Archinect - News

MVRDV begins construction on overhaul of old Shanghai cement factory

2024-02-12T11:16:00-05:00

A team led by MVRDV has begun construction on a leisure and cultural district in Shanghai on the site of a disused cement factory. Named Gate M West Bund Dream Center, the project will transform a collection of buildings of different styles and time periods, “adapting a former industrial zone while making use of the existing structures and thus minimizing carbon emissions,” according to the team.

Image credit: Ucharm

Under the MVRDV scheme, developed with co-architect AISA, landscape architect Field Operations, and interior architects CL3 and Xu Studio, a series of disused buildings will be linked in a “cohesive whole” by a network of bright orange paths, stairs, ramps, and bridges. The site is organized around key landscaped axes including a central spine linking both ends of the district, while a “three-dimensional promenade” is created by a series of landscaped rooftops, elevated riverbank terraces, and a network of staircases and elevators finished in a defining orange color.

Ima...

MAD to renovate Shanghai cement warehouse with floating metal ‘ark’

2023-10-27T11:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled its design for the renovation and adaptive reuse of an old cement factory in Shanghai. The ‘Wanmicang’ warehouse sits on the south side of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Cement Factory grounds and has been reimagined by MAD as a “three-dimensional hierarchy of time and physical dimensions through the juxtaposition of old and new structures.”

Image credit: MAD Architects

Having ceased production in 2013 after decades as one of Shanghai’s largest cement factories, the site has been the subject of several commissions by architects aiming to preserve and reuse historical buildings while repositioning the site for research, cultural, commercial, and creative uses. Subsequently, MAD’s approach to the Wanmicang warehouse was to preserve the site’s industrial fabric while repurposing the site as a multifunctional public waterfront space holding culture, creativity, commercial, and office functions.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“Industrial heritage is preserved and utilize...

Five New York projects with industrial echoes by S9 Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2023-04-04T11:34:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Arizona-based Studio Ma, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to New York this week where we meet S9 Architecture.

From their office on 8th Avenue, the team of 60 designers has built a portfolio around a theme of “modern contextualism” inspired by local urban narratives. “We believe our projects are part of a larger whole, acting as the glue that helps bind and enhance their context for human experiences,” the firm explains. More recently, we covered the news that the firm’s Universal Hip Hop Museum in The Bronx is set to open in 2024.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions across their New York office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio’s work, we have rounded up five New York projects by S9 that demonstrate their design ethos.

205 Water Street, Brooklyn

Located in the DUBMO Historic Landmark District, 205 Water Street was designe...

Spec buildings have increasingly become the answer to commercial clients' pandemic growing pains

2022-07-29T18:09:00-04:00

“Historically, spec buildings have been risky, but in a market environment like we are in now, where there is a race to get goods to people faster and to manufacture more things, the flexibility of the spec space becomes an asset, not a liability.”

Biomedical clients are among the most popular movers of the building trend, propelled by demand imbalances for lab space. E-commerce is another common tenant, followed by light manufacturing operations from companies like IBM that leverage high-paying jobs in smaller communities like West Chester, Ohio already targeted by developers for their easier-to-navigate zoning laws.

The rise of inflation, labor shortages, materials costs, and ongoing supply chain lags are seen as both threats and contributors to the trend continuing unabatedly. Marquette University's Andrew Hunt estimated that the average warehouse construction costs 40% more when compared to last year but still thinks the economy is in developers' favor. As he told the Times, "It doesn’t feel like that party will end any time soon."

Buffalo’s Great Northern Grain Elevator and the fight to preserve local architectural history

2022-01-25T18:13:00-05:00

The building’s current owner — Archer Daniels Midland Milling Co., part of the farm and food products giant — has been pushing to demolish the Great Northern, setting off a furious fight between preservationists and the company.

The 125-year-old building has been credited with inspiring a host of modernist architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. The building’s facade was gashed open by a windstorm that has left its empty interior partially exposed since December 12th. At least three previous owners have attempted to demolish the beloved historic building that was for a long time operated by the Pillsbury company, which sold the building to its current owners in the early 1990s.

