Ja StudioInc

Beton Hala 2011 International Architectural Competition
Ja Architecture studio in collaboration with Vav Studio

Project Description

The Challenge- The unobtrusive and elegant modernist language of Beton Hala through the years has stood in a dialogue with the Belgrade fortress and the city skyline. How can a new building get engaged in this dialogue without introducing a new vocabulary or an icon? This has been the challenge of the project and in order to achieve that the project aims to be an extension to Beton Hala and not a new building.

The project- The architecture of the proposed New Waterfront Center is an extension of Beton Hala along a free path in space that starts from the last column of Beton Hala, extends over the tunnel, slithers at the roof level and finally ends by merging on to the Belgrade Fortress plateau.While Beton Hala’s form responds to the train tunnel, our proposed extension to Beton Hala would be a piece of infrastructure at a human level, an infrastructure that entertains a smaller and softer range of urban circulations and connectivity than that of a train tunnel.

Connectivity- The project connects the water front level to the plateau level by a linear building that at its base accommodates the program of the waterfront center and at its roof becomes a public promenade. The roof promenade will resolve the 30m sectional transition along a meandering and gradually elevating path that will provide unique views to the Sava River, Belgrade Fortress and the city skyline.  Multiple access nodes from the lower levels (commercial and exhibition spaces) to the roof level provides vibrancy and accessibility to the roof  promenade and multiple vaults on the lower levels connects the courtyards on the sides of the building and thus activate the ground with pedestrian, bicycle flow and soft urban functions i.e. restaurant patios and outdoor exhibitions .

Structure- The project takes the simple repetitive structural concept of Beton Hala and applies it to the new curvilinear footprint. Arraying the column along the perimeter of the building allows for maximum interior flexibility. The density of the columns varies proportionate to the building outline curvature.The sectional In addition to the perimeter column structures four concrete cores would resist the lateral forces i.e. seismic loads along providing vertical connection for the lower levels (Parking and the existing Beton Hala).

At the point where the visitor center overlaps with the roof of Beton Hala, the perimeter of the building is cantilevered (using the dense column spacing and the lateral support of the vertical core) to eliminate adding extra load to the existing Beton Hala structure on one hand and on the other to slightly raise the building at its most visible point.

Sustainability-

Technical Sustainability – On the technical side sustainability is addressed by the following design strategies:

A-    Sustainable site development:
1-    Maintaining the existing operating elements of the site i.e. Gas station to reduce the extent of the site work and development.
2-    Minimizing the building footprint
3-    Minimizing the heat island Effect- Extending the white color of the Beton hala to the roof thus reducing the Heat island effect of the building.

Water efficiency:

Reducing the surface water runoff of the site is greatly reduced by using pavers with different degrees of permeability corresponding to the different areas of use.

View of the project’s intersection with Vojvod Bojovica boulevard and the escalator/ramp to the  historic Belgrade Fortress

West Elevation

Energy Efficiency:

The glass envelope of the building is recessed behind the perimeter structure to use the structure as the sun screen to both create bright interiors with minimum indoor lighting requirement on one hand and on the other to reduce the amount of energy consumption cause by the direct sunlight in the interiors.
Indoor Environmental quality:
The narrow designed footprint of the building would create natural light and ventilation without    the need for mechanical equipments.

Social Sustainability- The proposal pursues social sustainability along creating sustainable urban connections between different nodes that have been disconnected by an array of urban transportation lines as well as height elevation differences. It seems that once the new Waterfront Center plays its connectivity role the sustainable benefits of the project go beyond the extent of the project outline.

Pape Avenue Church Loft, Kitchen Counter, 2010
A Ja Architecture Studio project in collaboration with Prototype Design Lab

Video of the fabrication process of the piece

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Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural& popular music centre international competition
Ja Architecture studio in collaboration with Tadj-Farzin Studio

Project description

Our project is an effort to find simple pragmatic solutions for the Urban, Landscape and Architectural challenges of the site, yet allow for an uncompromised layer of surreal to flow through the site and claim its presence.
The proposal is three expansive but light buildings that float above a waterfront park and use the unique geometry of the port to define an urban marine square for the city of Kaohsiung.

