Anne Holtrop
Green Corner Building
- ArchitectStudio Anne Holtrop
- LocationMuharraq, Bahrain
- ClientSheikh Ebrahim Center
- PhotographerAnne Holtrop
BJARKE INGELS As I see it, Anne Holtrop has created a new contemporary vernacular architecture for Bahrain. In downtown Muharraq he has used local labor, cheap concrete, and casting on the ground itself to imagine an architecture that is almost geological in its character. Precast concrete panels seem like giant slabs of raw rock inheriting their texture and quality from the sandy soils they have been cast upon. Cast aluminum doors inherit the same solid texture. In his own words, he is interested in how tactility and materiality are transmitted from matter to matter - ground to concrete, concrete to aluminum - with each handover evolving the expression.His upcoming Misk Art Institute in Riyadh promises to do with cast glass what he started with sand-cast concrete at the Green Corner.
Green Corner Building
The Green Corner building takes it name from an existing corner with a vertical garden designed by Patrick Blanc. The building will be build against a parking, designed by Christian Kerez.
The buildings floor plan consists of two identical sized rooms and a core in between. The plan is very shallow in depth and has one long main facade with two short end facades. With the shallow depth of the plan, the facade itself is the main spatial element.
The facade is made out of sand casted structural wall elements with a strong relief. The elements are casted on the ground next to the building. Each cast results in a unique imprint on the element. At the position of the windows and the corners of the building, the relief is visible, as a geological cut in the ground.
On the interior the sand casting is repeated in the concrete floor slabs, which are made in the sameway. In front of the windows large shutters can be moved. The shutters (and the entrance door) aremade out of sand casted aluminium with the relief facing towards the interior. Contrary to the concrete elements, the aluminium sand casts are hollow. Through the windows, the interior of the casts can be seen.