Archer Daniels Midland Milling Co. has been seeking an emergency petition to raze the building that was granted a stay by an appellate judge in state supreme court earlier this month. The judge has called for mediation sessions this week between the company and conservationists who want to save the damaged structure that they say will leave a massive void on the city’s visual imagination.

“These were the kind of cathedrals of the modern age,” Gregory Delaney, an assistant professor of architecture at the University at Buff...

BIG imagines a future for metal production on land and sea

2021-05-18T12:18:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled their design for the future of metal production, combining land and sea-based elements. Collaborating with The Metals Company, a developer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor rocks, BIG sought to bring innovative, sustainable, whole-system design processes to critical battery metals. The resulting suite of BIG’s designs includes seafloor mineral collector robots, carbon-neutral vessels, and waste-free metals processing and recycling plants to enable a circular supply chain.

Aerial of system. Image: Bjarke Ingels Group

The Metals Company’s production process centers on polymetallic nodules — fist-sized rocks containing battery-grade nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese found on the ocean floor. BIG’s brief called for an integrated suite of assets that work together to lift nodules off the seafloor and up to a purpose-built production vessel, before transferring them to a hydrodynamic shuttle carrier, and onward to a land-based plant. Th...

Closer look: OPEN Architecture's Tank Shanghai, five fuel tanks converted into a contemporary art center and park

2020-04-01T13:47:00-04:00

Over the course of six years, OPEN Architecture transformed five decommissioned aviation fuel tanks into a vibrant contemporary art center and public park. Overlooking the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the art center has attracted hoards of visitors and large cultural events since opening in March 2019.

With a site area of 47,448m2, the project was envisioned as an art museum and open park that embraces public life. The tanks are surrounded by sloping landscaped meadows that connect to the street and riverside.

Photo: INSAW Image.

Art Center Main Entrance. Photo: Qingshan Wu.

OPEN Architecture retrofitted the five tanks according to the program requirements for each of them. Tank 1 is a two-story live-performance house and bar that contains a drum-shaped inner tank with curving walls that improve the space's acoustics. Tank 2 is a restaurant organized around a circular central courtyard, which features a rooftop deck for dining.

Tank 3 interior. Photo: Qingsh...

Studio One Eleven's industrial-meets-residential complex is approved in Los Angeles

2019-11-17T09:00:00-05:00

The Arts District Soho Warehouse mixed-use development designed by Studio One Eleven in Los Angeles has won formal approval from the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.

THe project, developed by real estate investment firm Jade Enterprises will bring 110 live/work apartments, 113,000 square feet of offices, and 51,000 square feet of commercial space to the Los Angeles Arts District, Urbanize.la reports. The project also includes 11 low-income units and 479 parking stalls.

A series of retail paseos wrap the market hall building. Image courtesy of Studio One Eleven.

The development is anchored by a retail market hall at its center that is overlooked by a collection of mid-rise housing blocks. The project's market hall takes the shape of an industrial warehouse and features a large roof canopy above a multi-level shopping area topped with an amenity terrace.

The project's residential buildings are, according to renderings, wrapped in a variety of industrial materials, including co...

The artful repurposing of industrial wastelands

2019-05-22T14:31:00-04:00

What should we do with industrial sites after they have fulfilled their original purpose? Considering the fact that so many of the now disused sites are so close to city centers, the answer to this question can determine the quality of city life for many places around the world.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Photographer unknown.

In Germany, the answer has frequently been to artfully transform these sites into places of public use. Take Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a former coal and steel production plant that ceased operations in 1985 and was reopened in 2002 as a public park. According to its designers, Latz+Partner, the intention of Duisburg Nord was "to integrate, shape, develop and interlink the existing patterns that were formed by its previous industrial use, and to find a new interpretation with a new syntax. The existing fragments were to be interlaced into a new “landscape”.

Stairway to Heaven, by sculptor Herman Prigann. Photographer unknown.

In Gelsenkirchen, the Herman...

OPEN Architecture turns 100-year-old fuel containers into "containers of culture"

2019-03-29T14:03:00-04:00

A project that took a little over six years to design and construct opened its doors this week along Huangpu River in Shanghai's West Bund. The brainchild of famed Chinese collector and businessman Qiao Zhbing, Tank Shanghai consists of five preserved oil tanks which are connected by OPEN architecture's "Super-Surface," a new ground that connects each tank underneath the surface. Along the Super-Surface is an Urban Forest which stretches along the entire site as well as two plaza spaces which will host ceremonies and events. The firm's goal was to pay tribute to the site's industrial past while creating a new urban life through a marriage of art and nature within the city.

