MIES - Fine Wine

(From ArchDaily) Designed by Flad Architects, The Teaching and Research Winery and the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory (WBF) complete the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine (RMI) for the University of California – Davis. The 31,000sf design-build laboratory complex was completed in 2010 and is formally influenced by the agricultural structures of the California countryside, serving as a learning environment for viticulture, brewing, and food processing.

The academic complex was designed as an extended research and teaching environment which integrates traditional scientific exploration with applied process technologies — in this way, students and researchers have the ability to directly test theories and validate new production processes. In addition to its academic application with regard to the production of food and beverages, the structure also educates students and researchers in sustainable production processes and operating procedures on a facility scale.

The complex includes facilities dealing with the production of wine, beer, and traditional food processing in addition to necessary ancillary space and learning laboratories characteristic of a traditional academic structure. Each of the individual production processes featured in the complex’s program is dealt with specifically while all of the programs have common elements such as storage, laboratory, and office space. For example, the winery features a wine cellar, barrel storage, laboratory and office space while the brewery features programmatic elements such as dry storage, a grain mill, and cooling facilities to meet the individual needs of the industrial process. Each program is meticulously organized and designed to meet the industrial and academic needs of its researchers and students.

Construction of the WBF Lab utilizes a variety of sustainable materials, including recycled glass, repurposed wood for interior paneling, and FSC-certified lumber. In addition to being entirely donor-funded and the first zero-water use facility of its type in the country, UC-Davis’ WBF complex houses the world’s first LEED Platinum winery, first LEED Platinum brewery, and first LEED Platinum food-processing plant. This makes the academic complex one of only half dozen laboratories of its kind in the world and the first of its kind in the United States. The sustainable highlights of the complex are documented in the gallery below and include an ultra-efficient building envelope, solar tube usage, photovoltaic arrays for energy production, sensitive daylighting strategies for natural light, and harvest technologies resulting in over 175,000 gallons of harvested rainwater and captured CO2 from the research fermentors.

The WBF complex is the recipient of a bevy of design awards, including designation as the R&D Magazine Lab of the Year, a 2010 “Best of California” Construction Award, an AIA San Francisco Merit Award for Energy & Sustainability, an ASLA San Francisco Honor Award, the ASLA San Francisco President’s Award, and an Award for Water Efficiency, Western Pacific Region DBIA.

Overall, I like this design because it emphasizes utility over form in its aesthetics.  In other words, this doesn't need to be a glamorous building to work.  It's a building designed to instruct others on how to make, ferment and enjoy good wines.  The design by Flad Architects is appropriately economical and the material choice for construction is understandable.

MIES - Function Follows Geography

The Opera House at Night

Busan, Korea has a specific geography: Mountains areas are connecting directly to the Pacific Ocean. With great nature, there is a high density of population and an urgent demand for public spaces to be used by the inhabitants.  The following is a design by Peter Ruge Architekten, a design firm based Berlin, Germany, which addresses the two new public spaces.  As represented in this concept, an opera house in Busan is what the local public demands and as a building/space, it could improve the surrounding context immeasurably:

The Grand Foyer

The two units of the opera house would perform different functions:

• One would face west to the mountain and city side of Busan; it would be reserved for public performances

• The other would face east to the ocean side to celebrate “New Years Sunrise Festival”

Sections of the Opera House (from both ends)

In general (according to Ruge), the reference is to the history of Madang, a traditional open urban used for gathering, happenings and performances is the base for the design of it.

As for materials, a thin skin, protecting from the sun and water connects the two buildings, leaving in between a pathway open for the public.  Symbolically, this supports Busan’s natural flow from mountain to the ocean, creating a good harmony between urban space and architecture.

Site Plan of the Opera House

The new landmark of Busan’s Opera House reflects the natural and urban energies and connects it to the performing arts spaces of “Madangnoli”, at the Mountain Plaza and the Sunrise Plaza, an urban harmony with a folk performance played by ordinary people.

The construction of this building is like a wave of sounds as an environmental friendly building reflecting Korea’s path to local sustainability.  It is a positive step forward in the development of Busan.

MIES - Covent Garden

In the never-ending quest to understand what architecture truly is, sometimes it's good to go back in time.  As any historian would argue, what was true two hundred years ago functionally or stylistically, is also probably true today, to a certain extent.  Replace detail with form, building plan with function, and essentially you have the modern era.  The tenets, if carefully considered, are more changes in the nuances of words than one can initially glean.  This brings me to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden is a world-renowned district of London, which houses the fruit and vegetable market in its central square.  It is also the home of the Royal Opera House, which is typically referred to, not-too-surprisingly, as "Covent Garden."  The area itself is a main thoroughfare of Long Acre, a street in central London, along which many shops and restaurants are located.  


The six most important landmarks in Covent Garden, according to any Brit, would be the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden square and Covent Garden market, Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, the London Transport Museum and St. Paul's Actor's Church (not to be confused with the cathedral).  Many of the buildings were constructed out of iron and glass and underwent multiple reincarnations over their respective building lives.  Both Theatre Royal and the Royal Opera House, designed in early Neoclassical fashion, succumbed to the fires of London in 1808 and 1857.  Both showcased ballets, oratories, operas and other forms of live music.  While this type of construction - the performance building - is seen as a far less and less grandiose building by today's standards, it's worth noting that both building types still require star power on the design front.  Whether it's Raphael Vinoly or Inigo Jones, it seems that opera houses, all over the world, have to be statements as buildings.  The only difference, over the course of time, has been context.  It is far easier to separate a parcel of land now in the suburbs than it was then in downtown London.  As a result, the majority of our musical assemblies gather in multiple buildings and travel more frequently, sometimes to more rural locations.  This would not have been the case two centuries ago.


The culture of Covent Garden has long been associated with entertainment and shopping, not unlike our malls today.Covent Garden has 13 theatres, and over 60 pubs and bars, with most south of Long Acre, around the main shopping area of the old market.  The Seven Dials area in the north of Covent Garden was home to the punk rock club The Roxy in 1977, and the area remains focused on young people with its trendy mid-market retail outlets.


Overall, Covent Garden is no different that Quincy Market in Boston or Pike's Place in Seattle.  It is a place with graceful architecture that was fairly simple to conceive of, but unlike some malls today, it excels in the ordinary (rather than resembles the ordinary).  Whether their are street performers on display, or delicious sandwiches in the cases, Covent Garden reminds us that while buildings change, their types largely stay the same.  An architect can differ from a certain form all he/she wants.  Changing function is, and will always be, more difficult to do.