SHENZHEN – XIXIANG URBAN RENEWAL

SHENZHEN – XIXIANG URBAN RENEWAL

International competition

Program: Masterplan for the requalification and modernization of the Xixiang district

Total floor area: 8.4 kmq

Budget: N/A

Client: Bao’an local Government

Location: Shenzhen, Xixiang district, China

Design: 2016

The approach to the urban intervention was to bring out the specificities of the place and to design a masterplan starting from them. Especially the preservation of the meaningful historical parts and of the urban village structure doesn’t look back to the past, but try to give new lymph for the economical sustainability of these urban texture which are disappearing and seem cannot find their meaning inside the Chinese metropolis economy.

An important step is the redevelopment of the waterfront and the connection with the villages of Gushu that now is denied by the presence of the infrastructure. This link give new possibilities to the villages and, in this way, supports their urban and social requalification. Also the green network wants to accentuate the presence of the green elements that already exists, considering that they are very rare in Chinese cities.

The urban mosaic is clarified where it is possible and transformed where it isn’t. This transformation is led from the needs that in Xixiang are still missing.

The union of all this different parts and urban textures is made through the study of a network of public spaces which improve the quality of life and joins all the area in a unitary vision for Xixiang.

介绍

设计主要目的是先从具有本地独特性的小地方设计出发,从而发展到总体规划。在大城市中,历史遗留下的城市中的村落空间,给予新经济可持续性发展。

重新设计发展滨海区与固戍的连接,不但可以对城市里的村落在有新的发展,而且加入再多城市中缺少的景观绿色网络。清楚地确定在西乡可改造的城市空间。不同地区和城市纹理可网络公共空间的研究,提高生活质量和统一西乡不同区域。

SHENZHEN – YANTIAN DIFFUSED HOTEL

International Competition
FIRST PRIZE
Program: Urban re-qualification of the Dameisha urban village, through the introduction of a “diffused hotel”
Total floor area: N/A
Budget: N/A
Client: Yantian local Government
Location: Shenzhen, Yantian district, China
Design: 2016, on going

Within Shenzhen, Yantian plays a specific role, due to its special natural qualities, tourism attractions and proximity to Hong Kong. By looking at the geography of Shenzhen and its landscape conformation, it is evident that Yantian plays an important role in the preservation of natural values, important for the whole metropolitan area. In fact, the presence of the highest mountain within the municipal boundary, as well as the most valuable bathing beach of the city, make this location a top destination for the tourism industry of Shenzhen.

The district hosts some of the oldest urban villages in Shenzhen, base and origin of this city, thus integral part of the cultural and historical evolution of the region. When entering the village from south, Dameisha presents a central area with low density and buildings ranging between one and two floors. The east and west areas present higher density, similar to the dysfunctional urban villages that we find in other parts of the city. The central area, besides presenting lower buildings, is characterized by an irregular pattern of public spaces, more or less defined but definitely more generous than the common narrow alleys. At the moments this sequence of spaces is very disorganized and constantly occupied by parking lots that make the whole area useless for public use. The centre is as well signed by several commercial activities, street food, convenience stores and small entertainment places.

The most interesting feature of this village though is its incredible proximity to the beach, the best bathing place in Shenzhen, as well as being surrounded by almost 200 hotels only in Daimesha district. By analyzing the local tourism offer we noticed how homogeneous it is at the moment, offering very extensive traditional hotel developments with no typology variations. The natural qualities of the area as well as the cultural attractions in the whole Yantian make possible to extend its tourism targets, including younger as well as cultural oriented groups that are interested in the authentic experiences of the place.

Backpackers, tourists well travelled and flexible to adapt to the local conditions, not interested in the global luxury experience of a chain hotel, would be perfect visitors for Dameisha. Its proximity to Hong Kong, as well as its good connection to the beach and the city centre of Shenzhen, could transform this area in the tourism heart of Shenzhen. For this reason our plan proposes to establish in this village a first example of Diffused Hotel, a prototype we believe will be easy to implement by the cooperation of different housing owners. It will be as well the spin off for several activities and cultural events that will transform the area in a new and different city centre.

In our vision Dameisha becomes the centre for many events and business activities: the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, an Art festival, a fashion event, an Urban Agriculture expo and congress, street food events and many more.

