Tornado

Entry for an opera competition in Taipei. A tornado shaped skyscraper that works both as an opera and a windmill.  A powerful energy generating machine on the outside with an inside that transcends the visitors from the bustling city to a serene world of the performing arts.

One of the positive aspects of raising the building is that it creates a generous public space around it. The square slopes gently towards the entrance, surrounded by pearls, the visitors descends fading into the building like entering an ocean.

A great spiral of pearls is the main focal point of the entrance hall, you can either take the elevator through it or the ramp around it, by foot or with the VIP Train of pearls, taking you all the way into the Grand Theater.

The Grand theater is embedded in pearls, creating a elegant and modern experience for the audience. The semi-transparent pearls are lit from behind and dim the light, creating a glowing sensation. Depending on the performance, the ambiance can be set into different modes. A chandelier of pearls in the middle of the theater drops seamlessly from the roof like a jewel, radiating an ambient light. The VIP Train is now converted into comfortable seats.

Reaching the roof terrace, the pearls subsides into clouds. Walking around among the clouds one can experience panorama views of Taipei.

The building performs on its own for the city, generating culture, urban life and pure sustainable energy for its vicinity. This is all strongly manifested from the visual effect of its rotating facade.

The façade is covered with curved blades are attached on segments that rotate with the wind, generating energy to the building and to the city. The pearls are non-toxic and non-flamable acrylic balls with a tint of reflection.

Pearls in different sizes is combined into various landscapes inside the building to enhance the theatre experience.

This competition was a collaboration with Markus Wagner 

Guest House Gräskö

Anders Berensson Architects has redesigned and  rebuilt a scrubby storage into a guesthouse in the Stockholm archipelago. The house can accommodate four to eight guests depending on comfort.

Due to a tight budget new inventions had to be made as well as second hand purchases from Blocket, a Swedish second hand site. 

Most windows used in the rebuilding was found in the house. For major openings new windows has been made out of Plexiglas and designed to look like openings with out window frames. 

Furniture has been designed to accommodate four people in a standard mode. At bigger celebrations the furniture can fold out to fit eight people. 

The inner roof of the shed has been remove and replace with a pitched roof allowing a loft in the guest house. In the main room the exposed beams serves as a rig for lighting as well as a storage space. A wooden beam carry the new loft as well as serving as a room divider in the hallway, a door stoop, a cloth hanger and support for the ladder to the loft.

View of Loft

View of Plexiglas window in the hall way with a shelf mounted on the window making it look like it is hoovering 

Beam in the hallway lifting the loft, holding a draper and serves as a clothes hanger 

View of Plexiglas window in the hall way from the outside

View of Plexiglas veranda door.

View of veranda in the evening sun

View of veranda in the evening sun

Drawings

The Merchants of Venice

A prize winning competition entry in the 2G-Competition for the Venice Lagoon with over 560 proposals.
Assertion from the jury report with Anne Lacaton as the jury president describe the project quite well: "The forcefulness with which the proposal re-posits the rules of the competition in terms of a critical pragmatism of those rules, one that is aware of the flows of capital."

To read the whole proposal: Click the images below and read the project as a comic:

Capilla para el tio

After a Llama sacrificial get-together in the highest located town on earth, we were approached by some miners that soon learned that we were skilled architects.
Knowing about their dreadful conditions inside the mountain that is called “The Mountain that eats men”, we offered them to do a pro-bono project. We thought that maybe they wanted some light or maybe some nice upgrade on their old mine wagons.
But the only thing that they wanted was to please Tio, a devil that is the owner of the mountain, were over 8 million people has died over the years. The conditions inside of the mine are so harsh that the only reasonable thing to believe in is this guy.

So we decided to make a shrine were they could give Tio gifts.

The shrine with gifts

Happy miners in their new chapel

We explored the mine and found a promising spot a couple of hundred meters inside, a place which where warm and ample enough to allow a comfortable gathering of the miners. Our dynamite expert refined our site so that we got a more eloquent altar and walls.
After a couple of days the design was ready, a cavernous niche in red paint, an altar in silver and a path of silver stone slabs leading up to it.
The ground was covered with okra paint, enhancing the redness of the place. A red wooden bench was put on the lowest level.
As a finish we covered the shrine in glitter so when the head-lamps from the miners wander around it will reflect a magical shine.

The village of Potosi

Plan

Section

Plan of the mine