Last Architecture

House S | Roger Christ | Last Architecture

2011-12-15T04:33:00.000-08:00

This specific construction assignment is a central topic of today’s urban development: the roof area as building site which can be covered with independent buildings – urban compression by utilization of roof areas as valuable building land.

Thereby the architect is always confronted with the question of how to handle with the existing building in a contemporary sense. In the case of House S a 60´s bungalow, built by interior architect Wilfried Hilger for himself and his family.

Due to space limitations the new owners, a family of four, decided to heightening the existing bungalow and furthermore to renovate the basic structure.

To keep the bungalow’s typical character three single boxes were placed on a cantilevered flat roof, which are connected only by a glass corridor.

The new structure creates zones with different qualities: in the south-west a meadow with a small apple tree, in the north a stone paved courtyard with a pine tree and in the east a roof terrace with a magnolia.

In one of the new boxes the master bedroom, dressing room and bath room is located. The two other boxes function as personal living room and home office for the landlords.

In the first floor nearly all walls and installations were removed, so that a large living room could be created. An open kitchen was placed in the midst of that living area.

This floor additionally includes the children’s rooms with dressing room and bath room.
In the ground floor a guest room and an additional apartment is located.
By the usage of triple glazed windows and highly effective insulation an energetically optimized building could be realized.

Project description House S | Wiesbaden
Client: Private
Design: Roger Christ
Assistants: Ronni Neuber, Julia Url
Structural Engineering: Schmitt + Thielmann und Partner | Wiesbaden
Photographer: Thomas Herrmann | Stuttgart

Materials and surfaces
Walls: facing concrete, oak rough cut, white lacquered wood, profilit glass, dry construction white painted
Ceilings: suspended plsterboard ceiling, white
Floorings: oak parquet (oiled finish), sisal wall to wall carpet
Terrace floor: timber floor
Kitchen: Bulthaup white
Face of the building: superfine plaster, glass, profilit glass, oak rough cut
Sun protection: textile screen white
Building data
Size of the plot: 873 m²
Living space: 452 m²
Start of construction: 06/2010
Completion: 07/2011

Ibermutuamur Building | DENORTE | Last Architecture

2011-12-15T04:17:00.000-08:00

DESCRIPTION: “A building stands in all its complexity of lines on the eye. Sometimes, given its size and proximity of the spectator who contemplates it is impossible to perceive its volume, forcefulness, and therefore perceive it as a symbol.

Because we want buildings without coats, without haughtiness emblematic, not exorbitant budgets, buildings that speak of the people who make the company and that they relate well with others that are not part of it. Buildings, quietly, transcend, because charisma in the design found in those forms that survived their function.

Hence, beyond the building’s skyline symbol, the building show, free avant-garde building is the building that blends with the company that hosts and the surrounding environment, with the brand it represents. It is the building that never dies, because it becomes an icon of popular ideas …”

Architects: Roberto Gómez – DENORTE
Location: Murcia, Spain
Customer: Servicio de preventión de Ibermutuamur, S.A. Year of Construction: 2010 Constructor: Jemeca, S.A. Useful surface: 1.753,08 M2. T otal surface: 2.200,19 M2. Photographer: D.David Frutos

Wildbach- & Lawinenverbauung | KREINERarchitektur | Last Architecture

2011-12-15T04:11:00.000-08:00

Customer friendliness, openness and transparency, a functional floor plan solutions with offices, archives, a canteen, a meeting room and a multifunctional foyer featuring the construction of the torrent and avalanche control in the south Liezen.

The curved building of the office building, storehouse, and the cubic orientation workshop with docked down to the impressive panorama Grimming, offering light-filledrooms and adapt sensitively to the surrounding landscape.

The materiality of the ensemble takes clear content related to the Torrent and Avalanche Control: from untreated larch wood, glass, raw stone, concrete and waterradiate authenticity, sustainability and love of nature. Seating for the light, translucent, filigree wooden body of the upper floor firmly on the “base” of slate-green serpentinite -stone gabions on – penetrated only by the glass portal that is the view onto the pond, thewave motion in the evening sun on the natural exposed concrete walls of the foyersreflects.

The wooden, timeless purist hall, glazed front side, bordering the ensemble in its expansion to the south. The curved roof of the office complex symbolizes wood shingled from far away the “wave” as an architectural brand and symbol of progress and future orientation

Architects: KREINERarchitektur ZT GmbH
Location: A-8940 Liezen, Schönauerstraße 50, Austria
Completed: 2007 Photographs: Mirja Geh

South Mountain Community Library | Richärd+Bauer | Last Architecture

2011-12-14T04:18:00.000-08:00

Academic libraries and public libraries have very different missions. The first are the home of term papers and cramming for final exams, the latter have story time and need to stock the latest John Grisham novel. They even “tend to be very different in what materials they collect and how they go about things,” says James E. Richärd, AIA, of Phoenix-based architecture firm Richärd+Bauer, down to the fact that “academic libraries do everything on the Library of Congress system, and the public libraries use the Dewey Decimal system.” But in Phoenix, the two have been combined in a new joint venture between the South Mountain Community College and the Phoenix Public Library system.

The 54,000-square-foot South Mountain Community Library, which was designed by Richärd’s firm and opened this fall, is located on the eastern edge of the college’s campus. The two-story structure is clad in a copper rainscreen and capped by five glazed volumes that serve as lanterns after sunset. “From the site perspective, the library needed its own identity,” Richärd says, “a place where the public could come and not feel like they were being buried in the middle of campus.” To that end, the library is sited just off 24th St. and is oriented so that the public can approach without ever entering campus proper.

The vertically striated skin—the pattern of which was influenced by the look of a bar code—is more than just a pretty face. The active rainscreen hides integrated gutters and downspouts to shed water runoff and all of the building’s lateral bracing. As it weathers, it will retain its metallic tone. In many climates, copper would weather to green, but in Arizona, Richärd says, “it patinates to a soft, dirty penny kind of a color.” And though based on a square volume, “at the edges we pull, push, and plug in different elements to attenuate the basic building block for views, for access, and for … [onsite] courtyards.”

Inside, the program had to be carefully distributed to serve both the students and the area residents. Public-library functions—including a children’s area, teen area, and multipurpose room—are confined to the first floor. The community-college functions—100 computer terminals, periodicals, and research stacks, along with multimedia classrooms and a digital-production studio—are upstairs. The goal was not to duplicate functions, but to create an integration between the academic and public library spaces—“a permeability to the floors,” Richärd says.

There are two main entrances, one through the public façade, the other on the campus side. The copper skin continues inside to mark the vestibules, and the floors are polished terrazzo with crushed mirror aggregate that reflects the sunlight that enters through shaded widows. Four large staircases—with mill-finished steel panels supporting the handrails—mark the quadrants of the building. Starting at the landings, water-jet-cut aluminum panels overlay the steel, with a different pattern for each stair. The four motifs are abstractions of asters, citrus, sorghum, and cotton, the four major crops grown in the area’s not-too-distant agricultural past. The patterns continue on the glazed balustrades of each quadrant of the second level as transparent vinyl appliques.

To bring warmth to the largely glass-and-metal interior, the designers introduced a wood ceiling. Small wood planks of varying thicknesses and depths are nailed individually to the ceiling—“It’s easy to make something random,” Richärd says, “it would be a lot more difficult if we were asking someone to create a slick surface”—and spaced slightly to expose an acoustic material that allows the sculptural ceiling to double as a sound-soak. Snaking across the ceiling plane is a light trough that contains all of the utilities for the building, including mechanical, electrical, and data. Fluorescent strip lights are directed to bounce off of the ductwork. This creates a diffuse glow that filters through frosted panels and provides all of the library’s ambient light.

Daylight filters through the lantern volumes overhead. Triple-glazed frosted panes allow daylight in without contributing to glare; the system also ventilates hot air to minimize heat gain.
The layering of function and space works: Children lining up for story time don’t bat an eye at students hunkered down in group study rooms. And while the combination of library functions may be unique, at its core, the building “is about providing the spaces for people to interact,” Richärd says, “both with each other and with information.”

