Paris Opera by Charles Garnier

France not only famous with The Eiffel Tower but France especially Paris full of wonderful architectural building. One of them is The Paris Opera, also known as Palais Garnier, is the most famous auditorium in the world. This auditorium has 2,200 seats capacity and designed by Charles Garnier is admired as one of the most prominent architectural masterpieces of its time. As a part of the great Parisian reconstruction, the Paris Opera was designed. This project was initiated by Emperor Napolean III of the Second Empire. Baron Haussmann was chosen directly by the emperor as the supervisor for this project and he started to prepare 12,000 square meters of land to built Paris Opera. This would be the second theater for the world renowned Parisian Opera and Ballet companies. An open competition was announced in 1861, which was won by Charles Garnier who was an unknown 32-year-old architect at the time.

Palais Garnier is of the Neo-Baroque style, a term used to describe architecture that encompasses the key characteristics of Baroque style although built after the proper time period. The monumental style can also be classified as Beaux-Arts, with its use of axial symmetry in plan, and its exterior ornamentation. One of the major urban implications of the Paris Opera is it’s location at the northern end of Avenue de l’Opera in France. It’s role as the terminal axial point suggests that as a public space, it should hold much importance in the community.

The audience sits centered around a hanging chandelier, weighing over six tons, and the large stage was built to accommodate up to 450 artists. It is opulently decorated with marble friezes, columns, and statuary, many of which are used to portray deities from Greek mythology. The Paris Opera was meant to be a social gathering space for the people, which is reflected in the interweaving corridors, stairwells, landings and alcoves which allow movement of large masses of people while also permitting socializing during intermission.

Palais Garnier became an influential architectural prototype for many theaters built around the world.

Source : Archdaily

Newport Station by Grimshaw

Grimshaw has redesigned Newport Station in Newport, Wales, England. This project is a part of a citywide regeneration master plan by Newport Unlimited. This station is quite important for transportation between England and Cardiff due to Newport is the first city reached by passengers. This project aimed to provide striking civic building that would provide a gateway opportunity not only to Newport, but to Wales herself.


This new station split Newport with its the railway tracks. As a result, each half of the city has developed its own character. Grimshaw as the architects design embraces this divide, creating two major new concourses. The North Concourse will be on the civic side of the city and focus on the needs of commuters. The South Concourse, on the commercial side, will be for connecting travelers, day trippers and tourists. Each terminal’s function is reflected in the distribution of ancillary facilities around the station.

Ticket facilities and platform access are split equally between the two terminals. All the main facilities at both terminals are housed in continuous ETFE and aluminium clad spirals. The spiral form of the station mirrors the journey taken within and helps to ease traffic flow by guiding the passenger from ground level up to the connecting bridge and back down onto the platforms. The use of an ETFE wrap over a steel structure not only creates a very bright and airy space but also, due to the lightness of the material, means the building requires a minimal support structure. This brightness of space is compounded by the inclusion of an oculus at the peak of each building, which doubles as a compression ring to secure the structure.

Salvador Dali Museum by HOK

Last week marked the grand opening for the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. This new museum building replace the old one which only has half size and built in 1982. Utilizing free-form geodesic geometry, the triangulated glass organically flows around and attaches to the rigid unfinished concrete box, a play of hard and soft, protecting Dali’s paintings and simultaneously providing natural daylight and openness to the adjacent bay. This is the first use of this type of free-form geodesic geometry in the United States. Mesmerizing visitors within the museum is the coiled concrete form that greets them at the reception desk. The poured in place raw concrete spiral staircase is fitted with light cable-stayed stainless steel guardrails. The material choices provide a subtle juxtaposition along with an obvious nod to Dali’s allure with the double helix and other spiral forms in nature.

“We constantly consider the visitor experience when we design a museum. A large number of people visiting a museum will be there for the first time. The architecture must be extremely easy to understand. It can be quite adventurous and stimulating, but the circulation pathways should be clear from the moment visitors arrive at the building, “ shared Yann Wymouth design director for HOK Florida.

 
HOK’s design concept is drawn directly from the building’s purpose. It is inspired both by Dalí’s surrealist art and by the practical need to shelter the collection from the hurricanes that threaten Florida’s west coast.
“Salvador Dalí was a monumental pioneer of twentieth-century art and this is perhaps the best collection of his work in the world,” said Weymouth. “Our challenge was to discover how to resolve the technical requirements of the museum and site in a way that expresses the dynamism of the great art movement that he led. It is important that the building speak to the surreal without being trite.”

Souece : Archdaily

Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners

Featured here on Daily Architecture are the recently unveiled designs by Foster + Partners for the Zayed National Museum.   The monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE, is located  on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will be the first museum completed for the island.
Architecturally, the aim has been to combine a highly efficient, contemporary form with elements of traditional Arabic design and hospitality to create a museum that is sustainable, welcoming and culturally of its place. Celebrating Sheikh Zayed’s legacy and love of nature, the museum is set within a landscaped garden, based on a timeline of his life.

The display spaces are housed within a man-made, landscaped mound. The galleries are placed at the bases of five solar thermal towers. The towers heat up and act as thermal chimneys to draw cooling air currents naturally through the museum. Fresh air is captured at low level and drawn through buried ground-cooling pipes and then released into the museum’s lobby. The heat at the top of the towers works to draw the air up vertically through the galleries due to the thermal stack effect. Air vents open at the top of the wing-shaped towers taking advantage of the negative pressure on the lee of the wing profile to draw the hot air out.

Here in the museum these towers are lightweight steel structures, sculpted aerodynamically to work like the feathers of a bird’s wing. The analogies with falcons and flight are deliberate and relate directly to Sheikh Zayed’s love of falconry. This theme is further celebrated by a gallery devoted to the subject as part of a wider focus on conservation. These inner spaces open up to an outdoor arena for live displays with hunting birds.

Balancing the lightweight steel structures with a more monumental interior experience, the galleries are anchored by a dramatic top-lit central lobby, which is dug into the earth to exploit its thermal properties and brings together shops, cafes, an auditorium and informal venues for performances of poetry and dance. Throughout, the treatment of light and shade draws on a tradition of discreet, carefully positioned openings, which capture and direct the region’s intense sunlight to illuminate and animate these interior spaces. Objects are displayed within niches and on stone plinths that rise seamlessly from the floor.
The museum contains a variety of performance spaces. A large auditorium, lined with Emirati textiles, provides an evocative setting for presentations and films. The lobby incorporates more informal venues for poetry readings, music and dance, where the audience can gather in a circle to enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere of traditional performances.

Saadiyat Island is located 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi and is the largest single mixed-use development in the Arabian Gulf. Arranged as seven districts, the Saadiyat Island Cultural District will also include the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as a Performing Arts Center and Maritime Museum. The Zayed National Museum is already under construction and will be the first of the museums proposed for the island.