Site's original condition before construction. Image courtesy of OPEN architecture

Tank Shanghai - masterplan, Image © OPEN architecture

TANK Shanghai located in Xuhui District in Shanghai, China Image © OPEN architecture

Historically, the site was the Longhua airport which stretched along Shanghai's Huangpu River. ...

Snøhetta brings colorful fishing facility to an arctic archipelago in Norway

2018-11-12T15:06:00-05:00

Snøhetta has completed their colorful design of a fishing facility for the shipowner Holmøy Maritime. Located on a Norwegian archipelago, the 6,000 square meter address will allow the company to house all employees and facilities on the same site. With four distinctive buildings and a guest house for mid-shift breaks, the new Holmen Industrial Area is able to combine fish farming and processing functions with the company's corporate headquarters.

The client, Holmøy Maritime, is the country's third-largest trawler operator. In order to ensure the company's high standards of quality are met, Snøhetta carefully considered its daily activities, tracking the fish handling process in order to achieve the best environment possible for employees and for production. While the warm colors of the building help make for a playful facility, the functional materials such as aluminum façade cladding and concrete floors safeguard for durability.

Photography: S. Citrone.

Photography: Ketil Jacobsen....

Signum Architecture designs sustainably minded Napa Valley winery and office

2018-01-22T20:03:00-05:00

Built atop the rolling hills of eastern Napa Valley in California, the Odette Estate Winery was designed with sustainable farming and wine production in mind. Designer Signum Architecture was awarded as an Industrial Building category winner for the project in the 2017 American Architecture Prize competition.

Photo: Adrian Gregorutti.

With Signum Architecture partner Juancarlos Fernandez as design lead, the Odette facility features a green roof that appears to have emerged from the earth. At the front, sliding perforated aluminum screens veil the winery's covered crush pad and open-air workspace. The screens emit a back-lit glow in the evening, while the perforations allow for ventilation.

Photo: Adrian Gregorutti.

According to the architects, the sweeping graceful curves on the side of the building were inspired by a swan’s wing, a reference to the famous Tchaikovsky ballet character Odette. Behind the screens are three repurposed shi...

This Belgian concrete factory shows how industrial buildings can be functional AND beautiful

2018-01-11T20:02:00-05:00

Belgian maker of architectural prefabricated concrete elements, Enjoy Concrete, show us how the product can be the architecture in its most beautiful sense: when the company was in need of a new industrial facility in the small town of Veurne, they partnered with Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects to design a headquarters that's constructed entirely from Enjoy Concrete's own prefabricated concrete elements.

The facade follows a strict 6x3-meter grid that applies the same proportions to the concrete panels as well as the windows.

While the building is mainly a big industrial hall for production and storage, it also contains a variety of office spaces spread over four stories. Its most striking feature is a cantilevered, glass-encased board room protruding dramatically from the top corner of the otherwise compact building volume.

Since the building is situated near a green canal la...

One Leeds’ most iconic industrial buildings is being put up for auction for just £1

2017-11-27T18:57:00-05:00

Temple Works, a former flax mill in Leeds, has been listed for sale, in the Pugh auction on December 7th, with a starting price of just one pound according to the Yorkshire Evening Post. The Egyptian-influenced industrial building is one of the city's oldest and most cherished, and is the only Grade I listing in Holbeck.

Completed in 1840, the building that once boasted one of the largest rooms in the world has since reached a parlous state. Last used commercially in 2004 by Kays Catalogues, the property was inherited by the Barclay family who own the Telegraph media group and are accused of leaving the building to rot.

In 2008, one of the site's 18 lotus pillars collapsed, bringing down a section of the beautifully ornate wall as well. Along with some broken stonework and other damage, the 10,948 square-meter mill has subsequently been featured among the Victorian Society’s '10 most endangered buildings' and the site's condition has been listed as 'very bad' by the English Herita...