Project Credits

Project South Mountain Community Library
Client Maricopa County Community Colleges District and Phoenix Public Library
Owner Representative Arlen M. Solochek, AIA
Architect Richärd+Bauer, Phoenix—James E. Richärd, AIA (designer and principal-in-charge); Kelly Bauer (project manager and interior design); Steve Kennedy, AIA, Andrew Timberg (project architects and construction administration); Will Craig (construction administration); Mark Loewenthal, Brant Long, Lee Swanson, AIA, Alex Therien (staff architects); Stacey Crumbaker (interior design and signage); Claudia Saunders (interior design); Melissa Pulsifer (graphic design and signage)
M/E/P Engineer Energy Systems Design
Structural Engineer Rudow + Berry
Civil Engineer Dibble Engineering
General Contractor Haydon Building Corp.
Landscape Architect Kimley-Horn and Associates
Acoustical Consultant McKay Conant Hoover
Lighting Design Roger Smith Lighting Design
Library Building Consultant Drew Harrington Associates
Size 54,000 square feet
Cost $16.2 million

Materials and Sources

Access Floor ASM Modular Systems asmproducts.com
Building Management Systems Johnson Controls johnsoncontrols.com
Carpet Tandus Flooring tandus.com; Masland Contract maslandcontract.com
Ceilings Stradlings Fine Cabinetry (western red cedar) stradlings.com; American Acrylic Corp. (Lumasite) americanacrylic.com
Copper Skin Progressive Roofing progressiveroofing.us
Furniture Knoll knoll.com; Allermuir allermuir.com; Kimball International kimball.com; Bernhardt Design bernhardtdesign.com; Herman Miller hermanmiller.com
Glass ACI Glass Products vitroamerica.com; Arch Aluminum & Glass archaluminum.net
HVAC Temtrol temtrol.com; Seiho International seiho.com
Lighting Lithonia Lighting, an Acuity Brands Co. lithonia.com; Axis Lighting axislighting.com; Waldmann Lighting waldmannlighting.com
Lighting Contols Crestron Electronics crestron.com
Millwork Stradlings Fine Cabinetry stradlings.com; Kirei USA kireiusa.com; IceStone icestone.biz
Paint The Sherwin-Williams Co. sherwin-williams.com
Terrazzo Arizona Concrete Repair acriepoxy.com
Walls Stradlings Fine Cabinetry (western red cedar) stradlings.com
Window System Arcadia arcadiainc.com

The Timmelsjoch Experience Pass Museum | Werner Tscholl | Last Architecture

2011-12-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

Werner Tscholl Architects designed one of several architectural sculptures that are part of the Timmelsjoch Experience in the mountains of Austria.

A road, once a mule track, links the Passeiertal valley and the Ötztal valley. Over thousands of years, unique similarities between the two valleys evolved, triumphing over the natural boundary created by the mountains. Architectural sculptures located at several stopping places along the road, enlighten travellers about the natural surroundings, the history, the culture, the communities and the economy of the region. Explore the sculptures, expand your horizons, take the Timmelsjoch Experience.

The new Pass Museum on the North Tyrolean side juts out like an erratic boulder into the South Tyrolean side, underlining the cross-border nature of the Timmelsjoch Experience. The “Ice Cave” inside the museum pays tribute to the pioneers of the High Alpine Road and their remarkable accomplishment.

Visit the Werner Tscholl Architect website – here.

Smokehouse Room and SHRoom | Busride Design Studio | Last Architecture

2011-12-14T04:03:00.000-08:00

Busride Design Studio have designed a restaurant called The Smokehouse Room as well as an attached nightclub called SHRoom in New Delhi, India.

One of the most bizarre briefs we’ve worked with, Smokehouse Room flows organically out over 12,000 sq.ft of curves, overlooking the grandest view in India, the Qutub Heritage precinct. The Smokehouse Room frames 13th Century history in postmodern lenses.

The Smokehouse Room has 3 distinct, yet seamlessly connected offerings.We’ve tried to create a fluid, organically growing, psychedelic landscape that melts into various parts.
The Smokehouse Room is a tiny 40 seater tasting room. We created an elegant, understated, quiet atmosphere as a dramatic stage for a sensorial food performance, with subtle organic undertones. Each element in the Restaurant is hand-crafted, from the chairs and fluid partitions and window frames. Lighting and paneling is designed to create long, fluid horizontal lines, that hint at the forms and textures of the Mushroom, which served as the formal inspiration behind the venue. Touted as “One of the finest restaurants to be setup in the city”, Smokehouse Room has been called “Brilliant and irreverent”.
The Cocktail bar introduces schizophrenia into the offering, being a pristine white space in the day, and becoming an intensely coloured, constantly changing hallucinatory environment by night, which takes the trademark Smokehouse Room eccentricity into cocktails. We worked on a molten design form, that creeps up the edges of the spaces, sculpting out functionality. The idea was to work on flexible, eccentric seating ideas, including the mound-like barstools, and the floor hugging organic sofa form, such that it creates multiple seating options, for different Bar requirements. The Cocktail bar, in layout forms part of both the Restaurant and the attached Club, hence responds to both extremities in energy levels.
The Smokehouse Room is attached to the newest entrant to the Delhi Club circuit, SHRoom. With SHRoom we created a completely immersive Audio-Visual Environment, in what is intended to be the closest replica of the psychedelic mind-bending experience.The club tries to visualize an experience inside and under an exploding canopy of mushrooms, with synced effects lights and pulsing visuals. SHRoom adopts the progressive sound of EDM to create a space that breathes and lives, pushing the Club culture in the capital city into a more international space.
Smokehouse Room and SHRoom sprawl over the 3rd floor and terrace of The Crescent Mall @ the Qutub.

Talchá Store | Márcio Kogan | Last Architecture

2011-10-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

Marcio Kogan| Loja Talchá

Co Author: Diana Radomysler - Luciana Antunes

Photographer: Romulo Fialdini

Nomiya temporary restaurant | Pascal Grasso Last Architecture

2011-07-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

Parisian architect Pascal Grasso
has installed a temporary, transportable restaurant on the roof of

Le Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris.

The structure features a dining room for twelve people with a panoramic
view over the Seine and the Eiffel tower.

The restaurant comprises a glass cabin and a perforated metal screen
covering the central cooking area.

Coloured LED lighting is placed between the metal skin and the glass
core.

White Corian furniture populates the dining room.

The 18 metre-long structure was part constructed in the Cherbourg
boatyard in northern France and transported to Paris in two parts, where it
was assembled on the roof of Le Palais de Tokyo.

The restaurant takes its name, Nomiya, from a very small restaurant in
Japan.

Photos are by Nicolas
Dorval-Bory.

Photos are by Nicolas
Dorval-Bory. Here’s more from Pascal Grasso:
–
Nomiya : Temporary restaurant on the roof of the « Palais de Tokyo »
museum

The art center « Le Palais de Tokyo » asked us to imagine a temporay
piece on the roof of the building. We designed a take-down and easily
transportable module, which is a twelve seats dining room, with a panoramic
view on Paris. Nomiya is the name of the very small restaurant in Japan.

The structure is 18m long, 4m large, 3.50 m high and weights 22 tonnes.
It has been constructed in the Cherbourg boatyard, in the North of France,
and transported in two pieces by special trunks to Paris, and then set on
the roof of the Museum.

This construction is composed by a glass volume, covered by a metallic
skin on its central part.

The dining area, entirely made of glass, is looking at the Seine and the
Eiffel tower.

The central part (cooking aera) is covered by a punched made-to-measure
sheet metal. The perforations represent an aurora borealis drawing.

The lightning system is put between the glass and the metallic skins.

Composed by lines of leds, it emphasizes the drawing of the facade and
changes its colors, like a real aurora borealis.

The interior design is minimalist, with a white Corian furniture and a
grey wooden floor.

Above the dinner table, suspended leds extend the sparkling of the city.

Architect : Pascal Grasso
Artist associated : Laurent Grasso

Structure / facade engineer : ARCORA

Client: Palais de Tokyo / Electrolux

Jhouse | BBLab Arquitectos | Last Architecture

2011-07-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

The façade of this house in Valencia by Spanish architects

BBLab Arquitectos is punctured with a pattern of circular holes.

The garden-facing elevations of Jhouse are glazed from floor to ceiling
on the ground floor.

An internal iron staircase connecting the ground and first
floors appears solid in profile but has no risers, so it appears lighter
when viewed straight-on.

More stories
about houses on Dezeen »

More projects in
Spain on Dezeen »

Photography is by Ricardo Espinoza.
The following is from the architects:

J HOUSE, a “wrapping” for everyday life.
How to combine an adequate privacy together with a straight relationship
with the outdoor space in a small urban plot? How to enhance the spatial
experience in a reduced residential program?

The building section articulates the public and private areas of the
house. On the one hand, the sunny, open and transparent ground floor
dissolves into the garden, whereas on the other hand a secretive, cagey and
bright first floor introduces a more nuanced interior-exterior relationship.
Here, the desired privacy is achieved by several patios enclosed by
round-shaped lattice walls that allow seeing without being seen, and help to
regulate the intense light of Valencia.

The hanging iron staircase acts as “transitional” device between the two
floors. The spatial layout on both levels seeks to achieve further visual
depth by constructing several interior-exterior sequences.

This is the project of a house characterized by its topological qualities
rather than by its functional ones. The distinct and qualified spaces allow
their residents to enjoy everyday experiences.

Data
Architects

(Design, Detailed Design and Site Management)

Ana Bonet Miró

Luca Brunelli

Team

Jean-Baptiste Joye

Carla de Prada

Juan Lobato

Enrique Lopéz (Quantity Surveyor, Site Security and Management)
External Consultants

Structural engineer: Jesús Egea

Services: Maria Ángeles González

Date: 2006 – 2010

Location: Rocaford, Valencia, Spain

Client: J. B. Miró

Gross surface: 353 m2

Building cost: 375.000 €

Characteristics of work: Private residence

Placebo Pharmacy | KLab Architecture | Last Architecture

2011-07-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

Greek studio KLab Architecture created
this pharmacy in Athens by wrapping a round facade punctured by Braille
lettering over the existing octagonal building, with plants occupying the
space in between.

