Posts Tagged ‘colorful architecture’
LOOP International Kindergarten, Tianjin
April 15th, 2013 – It looks like the kids finally got their way – someone transformed their kindergarten school into a ring-shaped bouncy castle. Architect Keiichiro Sako, founder of Beijing-based Sako Architects, is the person responsible for creating LOOP, a 45,000 square foot, color coordinated kindergarten school in Tianjin.
Located in the fourth largest city in China, Tianjin is home to over 300 Fortune 500 companies. As business brings more international families into Tianjin, bilingual schools are at a high demand. LOOP is a chance for parents to completely immerse their children into a world of imaginative, interactive, and colorful learning methods in both Chinese and English.
To create the unorthodox establishment, Sako, along with his team of architects, Yoko FUJII, Shuhei AOYAMA, and Junya KAZUNO went to work on dreaming up a place that has an element of freedom, somewhere where the children can experience joy while learning.
The exterior shell of the white building is covered in rows of large airplane style windows, where the window sills are painted one of 7 different colors that represent a specific location. The bright selection of colors help the kids get around, it’s much easier to get to the nurses office if you know to look out for the color red on the walls, floors and handrails of the balconies.
The kindergarten is formed by curves, as the entire structure rounds into a loop. Children enter the school on wooden stairs that climb to the second floor, under the large blue arch of the building.
Here, the kids are greeted with an outdoor courtyard (entering school at the playground? Sign us up!) with all of the classrooms facing towards it. This is is a wonderful space for children to play and enjoy the fresh air. With security in mind, Sako made sure that the layout provided that the whole courtyard would be in visible range for most adults.
On the 3rd floor children can access to a balcony that leads to a roof top garden. Turf grass covers the roof top and is divided by large colorful walls, allowing for teachers to keep their students in proper sections.
Under the outdoor courtyard there is an indoor courtyard for multi-purpose uses. This space has 3 rounded atrium’s connecting to the outdoor space on upper level for better natural lighting and for creating a indoor playing space for children in bad weather conditions.
The ceiling on each floor is in 18 different colors, with white louver boards under the ceiling. The color changing can been seen through the gaps between the louver boards when walking in the corridor. Also there are 18 different color columns in the courtyard, the children can use these colors to identify the location.
Photography By Sako Architects
Wanangkura Stadium, Port Hedland
February 22nd, 2013 – Port Hedland is a natural deep anchorage port in Western Australia. Only 14,000 people live in the town, but it is a significant destination for major sports and social gatherings for the local community. The town was in need for a new recreation center. The town commissioned the creative team from ARM Architecture to build the Wanangkura Stadium, which includes an indoor playing court, a gym, squash courts, club rooms for local football teams, short term childcare minding and function rooms. The towns population is forecasted to increase by 2.5 times in the next 23 years, therefore, the need to build a sport and recreation facility which catered to people of all ages and sports of all types was in demand.
After deciding on the architects, the town let the community decide on the name. Hundreds of names for the $35 million building were submitted by the town residents which finally led to Wanangkura, meaning ‘whirlwind’ in the local Kariyarra language. The title pays tribute to the center’s cyclonic pattern design that creating a shimmering, rippling effect on an otherwise flat landscape.
The architects explained that their “approach to the design considered this building as a mirage – a shimmering, rippling effect on an otherwise flat landscape. Using a ‘halftone’ pixelated technique, the building’s entry facade acts as a clear visual image from long distances, whilst being highly aggregated on closer inspection.”
The 48,000 square foot building is covered in black and blue vitrified facade panels, which on close inspection appear to have been installed at random but from a distance represents a cyclone pattern. LED lights are installed on the front facade and enhance the unique pattern and shape of the building at night. Externally, the building is covered in approximately 3955 vitrified enamel panels, which were manufactured and delivered from China. The panels have been created to withstand the extreme Pilbara heat and also severe winds caused by tropical cyclones.
Inside the stadium, the club changing rooms have been painted black and white in honor of the home football team, South Hedland Swans. Upstairs is the function room, which spans the length of the indoor stadium with large windows facing the sports oval. The function room has a bar and will be installed with large flatscreen TV’s to provide the ultimate sports experience. Offices and conference rooms are also located on the upper level, with floor to ceiling windows giving people inside a birds’ eye view of everything that is happening below.
The town has become excited about the new building, describing the creative boxy structure as the most unique building in Port Hedland.
Peter Bennetts photography
Koban Police Station, Japan
Generally when we think of Police stations we envision drab colors, cold cement floors and double-paned glass (not to mention those super-cozy looking stainless steal toilets they have in the drunk tank.) At best we imagine the crappy 70’s haunt where the Chips duo park their choppers. Well, the force is coming back in full force. We’re talkin’ the rainbow, swiss-cheese-esque aesthetics of the Koban Police Station, envisioned by architect Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture. (Where is Koban you ask? It happens to be in Kumamoto, the most southern island of Japan) The space that’s reserved for impounding criminals is awash in bright colorful hues, friendly curved walls and a graphic polka-dot pattern that slices through perforated steel. Beaming rays of sunlight cut through the orifices and cast happy pops of sunlight on the surrounding pavement. It’s quite possibly the friendliest police force we’ve ever seen. Literally. Those Chips guys can only dream.
(Photography: Koichi Torimura)
The New Saguaro Hotel, Palm Springs
Taking color cues from the indigenous flowers of the desert region, the new Saguaro property is in full bloom. Opening in Palm Springs in February, the bold design elements pack a punch amidst the balmy backdrop of palms. The 249-room hotel was conceptualized with the idea of reflecting the colorful, vibrant spirit of the Southwest, and comes on the heels of The Saguaro Scottsdale that opened its doors in November 2011. The punchy palette can be attributed to New York-based Stamberg Aferiat Architecture, who masterfully transformed the throwback three-story structure from the 70’s into a bright, buzzing hotel, alive with color.
(Photography Provided By: Saguaro)
