LEESER Architecture: Make Future Present

LEESER Architecture performed for the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates full design services including Programming, Concept Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Bidding and Negotiating, Construction Documentation and Construction Administration for this 10,000 m2 (110,000 ft2) Biosphere, consisting of three separate biomes, a Mediterranean, Tropical, and Vernalized. A continuous ramp circling each biome and a central atrium leading to the roof terrace allows for visitors to experience all climates in a single path.

The Tri-Climatic Biosphere is sited on the Royal Palace Grounds in Abu Dhabi, challenging the difficult task of housing and maintaining three radically different thermal environments in the extreme desert climate of the UAE . The internal climates are contained within an ETFE membrane. The use of the polymer Ethylene Tetra Flouro Ethylene (ETFE) across the enclosure and interior of the building has allowed to achieve maximum efficiency and minimum cost, while gaining flexibility in form and transparency

This Penthouse loft in SoHo, New York is a radical departure form the conventional deadening perfectionist Condo design the city is inundated with. It emphasizes the use of randomly placed marble slabs as an alternative or critical design strategy to the overly perfectionist cartesian grid, allowing for a more economic, fluid and flexible use of materials. At the same time the design is allowing complexity and contradictory scenarios of our current cultural, social, environmental and economic world to be accepted and understood in not just negative ways, but also as an opportunity to reimagine the world with new hope and energy.

This design for the elevator ride from Manhattan’s Grand Central Station up to the Observation Deck on the 57th floor of One Vanderbilt Avenue is an exercise in completely reshaping the visitors expectation of a typical mid-Manhattan sightseeing experience. The elevator is lined with full-size floor to ceiling video screens. giving you the experience of riding down, instead of up and passing several completely unexpected interior and eventual upside down exterior environments, only to arrive in the middle of a quiet and calm forest rather than on top of Manhatan’s mid-town skyline. Voice by Laurie Anderson, video production by Alexey Marfin.

The design for Museum of the Moving Image focuses on understanding moving images as more than Hollywood films and its history. In this design, digital media art is a main contributor to the genre. The very light blue color of the facade, almost non perceivable pale blue of the museums floors and the intense Yves Klein blue of the cinema are reminders of blue being the color of the digital world. The same can be said for the triangulation of the facade and the cinema’s interior surfaces, they are directly linked to the triangulated language of digital spacial constructs. When entering the museum, by opening the doors, which are a major part of the museums sign, one literally breaks the sign, symbolically tearing the museum down form the traditional sacredness of conventional museums. The interior of the museum consists mostly of slightly leaning and non orthogonal walls and surfaces, alluding to motion as one of the essential elements in the environment of films as well as digital media. When walking through the museum, one experiences slight shifts of perception and seemingly straight walls reveal themselves different while they are perfect surfaces for projections, rather than the display of framed images you would find in a more traditional museum environement.

Visit Museum Website >>

AWARDS (selected)

2013 Red Dot Design Award for Architecture and Urban Design
2011 Public Design Commission of the City of New York "Award for Excellence in Design"

PRESS (selected)

LONDON TIMES: The World's 50 Best Museums
ARCH DAILY: Museum of Moving Image Wins 2013 Red Dot Design Award
NEW YORK TIMES: Immersed in images and an age of Blurred Boundaries
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Designed to Evoke the Future of Filmmaking
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Lights, Camera, Astoria
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: How Film Transforms Our Reality
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Up Into the Dark
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: NYC's New Film Shrine
DOMUS: Museum of the Moving Image
ARCHITECT: Museum of the Moving Image
ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER: CRIT > Museum of the Moving Image
DESIGN BOOM: LEESER Architecture's Museum of the Moving Image Now Open
HUFFINGTON POST: Tour the Newly Opened Museum of the Moving Image
BUILDIPEDIA: Film as Alternate Reality

Bangkok, Thailand | 2010 - present

EM Quartier is a retail complex consisting of three new buildings and one building renovation, connected by a plaza, a pedestrian street and several bridges with Bangkok’s elevated metro system running right through the middle of it. The buildings total about 300,000 m2 (3,000,000 sf ) of mixed use retail space, restaurants, food market and one of the world’s largest automated robotic below ground parking structures. Key features include a 30’ open air garden on the fifth floor, six stories of dining terraces easily accessible on a long helical ramp, an eight theater cinema complex including a 3D-Imax theater as well as a pedestrian street, a five story waterfall, and various event and performance spaces.