The two levels of the Placebo Pharmacy are linked by a long ramp that
curls round one side of the circular plan.

A shop and dispensing chemist are housed on the ground floor with offices
and a surgery for visiting practitioners above.

Bespoke display cabinets in the shop downstairs radiate outwards from a
central cash desk.

More about KLab Architecture on
Dezeen »

Photographs are by P. Kokkinias.

The information below is from the designers:

The design process for this large (600m2) super-local pharmacy forced us
to shift our viewpoint and come up with a virtual building—a placebo
pharmacy. The octagonal shape of the existing structure was re-formed into a
cylinder in order to create a spiral which seeks to converse with the rapid
motion on Vouliagmenis Avenue, the urban artery on which the building
stands.

The panels of the façade are perforated using Braille, which both alludes
to the system’s use on pharmaceutical packaging and boosts visibility by
allowing the light to find its way into the interior. The new facade also
protects the interior while acting as a lure for passers-by. Inside, the
product display mirrors the circular frontage, while a ramp up to the upper
level extends the dynamism of the exterior spiral into the interior space.

The Pharmacy is arranged over two floors, the ground floor being the
primary shop space with the upper mezzanine floor consisting of ancillary
office space used as a temporary surgery for visiting health professionals.

The pharmacy is arranged in plan in a radial pattern with the main
cashiers desk acting as the focal point. The product displays fan out from
this focal point giving the cashier the ability to view the whole pharmacy
from this central area. The drug dispensary, preparation areas and toilets
are also arranged off this radial pattern. This pattern gives a natural flow
to the space and allows light deep into the center of the plan at all times
throughout the day.

Principal architect: Konstantinos Labrinopoulos

Façade artistic implementation: Xara Marantidou

Design team: Enrique Ramirez, Mark Chapman, Kostis Anagnostakis

Images credit: P. Kokkinias

Ateliers Ciudad de las Artes | Lucio Morini | Last Architecture

2011-06-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Argentinian studios Lucio Morini
and GGMPU Architects have completed a
campus housing artists’ studios in Cordoba, Argentina.

Called Ateliers Ciudad de las Artes, the project encompasses ten studios
organised around an interior plaza.

Each unit includes a double-height studio and living quarters, leading to
an open terrace on the roof.

Sliding glass panels allow each studio to be connected to the plaza
within, while the exterior features folding perforated metal shutters.

The following details are from Lucio Morini:
–
10 STUDIOS FOR ARTIST
These studios belong to the Córdoba Province City of the Arts, a campus
housing painting, sculpture, photography, and music schools.

They are to be lent to invited artists for short periods of time, so that
they can live and work in them and develop their work within a private realm,
while sharing their life and work experience with the students.

A continuous strip defining the edge of an interior plaza, it holds 10
studios -8 for painters and 2 for sculptors- with a nearly identical design.

A continuous strip defining the edge of an interior plaza, it holds 10
studios -8 for painters and 2 for sculptors- with a nearly identical design.

Each studio is a 2 story unit with a double height, glass-enclosed space
facing either south (painters´ units) or north (sculptors´ units).

A large lifting glass door allows the interior of the studio to merge
with the plaza. The bedroom and toilet are located on the first floor, and
the living, dining and cooking space on the second, which allows their
expansion towards an open terrace.

The building is shaped by a sequence of parallel planes, a U-glass plane
towards the south, and a transparent glass façade facing north.

The latter is covered by a system of folding, perforated-metal shutters
which vary in transparency depending on the light conditions and position;
producing variations in the façade pattern.

CREDITS AND DATA:
Project title: ATELIERS CIUDAD DE LAS ARTES

Location: Cordoba, Argentina

Completion / construction: 2006-2007

Architects: Lucio Morini + GGMPU Architects –
Gramatica/Morini/Pisani/Urtubey

Project Manager: Iciar Lecuona

Structural engineer: Fragueiro & Novillo Eng.

Client: IECSA S.A. – Electroingeniería S.A.

Building area: 950 m2

Distance of Fog | StudioGreenBlue | Last Architecture

2011-06-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

Japanese architects StudioGreenBlue
have completed a house in Kōnosu City, Saitama Prefecuture, Japan, with an
interior featuring white perforated screens throughout the space.

Called Distance of Fog, the project incorporates metal screens to provide
sense of privacy within the open-plan space.

Th perforated partitions each have a different pattern and have been
arranged to overlap each other.

This overlapping creates a constantly changing pattern depending on the
angle of the viewer and provides a distorted view of whatever is behind the
screen.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

This house is called “Distance of Fog” and it is situated in the suburbs
of Tokyo.

The project site is located on a cul de sac with seven other single
family homes.

Cul de sac’s in Japan often are used as a common space for the families
that live on them, and they are often used as children’s playgrounds or
places of gathering.

But unfortunately, most suburban Japanese homes tend to be disconnected
to the street.

This subdivision is certainly no exception.

The client requested an “expanse of space” and an “open floorplan” which
suited their lifestyle.

Therefore, we decided to design a house with a bright presence.

We also wanted to extend the brightness into the rooms and naturally
illuminate the common spaces within the home.

Privacy became the biggest challenge when deciding to open the home up to
the street.

It became apparent that the proximity of the home to the road presented a
challenge of separation between spaces.

So we decided to create a sense of distance with the concept of looking
through fog.

This concept breaks up the visual range, without creating a solid
barrier.

Using the concept of filtering an image, we adjusted the level of visual
information penetrating through multiple layers, creating an effect similar
to looking though fog.

First, we moved the house to the back of the lot and maximized the front
yard.

Then we adjusted the level of visual information as it relates to the
finish floor level, placement of walls, and also reflections on mirrors and
glass.

Furthermore, we separated the private room by using perforated metal
screens, each one of a unique pattern, and they were arranged to very
specific locations.

Belle Iloise House | Opus 5 | Architecture

2011-02-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

Paris studio Opus 5 Architects have completed this island house in Brittany, France, featuring a glazed façade with sections covered by stone screens.

Called Belle Iloise House, the long building is divided in two by a glazed walkway.

The walkway houses a glazed footbridge, which connects the bedrooms to the rest of the house.

A NEW VERSION OF THE BELLE ILOISE HOUSE

n°1 NIGHT- HOUSE

This house has been designed by Opus 5 Architects, Bruno Decaris and Agnes Pontremoli. It is located on Belle-ile-en-Mer, the biggest island of Britany which is famous for its protected and wild lands. Some strict architectural rules have imposed the construction of a unique model of ‘neo-Britannic’ style: the same little houses are spread all over the island, with no proper architectural quality.

n°2 ENTRANCE

The architects have proposed a contemporary and personal vision of the traditional model imposed by the severe regulations of the site. They took the challenge to transform the existing stereotype into a new up-to-date construction, by respecting the restricted architectural rules:

Slate roof with two slides at 45 degrees, gables and limited openings (max width 1,60 m)

Despite the fact that the house aimed to be harmoniously integrated in the landscape, the reasonable stylistic daring has created fierce debate.

n°3 FACADE SEA (ARCHITECTURE PRICE OF Bretagne)

Spared volume: low and long proportions, limited height, with limited roof space. The roofing is built without salient element and only contains some panes of glass in the front.

n°4 LIVING ROOM (ARCHITECTURE PRICE OF Bretagne)

The façades are split into two: an inner skin which is entirely glazed and partially hidden by schist panels, to release the ‘regulatory’ openings. Those stone ‘paravents’ create some magical lighting effects and reflexions inside the house.

Click for larger image

n°5 CAT LIVING ROOM

When the daylight fades, the glass panels light up and disappear to create a warm atmosphere: the house seems to float.

n°6 ENTRANCE AND GLASS FOOTBRIDGE (ARCHITECTURE PRICE OF Bretagne)

The two portions of the main part of the house- living room and bedrooms, are connected by a transparent window screen and an entirely glass footbridge, enabling a clear sea view from both the inside and the outside.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro | LEED Gold Arts Center | Architecture

2011-02-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

Brown University is now the proud owner of a new Creative Arts Center that breaks the mold — literally. The LEED Gold facility by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a three-floor multi-disciplinary building that is split in half to create six floors connected by vision glazing. The result is an interactive arts center that incorporates chance interactions as a part of the creative process.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is used to breaking the design mold with project such as the Highline Park, Boston’s ICA, and the Lincoln Center remodel — so their unique interpretation of a the new creative arts space should come as no surprise. The space hosts multiple disciplines ranging from a dance studio, to video production, a theater, and a technology center. Interdisciplinary projects are a core message in the building’s design. The levels are broken in half, so each transition has access to the floor above and below with plentiful breakout spaces.
The education center’s ample daylighting and vision glazing opens the building to the street and creates a stimulating environment for experimentation with new forms of expression. The 35,000 square foot facility incorporates radical, subtle and unexpected elements in its re-orientation of an education and arts program.
+ Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Lance Armstrong Foundation Offices | Lake Flato Architects | Architecture

2011-02-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

Description from the architects:

After 10 years of leasing space in a corporate office building, the Lance Armstrong Foundation found its permanent home in the 1950s Gulf Coast Paper Co. warehouse in East Austin, an underserved community in the process of revitalization. The design breathes new life and energy into both the building and neighborhood.

