Extending the building horizontally would have meant decreasing the size of the courtyard, the Schürhof. Instead the Vischer building of 1917 has been given a new roof. Consisting of irregular folds clad in blackish green ceramic tiles, the roof resonates with the medieval roofscape in which it is embedded while functioning at the same time as a clear sign of renewal in the heart of the neighborhood.
This big buried volume pushes away the earth’s surface cracking it to produce a new urban topography. Embedding and camouflage strategies (already in use by the monster when trying to hide its bigness concerning the reality surrounding it) allow the creation of a large public facility (interior and exterior) without disrupting existing urban fabric on the old city center. Visitors will, by means of this operation, take up this surface turned into a public square, and they will go moving down in between the stratums, being entertained by meeting activities, fun and sports.
M3house + Chinese practice UAO Creations collaborated to produce ‘Blox’, a prefabricated prototypical home intended to serve an affordable housing option. Presented at the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture during the exhibition ’10 million units: housing an affordable city’, the innovative unit reflects an ancient chinese idea for self-sustained settlements within the city.
Making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figures will become monuments in the landscape. Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.
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