Compagni di strada!!!

EMBT Studio _ Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue

Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works with architectural projects, open spaces,  urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition which espouses collaboration rather than specialization.  Their architectural philosophy is dedicating special attention to context.

Diagonal Mar Park

It's design favours an interaction with the city. It is organised by following a series of paths, which similar to the branches of a tree, spread out in all directions. 

A type of Rambla, a main thoroughfare, connects La Diagonal directly to the nearby beach crossing the Litoral ring by means of a pedestrian bridge... and it transforms itself into a series of recreational tracks: to stroll, for skating, cycling, walking etc. A large area of water in which there are various fountains, the flow of water and the vegetation on its edges oxygenates the water. 

The presence of the water characterises the vegetation of the zone and the vegetation spreads following the direction of the shores near the sea and the lake. It is growing taller and denser until it reaches the adjacent streets. Small places are to be found on the edges of the park. Places where a series of large ceramic vases join with the existing vegetation, similar to the garden of a house.

FOA _ Foreign Office Architects

Foreign Office Architects, FOA, is an international architecture practice led by Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. The firm is based in London and does masterplanning, architecture and interior design services for the public and private sectors. It was founded in 1995.

“FOA’s name refers to the fact that its principals, Alejandro Zaera Polo, and Farshid Moussavi, are Spanish and Iranian, and its office has projects in Japan, the United States, the Netherlands and Spain.”

FOA has emerged as one of the most significant architecture and urban design practices working today, known for combining technical innovation with design excellence. FOA has produced critically acclaimed and award winning projects. In their approach to architecture, FOA are new pragmatists, bringing to bear great technical rigor in their focus on organic growth and the evolution of design ‘species’ hybridizing uses relating to both local and global conditions. The work unfolds rigorously through a broad variety of locations and typologies.

Yokohama International Port Terminal

The brief of the Yokohama International Port Terminal asked for the articulation of a passenger cruise terminal and a mix of civic facilities for the use of citizens in one building.

"Our proposal for the project start by declaring the site as an open public space and proposes to have the roof of the building as an open plaza, continuous with the surface of Yamashita Park as well as Akaranega Park. The project is then generated from a circulation diagram that aspires to eliminate the linear structure characteristic of piers, and the directionality of the circulation."

The project starts with what the architects have named as the "no-return pier", with the ambition to structure the precinct of the pier as a fluid, uninterrupted and multi-directional space, rather than a gateway to flows of fixed orientation. A series of programmatically specific interlocking circulation loops allow the architects to subvert the traditional linear and branching structure characteristic of the building.