The renovated facility provides office space, meeting rooms, dining facilities, an in-house gymnasium, open-air courtyard, and parking for the staff of 62. Future plans may call for adding a community-based cancer-support program to provide direct services to uninsured and underinsured East Austin residents. Achieved LEED Gold certification.

Lake Flato Architects designed a nefice for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in Austin, Texas.

Orange Cube | Jakob + Macfarlane | Architecture

2011-02-20T07:44:00.000-08:00

'orange cube' by jakob + macfarlane architects in quai rambaud, lyon, france
all images courtesy jakob + macfarlane
image © roland halbe

Paris-based jakob + macfarlane architects (dominique jakob, brendan macfarlane) 'orange cube', their soon-to-be-complete commercial and cultural complex in lyon, france.
Designed as a part of an urban planning project to replenish the docks of lyon, the five-storey orthogonal cube plays off the fluid movement of the river saône, exploring the effects of subtraction and voids on the quality and generation of space.

elevation
image courtesy RBC

Built on a regular framework of 29 x 33 m, the structure stands autonomously on the site, a wharf with a predominantly industrial background. The most noticeable element of the design - its bright orange shade - is an abstraction of lead paint, an industrial color often used for harbor zones.
The external skin is a light facade, punctured with a pixilated pattern that resembles trailing droplets, a reference to the adjacent river's flow. This porous envelope allows sightlines and natural daylighting while establishing a distinct identity for the building.

in context of the river and surrounding structures
image © roland halbe

The structural regularity of the cube is broken on the north-west corner which faces the river.
CConic in form, the large, diagonally-running void generates new space: a large atrium is created
which is circumscribed by a series of outdoor corridors that connect the office platforms together.
The facade is pulled into the depth of the volume, resulting in a shift in interior/exterior relations,
as well as facilitating light and views.Another volumetric subtraction on the entry and roof level
establish direct relations between the building, its users, and the site.

view of the void from an outdoor terrace space
image © roland halbe

roof top terrace
image © roland halbe

interior view of the design showroom
image © nicolas borel

Featuring a double-height layout, the ground floor accommodates a design showroom. the display concept, which was also created by jacob + macfarlane architects, was developed as an extrapolation of the 'orange cube's
Architectural language. taking the treatment of the facade, a three-dimensional volume was generated for an L-shaped wall that wraps around the space. Sixty 'alvéoles' are used to display furniture pieces, while the unit as a whole define the circulation of the floor.

display wall
image © nicolas borel

image © nicolas borel

image courtesy RBC

office floor
image © nicolas borel

staircase
images © nicolas borel

detail of light facade
image © nicolas borel

3D rendering of display wall units

floor plan / level 0

floor plan / level +4

section

project info:

client: rhône saône développement
surface: 6,300 m2
commercial program: headquarters cardinal group
cultural program: design showroom, RBC
cost consultant: michel forgue
electrical engineering: alto ingénierie
acoustic: avel acoustique
structure: RFR GO+
facade: T.E.S.S.

Meltino Bar & Lounge | LOFF | Last Architecture

2011-02-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

LOFF, a Portugeuse lighting design and architecture office, have designed the Meltino Bar & Lounge in Braga, Portugal.

Meltino Bar & Lounge by LOFF

MELTINO BAR & LOUNGE is a place intended to update the concept of a coffee embedded in a shopping center.
Having the strong presence of the design element, the furniture is the result of coffee derivatives, in order to allow that the community assimilates the singularity of a place that serves as a lounge and bar. Both are similar and transparent, although with different purposes. The lounge site has a relaxed atmosphere and offers gourmet products. The bar site is appropriated to drink coffee.
Cláudia Costa, LOFF atelier mentor, conceived this project from the geometrization of coffee grains, always with the concern to exclude the idea presented in the space to the final consumer, that they are drinking coffee in a commercial gallery.
The final result is the invasion made by the coffee Grains, instead of the Shopping layout. Meltino Bar & Lounge is a coffee grain that peeks, pierces walls, roofs and counters.
Meltino Bar & Lounge
In the first meeting with the client, it was asked to draw a charismatic and unique project for a bar with the identity of the brand Meltino.
The idea was to create a project that endured in the visual memories of the public. The first intention was to build a Bar inside a mall without a sense of enclosure in a confined space. The thought of how to be inside and have the feeling of being outside was always present. The box inside the box, the light, the transparence, the defragmentation of the space, the well-being associated with the simple act of drinking coffee.
Concept
A coffee grain that draws the space… a coffee made of coffee…
The underlying concept was the geometrization of the coffee grain that draws the two volumes / spaces in the plan. The grain conquers the Coffee, perforates and draws the volumes, the walls, the ceiling. Its shadow is cast in the floor, dancing in the space.
The project is divided in three areas: two volumes and an interior esplanade, which is elevated from the mall floor.
The two volumes are identical and translucent. However, they have distinct uses and furniture. The 1st Volume (lounge space) comprehends a relax area where it is served gourmet coffee. In the 2nd volume (bar space) the public can take express coffee. The coffee grain conquers the mall gallery and spies the public space inviting the public to enjoy the Coffee.
The grain was drawn on many scales. Then, a matrix was built in the form of 3 panels (3 meters high by 1 meter of anchor) which, inverted, created a total of 6 distinct panels.
All the walls where developed based in the study of the 6 panel matrix.
Double walls
It intends to reinforce the perforation of the grain and proportionate a body to the space. For this reason the walls and ceilings were duplicated. The central part of the ceiling is higher to give space a more dynamic feeling.
The structure is in pine wood which is light and easy to build. The covering of the walls, ceilings and balconies is in MDF, painted in white. The floor covering is in linoleum.
The colors chosen were the white and the brown because of the association of these with the coffee fruit and the reflection of the light.
Furniture
The crockery and the tables were also drawn with detail, aesthetics and comfort attention. The furniture was covered with a unique and new material that is a derivative from the remnants of coffee. The furniture fulfills the space and appeals to sensorial feelings.
Lighting Design
The entire project was thought to create a light balance atmosphere. For that, it was used indirect light with diachronic lamps and halogens lamps in the bar. Orange leds were applied in the brand lettering.

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Visit the LOFF website – here.

Photography by Fernando Guerra

Concept Store | Siki Im + Leong Leong | Architecture

2011-02-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

The concept store, developed in collaboration with fashion designer Siki Im, is the latest in a series of projects by Leong Leong that explore the transformation of a existing space through the insertion of a foreign figure or shape.

The structure, which is the former sales trailer for the HL23 building designed by Neil Denari, is filled end to end with large ramp-form that creates an unexpected gathering space with undefined programmatic possibilities. Soy-based spray foam is used to cover the interior and exterior of the structure creating a supple surface for inhabitation on which visitors are required to remove their shoes. Small niches and ledges are carved into the foam to create areas for display and seating. The clothes are embedded beneath the ramp on either end, encouraging visitors to explore the extents of the space and experience the clothes in very intimate environments.

Photos by David Smith

The Houl House | Simon Winstanley Architects | Architecture

2011-02-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

Simon Winstanley Architects have another award winning green house to add to their portfolio. The Houl, in southern Scotland, is not only net "zero carbon", but an impressive open-plan modern statement to boot.

The house is sited in a natural concave area of hillside facing principally west along the contours to enjoy the spectacular landscape setting of the river Ken valley and the ridges of the Rhinns of Kells hills opposite.

The intention was to create a contemporary single storey "long house" which is recessive in the landscape, sustainable in its construction, very low in energy consumption, and aiming for zero net emissions of carbon dioxide for all energy use in the house.

The design uses lightweight but highly insulated steel and timber frame construction, clad in cedar weatherboarding allowed to weather to a natural silver grey colour. The roof ﬁnish is pre-weathered grey standing seam zinc. Windows and external doors are triple glazed high performance timber, painted grey. All insulation levels are to Passiv Haus standards.

The slope of the roof of the main living accommodation follows the slope of the hillside, with the rear roof meeting the main roof at a shallower angle to allow morning sunlight to penetrate the centre of the house.

The entrance to the house is sited on the north east side of the house under the cover of the roof to provide shelter from the prevailing wind.

The principal rooms are situated along the contour of the site to enjoy the views across the valley to the west. The ancillary spaces are generally to the rear.

The house is net "zero carbon" by using very high levels of insulation, minimising air inﬁltration heating using an air source heat pump with a "whole house heat recovery ventilation system", and generating electricity using a wind turbine.

Plans

Photos: Andrew Lee-www.andrewleephotographer.com

Marc Jacobs Tokyo Flagship Store | Stephan Jaklitsch Architects | Architecture

2011-01-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

New York-based firm Stephan Jaklitsch Architects has completed marc jacob's first freestanding flagship store in the aoyama shopping district of tokyo, japan.

Offering 2,800 square feet of retail space, the new boutique employs a 'kosakubutsu', a common building element that sits above the structure's official 'shadow line' to double the visual height of the design.

Bounded by world-renowned architecture as well as structures of a quiet residential neighborhood, the design responds to the immediate context in its presence and aesthetics.

