Articles by Cristobal Rojas

The $52.8 million PACCAR Environmental Technology Building at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington brings to life the vision of WSU’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and the pursuit of interdisciplinary research related to sustainability concerns. The 96,000-square-foot project is a collaboration between designers LMN Architects and general contractor Skanska. The four-story building serves five of WSU’s long-standing research and development centers, all dedicated to tackling multi-faceted environmental issues through interdisciplinary collaboration. “What’s exciting about this project is how it sums up so much of what contemporary education is about—collaboration, exploration…a true interdisciplinary approach—the whole project is essentially one giant laboratory,” notes Mark Reddington, FAIA, Partner at LMN.

The sliver of land today known as 150 North Riverside sat vacant for decades. Wedged between the Chicago River to the east, active Amtrak rail lines to the west, and Lake and Randolph street viaducts to the north and south, the lot is only 85 feet across at its widest point. Prior to the project’s completion, developers, for decades, believed it was impossible to build on a site with such constrictive features. Despite this long-held belief, client-developer Riverside Investment & Development saw an opportunity to purchase the parcel and structure a unique acquisition of two adjacent parcels of largely air rights above the rail lines. This combined three-parcel site allowed the design team to create a 54-story office tower directly on the riverfront, in conjunction with a surrounding public park and riverwalk.

The community of Chimphamba have been gathering for years in a church building that was near to collapse. The community has also outgrown the dilapidated building.

The community of Chimphamba have been gathering for years in a church building that was near to collapse. The community has also outgrown the dilapidated building.

The “House along Saigoku highway” is a renovation project of an over-100-year-old wooden house located aside the Saigoku highway in the city of Muko at Kyoto Prefecture. Due to artistic activity made by the owner; it is a living and atelier space for a 3 member’s family; the 60-years-old parents and their high school teenager son.

‘A House’ is located in a typical urban area named ‘Yong-In’ in Korea where recently developing rapidly. The site surrounded by low mountains that facing to the South and sitting on a sloping plot which is adjacent to neighbors. In this village, ‘Treefull Hills’, each house unit has two level of boundaries: public boundary at the street level and individual boundary at the living level.

The old colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan comprises some of the more notable cultural institutions of Mexico and the new national Center for Patrimonial Heritage is added to the list. The center´s main concept spins around the need to turn a private complex into a public space; thus, the programmatic idea of breaking the parts in order to organize them in smaller low-rise buildings that could eventually display certain design personality and preserve the existent trees and vegetation, made sense.Therefore the center will be displayed in four different buildings: the museum and workshops, the preservation and office building, the auditorium, and the café / library structure. Once we secured the existent trees and plants, we proceeded to establish the project zoning and arrangement. Within the concept of dispersion, we decided to hinge and organize buildings around the open spaces. Therefore, we aimed that visitors would navigate through a number of interlocked gardens, plazas, paths, patios, etc. that will eventually unfold and reveal a number of architectural elements and gestures. From the overall aesthetic composition, some buildings have been thought as solid and massive creating a deliberate contrast to others that are conceived as translucent or transparent. Decisions made in this sense respond mostly to dealing with finding the right balance between energy savings, aesthetics and human activity.

Originally built in 1917, by the then chief government architect Daniel E.C. Knuttel, as a Ministry during a period of austerity and renovated in 1994 by professor Hans Ruijssenaars, B30 is an imposing structure with a strong, distinct architectural character and it is a Grade 1 listed building in the Netherlands.

The client inherited an unattractive “McMansion” with poor spatial layout from his father. The house was designed to meet the tastes of the former generation. The site also featured a large pompous garden with extensive manicured lawns. The house was too big and expensive to maintain. The client wanted to restore the plot to a natural pine forest, and built a small home that fully engages with the surrounding landscape. An added bonus to the restored pine forest is that the client doesn’t need to mow any lawns! The new house and garden have been designed to meet contemporary tastes. Hence, this project represents generational shift in design ideology / ecology.

The characteristics of space where people like Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, The Beatles, and Steve Jobs who delivered innovative thinking and message mostly stayed was freedom and expandability. In their youth, unusual but magnificent and cozy places like barn, storage, factory, and garage were the source of inspiration for their creative thinking. This BARN was an excellent functional and emotional space typology where amplifies ventilation, three dimensional expandability, and emotional inspiration through depth in space.