Gothic architecture

Connecting Campus, River and City The former Frick Chemistry Laboratories at 20 Washington Road has been fully renovated and with strategic new additions is the new home for key academic and administrative units at Princeton University. The Julis Romo Rabinowitz (JRR) Building houses Princeton’s Economics department and related research centers, and the University’s international initiatives are newly sited in the Louis A. Simpson International Building. This project realizes the University’s Master Plan vision to create a hub for social sciences, and transform the large, monolithic building into a porous, transparent and welcoming learning and research environment.    The building is located in the north-east... More

Notre Dame Cathedral Design ProposalThe design of the roof and spire is inspired by Catholic symbology and gothic architecture, synthesized and articulated by contemporary tectonics and technological details of assembly. The idea is to respect the function of the cathedral and preserve its symbolic art and architecture in the current design. In this respect Norte Dame is a historical and cultural structure that also houses Christian relics; fragments of the crown of thorns, nails of the crucifixion, and other instrumental relics as part of tradition, heritage, and Catholic history. This is significant in the representation of tectonic language and aggregation of structural arches. The design proposes a glass roof structure that is articulat... More

First United Methodist Church is a growing congregation located in the historic downtown district of McKinney, Texas. The student ministry had out grown its current space on the 2nd floor of the existing education building and was needing to expand when an opportunity arose to purchase a piece property adjacent to their existing campus. This 150+ year old church has been a staple in the community and is well known by its iconic Gothic architecture. The challenge became developing a modern design that seeks to capture the interest of today’s student while still connecting to the heritage of the existing campus as well as responding to the contextual issues of being located within the historic downtown district.The initial design goals were t... More

This sail sculpture, designed by architect Amandus Vanquaille, was designed for a specific military building dating 1862. The typical architecture of that time does not allow any access to the inner courtyard (called the ‘reduit’ in military terms). The widest entrance was 98cm. At the outside there are moats, ramparts, ditches and fortifications, all built to protect the inner courtyard from intrusion. But how to build a roof over this large courtyard, if anyone can access with building materials or cranes? The answer is simple: making a flexible roof that one can carry in, like a large worm, through the inner corridors and through the narrow porches. The complete membrane roof exists of 8 parts (8 separate vaults) each small enough to be... More

Qinhuai River, one of the fascinating historical landscapes in Nanjing city, has witnessed the rise and fall of six dynasties in ancient China. In the west around 100 meters to the Confucius Temple, up the steps in the northwest, #17 Gongyuan Street was the Grand Ballroom in the period of the Republic of China. Today, the yesterday's glory has been welcoming guests to its refurbishment, a restaurant called Hong Mansion - The Charm. ‘Book as it were, as it was painting.’ For the architect, the work as the one. Jaco Pan, the principal architect of Minggu Design, got nurtured under the background of the local traditions and humanities, understanding aesthetics and philosophies of space on account of the exquisite lifestyle of men of liter... More

The award-winning redevelopment of St Pancras International has transformed it in to an iconic gateway to Europe.   The selection of the Grade 1 listed St Pancras railway station as the new terminus for Eurostar required a highly complex programme of expansion, modernisation and restoration.   To accommodate the sleek new trains, the station was doubled in length; the concourses being extended well beyond the intricate structure of the listed Barlow Shed roof. A contemporary, minimalist ‘floating’ canopy was introduced to protect the extended platforms, creating an intriguing contrast between the old and the new.   A series of light wells were punched through the platform decks to enable natural light to pen... More

he concept for the new offices of Booking.com in Genoa is inspired by the contrasting atmosphere of this important port city, in which they combine, in a fascinating mix, austere Gothic architecture, decadent, but lively alleys and mysterious atmospheres reflecting to distant worlds and cultures. All this is evident in the choice of materials, colors, graphic and decorative motifs present everywhere in the office; the striped decoration and the lozenge on the walls are a clear reference to the typical bicolor facades of Gothic architecture, as well as the nautical peaks, used here as decorative elements, refer to the seafaring character of the city. More

Located in industrial area of Shenzhen, the existing building just ended up the condition of dilapidated industrial plants and was required by the client with mess at that time. The operating team of the project wanted to develop an integrated space blending restaurant, café, musical entertainment and Tarot play. The designer proceeded with mysterious sensation outflew from the thematic concept of design, with the hope to absorb inspiration at the angle of pre-spirituality. simultaneously, looked over a large number of Gothic architecture articles to experience the power in communicating with God on the composition of the building. Then implanted these elements into the planning with the respect to classical architecture in contemporary res... More

Myron’s ancient Greek sculpture depicts a male discus thrower. The sculptor captures the tension in the still moment, that split second just before the discus is thrown where all physical and mental power is intensively accumulated. The Discobolus expresses the ancient Greek spirit of the age. Homer’s 'aiein aristevein' translated as ‘always be excellent’, is the essence of this spirit. The Greek athlete is an Olympic symbol. The Olympic Landmark is the Discobolus. The landmark attempts to incorporate in its form the essence of the Discobolus. The issues of excellency, capturing motion and tension are taken on board. Excellency: The Paris bid for the Olympics of 2012 embraces Homer’s gesture of always being excellent: Paris, the... More

Officially opened in the spring of 2011, L’Astrada is a music venue and home to the renown Marciac jazz festival which prior to its construction had no permanent quarters to stage the international artists who come to perform each year. Marciac is a hive of activity during the festival, and an ever more numerous public of jazz lovers flock from home and abroad to enjoy the top notch facilities and finely tuned spatial arrangement of the new venue. L’Astrada has received unanimous acclaim from architecture critics and historians alike. The decision to set the new concert hall within Marciac’s fortified Medieval bastide was part of a wider project for the town as a cultural pole. It triggered the redevelopment of a portion of the urban fa... More

Spiritual ground is the title of a new series of exhibitions which in the coming years will turn the Column Hall of the former Benedictine abbey into an exiting presentation venue for young international art several times a year. In this context, the eventful history, the political misuse and the heterogeneous use of the Abbey over the centuries represents a special challenge for the artistic contributions. The series starts with French sculptor Baptiste Debombourg who uses brilliantly crafted poetic object transformations to create atmospherically charged spatial arrangements that interact with this exceptional location and offer provocative socially critical statements about the consumer world. In his home country, the French artist Ba... More

WALDORF ASTORIA CHOOSES NAVELLO WINDOWS Italian windows for the most luxurious hotel in Jerusalem Opened in spring 2014, the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem was one of the largest and most prestigious sites of the Middle East. In the heart of the Israeli capital, the project of this luxurious 5-star hotel, run by the Hilton chain, has recovered the historic seat of Arabic Palace Hotel, a construction made in 1929 that merged gothic architecture in Ottoman influences. Just the restoration of the arches and arabesques of the original structure has required special attention and the best skills at an international level. For a recovery that could combine style and sustainability, the architects of Atelier Feigin, curators of the... More

Expo gate is a place where the articulation of the days left to the opening event becomes an occasion to talk about growth and evolution. The calendar of the events, the regular transformation of the space and the structures are introducing the vitality of Expo 2015. The project proposes an open plate, a free space characterized by a central square and two tollbooths –like pavilions on the side: a gate access to Expo. The structures on the outside are thought to welcome different types of communication: images, banners, flags, light graphics can transform periodically or build a temporality creating thus a different connection with time. The context as value The work aims at that axial system which goes from the Duomo through the pa... More