The facade, which consists of three clear zones, feature different treatment and materiality to correspond with the language of the interior: a transparent threshold is given to the street level to encourage open interaction between the store and the street, while the storey that hosts the women's ready-to-wear items is made private by striated terra-cotta. the 'lantern' level, or kosakubutsu, consists of perforated metal panels that assemble together to create a porous and bouyant look during the evening.

Star House | AGi Architects | Architecture

2010-11-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

Photographer Nelson Garrido
House designed by
AGi Architects | Bnaider, Kuwait.

Called Star House, the side of the house facing the beach has
floor to ceiling windows, affording panoramic views of the sea.

The design was initially for three detached houses, but the
client decided on a single residence with two bungalows and a
boathouse.

Photographs are courtesy of
Nelson Garrido.

The following information is from the architects:

Project Description
Nestled into the landscape, this beach house blends with the
natural topography of the coastline of Kuwait. It slowly unfolds
itself to the visitor, as it is approached from the desert.

Upon entry, one gets glimpses of the sea whilst going down to
the public space of the chalet. On this lower level, the house
extends into the landscape and the sea, accentuated by an
infinity pool in the garden.

The private side of the house, located at the entry level, is
concealed from the visitors by a bamboo wall. Bedrooms and
private living spaces remain isolated from daily activities.

A three-way stair, placed at the center of building,
organizes the different flows of family, friends and guests.

The organizational and formal structure of the beach house is
dictated by the ability to maximize views to the sea.

The initial design was master planned for three detached
dwellings, each with extensive sea views while simultaneously
achieving privacy from one another.

The client, instead, opted for a single house, two bungalows
and a boathouse, with possible plans for expansion in the future.

Click for larger image
Project Name: Star House

Type: Housing | 5000 sqm

Location: Bnaider, Kuwait

Date: 2007/2009

Client: Private
Design Team: Dr. Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea,
Georg Thesing, Bruno Martins, Alfonso Gomes, Daniel Muñoz
Medranda,

Robert A. Varghese, Abdul Hafiz Mohammed, Moyra Montoya Moyano

Company Profile
AGi architects is an international design firm providing
comprehensive services in Architecture, Planning, Urban Design,
Interior Design, Design Research and Consulting. An integration
of skills allows the creation of places that provide lasting
value for clients through distinctive and imaginative solutions.
AGi architects was established in 2005 by Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea
and Nasser B. Abulhasan.

Click for larger image
AGi architects has introduced exceptional design, management
and technical approaches to its projects in the Europe and the
Middle East from its offices in the cities of Madrid and Kuwait.
With a multidisciplinary staff of over 30 professionals
including architects, planners, landscape architects, interior
designers and other specialists, individual members of the
design team can be carefully selected to reflect the necessary
skills for the scope and scale of the project. Great emphasis is
placed on continuity so that work is client driven rather than
project centered. Clients work with architects they know and
over time, the team is able to develop a thorough understanding
of the clients’ business objectives and priorities and is able
to make more effective contributions to their projects.

Click for larger image

From Dezeen

Livraria da Vila | Isay Weinfeld | Architecture

2010-02-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Livraria da Vila (Cidade Jardim) Isay Weinfeld, São Paulo, Brazil

This Livraria da Vila store is located in Cidade Jardim Mall, in São Paulo, Brazil.

We believe that in a commercial venue, a project must always be developed so to enhance the product, its in-store merchandising, and its sales. There are, undoubtedly, innumerable ways to achieve this goal, and it is probably the nature of each approach what distinguishes each project.

We, in particular, strive for solutions that will allow customers to experience the product as comfortably as possible.

One enters the store through pivoting window-shelf-doors, on the ground floor. A staircase to the right leads to a mezzanine that runs along the border of the salon below, and is connected by walkways to three glazed volumes that cantilever over the wide central void, housing distinctly: the auditorium, to hold courses and lectures; the classical music and jazz CD section; and the space used for book launch events.

Occupying 2,300 sq m (24,760 sq ft) split on two levels, the store features a variety of ambiences, allowing customers to either withdraw in low-ceilinged, fully shelved, cozy settings and peacefully read in couches or easy chairs, or to wander through ample and scenic spaces. Kids can read and play in an exclusive area, which includes a small theatre especially designed for storytelling sessions, while family and friends groups can gather in the coffee house – double-height and fully glazed - for more enthusiastic conversations.

In addition to the U-shaped staircase at the entrance, a lift and an additional staircase serve for vertical circulation.

The Long Barn Studio | Nicolas Tye | Architecture

2010-02-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

Bedfordshire office Nicolas Tye Architects set about building this new studio for themselves when the
company outgrew a space in the director’s home.

Called The Long Barn Studio, the building takes the form of a glass box with larch-clad ends.

The south facade features a series of ‘pods’, also clad in larch, that contain a library, reprographics area, toilets and meeting room.

Designed to house a team of up to twelve people, the design features Corten steel detailing and limestone flooring.

It also incorporates a wind turbine, rainwater harvesting, reed-bed sewage treatment, compost facilities and a staff vegetable garden.

The project was nominate for the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize in 2009.

The Long Barn Studio for Nicolas Tye Architects
The Long Barn Studio is located within Mid-Bedfordshire, on the outskirts of the village of Maulden. Nicolas Tye Architects begun to out-grow an existing studio space within the director’s home (an existing barn which was converted in 2004) and the brief was to create a new-build studio space which could provide a comfortable, healthy and inspiring environment for up to a team of twelve.

One of the key design philosophies was to harmonize and complement the existing structure of the barn, the ‘farm-stead’ and arable environment within which it sits. The existing barn (which is only 20m away and also incorporates a contemporary architectural approach) provided the main planning constraint and it was essential that the new studio (both in scale and materiality) did not detract from this historic existing structure. In addition, part of the new structure would also partly sit outside of the building curtilage in the previous use set-a-side arable farmland.
After various pre-application supportive discussions with the local councillors, parish council and neighbours, the local planning authority, aided by the advice of a planning consultant, unanimously approved the design at planning committee.

The studio itself is set down within the surrounding open landscape, and the subtle materials which are used in a simple way reflect the local harmony.
The concept of the design is based around an elegant glass, rectilinear box (which compliments the existing linear lines of the adjacent barn), which is enclosed at both ends with larch clad ‘book-ends’. The Larch is treated so weathering appears uniformed both externally and internally creating seamless visual lines. The ‘frame-less’ glass panels allow high levels of natural daylight into the studio along the northern side and allow wide views of the surrounding landscape to become integrated into the studio environment. Along the southern elevation larch clad timber pods also punctuate the glass facades, which remove issues with overheating. Each pod has a dedicated use including an Architectural Library, reprographics area, toilets and meeting room. Cor-ten steel detailing is also used throughout the studio to reflect the original agricultural nature of the site and accentuates the smaller picture windows and linear roof line. Within the studio’s interior a continuous limestone floor enhances the main axis, and the space is broken up through a series of wenge ‘pods’ which contain ancillary elements including the kitchen, storage containing a materials and document library, and individual staff storage.
All external walls are built from 200mm solid block work, externally insulated and clad in larch, all the internal walls are blockwork. This principle of thermal mass prevents the studio from rapidly heating up and cooling down. The building far exceeds the various building regulation requirements. Various sustainable and healthy technologies are also incorporated, including a wind turbine, rainwater harvesting, reed bed sewage, compost facilities, staff vegetable garden, low energy centrally controlled lighting and underfloor heating system throughout, eco/ organic paint, a central vacuum and a combined heat exchange air source heat pump supplying natural fresh air.
Planning negotiations started in early 2006, construction started in Autumn 2006 and was completed by Autumn 2007. Once onsite the construction was kept to programme due to the rapid expansion of the practice and an urgent requirement for more space. The small budget, just under £1000m2, meant consideration to details and materials was essential. A sedum roof and ground heat recovery system was desired but regrettably not within this budget.
The Long Barn Studio provides a vital innovative hub for 12 aspiring architects and assistant architects in a inspiring young, multi-cultural inclusive environment.

The building in itself is diverse in its architectural style for this area of Bedfordshire and this carries through into the diverse mix of staff who are employed. The space is both appealing to adults and children, who enjoy the freedom of the internal and surrounding external spaces.
The studio meets the current regulation under part M of the building regulations, and is designed to enable clients (and staff) to successfully use all the facilities. This includes a generous disabled WC facility with colour differentiated door markings. A hard surfaced external setting down point with level entrance threshold. The internal plan is easily navigable with wide, designated access spaces within the open plan environment.

The studio has a purpose built kitchen to encourage staff to cater their own lunches, thus reducing off site travel at lunchtime and car usage. Full use of the outdoor environment is encourage with outdoor seating area, staff vegetable patch (to provide fresh food for the kitchen and flowers for reception) compost and water harvesting for vegetable patch. Within the studio we have a wide ranging recycling policy, incorporating composting and utilizing our old print outs as notepads. We also have a staff panic alarm and buddy system for leaving/ ensuring people are safe on the site.
Key consultants and suppliers
The Long Barn Studio for Nicolas Tye Architects

Consultants
Structural Engineer Akera Engineers
Planning Consultant Phillips Planning Services Suppliers

Photography : Philip Bier
Lighting : Modular Lighting Instruments
Roofing sub-contractor : Peters Roofing contractors Ltd,
Rooflight Glazing : Glazing Fabrications Specialists Ltd,
Heating Contractor : Multibeton Ltd,

Frame House | H3AR | Architecture

2010-02-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

Hugon Kowalski of H3AR has designed the Frame House located in Lukecin, Poland. The house has been developed from a rectangular box, walls and roof planes are met in angle, it is clean but dynamic.

