BCRA’s Post

Wide Open Spaces: The Secret Places in Architectural Races 🧐 Space is a crucial element in architecture. This wide-open landscape of Manchester made me reflect on how open spaces can evoke a sense of freedom and community! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Architectural design often focuses on the tangible—the walls, the roof, the materials. But the space within and around these structures is just as important, if not more so. Space shapes our experiences, influences our emotions, and dictates how we interact with our environment and each other. In Manchester, for example, the vast open areas provide a rest point from the urban hustle, offering a place for people to gather, relax, and breathe. These spaces foster a sense of community, encouraging social interactions and communal activities. They also provide a canvas for events, markets, and festivals, turning a simple area into a vibrant hub of activity. As architects and designers, we must remember that our work is not just about creating buildings but also about shaping the spaces around them. These spaces are where life happens, memories are made, and communities grow. So, the next time you're exploring a city or working on a project, pay attention to the spaces in between. They might just be the most important part of all. ✨ #Architecture #UrbanDesign #OpenSpaces #CommunityPlanning #ArchitecturalDesign #UrbanDevelopment #PublicSpaces #Manchester #ArchitectsOfLinkedIn #DesignMatters #WellBeingByDesign #BuildingCommunity #SpaceMatters

Introducing the new Echo Trail Middle School in Metro Louisville, catering to 1,000 students and nestled in a rapidly growing area. Set against a stunning rural backdrop with forests, fields, and a stream, it's conveniently located across from the renowned Parklands at Floyd’s Fork. The architectural design pays homage to the natural surroundings, focusing on building siting, massing, and articulation. Using insulated concrete formwork and geothermal heating and cooling ensures exceptional efficiency. The school, shaped like barn-like structures, is strategically positioned on a plateau for optimal visibility from the street and park. The design allows for breathtaking views from both outside and inside the building. From a distance, the school resembles a weathered wood barn, thanks to a custom pattern of four conventional bricks, glazing, and glazed porcelain tile. The brick cladding extends through glass-clad connecting corridors, embracing the historical essence of the pavilions. Inside, the two-story pavilions neatly define grade levels, administrative offices, teaching areas, and gym/cafeteria support spaces. Team clusters surround central gathering spaces, with glass-enclosed technology learning spaces at the heart of each grade. Daylight devices bring natural light into the central support core. The media center and social commons are designed for engagement with media, technology, and nature, cascading down into the landscape. Small terrace areas offer outdoor class use and breakout spaces for art and media engagement. 🏫🌳 #SchoolDesign #InnovationInEducation #NatureInspiredArchitecture #JRAarchitects #EnlivenedDesign

Student housing is a great way for universities and colleges to foster a community amongst students and create an atmosphere that's unique to their school culture. Gone are the days of unoriginal and dull dorm rooms. Students are now looking for inclusive designs, wellness spaces, and more sustainable living. Read this article to explore the future of student housing: https://hubs.la/Q02JLFVq0 To make residence halls stylish and enjoyable for years to come, they need to be built with durable and versatile building materials. Phenolic panels are designed for high traffic areas like college campuses, are low maintenance, and come in a wide variety of decors and finishes. Learn more about this unique material for exterior and interior applications on our website: https://hubs.la/Q02JLJsZ0 #architecture #architectureanddesign #modernarchitecture #exteriorarchitecture #exteriordesign #commercialconstruction #commercialarchitecture #sustainabledesign #sustainablematerials #createwithfundermax #morethanapanel https://hubs.la/Q02JLFVq0?

New Project Coming Soon: Transformation for a Granny's house Every building has a story to tell, changes, and silent dialogues with the surrounding environment. From these stories, unique projects are born, designed to meet the needs of those who will live in them. We are excited to present our next an architectural challenge that combines functionality and design to create spaces that enhance family life. The Project: • Demolition of existing garage and shed • Construction of a new expanded garage • Creation of an accessible annex for elderly residents • Complete integration with the main residence Key Features: • Materials: Red bricks and finishes in harmony with the existing building • Design: Subordinate structure respecting original proportions • Accessibility: Spaces designed according to disability regulations • Sustainability: Optimization of shared service spaces What will we do? - New Garage: It will retain a similar position to the existing one but with a slight extension. It will blend seamlessly with the main property thanks to the use of red bricks and materials that respect the original aesthetic. - Accessible Annex: Designed to ensure privacy and independence, it will have direct access to the garden and will be equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable, compact but functional living space. It will be fully accessible for people with disabilities. Our Vision: We help people and families realize their living dreams, transforming their personal needs into unique architectural solutions. Each project is a life story taking shape, where every element tells a part of this narrative through functional spaces and architectural beauty. Technical Details: • Single-story structure with traditional roof • Main windows oriented towards the internal courtyard • High-quality materials reflecting local character • Minimized visual impact through careful design Added Value: Not just architecture, but a bridge between past and future, between individual needs and collective harmony. We design spaces that respect the building's history while creating new possibilities for those who live in them, transforming each challenge into an opportunity to improve quality of life. Follow us to discover how life stories transform into architecture, and how each project becomes part of a greater narrative of renewal and growth! www.ngaandpartners.com #NGAArchitects #AccessibleArchitecture #Design #Renovation #InnovativeDesign #FamilyArchitecture #SustainableBuilding #ArchitecturalStories #Transformations #CustomDesign