The phasing of the development starts from the free initiative of few owners who would start with a Air B&B formula, promoting via web their rooms and attracting the first tourists interested in the local experience. The second phase, upon success of the first, would include a central reception hall, an associated restaurant and bakery to offer breakfast and meals, as well as more associated rooms. Further phases would extend the rooms stock, as well as the range of services offered by the hotel, such as gym, spa, all rigorously scattered in the village. However the most important effect of the DH in the long term is the renovated sense of community and the spread of common awareness and the collective interest in preserving the décor and the hygiene of the public space, condition for the stable operation of the hotel.

The DH proved as well to become such an important instrument for a positive gentrification, generating as well private housing re-qualification, improving the general performance and look of the villages involved. This could enhance a systemic improvement of the village and its easier integration in the city fabric. This model might help to free the urban villages of Shenzhen from a sad chronic thread of demolition and finally unveil economic opportunities that could save the historical and social heritage of the villages, real soul of Shenzhen city.

SIRACUSA – LIGHTHOUSE SEA HOTEL

Competition proposal.
Program: Boutique Hotel, spa- wellness center, concierge, restaurant, conference room, event space.
Total floor area: 3000 sqm.
Budget: n/a.
Client: YAC.
Location: Siracusa, Italy.
Design: 2016

 

The competition asks to reflect on sustainable solutions to reintegrate the ‘Murro di Porco’ lighthouse and the surrounding existing structures with a new tourism complex, capable to offer to the Siracusa territory a new facility, suitable for its visitors’ trends.This lighthouse, as most of the others, lies in a territorial context of such high environmental value that it is not allowed to transform existing structures and landscape, reducing any possible intervention to make them functional. The new structure is shaped as a frame around the existing ruins. The intention is to limit the construction site to a ring that surrounds the lighthouse, defining a central portion of the landscape, new heart of the tourist complex. The landscape is left untouched, as natural and wild as it is. Structure and material techniques are very much connected to the local masonry tradition. The whole structure, a single floor high, is based on the most traditional local techniques; coated with plaster, the new building echoes the color palettes of local villages, with light nuances of natural colors. This reflections are the bases of our proposal. We focus on the preservation of the local experience of the site and its nature.The new hotel reduces to a minimum all logistic aspects, improving its overall sustainability and energy performance. This happens thanks to the unified roof that, free from public access, can seamlessly host photo-voltaic and solar heating, as well as rainwater storage system for grey water usage. Internal natural ventilation is provided through the building typology itself that offers cross ventilation to each internal function, both private and public.

BAEXEM – HOUSE K

Extension of detached house
Client: private
Design: 2014
Realization: 2015
Location: Baexem, The Netherlands.
In collaboration with Paul Kierkels
Photography: Bass Gijselhart-Base Photography

In order to be able to continue living in the house when becoming older, the clients’ brief asked for the addition of a sleeping quarter on the ground floor. To maintain an optimal visual relation with back garden, the extension is positioned on the side of the house, using the possibilities of the municipal zoning plan to its limits. The extension is connected with the garage by means of a canopy, covering the new terrace. Between the covered space and the existing house, an intimate patio is created, to let the sunlight flow into the living spaces unobstructed, while contributing to create different green atmospheres in the garden. Plenty of sunlight is added to the original living cluster by adding a generous skylight on the junction between new and old volumes. The materials used in the extension create a discrete dialog with the existing, while declaring with details and geometry their contemporary nature.

SHENZHEN – UABB BIENNALE 2015

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URBAN AGRICULTURE PROJECTS IN CHINA

Commissioned project.
REALISED
Program: Exhibition
Total site area: NA
Location: Shenzhen, China
Year: 2015

One of the main worries of the Chinese megacities is the insufficient resources to feed the growing migrants’ population. Local measurements range from protecting basic cultivated land to encouraging higher productive local agriculture projects, not only to ensure enough local produce but also to simplify the circulation process and shorten the transportation and supply distance, thus reducing pollution.
As opposite to the big cities’ problems of shortage of resources for the growing population, the rural areas, where the migrants come from, encounter the opposite problems of shortage of work power for farming works. This generates abandoned farmlands and a series of connected social issues, such as unhealthy mental condition of left-behind children. On the other hand, their parents, facing soaring house price and high-level education required in the city, suffer as well the risk of unemployment in their new life. In some cases they become so-called “instability factors” in urban society.

