NOV

Pleasing pleats: Saitame, Japan by Hironaka Ogawa & Associates

A view of the prow.

Photos: Daici Ano.

I am not entirely certain what this building is such is the level of its abstract expression. Recently completed in Saitame, Japan, it was designed by Hironaka Ogawa & Associates and it includes a Christian chapel, a dining room with a speaker’s dais, a bar or café room, and a series of, what look like offices.

Like a powerful symphony developed from just a few notes, it takes the simple idea of the folded surface, or pleat, and develops it into a convincing architectural expression. Read more

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APR

Biomedical research Building in Portugal

Exterior persprctive

Images: And-Ré

More than a formal / plastic exercise, And-Ré the architects of this proposal for a biomedical research centre for the Combra University in Portugal, argue that the apparently folding forms of the façade are a creative response to intense environmental criteria and high performance functional requirements. Read more

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