All great designs start with a vision. And some of the very best visions for complex designs that need to account for multiple objectives often develop their focus in a collaborative, collegial environment that involves different perspectives. This is how our team worked with the City of Pickering, Ont. Can to develop a public realm vision for Phase 1 of Pickering City Centre–a 55-acre, master planned, mixed-use community by developer CentreCourt and designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects. Our combined efforts have yielded a public realm design that features imaginative pedestrian clearways, a coherent language across all street furniture types, distinctive lighting fixtures, and a material palette that will a create strong sense of place for the ambitious development, which will convert a suburban mall into a vibrant urban core and transit centre. STUDIO tla is leading the design of outdoor spaces with the larger consulting team on the project, which includes (4) residential towers that will offer approximately 2,200 residential units and approximately 111,483 m² of residential and commercial density. Ensuring that all contributions to the overall design from each discipline integrates with the public realm vision is a key part of our role on the project. For example, our design–through collaboration with BA Consulting Group Ltd. and adherence to the City’s urban design vision–will promote an active transportation system in Pickering City Centre through a network of paths and mid-block connections that encourages pedestrian porosity to make moving through the development safe and efficient for community residents. Collaborating with Diamond Schmitt, we aligned the design language between the interior ground-level workspaces and outdoor spaces to allow people to move freely between indoor and outdoor environments. Read more: https://bit.ly/3X2ylme #UrbanDesign #Design #LandscapeArchitecure #Collaboration #PublicRealm #Community #Pickering #Intensification #TransitOriented #PedestrianFriendly #ActiveTransportation

Reason 1 to Buy the 360 Chair - Designed to Fit Between the Legs of a 60" Wide Table. https://buff.ly/3Ix67HU In our research, we heard from architects, designers, and educators about the challenges they face trying to fit larger scaled active learning furniture into classrooms that are simply undersized. To help maximize these limited spaces, the most used 2 student table is typically 60” wide. While most active learning chairs cannot fit between the legs of these tables the 360 Chair was designed to fit perfectly without compromising comfort or agility. #360chair #haskelleducation #classroomseating #classroomchair #studentseating #educationalfurniture

We believe that places should be designed for people and our Humanifesto guides our actions through six critical design principles.   No. 2: Create Quality Public Realms   ✔ Celebrate openness and resist excessive enclosure. Design spaces with at least ten different uses. ✔ Support our neighbors who cannot (or choose not to) drive by creating a safe walkable network of spaces that take people from their homes to places they actually need to go. ✔ Shift spaces from inefficient private yards that serve few to public spaces that serve all. Incorporate nature and natural systems into the public realm. ✔ Build public spaces that attract a vibrant diversity of humans: proximity breeds understanding. Create intentional transitions from public to private space with distance, elevation change, visual barriers, physical barriers, front porches and doorbells.   https://lnkd.in/gdeh24V4   #placesforpeople #placemaking #humanifesto

DESIGN THREAD #3 ROOM WITHIN A ROOM Not everyone was singing the praises of the open floor plan, especially not people working in open offices. On display in this thread are various solutions to provide occupants with a way to make a space work for them. A similar pattern is happening in homes that are increasingly called upon to serve as classrooms, offices, gyms, etc. Worth noting here is the departure from the room within a room as an afterthought to something planned to accommodate multiple uses. Does this design thread resonate with you? * We’ve curated 23 architecture & interior design threads woven throughout the built environment. Weft or warp, each thread stands on its own and in the context of other threads. These threads affect the way we 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧, 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, and 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥. ➕ 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘦: Download the full report https://hubs.ly/Q02HKZ9R0 and let us know which threads resonate with you. #architecture #interiordesign #designthreads