NAUTA is investigating the potential of Chinese cities to base the design of the urban landscape on agriculture intensification. We believe that, either by completing urban voids or planning new extensive areas, urban design can offer both, beautiful social areas as well as an additional food bank for the growing Chinese population.
By doing so, NAUTA started to test these principles with a rich group of consultants, in order to test the possibility to reuse lost areas within Beijing, introducing new forms of management, such as land leasing, as well as shortening the food distribution chain and reduce pollution from transportation.

Parallel to this, NAUTA’s Bao’an project in Shenzhen investigates the possibility of using agriculture as a tool for the holistic design of the coast facing the Pearl River delta, capable to combine simultaneously social uses and productive landscape.
From local urban gardens to innovative vertical farming, hydroponic, aquaponic technologies, our studies investigate the potential of transforming the metropolitan landscape into a social productive reserve.

城市农业银行

委托项目
项目进度: 研究完结
节目:展览
地点: 中国深圳
设计时间: 2015

粮食不足应对持续成长的大量外来人口已成为中国大城市的隐忧之一.当地的方法从保护最基本的耕地到鼓励大量的高产出的当地农业,不仅是为了确保产地的产量同时也能简化物流的程序和运输的距离进而达到降低污染.
相较于因为人口增加而导致资源短缺的大城市,相反地郊区正面临著农业上人力缺失的问题. 这会产生废弃的农田和一系列连接的社会问题,如留守儿童的不健康的心理状态.另一方面,他们的父母,不仅面临著飞涨的房价和高等教育的需求同时还有失业危机. 在一些情况下,它们成为在城市社会所谓的“不稳定性的因素”.

NAUTA致力于发现中国的城市在城市景观上和集约农业的潜力. 我们相信不论是通过完善在城市中的空隙或者计画新的扩张区域,城市设计能同时提供既美观又符合中国城市人口成长的的食物银行.
通过这样做,NAUTA和其他顾问团队开始测试这一系列的原则去探索如通故过引入新的管理方式去减少在北京市失去可用地的可能性.例如,土地出租,以及缩短食品配送链从运输减少污染。

与此相对应,NAUTA在深圳宝安的项目中,调查农业在城市使用的可能星作为在珠三角完整设计工具同时结合了社会使用以及可生产景观的双重性功能.
从当地的城市花园到新创的垂直农业,水培和汔培技术以及我们的研究.我们彷佛能预见大都会景的城市观转变成社会产能转变得潜力.

SHENZHEN – PINGDI LOW CARBON CITY

深圳垂直低碳城市村落

International urban design competition
Status: Awarded
Program: Strategy for a sustainable self supporting urban neighborhood
Total area: 11037,76 sqm
Location: Shenzhen Pingdi, China
Year: 2015

Shenzhen is aiming at becoming a model of sustainable future city. Nevertheless the problems that it has to face are those of most of the fast growing Chinese cities that are attracting new masses of migrants, seduced by the promises for a better urban life after an unhappy rural past.
For this reason, Shenzhen is working on developing new districts through new forms of planning that could enhance low carbon and sustainable principles for a prosperous future and help the city to grow in a healthy way.

When looking at the main problems of unsustainable development in Shenzhen (as in most of the fast growing cities), we can list car based transportation, lack of multifunctionality, of natural landscape and arable land, social seclusion, too centralized business, lack of dynamism in its urban geography and, most of all, poor public space and human scale.
All these issues need a fast upgrade into new forms of living.
But when summarizing one of the striking effects of this fast urbanization, one special element can become iconic: high density.
Density brings social seclusion, lack of dynamic interaction, distance from the public space. It erases spontaneity and all forms of customization and identity, neutralizing any sense of belonging.
On the other hand, the skyscraper is a friend of sustainable urbanization as a tool to fight the historical cancer of sprawl in modern cities, where low density has proved to be the biggest origin of unsustainable urbanization. A horizontal city extends distances, imposes long transportation (increasing pollution), separates people and their chance to interact and limits the growth of local economy . It brings as well social seclusion and lack of mixture.