Holiday house on polish seaside.“It was very important to us to ruin boundaries, between an inside -home and an outside -wild beach. Living room thanks to fully opened glass wall is completely integrated with natural environment. The view from the driveway is framed by small roofing in front of main entrance.”

Project: Frame House
Architect: Hugon Kowalski of H3AR
Design year: 2009
Location: Lukecin, Poland
Type of Project: Single House

Enclosed Open House | Wallflower | Architecture

2010-02-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

Singapore based architect, Wallflower Architecture has created innovative architectural spaces amidst urban density for a homeowner in Singapore East Coast area.

The owners wanted a spacious, contemporary house that would be as open as possible but without compromising security and privacy at the same time. Surrounded by neighbours on four sides, the solution was a fully fenced compound with a spatial programme that internalised spaces such as pools and gardens, which are normally regarded as external to the envelope of the house.

By zoning spaces such as the bedrooms and servants’ quarters on alternative levels, i.e. 2nd storey and basement levels, the ground plane was freed from walls that would have been required if public and private programmes were interlaced on the same plane. The see-through volumes allow a continuous, uninterrupted 40-metres view, from the entrance foyer and pool, through the formal living area to the internal garden courtyard and formal dining area in the second volume. All these spaces are perceived to be within the built enclosure of the house.

The environmental transparencies at ground level and between courtyards are important in passively cooling the house. All the courtyards have differing material finishes and therefore differing heat gain and latency (water, grass, water, granite).

As long as there are temperature differences between courtyards, the living, dining, and pool house become conduits for breezes that move in between the courtyards, very much like how land and sea breezes are generated. At the second storey, solid hardwood louvers that can be adjusted by hand allow the desired amount of breeze and sunlight to filter through.

Environmentally, the contiguous and interconnected space encourage the slightest breezes, whether they are prevailing and therefore air-movement is horizontal, or convectionally circulated, which the courtyards help generate. For the owner, it is the experiential serenity that unencumbered space, a gentle breeze, dappled sunlight and the hush of water rippling on a pond that is priceless in our dense and busy urbanscape.

House 14 | Dane Richardson | Architecture

2010-02-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

Australian architect Dane Richardson designed this house in Eagle Bay, Western Australia.

The large open planning of the main living room form the central core of the building; the space was divided into areas with clear functions. The volume of this space was divided by a large fire place and level changes. This achieved a connection with others in the space but enabled the different activities to seem slightly separate which has proved very beneficial when the house is at capacity.

The north facing terrace with its built in “fire box” is the focus of all outside entertaining. The open “fire box” provides a fantastic place to sit and star gaze in the evening.

The planning divides the building into three wings. Children’s bedrooms, guest room, bathroom and games/tv room to the western side. The master bedroom and study to the eastern side and the main living volume & court yard central to these wings.

Cantilevers and exposed structural elements feature and further add to the strong lines of the building. Upper levels provide shelter for lower levels.The entry is screened with high stone walls and a planted court yard; this rustic relaxed threshold must be crossed prior to entering the sharper aesthetic of the building. Stone work is featured in other areas and on the main terrace. The owners shipped a set of old Indian temple doors to the project which were integrated into the stone walls of the entry court, this rustic touch ties in with the coarseness of the stone.

The combination of timber and stone is used to soften and relax the harder geometry of the building. The 4.5m high glazed walls of the main living room open the space to valley views. Sun penetration and heat loss is controlled via electronic window blinds and low emission glass.

The home engages a range low energy use systems and passive solar design principles. It is equipped with a home automation system, collects all potable water, re-uses grey water, utilises low energy & low water use fittings.

Seigle House | Lohan Anderson| Architecture

2010-02-11T04:15:00.000-08:00

Seigle House Lohan Anderson Chicago

This single family residence, The Seigle House designed by Lohan Anderson in the Lincoln Park community, north of downtown Chicago, United States. The house design displays elegant modernism with contextual harmony, occupies two typical city lots and was designed for a couple with grown children who regularly visit and stay with their parents. Both in massing and exterior colours, the house consciously relates to the predominant neighborhood context of brick and stone residences. Its exterior façade is made of limestone on the ground floor and an innovative terra-cotta cladding on the upper floors. The familiar colours and textures of these materials harmoniously complement the residential character of the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The ground floor, the garage and the front and back yards are enclosed by a continuous stone wall. The volume of the upper two floors appears to be floating above the ground floor being separated by a continuous band of clerestory glass. A small penthouse addition on the roof provides access to a deck which one can view the city’s downtown skyline. All of the four levels are connected by a grand staircase that is visible from the outside through a monumental four story high window on the north elevation.

Dogan Media Center | Tabanlioglu | Architecture

2010-02-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

Dogan Media Center Tabanlioglu

On Ankara-Eskişehir road, Doğan Medya Center is a distinctive media figure in the Capital city, housing Ankara studios of Dogan Media Group and its newspapers’ regional editorial offices, creating the basis of interaction between the brands of the group and providing a common source. Conceptually, the Doğan Media Centre is a simple glazed cube in response to an orthogonal site.

Configured within a basic planning module of a 4m x 4m x 4m cube and a structural module of 8m x 8m x 8m, the purist form has subsequently been remodeled, with the extrusion and attachment of smaller cubes, and simultaneously eroded by the subtraction of other cubic volumes. The building is consequently perceived as a sculptural grouping of related boxes of the same genus but with a variety of sizes, starting on the surface. The concrete structure reaches up to 7 stories by feasible use of galleries so that extra operative space created by mezzanines, whereas the standard is 4-4 ½ floors. The story height is 4 meters, every two floors a cube is formed; the modular structure provides a flexible basis for planning. Intermediate floors are supported on secondary steel columns and beams.

The building is perceived from afar and in diverse prospects at various angles, due to perforated shield resembling Braille alphabet at range of sizes, symbolizing “communications for all”. The metal panels filter the sunlight entering the building into shifting patterns of dappled shade. The panels’ perforations are echoed in the suspended ceilings, where circular cut outs house connections for camera equipment and lighting.

The emblematic use of façade creates a visually legible dynamic ambiance with reference to today’s fast moving and assertive image of the media. In accordance with topographic directions, the modules on the entrance elevation are slightly angled to enhance the dynamic appearance. The finishes in the interior draw on the same muted palette of calming colours that is applied to the exterior: dark grey, black and shades of brown.

The projecting boxes are each dedicated to a specific TV channel or newspaper so that the various units within the Doğan conglomerate can be readily identified from afar. Intermediate floors are supported on secondary steel columns and beams. There is a layering of views through the building, both horizontally, across the open-plan offices and out into the city, and vertically, in the way the different levels open onto the internal atrium. The floors are framed by parapet walls topped with glazing. Here, the transparency is complete. The parapets consist of frameless glass supported by a stainless steel handrail; above the rail, there is only air.

Separate sections like studios and offices of press people preserve their exclusivity and each segment is accentuated in the integral form of the re-assembled blocks of cube. The assemblage of smaller cubes within the structure of the large box can be read as a metaphor for the diversity of the company’s operations and a high degree of transparency serve to reinforce the separate brand images.

The top of the building contains a VIP lounge and terrace with teak decking. The floors below are segregated according to their specialty – newspaper or TV – but everyone comes together in the canteen in the ground-floor atrium. There is an open car park in a L-form parallel to the building besides two underground levels reserved for parking. The first basement is saved for technical facilities and storage requirements are solved in basement floors. The first basement level contains large studios as well as support facilities such as a hairdresser and make-up rooms. The two floors below contain M & E equipment and parking, along with cisterns that allow the landscaped gardens to be irrigated with greywater. Technological facilities and healthy infrastructure makes the building user-friendly and provides easy maintenance.

DMC Ankara is a genuine building in terms of transparency; strong in-out correlation enables a well-defined description before getting in the building; and on the other hand, transparency provides the panoramic views of the city for all offices. Composed harmoniously with the environment; it is open to the cityscape. There is a strong relationship between the interior of the building and the public realm.

House Bierings | Rocha Tombal | Architecture

2010-02-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

House Bierings

Rocha Tombal Architecten designed a basic form with sculptural “eyes” that emerge with direct views to the varied countryside landscape.

The form and orientation of the building avoid visual contact with the adjacent houses. At the ground floor the angled ceiling of the kitchen accentuates the intensive contact with the garden. On the first floor, the different shaped openings in the roof and facade offer, like “fingers of light”, varied daylight experiences.

The routing through the house starts in the hall, a section of the ground floor volume. After experiencing the entrance area and passing the gigantic pivoted door, the visitor arrives at the heart of the house, the kitchen. Here he looks through the big glass wall straight into the garden, which suggests being outside again. Behind him, the stair cuts a wooden wall inviting to follow the route towards the first floor. Its angled form and extreme proportions (small and high) and the daylight entering from the ceiling, offer the feeling of walking in a medieval street.

