Leon de Grief Library Park / Giancarlo Mazzanti 10 May 2008 By Nico Saieh — Filed under : Infrastructure , Selected , Colombia , Concrete , Cultural , Library Architects : Giancarlo MazzantiLocation : La Ladera , Medellín , ColombiaConstructed Area : 6 . 800 sqmConstruction year : 2007 Services : Constructor AIA CONSTRUCTORESStructural Engineer : Sergio TobónMaterials : Concrete , Wood , GlassPhotos : Sergio GómezThe aim is to establish a project that enables the biggest amount of urban connections and the development of public spaces . To achieve this , there are several proposals such as enabling the roofing of the building as public space , empowering meeting places and developing viewing - points which overlook the city . Zonal Equipment - Management StrategyThe model allows the usage of communal facilities as small open spaced theatres , viewing - points , small plazas and sport fields when placing them on the rooftop , leaving plain borders as vacuums inside the lot and thus enabling their external use . We propose a management program between the EDU and the Culture Secretariat called “ Film , Music and Theatre in my quarter ” . This will allow the usage of the above mentioned roofing as auditoriums so that every two weeks a cultural show can be taken to each quarter . The place presents itself as a green viewing - point and a territory of connections between the lower and upper zones of the quarter , which are actually used as areas for sport activities . The project we propose will redefine the existing paths and empower the creation of shaded plazas on the library ’ s rooftop . As a result , it will not only multiply the connections because the building will be an obliged path , but it will create more and more events as people intertwine in the public spaces provided around the library . More than a transformation , we want to re - interpret the space so that it can be recreated into a symbolic place for the city . The project will consist of a system conformed by three contained , rotated , squared modules that turn , adapting themselves to the landscape and the view and one curved module that unites and relates the other modules and that , in addition , allows other uses . The project is a landscape that gives the urban geography continuity through the paths and the building of public space on the rooftop , a landscape constituted by paths , theatres or inclined plazas , a spatial network with connection multiplicity and meeting places . PROGRAM : 1 . CONTAINER 1 - COMMUNITY CENTER - User : individual and in groups . Time : 24 hours . Multiple Salons ( quarter meetings ) , my quarter , gymnasium , sieve , technical substation ( optimizing the land cut left by housing ) . 2 . CONTAINER 2 - LIBRARY - User : individual . Time : Attending from 8 am to 8 pm . Foyer , reception , catalogue , collection , reading rooms , navigation centers . 3 . CONTAINER 3 - CULTURAL CENTER - User : Organized groups . Time : Scheduled events . Auditorium , workshops . 4 . CURVED CONTAINER - 24 hours . Can be used as support . Exposition rooms ( as obliged path for all users ) , cafeteria , management , bathrooms , ludotechs ( will be used as kinder gardens 24 hours ) . Structural system in reinforced concrete , in porches and screens . Each container module is structurally independent from the curved connector . Modules are conformed by screens in the ends to compensate the projection afore mentioned and in the center 2 axes of rectangular columns in concrete . The connector is proposed in a reticule of metallic columns filled with concrete and a contention wall in stone gabion and concrete in the rear part . Vinyl floors in different colors and shapes limiting pedagogic areas . Visible roofing in white concrete with inferior cake and wooden panels of 5 cm planks . White antique concrete walls . Crystal plates in sandwich with colored resin on the inside to mark and provide some color to the pedagogic areas . The mobile panels of the façade in folded cool rolled planks and curved borders with elements in teka wood . Following this , the Container Module 1 is thought to have 3 floors , using the tilt of 12 meters left by housing . Circulation systems crossed airs through the mentioned patios , which allow cold air to displace hot air . We propose the usage of natural air cooling systems , nurturing the inside of the library with fresh air . In addition to this , we want mobile blinds to cover the windows that face the sunset so that the effect of sunlight can be minimized . on top of the roofing - view points , we propose the plantation to trees to provide shadow . Showroom H / Akihisa Hirata 10 Nov 2008 By Nico Saieh — Filed under : Offices , Retail , Selected , Concrete , Japan Architects : Akihisa HirataLocation : Nigata , JapanProgram : Showroom , OfficeDesign Year : 2005 Construction Year : 2006 Site Area : 824 sqmConstructed Area : 294 . 2 sqmPhotographer : Akihisa Hirata This is the building for a showroom exhibiting small agricultural equipments . I tried to create a place similar to natural environment in an artificial way . People are invited to go deep into the continuity without whole view , where they can find different spread of things in every minute . This architecture is made by a very simple operation arranging a 5 m grid of concrete walls , slicing them diagonally . However , these diagonal openings create completely different order from “ horizontal and vertical ” . In a sense , each inclined line contains infinite degree in between “ open ” and “ close ” , so that we can feel complex effects of 3 - dimentional combination of these lines , which remind us some kinds of natural environments as forest .