On this base then, if high density and sprawl represent opposites of the same failure, what is the solution to the problem of planning the future livable town?
The answer, somehow banal and generic, is ‘mixture’.
Mixture of functions, building types, infrastructure modes, density and green, social mixture, are the essence for a vibrant and entrepreneurial city that looks to grow prosperous.

But sometimes mixture is difficult to achieve. This is the case of many Chinese cities. It is the case, for instance, of Shenzhen, which needs to grow constantly but that needs as well to manage its land use in a wise way.
How can we intensify a city with dense new developments, avoiding the negative effects of extensive high rise life? How can we extend the city vertically but guarantee that the same lifestyle and sociality of old villages can be preserved?
That social participation, its dynamics, its networking, are the keys for Chinese growth in history; they are the ruts of its civilization, economy, family patterns and they need to be preserved in a sustainable future city.
This means that, when planning a future low carbon city, we need to think not only about technological applications to reduce the impact of construction, but think as well of new inclusive forms of living that can perpetrate social principles, pivotal for the local growth.

For this reason our proposal envisages the possibility to base this new planning strategy on mixing the scale of planning with the architectural type of the skyscraper.
The traditional urban plot becomes a piece of land that can be vertically multiplied, preserving the qualities of the district and its socio-economical dynamics, intensifying the use of land and produce a compact city.

We imagine a scheme in which entire city blocks correspond to a high rise floor, a vertical overlap of districts, a superimposition of landscapes, a vertical city. Here each floor offers the communal dynamics of a traditional village.
Not least the possibility to preserve the spontaneity and the flexibility of a village.
A floor can be developed by single investors, residents’ cooperatives, international investors. All parties can, by following the urban regulations for implementation, develop one or part of a vertical village.
The structure of the complex is based on very simple principles, inherited from the modern period: horizontal floors and vertical columns. In this scale context, these elements embed in themselves the structural as well as the technological and logistic apparatus that is necessary to support a portion of the city. These plateaus become the base for local flexible developments based on modular constructions, locally assembled, transported on site. A self buildable new town where modules can be prefabricated and transported on site, based on the most natural technologies and material applications from the area. Wood, bamboo, row hearth (or clay?) are building materials traditional of the Guangdong region.
The new vertical city could as well be built preserving local techniques, without loosing its image of modern metropolis but rather maximizing the environmental properties of local techniques, such as natural ventilation, energy collection and wall natural transpiration. All elements that, summed up on the urban scale of the village, will tremendously reduce the energy consumption of the district.

The vertical landscapes can as well supply all the necessary vital services and activities to help the self sustainable community, such as commercial activities, business, housing, social services, public spaces and, very important, productive agricultural landscape.
Beside the evident social benefits, this strategy has the most immediate effect of cutting on transportation. A mixed vertical city does not necessarily ask for long distance transportation.

Imagine how awesome it would be to get up in your house, have breakfast, bring your kids to the crèche right outside of the door and take an elevator to go to work to the lower floor village. Instead, you take the elevator to go down, walk to the subway and travel one hour to reach your work!

Compactness is the answer for sustainability. It sums up the solution to every problem, from technical to social and economical and it offers a solution for the productivity and the quality of life of the future city dwellers.

国际城市设计竞赛
状态:入围获奖
项目名称:城市社区中的自我可持续性策略
总面积:11037.76平方米
地点:深圳坪地区,中国
年份:2015年

深圳注定要成为未来可持续城市的模版。尽管它所面临的问题与中国其他许多成长中的城市一样,它们吸引大量新的外来者棗他们都有着曾经不甚幸福的农村过往,为大城市生活所吸引,希望过得更好。
因为这个原因,深圳正在致力于通过新形态的规划发展新的街区,在低碳和可持续原则的前提下,成就一个更好的未来,让这座城市以一种更健康的方式成长