At the end of it he discovers the living room, a quiet, north-lighted attic space, from which a big opening exposes the surrounding green like in a framed painting.

Garden Terrace Hotel | Kengo Kuma | Architecture

2010-02-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

Kengo Kuma: Garden Terrace, Nagasaki hotel

'Garden Terrace' hotel by K engo Kuma is situated halfway up mt Inasa, jJpan and offers panoramic views of the port of nagasaki and the city. The hotel consists of windows of various sizes and tower, ocean, garden and japanese style suites, providing views of the landscape from every room.

The Edge House by Jarmund | Vigsnæs AS | Architecture

2010-02-09T04:43:00.000-08:00

The Edge House by Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects MNAL

The Edge House is located at Kolbotn, a suburb south of Oslo.

The client, a young couple, asked for a spectacular house on a limited budget. They had purchased a challenging site with 8 meters height difference from the access road to a plateau, and they wanted a house that “looked like you could shoot a James Bond movie in it”.

To save the plateau, the building was pushed towards the eastern perimeter of the site, suspended above the slope on slender steel columns. The entrance stair rises along the slope through the house up to the plateau.

This strategy avoids costly blasting, hiding the technical connections in the stair. It saves at the same time the existing characteristics of the site, creating a dramatic interplay between volume and site. The entrance condition and the experience from the inside attempts to underline this interplay.

The compact interior is horizontally organized around the cut for the entrance stair. Bedrooms and bathrooms are effectively organized along a corridor. The main structure is steel, with a polished concrete floor slab. The interior is clad in Birch plywood, the exterior in naturally colored fiber cement boards.

Address: Kolbotn, Norway
Year of design: 2005
Year of construction: 2006 – 2008
Architect: Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects MNAL
Assisted by: Claes Cho Heske Ekornaas
Contractor: AS Ventilasjonsservice
Gross area: 160 m²Photography: Ivan Brodey, Nils Petter Dale

Besiktas fish market | GAD Architecture

2010-02-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

GAD: Besiktas fish market, Istanbul

Located in one of Istanbul’s most populated and diverse neighborhoods, Besiktas is an eclectic area with a village-like atmosphere that is in the process of urban renewal. The Besiktas fish market is located on a triangular site. It is an iconic venue where many locals and visitors buy fresh fish daily. The construction of the old fish market was in very poor shape and needed to be replaced.

The design solution was to maintain its iconic neighborhood presence, while also reaffirming its welcoming feeling. GAD (global architectural development) designed a triangular shaped concrete shell covering the entire site with large openings at street level. The concrete shell provides a column-free interior space, optimizing the project’s programmatic needs. The new design injects a contemporary and pragmatic solution, at once preserving the fish market’s history.

site plan

C+V house | Giovanni Vaccarini | Architecture

2010-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

C+V house Giovanni Vaccarini architects

"The idea was to construct a building with an 'inverse' guideline. Instead of being oriented towards the city, looking outward from the hill; the house is completely turned towards the hill", says Giovanni Vaccarini, designer of the C+V house.

Project details
Project Name: C+V house
Client: Francesco Capece, Venanzi Ilenia
Project Type: single house
Principal Designer/s: Giovanni Vaccarini
Contractor/s: Di Ferdinando Michele
Date of commencement of project: 2004
Date of completion of project: 2005
Location of site: Teramo, Italy
Site Area: 450 sq. m
Built-up Area: 280 sq. m
Cost of Construction/Execution: 300,000 Euro

Words from the designer

"House Capece-Venanzi, is a suburban house for a young couple.
Situated in the diffuse Conurbazione of the Adriatic coast, between Ascoli and Pescara, the house is built on an "intermediate" area -- between the plain and a hill. An area that was thitherto seen as being a place unworthy of being built upon."

"Located in the midst of intertwined single-family houses on two levels and a hill, the site is tight, and green -- covered in natural or 'spontaneous' vegetation.

The idea was to construct a building with an 'inverse' guideline.

Instead of being oriented towards the city, looking outward from the hill; the house is completely turned towards the hill -- the hill that acts as a rising 'green sea' on which the house shows itself."

"The planning of the house can be defined across three levels:

The lowest level is underground. An inner patio acts as the central element around which the spaces are organized; creating an interaction between the buried spaces, roof-garden area, and the suspended volume of the upper level (the ground level).

The ground floor is the part of the building that holds all levels together. Acting as the border between the uncovered-roof-garden and the covered-day-area, metal (vetrata wall) and glulam surfaces wrap around the spaces; connecting the ground level with the upper one.

"The volumes of the house are metaphors - to the pieces in a game of tetris, albeit at a much larger scale.

The base is covered in stone, juxtaposed with the volume covered in white plaster; the base 'is cut' on the forehead in the west, by a vetrata wall, all the way upto its height; while the overlapping volume is intersected by a wedge of the free shaped circular hall."

The Workshop | Daniel Moreno | Architecture

2010-02-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

The Workshop Daniel Moreno

Architect: Daniel Moreno
Location: La Gasca, Quito, Ecuador
Project Team: Felipe Ordonez, Esteban Benavides and Daniel Corti
Contractor: Fabian Tenório
Owner: Artist Pilar Flores
Project Area: 78.5 sqmBudget: US$ 7.000
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Daniel Moreno

Initially the space to take part was saturated and inaccessible in some corners. There was no connection between the garden of entrance and the workshop because in spite of having windows this relation was lost.

The objective was to clean it visually, to clear walls, to create ample and practical spaces to store, to organize the materials and to hide the work objects.

The owner looked for the space to be white, empty, minimal and that took advantage of the day light. In this space the views are prioritized and the relation between the garden and the distant mountain is emphasized.

The spaces where the owner felt comfortable and safe were very important.
Because of the low budget, most of what was removed from the original space had to be hiden or reused in the taken part space.

It is recycled almost in its totality. The wood used was taken of from a demolished house.

The construction was carried out in two and a half months behind a house of approximately 50 years. The intervention is independent of the house and it is shown like a place to escape in which the owner gambles, meditates, listen to music, can be in contact with nature, but mainly it is a space to be creative and create.

All the space is minimal where the light is protagonist. It is a scene that allows to manifold actions. A flexible space with portable furniture: the tables and stools can be put and taken of. When the objects are hidden there is left an empty space where anything can happen. A big carpet can also be extended to work with groups in the ground.

Space volumes were created. It was wanted that with a single element the construction could be solved. The new volumes are massive. Repetition of the wood, a piece next to the other (floor, wall, ceiling), generating a nest (attic) and a balcony towards the outside. This box of the entrance recovers the view towards Pichincha hills, and connects the interior with the garden which generates an iconic presence. The new elements intensifies, contrasting with the white walls.

The masive and slowness are expressed with rod as if it was a thread, with subtility and lightness. The rod becomes structural support, launching slips, banister rails and others. The new elements are light and defy to the gravity.

The structure of the wood ceiling is simplified and transparented with an enormous glass that is added. Therefore, this interior has the appearance of an outside which let to be in contact with the changes of the light during the day.
New spaces through the fragmentation in levels were obtained to experience the place in their different heights and to live it like a whole.

Mapledene Road | Platform 5 | Architecture

2010-02-04T16:02:00.000-08:00

Platform 5 architects

Mapledene Road is situated in a conservation area in Hackney.
The property had been stripped of virtually all its period features and had become run down and used as a “crack den” leaving it ripe for modernisation.
The cellular ground floor was opened up and extended to the rear to allow the spaces to flow into each other and to the garden.
The kitchen and patio areas are unified by a concrete floor and London stock brick garden wall. The expansive glass roof opens up the view to the sky giving the space an external character.
The project has been shortlisted for the RIBA Awards, AJ Small Projects Awards and the Grand Designs Awards 2009.

C-1 House | Cusriosity Inc | Architecture

2010-02-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

Cusriosity Inc C-1 House

Cusriosity Inc :: C-1 House
Curiosity Inc conceived the C-1 house, located in Tokyo, as a design product in which architecture, furnishings and equipment blend into a single program.

They created a central glass box on three levels, surrounded by a ribbon on three sides, a sort of geometric spiral in which to organize the path of ascent, marking the relationship between closed and open segments of the facades.

Total white is used for the facade finish, while fight wood floors characterize the essential geometric composition of the rigorous sequences of interiors, with sliding full-height glazed dividers.

The custom furnishings are designed to complement the figure of rooms, underlining the philosophy of the whole, in which every action and movement is defined and controlled by the design of the space, which creates a balance between speed and rhythm of everyday life

Private House | Ljubno ob Savinji | Architecture

2009-12-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

Architects Anton Žižek and Marjan Poboljšaj, both of whom graduated in 1997, are being noticed consistently at European events and competitions for their progressive design work — from interior design and furniture concepts to architecture. They are the founders of Superform, based in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

Recently, Superform created an interesting retreat for a private client by combining two existing buildings in the town of Ljubno ob Savinji, 70 kilometers from the capital.

The first house that resembles the traditional buildings of the valley is monolithic and introverted and contains the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen. Its main materials are wood and stone.

