Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart

The Stuttgart City Library was completed in 2011. It was designed by Yi Architects and it is a 9-storey building which rises up in the área of the Mailänder Platz. It is an area which is perceived to be a future city centre. Inside it looks like a painting by Escher with all the stairs going up and down.

Eun Young Yi:

He was born in 1956 in Daecheon, in Korea. He studied architecture first at Hanyang University in Korea (1976-1983) and then in Aachen, Germany (1984-1990) where he was a pupil of Prof. Peter Kulka.
He started working as "Yi Architects" in 1994 in Köln and he still continues working there. He has also been professor at the University of Hanyang since 2000. Some of his Works are the Nationalmuseum in Korea, 1995; the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrük, 1995; the library in Nanjing, 1999; the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Centre in Berlin, 2004; and the Central Mosque in Köln in 2006. In 2013
the Stadtbibliothek in Stuttgart received the
national award for the best libray in Germany.

History of the building:

The building, a detached, monolithic cube, is a symbol of the significance of the library as a new intelectual and cultural centre. In earlier years, it was a church or palace that marked the centre of a town. but nowadays it is a place for individual knowledge, a Storey of words.
It has 20.225 square metres and the overall cost 79.000.000€. The interior design includes intelligent shelving, shelf-steering holleys, touch screens which provide information about events and new library passes which contain a chip for payment.

Structure and materials:

the building has a great physical presence. It takes the form of a cube with an edge length of 45 metres. It is constructed out of pale-grey concrete framing frosted glass bricks. It has a double façade, so it has a thermal shell.
The square construction can be accessed from all four sides and it includes at entry level a central space, te heart of the building, which is a 4-storey space. Above it is a 5-storey pyramid-shaped reading room, which is surrounded by various study romos and which is illuminated by a glass ceiling above. Finally there is a roof terrace with views over the whole town.

Impressions:

The mighty cube is impressive. At night it looks like a lighthous, glowing in blue light, creating a mysterious effect. It is an amazing book palace.

Our drawings:

Exterior by Sara Pantoja

Interior by Paula Pantoja












Project made by Sara Pantoja, Paula Pantoja, Andrea Rodríguez and Carmela Palacios

The Prism Tower

By: Unai Loidi and Cristina Rojas

The building was made in Mexico, Mexico City. The architects were Ramón Torres and Salvador Aceves.

The History of the building:

In 1965 they began planning the project of a building of more than 90 meters, and construction began in 1970 and ends in 1971. in which it was one of the highest constructions of Mexico City.
It became into the second seat of  the offices of the National Lottery. Then it was occupied by the administrative offices of the SAT. And finally, since September 2013 the building has been occupied by the National Institute of Fine Arts.

Characteristics:

-It is anchored to the ground with 190 piles of concrete that perforate 60 meters.

-After the 1985 the earthquake in Mexico City is considered one of the world's safest skyscraper.

-It has supported six earthquakes along its history.

-It has a height of 120 meters, with 28 floors.

-The structure is steel covered with brown smoked glass along the entire building, also making it the first  building in Mexico to bring a structure of this type.

General Impressions:
We found the building safe and strong considering it is 120 meters high.. I´s amazing the construcction has survived to 6 earthqueakes, and we think this is the most important fact of the building. The construction is beautiful too, it still looking modern, however, we know it is 44 years old, this data makes the edifice different from others.

san sebastian cathedral- sao paulo

Our building is the Cathedral sao paulo.The church was opened in 1976. The  architect is  Edgar Oliveira da Fonseca.

THE ARCHITECT

The architect of the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro was Edgar Oliveira da Fonseca. This Brazilian architect was inspired by the Maya pyramids to create the cathedral. We search

for information in the internet, but we only found that he was A professor at

thea PUK University in Rio. We wrote an Email to the communication department

of the University and they will send us any information they can found.

Unfortunately we didn’t receive it on time for this Project.

THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING

The Cathedral of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, is dedicated to St. Sebastian, patron saint of the city. It was built between 1964 and 1976; yes, it is a work of contemporary architecture and no, it's no Oscar Niemeyer, for once. It is a project of the architect Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca and some say it was inspired by the Mayas pyramids. Others believe that he was inspired by nothing less than the Apollo Project. No matter, what matters is the result: a work that it scary outside but inside conquest, with its beautiful stained glass cross on the dome forming a cross through which sunlight enters into a sacred space that can hold no fewer than 20,000 religious

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS

The Metropolitan Cathedral is a modern building with a capacity for about 20 thousand people. It is tapered and an imposing structure which differs from the old churches for their sobriety.

Inside are the 4 windows of various colours with a cross, which start on the floor and culminate in the ceiling, totalling 60 meters high, which accentuates the imposing character of the work.

The front door is lined with 48 bronze plaques with bas-reliefs concerning faith and gave the building a modern architectural air. The interior of the ship has stunning windows 60 meters high, which give the church a beautiful natural lighting.

It has a collection of sculptures, murals and works of art inside, and a Museum of Sacred Art, with sources that were used to baptize the princes of the imperial house.

The structure stands out among the buildings that are located in that part of town. Definitely a place that tourists can not miss if you travel to the welcoming city of Rio de Janeiro.

IMPRESSIONS

This building was very interesting and impressive. I think it is a cathedral that certainly if you ever go to Rio de Janeiro will not stay without her.

        

      

BY: MARTA DEL CASTRO, DANIEL BALIELA AND ELENA ARIAS

Helicoide

HELICOIDE

Introduction: 
As we had to talk about a pyramidal-shaped building, we chose this one, called "Helicoide" , that has a triangular pyramid shape. It is located in the capital of Venezuela, Caracas,  above a hill, between the parish of San Pedro and the parish of San Agustín. It was built by the architects Pedro Neuberger, Dirk Bornhorst and Jorge Romero Gutiérrez. Now, it is used for the headquarters of the SEBIN -Bolivarian Intelligence Service-. 

Name: Helicoide

Location: Caracas, Venezuela

Architects: Pedro Neuberger, Dirk Bornhorst and Jorge Romero Gutiérrez.

Chronology of its construction: 1956-1982 (26 years)

Dimensions:
Total surface area: 101,940 m²
Constructed surface area: 77,748 m²

Floors: seven

Architect's biography:
Dirk Bornhorst:
He was born in Lübeck in 1927. He studied Architecture in Venazuela in 1951. He has got several condecorations for cultural and universitary activities in combination with his works, between others : The Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The other two architects weren't very famous, so we couldn't find any other information abuot them.

History of building:
Its construction was undertaken by a private company in 1956, during the gobernment of the president Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The previous idea included a shopping thentre, an art gallery, a luxury hotel, a park, a club for the owners and a theatre on the top. The works stopped in 1961 because of the low budget, and in 1965 they tried to resume them in order to finish the construction in 1967, including a private aerodrome, but they didn't finished in time. In 1982, they concluded the aluminium dome on the top. Since 1984, they installed some State's organisms, like the Direction of the Intelligence and Preservation Services. Because of this, the dome was seriously affected by a bombardment in November of 1992, in a coup d'état. Then, the dome was repared. Since 2010, a part of the building works as the headquarters of the National Experimental University of Security.

Structure and materials:
The structure of the building is made of reinforced concrete, steel and glass. It has seven floors, and there is a geodesic dome made of aluminium on top of the building. You can see it on the images below. The peculiarity of this construction is that you need to drive your car till the top of the building using a ramp, to get into it from the higher level. It is like an spiral. They call it the "tropical Tower of Babel", because of its apperance.

 Impressios:
I think that this is a fascinating building, with an amazing and fresh structure. At first, I thought  that it was a bit strange, but then I realized that it was very modern, innovative and creative; and really different from the rest of buildings we can see nowadays. I hadn't seen anything like this before. Even though it has a huge size, it is very well-balanced, and everything seems to be perfectly distributed.