当探讨深圳不可持续发展的主要问题时(就如在其他快速成长的城市情况一样),我们可以举出:以机动车为主的城市交通、多功能性的缺乏、自然景观和耕地的缺失、社会隔绝、商业活动过于集中、城市地理缺少灵活性,以及,最重要的,匮乏的公共区域和人类尺度. 所有这些问题都需要快速升级成为新的居住生活形态。但是当我们总结快速城市化的惊人效果之一时,其中的一个特殊元素竟如此讽刺:高密度。
高密度带来的是社会隔绝、动性互动的缺乏、与公共空间的疏远。它自发地消除了所有形态的个性化和认同感,中和所有形式的归属感。另一方面,摩天大楼被认为是可持续城市化的友好伙伴,它作为一个在现代性城市里抗击历史性无序扩展症结的工具,证明了低密度是不可持续性城市化的源头。一个向水平方向扩展的城市,交通距离设置变长(环境污染加重)、人们和他们进行互动的机会变得分散并且当地经济增长受到限制。随之也会带来社会隔绝和缺乏。

以此为基础,如果高密度和无序扩展代表了相反的发展方向,但都证明了相同的失败,什么才是未来宜居性城镇规划的解决方案呢?
它的答案,有些过于平庸和概括,就是“混合”。
功能的混合、建筑类型的混合、基础设施模式的混合、密度和绿化的混合、社会的混合,这些才是让一个富有朝气的创意型城市走向繁荣的本质。

但是有些时候,混合很难实现。许多中国的城市都处于这样的情况。举例来说,深圳,需要持续的成长,同时也需要智慧地管理它的土地。 我们如何加紧一个城市的密集新型发展,同时避免大规模高层建筑的生活带来的负面影响?我们如何在竖向发展城市同时,保证与曾经传统乡村相同的生活方式和社会性得以保存? 社会参与度、它的灵动活性、它的网络,是中国过去得以成长的关键要素;他们是中国文化、经济、家庭图腾的根基,他们需要在未来的可持续性城市中得到保存. 这意味着,在规划未来低碳城市的时候,我们不仅仅需要考虑以科技的应用降低开发的影响,同时也需要思索一种新型的包容的生活形态,以它延续我们的社会原则,这也是当地成长的关键。

出于这个原因,我们的方案展望立足于这个新的规划策略的可能性,此策略将摩天大楼建筑类型的规划尺度进行混合。传统的城市地块变为可以竖向倍增的一个地块,在维护地区质量和其社会经济 动态的同时,加强土地的使用,产出一座更为紧实的城市。 在我们想象的方案里,整个城市区块宛如一层高段楼层、一个竖向重叠的区块、景观的叠加、一座竖向的城市。在这里每一层都具有传统村庄所具备的公共动态性. 同时也不排除保留村庄的自发性和灵活性的可能性。 每一单层可以对应单个的开发者、居民合作社或国际开发商。各方都可以,在遵循城市实施条例的前提下,对这样一座竖向“村落”进行一层或一部分的开发。 复合体的结构基于一个十分简单的原则,从现代时期继承而来:水平楼层和垂直柱列。在此规模前提下,这两个要素自动嵌入结构之中,此外,还有支持一座城市必要的科技和后勤设备。这些“高原”成为当地大规模建设但灵活发展的基石。当地组装,运送现场。一座可“自我建设”的新城市,在这里模块可以订制并运输到现场,立足于本地最自然的技术和材料应用。木头、竹子、排炉(或粘土?)是广东地区的传统建筑材料。 新的垂直城市也可以通过保留当地技术来建造,在不失其大都市形象的情况下,最大限度地发挥当地环境特征,例如:自然的通风、能量采集和墙壁的自然蒸腾。所有这些元素,总结起来成为城市尺度的乡村,能够极大地降低区块的能源消耗。 垂直景观同样能满足所有必要的生活服务和活动,以帮助自主可持续性社区,比如:商业活动、商务、家居、社会服务、公共区域和,十分重要的一点,生产性农业景观。除了显而易见的社会效益之外,此策略能够最有效直接地减少交通。一个垂直的混合型城市不需要远距离的交通。

想象一下,在家中起床,吃早饭,把孩子送去就在家门口的幼儿园,接着搭个电梯,下楼去低层的办公室上班。现在呢,你同样得搭个电梯,但要步行到地铁站,花1小时才能到办公室!

