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Collection of Best - Prefabium Centre for Culture and Community - Adaptable Modular Building Prototype For a complex research project - the prototyping of a Centre for Culture and Community - noa* questions what form modular flexibility takes and how nature can be embedded in the project. About noa* Project Centre for Culture and Community Architects noa* Year 2021 CeCuCo, Centre for Culture and Community, is a research project with an ambitious task: the design of a cultural centre without a fixed context, capable of transforming itself to adapt to anyone and anywhere. This is noa*’s vision of a multifunctional space, translated into a sustainable model which is versatile for all situations. Among the infinite design possibilities, it was clear from the very beginning which direction to take: to design an architecture that is not indifferent to what happens inside it, a flexible space in which the community can decide, act and makes her moves. Learning from tangram The geometry of the project is based on an elementary form, the triangle, repeated modularly in both plan and elevation. In the first case, the triangular module is inscribed in a 3x3 m square, in the second in 3x1.5 m. Working with geometries easy to assemble allows the cultural centre to expand or contract according to the needs of the context. In addition, on an urban planning level, the triangles can combine in many types of shapes, resulting in different space typologies like the slab, the courtyard or the punctiform village. Using the module in the facade opens up to a variety of configurations, creating a kind of facade metamorphosis. noa* imagines the elevations as a chessboard: some elements can be moved, with certain rules and in certain directions, which it is then up to the people who experience the architecture to control. Doors can be moved, fanned out, turned on their hinges, lowered, raised, ajar... and the same goes for windows. A wide range of possibilities for an intuitive and playful architecture, made up of moves and countermoves, where the game of action and reaction between community and building gives life to the most diverse scenarios. Players on playground When defining the functional programme, noa* first investigated the needs of a cultural and community centre as well as the ways to create an architecture as inclusive as possible. How do you design a space that works in the same way for children who meet to play, adults to watch an exhibition, teenagers to listen to a concert? What are the characteristics of a meeting space that is open all year round, that is not for consumption and that represents the public counterbalance to the private domestic dimension? The natural answer to these questions was the decision to define different spaces capable of satisfying multiple needs, rather than specifying a fixed list of functions. Through 6 types of floor plans, ranging from 8 to 115 m2, all the possible activities of the centre are accommodated. For example, the small module houses the artist’s atelier, the newspaper stall, the storeroom, the management office, the staircase, and the changing rooms. In the extra small module, you can find a ticket office. In the medium module, the toilets, a library room, and the open-air bleachers, since not all modules stand for covered spaces. As the floor plans change to the larger size, the possibilities vary, culminating in the large space, with 115 m2 available, designed for theatre and cinema. Think local, be sustainable noa* wanted an architecture that is social in its final purpose, and sustainable in all the aspects of the design, including the choice of materials and construction techniques. For this prototype were chosen natural materials and an exposed construction system, easy to assemble and dismantle. In the standard package”, the facade is made up of an exposed wooden structural system and a wall of clay bricks, alternating with transparent parts, which have also been modulated on the geometry of the triangle. The sustainable approach must be central in the design: therefore, the final choice of materials must be verified with the project environment, to check their actual availability on-site, their thermal conductivity in relation to the climatic conditions, the energy consumption in their processing and the presence of the necessary know-how skills. Similarly, a careful design of the installations can have a positive impact on the ecological footprint of the building. The cultural centre includes the use of green roofs and pergolas, photovoltaic systems, rainwater collecting systems, cross-ventilation systems as well as ponds and wooded areas for a temperate microclimate. With this project, noa* envisages a flexible architecture, capable of reacting to changes in context and at the same time of working on different scales, from the macro-project to the street furniture. This cultural centre could be located on a beach on a volcanic island, in the Scandinavian forests, on an abandoned lot in Detroit or on the roofs of socialist housing in Berlin. It is an architecture able to mould itself to the morphological and climatic requirements of the context while maintaining intact the concept of sociality and interaction between the building and those who live in it. Read more »Concepts , Germany , Italy , Mixed-use Advertisement VoloPort Concept - Modular eVTOL Vertiport - Departure and Arrival Facility for Air Taxis and Drones About Graft Project VoloPort Architects Graft Project partners Georg Schmidthals, Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, Thomas Willemeit Project lead Sebastian Massmann Design lead Marta Piaseczynska Project team Julia Korpacka, Tatiana Lebedeva Year 2021: Commission for VoloPort together with Arup and Bayards Aluminium Constructies 2019: First prototype built in Singapore by GRAFT Brandlab 2018: Competition, 1st prize, together with GRAFT Brandlab and Arup Description by designers The German eVTOL design company Volocopter is a pioneer of Urban Air Mobility and develops fully electric vertical take-off aircraft as a mobility solution for use in urban areas. As a hub for the Volocopter aircraft, the VoloPort vertiport was devised by GRAFT in collaboration with Volocopter, Arup and Bayards Aluminium Constructies. The VoloPort is part of the Volocopter modular urban air mobility infrastructure network and acts as a gateway within the public realm. Suited to the constraints of densely populated areas, its compact, modular and expandable design can be employed in a variety of inner-city locations – either on the ground, on the roof of a high-rise building or on a floating, water-based platform. Read more »Germany , Singapore , transport , vertiports Stack Modular Housing - Prefab Affordable Housing, Manhattan, New York Floor plans / Drawings Construction Process Location and contact info About GLUCK+ Project The Stack Modular Housing Architects GLUCK+ Design Team Shannon Bambenek, Jacob Chartoff, Marc Gee, Peter L. Gluck, Thomas Gluck, Charlie Kaplan, James Macgillivray, Brian Novello, Silan Yip Area 37,710 square feet Structural Engineers Silman (Foundations), The Harman Group (Modular) Geotechnical Engineers Pillori Associates Mechanical Engineer Rodkin Cardinale Consulting Engineers Prefabrication Consultant Deluxe Building Systems Inc. Location Manhattan, New York, USA Photography Amy Barkow Year 2014 Utilizing an off-site construction method and an innovative design strategy, The Stack modular housing has managed to streamline the entire development process and create a high-quality product with a small carbon footprint, pioneering the future of construction in New York City. Individual modules are constructed and fully finished in a factory setting, while the eventual building site is simultaneously prepped for their arrival. Expending far fewer raw materials than traditional construction methods, the modules are fabricated in a highly controlled environment, allowing for quality assurance and...