Some images and drawings:

Carlos' drawing

Lucia's drawing

By: Carlos Ménguez Hernandez, Lucía del Riego Nozal and Javier Gurpegui Güevea

Transamerica Pyramid

AIR FORCE ACADEMY CHAPEL

Hi! We're going to talk about the Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado,USA

 DATA:                                                                       

Type	Chapel
Architectural style	Modern
Location	U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs
Construction started	1959
Completed	1962
Height	150 feet (46 m)
Technical details
Floor count	2 floors
Design and construction
Architect	Walter Netsch, Jr., Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Main contractor	Robert E. McKee, Inc

Awards and prizes	AIA National Twenty-five Year Award U.S. National Historic Landmark, 2004
United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Location	United States Air Force Academy
Built	1962
Architectural style	Modern Movement
Governing body	Federal
Part of	United States Air Force Academy, Cadet Area

THE STRUCTURE AND THE MATERIALS:

The structure is a tubular steel frame of 100 identicaltetrahedrons, each 75 feet (23 m) long, weighing five tons, and enclosed with clear aluminum panels. The panels were fabricated in Missouri and shipped by rail to the site. The tetrahedrons are spaced a foot apart, creating gaps in the framework that are filled with 25 mm colored glass. The tetrahedrons comprising the spires are filled by triangular clear aluminum panels, while the tetrahedrons between the spires are filled with a mosaic of colored glass in aluminum frame.

The Cadet Chapel itself is 150 feet (46 m) high, 280 feet (85 m) long, and 84 feet (26 m) wide. The front façade, on the south, has a wide granite stairway with steel railings capped by aluminum handrails leading up one story to a landing. At the landing is a band of gold anodized aluminum doors, and gold anodized aluminum sheets apparently covering original Windows.

HISTORY OF THE BUILDING:
The United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, completed in 1962, is the distinguishing feature of the Cadet Area at the United States Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs. It was designed by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. Construction was accomplished by Robert E. McKee, Inc., of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Originally controversial in its design, the Cadet Chapel has become a classic and highly regarded example of modernist architecture. The Cadet Chapel was awarded the American Institute of Architects' National Twenty-five Year Award in 1996 and, as part of the Cadet Area, was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2004

It's divided in 5 WORKSHIPS AREAS:

THE PROTESANT CHAPEL:

The Protestant Chapel is located on the main floor, and is designed to seat 1,200 individuals. The nave measures 64 by 168 feet (51 m), reaching up to 94 feet (29 m) at the highest peak.

THE CATHOLIC CHAPEL:

The Catholic Chapel is located below the Protestant Chapel, and seats approximately 500 people. The nave is 56 feet (17 m) wide, 113 feet (34 m) long and 19 feet (5.8 m) high. The focal point of the Catholic Chapel is the reredos, an abstract glass mosaic mural designed by Lummen Martin  Winter and composed of varying shades of blue, turquoise, rose and gray tessera to form a portrayal of the firmament.







JEWISH CHAPEL:

The Jewish Chapel is also on the lower level. Seating 100, it is circular in shape, with a diameter of 42 feet (13 m) and a height of 19 feet (5.8 m). The circular form and transparent walls were used to suggest a tent-like structure. The floor is paved with Jerusalem brownstone, donated by the Israeli Defense Forces.

 

FALCON CIRCLE:

                                                                                                                                                           The worship area known as the Cadet Chapel - Falcon Circle came about through a request from the Air Force Academy's followers of Earth-Centered Spirituality, an umbrella of traditions that includes Wicca, Paganism and Druidism. The large stones comprising the circle were removed from the side of the hill overlooking the Academy's visitor center, where erosion threatened to collapse them onto the visitor center. The circular nature in which the stones were placed lent itself to facilitating outdoor worship services.