Vitsœ applies Dieter Rams' design philosophy to its stunning new HQ and production building

2017-10-19T20:00:00-04:00

Who said that factory buildings had to be drab, dingy halls devoid of beauty? Vitsœ, the UK-based maker of Dieter Rams-designed furniture systems, opened its new HQ and production building this week, and it's a real stunner.

Located in the small town of Royal Leamington Spa in central England, the new company building has been realized by an in-house Vitsœ team in close collaboration with Yacht designer Martin Francis, architects and fabricators specialized in engineered timber, landscape architects, engineers in their respective fields as well as industrial-sustainability academics.

Sustainability, adaptability, and workplace health were key motives in the design process for the 135-meter-long building that is naturally ventilated and naturally lit during daylight hours, offering employees big windows to connect with nature and the surrounding landscape.

Read on for more images and a project description we've received.

"Like the company’s renowned 606 Un...

Manufacturing Site of First London Routemaster Transformed into Arts Hub

2017-07-30T13:31:00-04:00

The manufacturing site of the first London bus in E17 has been converted to celebrate London’s maker culture in SIDESHOW, an installation with interactive, family friendly elements opening mid-August. The project was undertaken by U+I and Blackhorse Workshop, the latter a ‘pioneer in the maker-space movement’ which started supporting the regeneration of the Blackhorse Road Area in 2014.

The installation of a giant marble run is central to the exhibition, and was created by Blackhorse Workshop alongside young architectural practice Ehk! using components of the original London Routemaster buses which were historically developed and manufactured in the space. This fascinating marble run incorporates disused bus parts as well as over 200 steel ball bearings, with the piece celebrating the history of the 3-acre industrial site, which is earmarked by U+I for development next year. Their plans are to work on a new mixed-use development, providing 337 new homes and workspaces for small busin...

Tesla's 5.8 million square foot "Gigafactory" to open in 2017

2016-07-27T13:38:00-04:00

Sixty-five hundred people and a sizable compliment of robots will work in the enormous, solar-panel topped, rail-adjacent Gigafactory when it opens in 2017, a structure which is described as a "joint venture" between Tesla, Panasonic and other supply partners. In this case, the drive to inexpensively produce lithium-ion batteries has created the need for the colossal structure.

As Wired notes:

The assembly lines will do everything from make the individual cells—cylinders a bit bigger than an AA battery—to assembling the immense packs that power a Model S or store energy in someone’s garage. Tesla doesn’t disclose its costs, but says doing it all in-house will drive down the cost of a battery by 30 percent.

Tesla in the news:

How Detroit can learn to revive its derelict industrial sites from other cities

2015-07-13T15:43:00-04:00

Heading east along I-94 from Detroit’s resurgent Midtown area, two massive structures loom on the horizon. For passing drivers, they’re awe-inducing symbols of both the city’s former industrial might and the dismaying scale of its post-industrial challenges. [...] At the Center for Community Progress’ May Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference, planners and developers discussed examples from around the world of cities that are finding opportunity in derelict industrial properties.

Previously: Repurposing Old Rail Stations in the Rust Belt: What Buffalo, Detroit, and Cincinnati can tell us about adaptive reuse

Related on Archinect's sister site Bustler: Reanimate the Ruins winners reimagine Detroit’s Packard Motor Plant

Brian Libby on a possible future for Centennial Mills, Portland's last large industrial relic

2014-12-23T13:42:00-05:00

With a golden patina to their aged brick, these former flour and seed mills provide a striking contrast to the shiny new condo towers of the adjacent Pearl District, and their proximity to this burgeoning area could also make for an ideal riverside destination. [...] He has approached Frank Gehry to design a glass-ensconced event center and Lin to design a pedestrian bridge over busy Naito Parkway.

Earlier this fall, we had the pleasure of Brian Libby joining us live to discuss the future of the controversial Michael Graves-designed Portland Building on Archinect's podcast, episode 3: Keep Portland Architecture Weird!

Sims Municipal Recycling Facility, Designed by Selldorf

2013-11-19T20:25:00-05:00

... instead of letting engineers design the plant, as often happens at an industrial site, Sims hired Selldorf Architects, a glamorous New York firm known for doing Chelsea art galleries and cultural institutions.