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The Under Garden
The garden underneath the garden

“…this time she found a little bottle… and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words “DRINK ME” beautifully printed on it in large letters … Alice ventured to taste it … she was now only ten inches high, …the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden…”

Taking advantage of a new material in planting (Planting Gel) a Non-Toxic, biodegradable crystal, the proposal reveals an interesting yet overlooked part of the garden.

Plant list

A narrow hole in the ground capped with an egg crate structure made out of moisture resistant plywood provides the base that supports both the soil and an array of transparent glass planters filled with planting gels. Different color is added to the gel which would result in a rainbow like effect that feed s in to the idea of the wonder land  and in  the end a root vegetable or a small plant with and exotic root system is planted inside each planter.

The project attempts to take you down the rabbit hole and in to the mystical secret garden below, a real life wonderland  that enables the visitors to experience the garden in a different way no magic potion no shrinking simply by stepping down in to the Under Garden.

Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center International Competition
A Ja Architecture studio Work in collaboration with Tadj-Farzin Studio

Project description
Waterfront edge is perhaps the most unique urban condition for a city thus waterfront buildings will always play an urban role regardless of their architecture and program. The common design challenge is to maintain the public accessibility of the water edge while creating density and urbanity along the waterfront. In the case of Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center, security adds another twist to an already challenging condition.

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Slow Up-rising
Solar Park south, International Idea competition
Calabria, Italy
August 2010

“Subject: Solar Park South Works – Solar Highway – carried out by re-using
Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway sections between Scilla and Bagnara to be
decommissioned by the Italian Highways Authority.”

Solar Park South  brief
http://www.parcosolaresud.it/concorso01/index_en.html

The submitted panels for the competition

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Drava River, Maribor EPK 2012-Competition
European capital of culture-2012
A Jastudio Work in collaboration with Tadj-Farzin Studio

Group1: Embankment of the river Drava
Group 2: The new footway and bicycle bridge Lent–Taborsko nabrežje
Group 3: The new Maribor Art Gallery

The new foot way and bicycle bridge

The city of Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia and it is getting ready to become the European Capital of Culture in 2012. As part of the three catalyst projects to revive the historic riverfront of the city, the city of Maribor host a competition to design a 150 meter long footbridge for walking and cycling on the location of a demolished historic bridge. Ja Studio’s proposal was an effort to re-visit the idea of the bridge as a multi-functional urban surface that resolves its geometry between the structural issues of crossing and spanning and the functional opportunities that may potentially arise from these structural necessities.  Below is the submitted description for our entry:

The proposal

The Drava Experience

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Drava River, Maribor EPK 2012-Competition
European capital of culture-2012
A Jastudio Work in collaboration with Tadj-Farzin Studio

Controlled flexibility

The design proposal tries to find design strategies that can create a balance between an undifferentiated and flexible landscape on one hand and a zoned landscape on the other.

The design proposal attempts to treat the whole river embankment as one vibrant urban surface that is minimally touched to suggest nodes of activity and paths of circulation without dictating a rigid framework for any of the two.  The nodes of activities are marked by slightly pinching up the urban surface to create a sense of territory and limit to guide the congregation of public in peak use time.
The paths of circulation would vary from the whole width of the promenade on the low traffic days to the paths secured by the pinches on the perimeter of nodes of activities during the busy Lent festival. The dynamic relationship between zones of activity and paths of travel can divide the urban surface in a subtle but functional way.

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BM’s Residence
Astalak, Iran, 2002-2009
In collaboration with Tadj Farzin Studio

BM’s Residence’s Interior Design
A collaborative work with Prototype Design Lab
January – September 2009, Toronto

BM’s Residence’s Central Stairs;
The elevator wall

Central stair, Bm’s Residence

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