Miguel Fonseca

Some plays of words can get you into trouble and this one just might. But its irresistible. To any one out there that may have something against these two here is a good surgical scalpel....

Personally I refrain... I think they´re great architects, but you never know... they might just loose their touch at some point...

So here is a photo of the bird´s nest stadium in construction in Beijing... We saw this DVD in class this monday and it was serious food for thought. From process to implementation... everything. I just wonder if they could of stopped it when this shot was taken. Just for the sake of the delirious armaggedonous quality of it...

The DVD is out on all respectable shops and costs money... The title is Bird´s Nest - Herzog and de Meuron in China

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We´ve stacked all teams room layouts today. Remains fine tuning, encountering a valid skin strategy, a circulation path other than lifts from floor to top providing a more architectural means of traveling between floors and finally, a clear structural strategy for each independently sustained floor.

For all else, there is hope... and meetings between groups negotiating a fine tuned and intentional Christmas proposal.

Personally I love it. Potential of multiplicity...

Enough said

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Currently we are advancing to a simplified version of our lobby as we seemed to struggle with unity of language. This a by project as the main focus is currently on room layout on the three floors above. As we are tunning our main concept we have decided to update and improve aspects of the lobby that we found ill conceived or simply outside the acceptable. We also had to contend with programmatic requirements.

Our hotel delivers the clients a space where the public meets the private. The lobby offers Restaurant Area, Two Stage Areas that can be used for Theatre or Cinema or Conferences. We have assumed an interest in the area of greater cultural offer and the hotel can function thus as a magnet for organizing functions ranging from art exhibitions based on sound and images, live performances, cinema, or even corporate meetings. We intend to provide the hotel with the possibility of a two way revenue facility and also a place geared for the public.

We are now making changes to the lobby area and will continue to do so whenever possible. Here are some previews of how we have been progressing.

River View (left to right) - Lounge Area and Kitchen Above / Restaurant / Stage Area

North West View (left to right) Auditorium / Main Entrance / Lounge Area / Cocktail Bar

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We had a presentation for our lobby with a microphone!

Both Nick and Irene were present so it felt a little more serious.

We were first up and I had to present.

Continue reading "5in1 stack Hotel - Hanging Lobby" »

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Since we began our lobby we have advanced fast through a series of experimentation in order to achieve what we set out in the beginning. We set basic rules of defining the perception of HANG by allowing masses to touch the floor only when absolutely necessary

Continue reading "5in1 stack Hotel - Hanging Lobby Model" »

Posted by Miguel Fonseca at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Radisson SAS in Helsinki

Torni Hotel. Designed by Jung and Jung in the 1930´s against planning will, it was the first sky scraper of Finland and it was occupied by the soviets untill 1947. Some illustrious guests included Jean Paul Sartre and the suspected Kennedy murderer Lee Harvey Oswald.

Right next to the Radisson I had a chance meeting with a Alvar Aalto building. Always good to have a look...

In the Museum Of Modern Art there was a slide lecture by Robert Smithson where he jokingly took us through and described a building "devoid of logic": Hotel Palenque in Mexico. With no definite entrances, structures half demolished but still kept, and things half built. Here shown are the approach photo, the lobby with its turtle pool, the unfinished swimming pool and the disused dance hall with one surviving chair.

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It has been decided to explore the spatial qualities of a near open plan ground condition. For Monday we will be looking at accommodating the requirements of the brief and also exploring spatially with the potential of separating public and private by way of lifting the hotel functions just above the ground level

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an effective creation of environment

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Continue reading "Workshop Video" »

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