紧实度是可持续性的答案。它提供所有问题的解决方案,从技术性到社会性或者经济性,并且它亦为生产力及其未来城市居民生活质量提供了解决方案。

ROTTERDAM-MULLERPIER

Status: Feasibility study

Program: Study for four row single family housing types

Total floor area: average 350 sqm

Budget: confidential

Client: confidential

Location: Rotterdam

Design: 2014

 

TYPE 1

The idea of the house with the central linear service box begins with the aim of creating a clear separation between the circulation and the living space. This partition is readable on the frontside and the backside, in fact the facade is closed in correspondence to the service box and widely opened in front of the living spaces. Important points of the project are the light and the ventilation system which are improved by the side void that goes through the building.The access to the complex from the street is soften by the garden in front of the house that can be enjoyed in the summertime.The entrance to the house is on the first floor, leaving the ground floor totally independent and assuming a multifunctional aspect that could fit to the needs of each family.This solution is characterized by a central space in which the vertical circulation is next to the linear block for bathrooms, toilets, closets and relax space. Around this central box the house shows a large variety of space as kitchen, dining room, living room, playroom, storage and the top floors for the bedrooms. Thanks to the central box the rooms can benefit from a total indipendence and privacy. On the last floor the masterbedroom offers a spacious and bright environment due to the cointinuity and trasparency of the material. From here it is possible to acces to the external stairs that lead to the roof terrace.

TYPE 2

The house with the front service box is the most extreme experimentation between the four houses because of the unusual disposition of the spaces, but at the same time presents some advantages. In this case the service box is on the frontside of the house which has permitted to develop a glass-front facade without compromising   the privacy inside the building. From the exterior can be perceived only the internal circulation, which is also separated from the living space and allows to every floor to be totally independent. A strong point of this solution is the backward facade creating four terraces, two accesible from the backside and two from the frontside and one on the top floor leads to the roof terrace. The interior disposition is clear with an independent ground floor and the entrance on the first floor gives, in order, access to the dining room, kitchen, living room, bedrooms and master bedroom. The master bedroom has a special private space dedicated to a Spa with a turkish bath that characterized the particular shape of the roof terrace. The dome of the roof is reminded also in the garden in front of the house and with these downs creates a variety of the entrances of the complex. This typology presents wide windows on both facades ensuring lighted and ventilated spaces. In addition the solution reveals strong flexibility, in fact the disposition could be totally inverted with the box on the back according to the request.

TYPE 3

The typology of the central service box is a unique exemplar for the internal disposition. In this project the simple external facade is in opposition to the particular interior due to the central service box that creates a very compact vertical connection and splits the usual five floors in ten floors. The concentration of the service box permits to obtain well-illuminated big spaces by the wide windows on the facades with great views on both sides. In this way each floor has his own privacy and allows to create different disposition of the spaces. This model presents the entrance on the first floor and then the spaces are articulated in kitchen, dining room, office, living room, bedrooms, master bedroom, Spa and terrace.  On the groundfloor there is a closed multifunctional space. In this option the most important value is the flexibility, in fact not only it is possible to change the function of the single space, but also to move the functions in other floors or to separate the floors creating a totally independent part.

TYPE 4

The typology of the side linear service box separates the circulation space from the living space, this is an option that for many reasons stands out from the others. The house presents a double-facade system on both sides that creates optimal conditions of illumination and ventilation. There is a system of voids with different scale that can improve the light and the ventilation in the interior and they create a visual connection of the spaces giving the sensation of being in a unique open space.  The voids also allow to see through the spaces that are facing them on different floors; they are designed as small internal gardens, one horizontal facing the master bedroom and the other, the smaller one is vertical. With the systems of double-facade and voids all the spaces are overlooking the exterior and ventilated-green space. The model is designed with an independent space on the ground floor with a separate entrance to the house and then on the upper floors where there are the kitchen, living room, office, two bedrooms and masterbedroom with spa. In this option there is the possibility to change or move functions in the same floor, but it’s less flessible regarding to have more functions as office or elevate number of bedrooms or independent parts because of the lack of a floor. This lack is due to the desire of creating a very special open space on the last floor with a semi-covered terrace that can be used the entire year providing a space to relax and enjoy the view of the waterfront on the frontside and the city centre on the backside.

