The design agenda: An interview with Carlo Ratti and the redevelopment of a Bordeaux district
Plus: The MillerKnoll Archives open at the group’s HQ to showcase the office-furniture giant’s legendary designs.
Architecture: Argentina
Spaces reinvented
When architect Eran Chen first set foot in the derelict three-storey car park that he had been tasked with repurposing in Palermo – a hip yet historic neighbourhood in Buenos Aires – he was struck by the building’s spacious dimensions and vantage point. “I told the developer, ‘If we do it right this building will be attractive to anyone,’” says Chen, who is the founder of the New York-based architecture studio ODA. “People would love working here, people would love coming for leisure.” Developer BSD Investments was granted a lease by the city of Buenos Aires to revitalise the abandoned parking lot – and ODA has delivered on Chen’s vision.
What stands there now is OLA Palermo, a mixed-use building of concrete curves, combining office space with retail and a landscaped rooftop terrace offering views of the adjacent hippodrome racetrack and El Rosedal Park. An open-air promenade links the green terrace to this green space, completing a loop within the park and reconnecting the former car park with the neighbourhood. Significantly, ODA kept 80 per cent of the old concrete shell, preserving features such as the exposed waffle slab ceilings while softening the original structure’s harsh angles with sloping ramps, organic forms and a mushroom-shaped extension that recalls the water tank that once stood in its place. “Repurposing existing buildings to do something exciting and give them new life, new energy and new meaning, without doing major work to them, that’s the most sustainable thing you can do,” says Chen.
In the same spirit, all the building materials were sourced in Argentina. With its design-forward blend of public and private, old and new, OLA Palermo offers a blueprint for the future of urban infrastructure – and is a fine example of public-private partnerships. Everyone comes out a winner. Developers add value to the property. Tenants get an office environment that inspires them. And the people of Buenos Aires gain a new public space to enjoy in their city.
Revival: France
Warm welcome
The area around a city’s railway station can often feel uneasy. Commuters come and go in a hurry; unsure tourists stumble off their rail connections. But visitors leaving Bordeaux’s station are in for a pleasant surprise when they enter Paris-based architecture studio Lan’s redevelopment of Amédée Saint-Germain, the former industrial district that borders the transit hub.
“We were searching for a design that could function as an entrance to Bordeaux for people leaving the station,” says Lan co-founder Umberto Napolitano. With white stone residential blocks, leafy courtyards and spaces soon to be filled with bustling shops and offices, the district offers a modern vision of France’s southwestern city. Existing local architectural styles and industrial elements were also referenced in the new build.
But for Napolitano and his team, the real challenge was transforming a district so different from the rest of the city into a place to live and ensuring that it had a connection to the existing urban fabric. “The real question for us with Amédée Saint-Germain was creating a geography that could help inhabitants create a sense of place. One of the answers lay in crafting a hybrid space between the interior of the apartments and the exterior,” says Napolitano, referencing the perforated stone balconies that shield residents from the street, while still allowing them to look out onto Bordeaux. “People can still see into the city – it helps them feel that they are a part of it.”
lan-paris.com
Furniture: USA
Hit parade
The new MillerKnoll Archives at West Michigan Design Yard enables design buffs to drool over 300 pieces of furniture pulled from the catalogues of US firms Herman Miller and Knoll. Located at the headquarters of its namesake furniture group, it’s the first time that the brands’ wares have been permanently presented side by side. “We intend the archive to be a living resource,” says Amy Auscherman, director of archives and brand heritage at MillerKnoll. “We want it to be a place that fosters curiosity, learning and inspiration.”
The archive is organised into three areas, comprising an exhibition space, open storage and a reading room. The debut exhibition, “Manufacturing Modern”, charts the rise of modernism in the 20th century. Through the lens of Herman Miller and Knoll’s products, visitors can see how the movement prioritised functionality and comfort, as well as affordability and accessibility. On show are a selection of Florence Knoll’s office furniture, Eero Saarinen’s prototype of the Knoll Womb Chair and Gilbert Rohde designs for Herman Miller.
“By combining these archives, we can tell a multidimensional story of modern design, its evolution and its impact,” says Auscherman.
millerknoll.com
Architecture: Morocco
Learning lessons
Too often, contemporary schools are uninspiring, grey spaces. Yet studies show time and again that students who learn in aesthetically pleasing, well-designed places are much more likely to score higher in tests. A benchmark for such educational environments is the Jacques Majorelle school in the Moroccan city of Ben Guérir. Designed by Rabat-based ZArchitecture Studio, it’s a warm terracotta red structure with sunny patios, shaded play areas and an abundance of palm trees.
For ZArchitecture Studio founder Zineb Ajebbar, the key aim was to allow pupils to immediately feel comfortable in the space. “Our priority was to create a school that feels intuitive and fluid,” she says. “Take the patios – they are integral to social interactions, serving as natural gathering points and reinforcing the idea that learning happens beyond the classroom.”
The way the school connects with the surrounding neighbourhood was also a priority for Ajebbar and her team. “During the design process, it was important for us to create a building that remains deeply rooted in the local identity,” she says. “It draws inspiration from Moroccan vernacular architecture, which is characterised by simple forms and openings. We tried to combine both tradition and modernity.” With its tranquil, design-forward surroundings, the Jacques Majorelle School’s classrooms could well be nurturing the next generation of creative talent.
zarchitecturestudio.com
Design: Italy
Q&A
Carlo Ratti
Curator of the Venice Biennale
As curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, the Italian-born creative has set the edition’s theme: Intelligens: Natural, Artificial and Collective. Here, he explains why disparate disciplines need to pull together to deliver better architecture.
Why is knowledge sharing across disciplines essential to architecture?
Architecture starts when the climate is against us. Architecture is about survival. Today the climate and the natural environment are changing and transforming, and architecture must become a primary mechanism for adaptation. We have seen floods in Bangladesh and Valencia and fires in Los Angeles. The question is how do we respond to these disasters. And while there is not one single response, we do need to build in a more holistic way.
How can we deliver these holistic responses?
The built environment is about many disciplines combining: teams comprised of architects, designers and urbanists, but also scientists and those working in agriculture, fashion, the arts and sociology are well placed to tackle major challenges. It is the old dream of the great biologist EO Wilson from his book Consilience. It is about the unity of knowledge because a different type of intelligence is needed. It’s our only hope.