The largest shopping center in southeast Asia, Leeser Architecture has designed architecture that evokes the synthesis of beauty and unpredictability found in both nature and urbanism. The buildings do not follow the conventional rigor of traditional malls, floor plates are shifted so they do not align with the floors above in order to allow for a more fluid and organic experience for the visitor. There is a large commercial-free water garden on one of the upper levels leading up to the spiraling subtle floor ramp allowing easy access to the about 50+ restaurants . These subtle purposefully designed imperfections provide outdoor terraces for the visitors, blurring the boundary between inside and out.

Leeser Architecture was invited to propose an alternative concept design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The design is based on the environmentally most responsible strategy of keeping as much as possible of the existing structure while at the same time providing completely new experiences allowing for various intimate garden and gallery spaces. The project allows for separate “courtyard” spaces providing exterior exhibition spaces as well as access to natural light within the large interior of the museum. The exterior is treated like a large “found object” seemingly slightly floating above the surrounding park.

Our proposal for the Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base is a radical departure from more traditional and increasingly outmoded models of urban design.

The ubiquitous urban grid has become a relic of the past and is quickly becoming an obstacle to radically different future urban-use concepts, concepts preferencing the pedestrian over the car, setting new goals and standards for cultural, social and economic interaction in this rapidly growing mega city. Shenzhen, being the central urban force between the cities of Hong Kong and Macau, presents an opportunity - if not a necessity - to take a radical forward looking approach of how this future global urban force can be an absolutely unique as well as an unmistakably recognizable future urban center, a center that sets new standards of cultural, social and economic harmony, while at the same time being a place setting new standards of ecological, sustainable and human quality. This is a city designed to not just enable, but to actively encourage 24 hour urban activities, a city open to all aspects of urban life, offering a multitude of opportunities and experiences for its inhabitants, a city primarily designed for easy accessibility and organic, natural opportunities of communication, transportation and exchange.

This bridge design is linking the urban fabric of Shenzhen to a natural reservoir with the inclusion of a Ferris wheel, and additional secondary recreational programs such as a playground, cafes and green spaces. The unusual design of the bridge allows it to host a series of programs that aim at making the bridge itself a place of activity rather than conceiving it solely as a place of passage making it a destination in itself. The ferris wheel allows to overlook the mountainous landscape Shenzhen is known for in unprecedented ways and aims at becoming an urban landmark for the city.

Liget, Budapest | 2014

“Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words.” - Franz Liszt

The György Ligeti House of Music is envisioned to be a destination that will be as distinctive in form as the Hungarian Music it represents.

An iconic structure, the House of Music will inspire visitors before they even set foot inside the space. It has been created with the intent of being a catalyst for education and communication of Hungarian musical history and genres including Classical, Folk, Contemporary, Pop and Operetta as well as the physics of sound and the physiological nature of hearing. It will take the curious on a journey by using a series of highly experiential design responses merged with the architectural fabric of the building to connect with the senses of touch, sight and sound rather than simply plinthed artifacts.

Through time the parallels between Music and Architecture, two practices based on rhythm, proportion and harmony have been well documented and quoted, most famously by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who noted “Music is liquid architecture, Architecture is frozen music.” This bond which is brought together by an underlying code of Mathematics and Geometry has been explored, in the process unearthing a unique concept which informs the design: the Gyroid.

The Gyroid contains neither straight lines nor planar symmetries creating dynamic territory for Architectural exploration. For the House of Music the single surface shape has been inflated and manipulated to reveal a series of organic and highly flexible spaces, ideal for exhibitions, installations and performance.

Although our architectural response is far from conservative, we believe the first space to be dedicated solely to Hungary’s musical culture should not be silenced through its design. It should be a bold, contemporary facility which inspires and excites visitors from across the globe that are welcomed in to the House of Music.

PRESS

INHABITAT: Extraordinary House of Hungarian Music Has No Straight Lines or Planar Surfaces

The Helix Hotel in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Bay doesn’t have floors like we’re used to – instead it spirals in sections of a corkscrew from top to bottom with no clear breaks, flowing from retail to residential, and hotel suites to saunas. The hollow center keeps foot traffic flowing while infusing interior spaces with coastal air and natural light, while on the outside GROW panels are fast at work harnessing solar and wind energy. Because of its unique design, every room has a slighly different view — perfect for watching the Zaha Hadid’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge just next door.

Leeser Architecture’s design of the Helix Hotel won the invitation-only competition sponsored by Al Qudra Real Estate and QP International. In cooperation with environmental design consultants at Atelier Ten, the Helix Hotel, which nearly floats right into the Persian Gulf, will maximize use of local natural resources likes sun, wind, and ocean water while keep guests comfortable in all 208 rooms.

GROW panels made from 100% recyclable polyethylene will be installed on the exterior and will collect energy from both the sun and the wind. Interior temperatures will be managed by a cascading ocean-fed waterfall in the atrium that will help maintain interior climate and humidity levels, while a retractable glass wall will open up to cool sea breezes that constantly circulate fresh air.