BUDDHIST CHAPEL:

The Buddhist Chapel (Vast Refuge Dharma Hall) is 300 square feet and was designed and built by Ed Shure. Donated in 2007, the Dharma Hall was built freestanding within the existing structure. It is made of Port Orford cedar, a rare, fragrant wood used for temple building in Japan, and its simply proportioned design welcomes Buddhists of all denominations as well as guests.











DRAWINGS:





Drawing by Lola Maujo

Drawing by Noa Rodríguez

By:Lola Maujo 1º,Noa Rodríguez 1º,Carla Serantes 3º



.

Seagram Building

By: Candela Suárez and Unai Loidi

SEAGRAM BUILDING:

It was made in 1954-1958, it is found in New York, Park Avenue and it has a modern style.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:

It was made by the german architect Miles van der Rohe, with the help of Philip Jhonson. Ludwis was born in Aquisgrán, Germany, 27-3-1886 and he died in Chicago, Illinois, 17-8-1969. Among his most famous works of this period highlights the Seagram Building (1958), a skyscraper of 39 floors of glass and bronze built in New York along with his disciple Philip Johnson.

In 1959 he retired from the Illinois Institute of Technology.From 1962-1968 built the National Gallery in Berlin. It is a building dedicated to exhibitions of works of art, consisting of a large square room built entirely of glass and steel and set on a large terrace of granite slabs.

The August 17, 1969 died in Chicago, leaving as a legacy a new standards for architecture that under his as disclosed slogans "Less is more" and "God is in the details", which considers it as one of the most important masters of modern architecture.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS:

The structure, 39 floors, combines a steel frame and reinforced concrete core to resist the lateral thrust of the wind. Said core rises to the 17th floor, and diagonal braces to the floor 29.2.

It is based on the precepts of the International Style, it was influential in American architecture. One such principle is to make a real architecture, in which the inner structure articulates the external aesthetics of the building. The architect's original idea was that the plot of structural steel hanging glass curtain walls saw, but the American building regulations required to cover all structural steel elements with some fireproof material, such as concrete, to prevent in case of fire to melt and hide gave in. Miles wanted to avoid the concrecte structure of the building at all costs, so he used bronze double profiles as a non-structural columns to remember the internal structure. These are visible from outside the building, and as a vertically running mullions. It is a method similar to that already used in apartment towers on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS:

We found the building amazing, because of the incredible height of 157 meters it has, with 39 floors. And if we add the dark colors in the windows, they make a strong and smart appearance to the construction. It looks straight and well-balanced from our point of view. We think it has been interesting working about this large building from Miles.

Ziggurat Pyramid ( María Glez, Laura Pedreañez, Imanol Moreno, Daniel Pañeda)

Introduction:

We have chosen a pyramid – formed building, which isn’t built yet, but it’d be located in Dubai. This, is called The Ziggurat Pyramid.

Building’s History:

Not being built, this building has no history yet, but the engineers involved in this project were based on the ancient pyramids of ancient civilizations such as Egyptian and Mesopotamian for build it in the future.

Building’s Features:

This project has as main function to create a city within the building. With an area of 2.3 square kilometers, this pyramid will be able to sustain a community of up to one million people.

The "Ziggurat" is the name of the temple towers of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, a pyramid structure terrace stories away on.

The technologies incorporated into the Ziggurat project will make a viable metropolis; The building is green and should be powered by solar, wind and natural energy sources and is able to operate completely outside the network; It also has an efficient public transport system to be run horizontally and vertically.

The facial recognition technology for security is another interesting feature to be incorporated into this project.

Impressions about the building /Conclusion:

We four, all think that this project about the construction of The Ziggurat is awesome and fascinating , because none of us could ever imagine that in a maybe nearly future, inside a pyramid one million of people would be living.

And we also believe that when this building is built, it’ll be a success and surely, world famous.

Building’s Images:

 

Sketches:

Drawing by Imanol - Building's outpart

Drawing by María- Building's inner part

Drawing by Laura - Building's structure

María and Laura - 3ºA
Imanol and Daniel - 1º

Helicoide

HELICOIDE

Name: Helicoide

Author: Pedro Neuberger,Dirk Bornhorst y Jorge Romero Gutiérrez.

