Steven Holl Architects Selected to Design New Arts Building for University of Iowa Arts Campus

Press Release:
New York, NY: February 16, 2010 – Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with BNIM Architects, has won the commission for the new art studio facility for the University of Iowa (UI) Arts campus. The new building is to replace an original arts building from 1936, which was heavily damaged during a flood of the University of Iowa campus in June 2008. The proposed site is directly adjacent to and northwest of the Art Building West, designed by Steven Holl Architects, which since its opening in 2006 has received numerous awards, including the AIA 2007 Institute Honor Award for Architecture.

The selection process, which was to find an architect-led team and not to select a specific design, was organized by The University of Iowa. The Selection Committee, chaired by UI Facilities Management project manager Beverly Robalino, chose Steven Holl Architects with BNIM Architects, for their “creativity and attention to complex issues on an exciting but difficult site. The Steven Holl Architects/BNIM team displayed awareness and sensitivity to an adjacent residential neighborhood, a solid understanding of challenges related to FEMA supported projects, and a unique connection to the site’s most direct contextual neighbor; Holl’s celebrated Art Building West.”

UI Facilities Management director of Planning, Design & Construction, Rod Lehnertz said, “the University unanimously chose the team of Steven Holl and BNIM, based on our confidence in what the team brings to the table, and in the positive results of our past partnerships. We feel fortunate to, once again, have the opportunity to work with Steven Holl Architects, as together we advance a new building fitting the top-level program that will reside there. As was the case the last time Steven Holl came to our campus, this will be a project that will create success for both the School of Art & Art History and The University of Iowa.”

Steven Holl said, “We are very pleased to be able to work again with The University of Iowa towards the creation of campus space as well as a new an inspiring facility for the arts.”

For more information on the work of Steven Holl Architects, please visit www.stevenholl.com
For more information on BNIM Architects, please visit www.bnim.com
For more information on the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, please visit www.art.uiowa.edu

Knut Hamsun Center by Steven Holl Architects

Here is a short video of Steven Holl wandering his newly built Knut Hamsun Center in Hamarøy, Norway, waxing poetic on his design. It isn’t the most polished video I’ve seen but its an interesting view of the interior and nice to hear Holl talking about the building. Still one of my favorite architects, his focus on phenomenology has inspired many of my own designs, particularly his use of light and material textures. I have yet to visit this building, or Norway, but it is high on my list of places to go while living in Europe.

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Urbanisms: Steven Holl + Li Hu

On Monday, December 7, Steven Holl Architects opens the exhibition Urbanisms: Steven Holl + Li Hu: 4 Projects in China by Steven Holl Architects in the Horizontal Skyscraper/Vanke Center, in Shenzhen, China. The exhibition tracks the process of designing four ambitious projects in China from 2003-2009: Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture, Beijing Linked Hybrid, Shenzhen Horizontal Skyscraper, and Chengdu Sliced Porosity Block.

As China experiences one of the world’s largest urbanizations in history, these works explore the creation of collective urban space- as opposed to object buildings. Rather than monofunctional buildings, these are new hybrid buildings with rich programmatic juxtapositions. Each project investigates the phenomena of light and tactility through material development and experimentation. Geothermal cooling and heating, solar PVC and gray water recycling are among several green strategies utilized in all the projects.

The exhibition illustrates the design process from initial conception to current status; documenting the collaborative process of model making, drawing, and animation. The works presented are the product of a cooperative effort between Steven Holl Architects’ offices in New York and Beijing, where the difference in time zones often facilitates a continuous 24 hour cycle of production, the result of which are unprecedented works that are a fusion of landscape, urbanism, and architecture.

The exhibition will be on view in the newly finished Vanke headquarter offices in the Horizontal Skyscraper/Vanke Center in Dameisha, Shenzhen. This hybrid building, a design by Steven Holl with partner Li Hu, includes apartments, a hotel, and offices for the headquarters for Vanke Real Estate Co. ltd. A conference center, spa and parking are located under the large green, tropical landscape which is characterized by mounds containing restaurants and a 500-seat auditorium.

The decision to float one large structure right under the 35-meter height limit, instead of several smaller structures each catering to a specific program, generates the largest possible green space open to the public on the ground level. Suspended on eight cores, as far as 50 meters apart, the building’s structure is a combination of cable-stay bridge technology merged with a high-strength concrete frame. The first structure of its type, it has tension cables carrying a record load of 3280 tons.