PRESS:

Abu Dhabi’s Spiraling Helix Hotel:

https://inhabitat.com/abu-dhabis-spiraling-helix-hotel/

SoHo, NY

London, England | 2009

LEESER Architecture was extended an invitation from the Mayor of London to participate in the London 2012 Olympic Park design competition. It included the design of an iconic structure that will benefit locals and visitors alike.

A site was chosen because of its close proximity to the River Lea and the inspiration and possibilities this location holds. The idea of a floating lake was proposed. This structure will provide a place for families to visit, both tourists and locals, providing breathtaking views over the Olympic Park as well as over London in the distance. There are no visible borders or edges which gives visitors the sensation of being elevated upon a cloud, one feels suspended above the vast expanses of the Olympic Park. Utilizing the large amounts of rain London receives each year, the edge of the Floating Lake contains computer controlled water nozzles that allow for a continuous patterned waterfall spanning the complete perimeter, giving the appearance of the lake overflowing its edge. The space below is well suited for casual concerts, performances or street theatre.

New York, NY | 2011

Located in Manhattan's far west side, the Mercedes House South Lobby project is a 2,500 sq ft space serving 29 stories of luxury residences in the iconic new development by Two Trees Management Company. The simple, yet dramatic space transforms the residents' daily routine into a dynamic sensory experience. Two lines of color shifting LEDs glow above a uniquely patterned terrazzo floor, while a ribbon of diffuse, reflective glass emphasizes the drama and energy of the sloped ceiling. A panoramic display of digital artwork is integrated into the custom millwork of the lobby, further enlivening the static surfaces.

LEESER Architecture's design for a sister lobby and a 30,000 sq ft fitness center, lounge, spa, and roof deck are currently under construction in the same development.

PRESS

DOMUS: Mercedes House South Lobby
INHABITAT: LEESER Architecture finishes LED-lit Luxury Lobby for Mercedes House

Moscow, Russia | 2008

The Moscow Economic School designs take into account a connection with one’s surroundings, incorporating both the natural environment and constructed landscapes into a functional educational domain for students. The school consists of a nursery school, primary school, middle school, senior high school and universal multipurpose spaces.

The emphasis is on the indoor/outdoor spaces, in-between circulation network, indoor environment, landscapes and study centers. With these bases in mind, two distinctly different but related strategies are proposed.

The landscape onto which the campus is constructed is the enclosure and space-defining element for the school. The leftover spaces of the typical campus are given educational purposes, and then woven into the building itself, blurring the distinction between indoor and outdoor educational space. Each space fosters a balance in the development of personality, academic excellence and a sense of community.

Chelsea, NY

Yakustk, Russia | 2007

The Museum and Scientific Research Center and Laboratory study Siberian mammoths and permafrost, the natural habitat where their remains have been found. LEESER Architecture’s pioneering design creates a shelter for life within extreme surroundings, preserving the permafrost and fostering a comfortable learning, working and socializing environment. The Museum, totaling 70,000 SF, is sited at the foot of the Tchoutchour Mouran, a hill that punctuates the vast flat landscape of western Yakutsk.

Designed as a low-impact, highly insulated, and well-conditioned response to the extreme climate, the Museum is elevated on structural supports 20 feet above the patterned ground. Minimal surface area contact enables as little heat transfer as possible to the thermally sensitive permafrost. Extensive indoor gardens promote a sense of year-round natural life even in the desolate winter months. Cascading at the perimeter of the building’s interior, lush thick mats of moss and lichen, the natural insulators of permafrost ground, grow between a latticework of pathways.

The Museum’s translucent skin is patterned after the logic of self-regulating geometries of the surrounding permafrost. The envelope is constructed as a glazed, super-insulated double wall façade, with an Aerogel lattice network situated between the glazing layers. Natural light is allowed into the interior perimeter zones while Aerogel’s silica pores trap gas modules to strategically retard the transfer of heat energy.

AWARDS

AIA New York Chapter 2008 Design Award

PRESS

DEZEEN: Mammoth and Permafrost Museum by LEESER Architecture
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD: LEESER Wins Mammoth Competition
WORLD ARCHITECTURE NEWS: Cool Architecture - LEESER Architecture Wins Competition for World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum in Siberia

Heidelberg, Germany | 2008

The emblematic history of Heidelberg is both reflected and inversed in the renovation and addition to this existing 5,500 square meter (59,000 square feet) performing arts space. A dual layer façade consisting of glass behind a metal panel system wraps the mass of the 8,000 square meter (86,000 square feet) addition which expands into the available space of its surroundings. The volume of the 550-seat main stage theater floats above the entry and lobby. Voids in the metal panels reveal fluorescent neon tubes, which comprise a dynamic display of the theater’s program, activating the 3-dimensional surface pattern.

