spires - natural and made

talking about respect and designing a better outlook

Maggie's Gartnavel and Rem Koolhaas (OMA)

maggie's gartnavel exterior (dezeen)

Rem Hoolhaas starts his lecture about OMA's design approach to Maggie's Cancer caring Center in Glasgow as a humorous, yet realistic assessment of traditional architectural practices.  He jokes about architectural interventions needing to exist "without destroying the qualities of that site that attracted you in the first place" while flipping through pictures of the wooded area the center now occupies.  He was very excited about the topography of the site with its "romantic and delicate sections"  and sought to design a center within it that changed the "sights, smells and colors" people generally associate fearfully with hospital settings. 

The center is a ring of connected spaces that gently flow into one another, allowing for privacy where needed and views into the center garden.  OMA kept the vegetation and slope of the site as much as possible in order to not destroy what had attracted them in the first place and used these feature to influence the design.  In the lecture, he moves on to talk about how the evolution of the design process drew from the shapes of the surrounding architecture, the topography and the conversation the completed center could have with its occupants.

While an incredibly successful design, I am actually quite moved with the verbal presentation skills Rem Koolhaas exhibits in his lecture.  He guides you through his work carefully, setting the stage for each unveiling of strategy and implementation.  He makes you love and respect the site.  His jokes about the previous architecture of the area being a "full expression of doubt" make you feel really invested in his solution: he nestles the new design carefully into the somewhat troubled setting.  He certainly has a flair for speaking, for convincing and for shaping the argument of design.

deezeen

pescadero : artichoke soup and harley farms goat dairy

translating : taking direction from a client

When approached by a client to re-do a very outdated fireplace surround in an otherwise updated SOMA loft, he expressed that he wanted it to make a statement in the room.  He wanted it to really express his style and we looked at images of furniture he was thinking of for the space.

crate and barrel paloma sideboard

This was the sideboard he was most drawn to and we both thought: what if we could use all of the basic design of the sideboard and apply it to the fireplace instead?  The client was excited about the notion and before I had even drawn up the plans and figured out how we could build it, he started attacking the existing finishes on the fireplace surround.  Out with the old...

I asked the client what about the sideboard was grabbing him and he expressed that it was the linearity and the slightly rustic and varied nature of the wood. Keeping that in mind, I designed the fireplace using vertical grain mahogany veneer plywood backing with horizontal running solid mahogany strips face nailed to the front with a scribed soffit above to frame the space and allow for any slope in the ceiling.   Tom Oakes did an amazing job figuring out how to build it in components we could get through the front door and assemble on site.  (As a side note, people often discount the brainpower involved in getting build pieces into the space.  Sadly, it is not that rare of an experience to realize that the thing you designed doesn't fit through the front door.) 

After the panels went in, the Walker Zanger tile hearth and surround came next.  I chose a grout that had the same amount of color variation from the tile color as the wood strips had with the panels behind them.  Once completed, the overall effect is that of a cohesive variation and a monumental scale in the room.  Now he has his showpiece living room.