Date:1956-1967(11years)

Dimensons:
Surface are: 101.940 m2
Floors: seven

Architect biography :
Dirk Bornhorst:
It was born in Lübeck in 1927.They study architecture in Venazuela in 1951.He has got several decorations for cultural and university activities in combination with his works, between others : The Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

History of building:
His construction was undertaken by a company deprived during government of the president at the time Marcos Perez Jiménez in 1956.The paralyzation of the works in 1961 is given by problems of budget. The same year was exhibited the project in the Museum of Modern Art of New York until in 1965 the works try to taken again to conclude them in 1967 including an area for aerotaxis but it was not continued . For 1982 either it is achieved to conclude only the geodesic dome of aluminium as top auction of the infrastructure of concretly. From 1984, with many slowness and without answering to a global project, they were installing in the building some organisms of the State, more important he of which it was the Direction of the Services of Intelligence and Prevention . For this motive, the dome turned out to be seriously affected by a bombardment in the Coup d'état of November, 1992 and with responser.
 Impressios:
I think that this is a fascinating building,whit an amazing and fresh estructure. At first, I thought  that it was a bit stange, but then I realized that it was very modern, innovative and creative; and really different from the rest of building we can see nowadays. I hadn't see anything like this before. Even thought it has a huge size, it is very well-balanced, and everything seems to be perfectly distributed.

Lucia drawing:

Carlos drawing:

By : Carlos Ménguez , Lucia del Riego and Javier Gurpegui.

Kubuswoningen (Cube houses)

The cube houses were built in Rotterdam and Helmond in the Netherlands in 1977 and in the early 1980s, They were designed by architect Piet Blom, representative of the structuralism movement.

Piet Blom:

Piet Blom was born on February, 8th in 1934 in Amsterdam and he died on June 8th in 1999 in Denmark. After having completed a carpenter and draughtsman formation he studied at the Amsterdam Academy of Building-Arts. There he was a student of Aldo van Eyck.
Piet achieved in 1962 the Dutch Pris de Rome and his best known work were his "Kubuswoningen". There is also a museum dedicated to Piet Blom's work in Hengelo.

History of building:

In 1972 Piet Blom received an assigent of the city of Helmond to design a meeting center. He explored the surroundings of Helmond for inspiration and the trees he saw reminded him of the pillars of the Alhambra. So he built three test houses with an hexagon pillar on which he placed the cube of a conventional house wich he tilted 45 degrees. Each house represents a tree and all the houses together a forest.
In 1977 the theatre "Speelhuis" was completed. the building was composed of 37 cubes, the largest cube being the theatre, offering place to 400 to 700 people. This theatre was destroyed by a great fire on December 29th in 2011.
Later he built 38 small cubes and two "super cubes" in Rotterdam, all attached to each other. There cubes form a bridge over Overblaak Street, a busy artery road.
The residents of these cubes were so often disturbed by tourists and passers-by that one owner decided to open a "show cube" which is furnished as a normal house and which is visited by over ten thousand people a year.

Structure and materials:

The houses contain three floors:

• Grounded floor entrance
• First floor with livingroom and open kitchen
• Second floor with two bedrooms and bathroom
• Top floor which is sometimes used as a small garden

All the walls and Windows are angled at 54.7 degrees and therefore some of the space can't be used because it is situated under angled ceilings. The total área of an apartment is 100 square meters.

Impressions:

We all think it must be fun to live in these cube houses. The structure is peculiar and surprising and the cubes are brightly coloured. Although they look a bit confusing, it is a bizarre spectacle. But it doesn't seem to be very practicle to have three floors and lost of stairs in your hous.

Our drawings:

The exterior by Paula Pantoja

The interior by Sara Pantoja












Project made by Sara Pantoja, Carmela Palacios, Paula Pantoja and Andrea Rodríguez.