Switches

Best Place to Live Fitzrovia – Although located in the heart of London, this unconventional district is the polar opposite of the neighbouring West End with its thriving business life. Fitzrovia is known for its lively art scene, and has always held a fascination for famous personalities, such as Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Rimbaud. Even today, poets, designers, and musicians are drawn to the district's many bars, pubs, and concert venues, and it is also widely known for its traditional handicrafts. There is certainly no better place in the whole of London to combine business with pleasure, and inspiration with relaxation. In 2016 "The Sunday Times" even bestowed Fitzrovia with the honour of being London's most liveabl... More

Restoration and renovation in 2016 The Koetshuis has now been given a suitable purpose after a period of different uses, as it now houses the West Brabant Archive. The ground floor has been given a public function as a reading room and visitor centre for the archive service. The intermediate floor was thoroughly rebuilt and has now been furnished as office space for the archive staff. The cellar has a multifunctional purpose and can be used independently both during the day and in the evening. Exterior Some limited changes have been implemented to the exterior. For instance, the inward opening doors have been replaced by new ones, which invitingly open outwards and have been given a fresh blue-grey tone. The paintwork on the door frame... More

‘Henri Dutilleux’ Conservatoire of Music, Dance and Dramatic Arts, Belfort The building is located in the upper part of the town. It backs onto the woods, forming the final outlying limit of the built-up area. Echoing the open landscape, it faces to Belfort Lion on the hilltop opposite. In this strong context, the building offers its solidity, an almost opaque mass of grey concrete. The surface of the mass has an unusual texture, hinting at plants or the veins in marble. It has been achieved by drip painting in two shades of blue. The drips of paint lend depth and thickness to the skin of the building. The surfaces vibrate in the light, apparently in motion – matter ceases to be static. The concrete monolith exudes an enigmatic prese... More

This project has the ambition of becoming a new model for media libraries. The programme calls the functions of a media library into question, lending it the content of a ‘third place’ – a place where members of the public become actors in their own condition, a place for creation as well as reception. In association with the basic programme, the building includes areas for displays, creation, music studios, and a café-restaurant.To give meaning to this new programme, it seemed necessary to question the way in which a place of this kind is produced. The various activities in the programme blend into each other, creating a dynamic arrangement.The spatial principle is based on a non-hierarchical superposition of different systems. The buil... More

The location on a steep south-facing slope required an access to the house from the public road running below to the site situated about 12 metres higher. These conditions inspired the idea of embedding a mountain pass road into the site, which serves both as a drive and a footpath. At the top end, one reaches a generous piazza, which is framed by low walls. At this point, the site already offers magnificent views to the valley and to the slopes on the opposite side. One can even see the Schönberg Tower, which was built according to plans by Theodor Fischer in 1905 at the Albtrauf in the neighbouring town of Pfullingen. The powerful appearance of the tower with two white soaring vertical sections partly inspired the basic idea for the res... More

The Hochschule Ruhr West - University of Applied Sciences in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, in short the HRW, is part of a nationwide development of new universities. With a total of eight buildings and about 62,000 m² of GFA, the university has the dimensions of an autonomous district: four institute buildings, a canteen, a lecture hall and a library as well as a multi-storey car park have been built on the former railway site in the Broich district. The HRW functions not only as a new educational institution, but also as an important component of the urban development concept for the entire university surroundings. For this reason, the various campus buildings reflect the heights and volumes of the surrounding development and the campus it... More

Hamburg has a new cultural landmark: the Elbphilharmonie, which opens its doors on January 11 and 12, 2017 in Hamburg’s HafenCity. On the banks of the river Elbe on approx. 1,700 reinforced concrete piles a building complex has emerged, which, in addition to three concert halls, will encompass a hotel, 45 private apartments, and the publicly accessible Plaza with a 360° panoramic view of the city. The centrepiece of the Elbphilharmonie is also one of the most exciting structural challenges in Europe at the moment: A world-class concert hall at a height of 50 metres with seating for 2,100, which is decoupled from the rest of the building for soundproofing reasons. The Elbphilharmonie is the perfect symbiosis of architecture and music at a un... More