As a tropical strategy, the building and the landscape integrate several new sustainable aspects. A microclimate is created by cooling ponds fed by a grey water system. The building has a green roof with solar panels and uses local materials such as bamboo. The glass façade of the building will be protected against the sun and wind by perforated louvers. The building is a tsunami-proof hovering architecture that creates a porous micro-climate of public open landscape; the first LEED platinum rated building in Southern China.

Interiors including the auditorium, conference center and hotel will be completed in late 2010.

For more information on the work of Steven Holl Architects, please visit www.stevenholl.com

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I won’t hide that I am a big admirer of the work designed by Steven Holl’s office. His attention to natural light, materiality, and his dedication to phenomenology closely ties into my architectural interests. However, in this particular building I feel he has move a bit towards the monumental form driven architecture of the Dutch and Danish practices making waves today. The interior photograph looks like a standard, and not very pleasant, corporate cafeteria – an an incredibly deep space reliant on fluorescent lighting. The exterior materials seem conventional even if Brightly colored. I love the perforated sun screen and the use of channel glass around the cores, but otherwise the interest in this building stems from its form rather than its phenomenological properties. A bit disappointing in my eyes but still an interesting building. I still do admire the integration of sustainable features and respect the LEED Platinum certification the building has received.

Steven Holl Architects Wins Glasgow School of Art Design Competition

by Lucas Gray

The Glasgow School of Art has announced Steven Holl Architects as the winner of the international design competition for the new school facility to be located opposite the famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh building in Garnethill, Glasgow. The competition entry was submitted as a collaboration between Steven Holl Architects and Glasgow-based JM Architects, and was selected from a field of over 150 international firms. Their brief is now to rework the master plan of the site and to design and deliver phase 1, a new building for the urban campus. The building is set to be opened for the 2013/14 school year. The new design aims to both increase the interaction between the school and the public while enhancing the school’s learning and research facilities. The competition was held to select an architect to proceed with the design of the project rather than to chose a specific design, with Steven Holl’s selection being a unanimous decision by the competition committee. 

“The Selection Committee considered that Steven Holl Architects’ work showed a poetic use of light and their submission demonstrated a singular creative vision, scale of ambition, profound clarity and a respectful rivalry for the Mackintosh Building. The Committee believed that Holl’s approach to the craft of building, his understanding of the opportunities of new technology and an enjoyment of the challenges of sustainable design, promised a great step forward in the development of architecture in an urban setting.”

Steven Holl Architects, with offices in New York and Beijing, is one of the leading design practices in the world with award winning projects spanning the globe. Winner of numerous prestigious prizes their work is consistently innovative, beautiful, elegant and inspirational while maintaining a dedication to sustainable design. A couple of their recent projects of note include the award winning Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Linked Hybrid in Beijing. Known for their phenomenological approach to design, their work is based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties while engaging the users in an emotional and sensory way. The manipulation of light and space is of particular note in their body of work.

Like in many of Holl’s previous projects, the manipulation of light became a defining feature in this proposal; offering various qualities of light related to the interior function of the space. Their complex section demonstrated a variety of spaces, each with a unique connection to natural daylight, while also creating inter-connectivity between parts of the building. This fosters a collaborative environment central to the workings of the school. This attention to the section design as a means of bringing light into the complex interior, is closely related to Mackintosh’s original masterpiece. To address issues of sustainability, the proposed facade will consist of 100 percent recycled glass. They have also proposed an intelligent solar cavity, within the facade enclosure, that will harvest heat in winter and cooling in summer. This seems like a rather vague concept at the moment but knowing Holl’s past work it is sure to be both beautiful and elegantly designed. Responding to the urban context, the ground floor of the future building will open up to the city allowing a close connection between the school and community.

“100 years after completion, Mackintosh’s building continues to inspire as a work of architecture and a place to make art. The invention of an original architectural language is as fresh today as it was then. Its intensity of detail, light and material calls for the highest aspirations of a phenomenologically-driven architecture of our time. We feel the urgency of recovering the integral action of “thinking and making” in the use of the highest new technologies available. We imagine the new Glasgow School of Art to be a celebration of Knowledge: the phenomenological and experiential joys of perception supercharged by the techniques of tomorrow.”

- Steven Holl

For more information on Steven Holl Architects, please visit www.stevenholl.com
For more information on the Glasgow School of Art, please visit www.gsa.ac.uk
For more information on JM Architects, please visit www.jmarchitects.net

Books by Steven Holl: Parallax, Intertwining, Anchoring, and Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture

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