The deliberate application of modern technologies represents a diversion from Heidelberg’s ancient roots in the history of archaeology, philosophy, art and literature, and, simultaneously, a look into the multiple dimensions and layers of the city’s background.

Once in the lobby, the visitor is allowed visual access to the theater support program and the orchestra pit, which are typically hidden from public view. Inside the performance space, the wall surface is mapped with a traditional romantic landscape, which engages the audience in the transitory nature of performance while acknowledging the longevity of art in the context of Heidelberg’s Romantic tradition.

Gijon, Spain | 2007

Feedback Exhibition

The exhibition architecture is a map, one depiction of a geography of new media art. Instead of the abstraction and inscription of geography as a map, the procedure is run in reverse; the curatorial abstraction is made physical, and inscribed within the volume of the Laboral Art Center.

This map is to encourage a participatory drift and exploration of the gallery environment and to suggest established and emergent relationships between each individual artwork.

Through the creasing, scoring, cutting, turning, enfolding, and unfolding of a single surface, the map is the new space of the gallery, with the artworks mapped onto and in some cases into the thin skin.

PRESS

WORLD ARCHITECTURE NEWS: All Play and No Work

Highlands, New York | 2009

This residential project is located in the Highlands, Upstate New York, embedded in a lush wood with an east-facing view over the Hudson River. The house rests on a natural, rocky platform and adapts itself to the topography. All program parts have been optimally oriented according to their specific uses - the dining, living, and master bedrooms overlook the river, while the kids’ bedrooms and other facilities are turned toward a pond. The kitchen forms the center of the house.

Approaching the building from a higher street level, the visitor’s first perspective is from above, so that the roof becomes a fifth façade. Both façade and roof are covered with fiber cement panels, blending the building into the landscape. The border between the outside and the inside is blurred as the concrete skin dives into the interior walls of the house.

Hong Kong, China | 2006

By positioning the program across the available site, and by simultaneously lifting and partially separating the slabs to the allowable height, the design takes advantage of the idea of maximum height and footprint. By doing so, the design introduces three significant elements: a public park on the street level, a private campus in mid level, and a semi-public garden on the roof. The result is a strong architectural presence providing the school with an iconic, absolutely unique identity.

Lifting the three main floors at alternating corners achieves several goals at the same time. On the ground floor, the “forest park” is a public thoroughfare and main entrance to the HKDI; in the mid-level, the schools’ campus acts as a private “rain forest,” and on the roof level lies the semi-public “desert garden” with a swimming pool. The project utilizes the unique climate of Hong Kong, allowing sun where desired and providing shade where needed, as well as satisfying the need for communal public and private spaces within the school. A collective street branches off a public passage. Each discipline is arranged along the street, allowing a sense of community without relinquishing each school’s identity.

Collaboration with MVRDV

Due to the events of September 11, 2001, the 3LD performance group was in the need of a new home base to replace their former Lower Manhattan location. It was the first cultural institution to rebuild at Ground Zero. LEESER Architecture was commissioned to design a 12,000 square foot facility to house the production and viewing of cutting edge, large scale, multimedia performances and art. The design focuses on opening the conventionally hidden activities of theater production to the public, be it the casual passer-by or the theater visitor by allowing a full view of performances from the street.

Proposal for Grand Central Station, NY, exhibited at Venice Biennale 2008

New York, NY | 2002

Located on Manhattan’s west side the design reorganizes the conventional bar layout bringing typical back of house element, the restroom, to the forefront. The main wall of the restroom is a one way mirror—giving users on the inside a view of themselves, while giving passersby a full view into the unisex washroom. The activities which are usually hidden behind closed doors are exposed, transforming the façade into an intimate performance space.

PRESS

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD: Glass, Bot, Pod

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The new art scene hang-out in the East Village, NY in the early 80’s after closure of the Red Bar a few blocks further downtown. The bar was leaning, the floor sloping with a large void along the bar, separating the customer from the bar itself. The void revealed a narrow view into the basement which had seemingly unrelated and unscheduled exhibitionist performances taking place.

The Red Bar drew the attention of the NY art scene, with Andy Warhol covering it on his Andy Warhol TV channel. It stood out, people initially were mistaking it as a laundromat or ambulance station as it was brightly lit, just in stark contrast to the typical dark Irish Pub of those days. It introduced Europe’s New Wave music to NY and became extremely popular in the art world until it closed down after only two years and was the forerunner of the Gold Bar opening a year later a few blocks north in the East Village.