JERUSALEM EAST – SOCIAL HOUSING

Commissioned consultancy
Status: on going
Master plan for the public space and housing solutions for the Palestinian communities in east Jerusalem.
Program: 7 Housing typologies and public space masterplan.
Total site area: NA
Location: Al Aquabeh, Ashkareyeh, Wadi Qaddum (Jerusalem East)
Year: 2014
Client: UN Habitat program

The Goal of this consultancy is to define basic actions for a sustainable implementation of housing projects for the Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, where a too spontaneous and uncontrolled densification has so far complicated an organic urbanization process.
Based on the observation of the current issues at stake, it emerges how the fragmentation of the property and the need to negotiate with every land owner, have so far stopped the development process, slowing the definition of holistic actions, fundamental when master planning.
On the other hand, it is as well important to acknowledge the social and political importance of local negotiations and the participation of the communities, in order to make the whole process smooth.
So how can we fill this gap between planning and design, which might imply leading the urban design process and eventually add more discussions to the table?
The method here proposed tries to put aside, even if only temporarily, specific issues related to property, trying to rethink project areas from the public space perspective.
After this exercise it is then necessary to go back to the applied scenarios to test the feasibility of those actions according to the property issue. Having a clear argument might help the negotiation process with concrete data that could justify the design actions for the general benefit of the community.
We propose three different typologies of neighbourhood.

PALMA – THERMAL BATH

International architecture competition
Palma, Thermal bath complex
Total floor area: 5000 sqm
Budget: 5900000 €
Location: La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Design: 2015

The project is planned in a particularly delicate landscape, south of La Palma island, in the Canary Islands archipelago.
The site, adjacent a stunning beach, imposes to think about a seamless and discrete intervention that does not compromise the view from the coast way.
The proposal envisages a volume that follows the natural contour lines of the volcanic landscape. This volume presents a continuous façade with a generous view to the sea, while its face towards the landscape operates an accurate carving of the ground in order to hide inside the land the most intimate functions. The functional layout is simple and linear. Wet and dry areas are accurately separated to facilitate maintenance and logistics, while optimizing costs and construction.
The project offers a sense of luxury and comfort in its interiors, while preserving a minimal impact on the delicate landscape.

西班牙拉帕尔马岛温泉度假村策略提案
项目数据:
地点:拉帕尔马岛,西班牙
设计时间: 2015
面积: 5000 平方米 (包含停车场)
内容:度假酒店复合体
状态: 进行中

该项目计划在西班牙加那利群岛最风光明媚的南拉帕尔马岛,设计一个特别精致的温泉度假村。
度假村位于岛上最迷人的海滩,让旅人在度假村里坐拥海岸美景,而度假村的建筑却不打扰其他游客观海的视觉景观。
建筑布局根据当地火山景观和自然地势做最有效的利用。建筑设计盖念以一个简约的连续水平立面,让广阔的海景尽收眼帘,然而建筑量体却隐密的隐藏在火山脚下,成为自然景至中和谐的一部分。
度假村以简约的直线布局,并考虑优化管理成本和使用方便,将温泉泳池按摩服务区和餐饮放松服务区分开的内部乾湿分离设计。
该项目提供豪华舒适的室内装饰,同时将对秀丽的景致环境影响降到最小。

ROMA – FLAMINIO

ROMA – FLAMINIO

Competition project
Program: Urban Design competition for the New Science City of Rome
Total floor area:  sqm.
Location: Roma, Italy.
Design: 2015.

Team: Maxwan Architects and Planners, Nauta architecture & research

Aim of the project is to transform the current introvert configuration of the area using its potential as new urban connector and capable to participate in the structure of the Flaminio district. Focus of the intervention is the addition of new public spaces and a vibrant new residential fabric.
Pivot aspect of project is the sustainability. The urban voids are in fact structured to facilitate the optimum passage of the winds and to favor the natural cooling of the neighborhood, using as well permeable soil both in public spaces and on the cover of the new buildings. This action promotes the absorption and reuse of rainwater.
Green roofs offer a natural insulation for buildings. Our proposal will incorporate the use of modern renewable energy. The new housing units will be optimized in orientation, favoring double or triple facing for maximum natural ventilation.
Not least, we consider the mix of typologies essential to ensure a commercial success for the masterplan, which can withstand the fluctuations of the market or the changes of social groups. The result offers a dynamic tissue of several residential buildings, commerce and hospitality, integrated with the new Science Centre. A system of squares and green spaces reconfigures the district as a new vibrant heart of Flaminio district, following the rich tradition of Italian urbanism in which squares and public spaces articulate a rich and dynamic urban structure.