the HYBRIDS series improves
upon its predecessor. The horizontality of these pseudo-megastructures
seems to invite experimentation by architects beyond the
predictable stacking of high-rise buildings. One would think
that the small footprints of skyscrapers would make them
more favorable in urban situations, but these horizontal
hybrids are especially adept at maneuvering the complex
conditions of many city sites, especially the drosscape
created by industry and infrastructure relocated over time.
It's an exciting grouping of projects and one that gets
me looking forward to the next installment.
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