Housing the living room, dining room and a large hall, the second house resembles a boat anchored in the green bay and is more extroverted, open an modern than the first. Its materials are glass, steel, Rheinzink and wood. The combined structure looks bold, yet agrees with its environment and looks entirely livable. Not an easy feat to achieve. - Tuija Seipell

Courtyard House | Studio Junction | Architecture

2009-12-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

Studio Junction designed an infill housing as an alternative urban typology.

By converting a contractor warehouse in a mixed-use industrial neighborhood, the ambition was to create a modern, affordable home and studio for a family of four.

The design of the house is generated by an emphasis on the views and activities of the interior courtyards, where all the windows look inwards.

Photos by Rob Fiocca & Peter Tan

Casax5 | MZC Architettura | Architecture

2009-12-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Casax5 by MZC Architettura in Treviso, Italy.

Called Casax5, the project features a pool on the wood-clad rooftop.

The interior predominantly consists of white and reflective surfaces, with grey resin flooring in areas for daytime use and wooden floors in the bedrooms.

A big apartment in the outskirts of the city, near the railway. The principal floor is for everyday functions. The upper floor is for the body, for relax, for playing.

A central part is rounded by a black wall/furniture/wall. This black wall/furniture/wall is like a scenic curtain, a filter between day and night and viceversa.

A big space living-kitchen is completely white: walls, furniture, ceiling, lamps etc. The flooring is like a water surface where white colour reflects itself.

The interior concept is that every part has a individual life: every part contains space, light, colour and is composed by elementary volumes.
All the surfaces reflect natural and artificial light giving to the space an overexposure effect.

Crossing the black filter we enter to the night part of the house where the effect is similar to the day part. The difference between the two pars is the flooring: grey resine for day, cool grey wood board for night. Going up throught the grey stairs we arrive on the upper floor.
On a side we find the pool with a big wooden solarium around; on the other side a concrete outside kitchen with a concrete table.

concept: 2008 executive project: 2008 execution: 2008/09
project: mzc architettura, mario marchetti, fabio zampiero, giuseppe cangialosi
collaborators: elena jodice, alberto buso, vittorio massimo

2009-12-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

House in Menorca | Dom Arquitectura | Architecture

2009-11-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

Dom Arquitectura projected this summer house in Menorca inspired in the typical “tanca” of the region.

Being a summer house, the main idea is not only creating the interior spaces of the house, but distribute all outer space. The interior spaces seek good relations with the outside world, colonizing their surroundings and their views.

Inspired by the typical Menorca “tanca”, stone walls divisions of the realm.
The plot is organized from a space frame, fully passable, based on a trace orthogonal, combining floors, platforms, water, trees, plants, tanca, pergolas, walls and the house itself.

By combining these elements we are encountering this approach in which each piece is delimited and acquires its own identity and use within a harmonious whole. The diversity of outdoor stays provides the site a space balanced richness.

The house is situated in the center of the outer solar stays divided in two, front and rear. The hall of the house with two large openings on each side operates as a mixed external-internal transition. Falls outside the pavement causing a passage that connects the back yard with the front porch.

Based on typical lattices menorquinas designed a sliding wooden slats fixed set a filter to the outside, they act as sunscreens, giving privacy and multipliplying the usability. They combine the vertical slats of the east and west facades with horizontal south facade. Most of these openings are floor to ceiling, allowing for greater continuity to the outside and making the most magnificent views of the site.

Dom Arquitectura

Lindale Bach | Herbst Architects | Architecture

2009-11-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

Herbst Architects Lindale Bach

Sticks and stones - Blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, Lance and Nicola Herbst have become the masters of the simple, elegant, functional beach retreat. If they'd take the job, Lance and Nicola would be my choice for designing an eco retreat.

Overview
Built on an island with no mains electricity and daily ferry connections, the Lindale residence on Great Barrier Island HAD to be as energy efficient as possible.

Minimal materials were freighted in and the central Gabion wall of the residence an ideal solution. Using local river stones, the wall provides a fantastic heat store and structural backbone to the build. The wall also counters the wind in covered outdoor spaces, together with a cosy fire making this retreat and so special.

Prior to the build beginning, large rainwater and sewage treatment tanks were buried under the site. The cooler environment promoting less bacterial growth and leaving the relatively pure rainwater, collected from all roof sections, requiring no treatment to drink.

A Full functional kitchen the heart of the residence is flanked by a covered porch to the right with open fire and shaded midsummer dining area to the rear. Sunken, in front of the kitchen and nearest to the beach, is a cosy built in couch and tv nook.

Traversing the Gabion wall to the rear of the house is the bedroom tower and bathroom. Two bedrooms with surf views or walk out patio respectively.

Our primary concerns in the design of this building have been to:

- create an environment that facilitates and enhances the experience of living outdoors

- challenge convenience as the driving force behind decisions, concentrating rather on the rituals associated with space

- establish a range of spatial, light and textural experiences be responsive to the small scale of the existing builtenvironment.

In order to articulate the building in a scale of forms appropriate to the environment the functions of the house that require complete weather enclosure are broken into three individual masses:

- a horizontal structure housing the living functions

- a tower housing the sleeping and bathing functions and a boatshed.

prevailing south-west wind a spine wall of gabion baskets is set at right angles to the site. The wall sets up a strong enclosing edge for the main covered living deck and provides an intimate textured backdrop to the bathroom space. The masses of the building are arranged around the gabion wall to form edges, create a range of negative spaces and provide wind shelter to two covered outdoor living spaces.

Lance Herbst

Project location Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

Architect Herbst Architects

Plans

Photos Patrick Reynolds

Iporanga House | Arthur Casas | Architecture

2009-11-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

Arthur Casas Architect’s House in Iporanga.

In the form of two large symmetrical cubes supporting and open space this house was idealized as his dream house. “I always wanted a house in the middle of the forest, in a place where I could recharge the energies”, says Arthur.

Within this context, leftover space to the addendum that most pleases him: interiors in total synergy with the exteriors, seen within a large 11 meters floor to ceiling height, with intermittent glass windows, from one edge of the façade to the other. From walls to floor, the cumaru wood runs from top to bottom.

In the ground floor, the absence of partitions potentially amplifies the integration of the ambient, such as living room that communicates both with the kitchen and with the office. All of it surrounded by a large charming terrace. Very close to it, on a well designed edge, the elevated deckfunctions as a belvedere to observe untouched spaces of the Atlantic Rain Forest.

Deepstone House | Simon Winstanley | Architecture

2009-11-18T04:04:00.000-08:00

Deepstone house in south west Scotland Simon Winstanley Architects

The Deepstone House by Simon Winstanley Architects
The house is located on a spectacular site overlooking the Solway Firth in south west Scotland.

The site is a steeply sloping, former quarry in a National Scenic Area which slopes steeply in two directions from the quarry base which forms the only level ground access.

The house is conceived as a stone plinth which echos the exposed quarry face and houses the bedrooms with a garage & entrance under at the level of the quarry base. The principal living accommodation is expressed as a lightweight glazed ‘pavilion’ sitting on the solid plinth. It is set back to form an external terrace facing the sea and to reduce the apparent mass of the house.

The glazed pavilion is constructed with a steel frame and highly insulated timber infill panels clad in cedar and triple glazed windows. The roof, although thick internally to provide very high levels of insulation, is cantilevered on all sides with projecting expressed douglas fir rafters to give a thin, elegant leading edge.

The roof is finished in standing seem pre-fabricated grey zinc. The masonry base is finished in stone from re-cycled quarry waste.

The design uses the most energy efficient construction & technology where possible as part of a sustainable approach to building for the future:

-the external walls, floor and roof are insulated to a high standard and air infiltration is minimised.

-triple glazed windows with warm edge spacer bars, thermally broken frames and inert gas filled to achieve a whole window u-value of 0.7W/m2K.

-heat pump using a borehole as the ground source for the underfloor heating and hot water system with a closed combustion wood burning stove as back up.

-micro generation of renewable electricity using roof mounted Photovoltaic Panels.

-whole house heat recovery ventilation system.

The design met the client’s brief for a contemporary, energy efficient home which fully embraces the view and relates to the surrounding context and and landscape.

C+V house | Giovanni Vaccarini | Architecture

2009-11-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

C+V house Giovanni Vaccarini architects

"The idea was to construct a building with an 'inverse' guideline. Instead of being oriented towards the city, looking outward from the hill; the house is completely turned towards the hill", says Giovanni Vaccarini, designer of the C+V house.

"House Capece-Venanzi, is a suburban house for a young couple.
Situated in the diffuse Conurbazione of the Adriatic coast, between Ascoli and Pescara, the house is built on an "intermediate" area -- between the plain and a hill. An area that was thitherto seen as being a place unworthy of being built upon."

"Located in the midst of intertwined single-family houses on two levels and a hill, the site is tight, and green -- covered in natural or 'spontaneous' vegetation.
The idea was to construct a building with an 'inverse' guideline.
Instead of being oriented towards the city, looking outward from the hill; the house is completely turned towards the hill -- the hill that acts as a rising 'green sea' on which the house shows itself."

"The planning of the house can be defined across three levels:
The lowest level is underground. An inner patio acts as the central element around which the spaces are organized; creating an interaction between the buried spaces, roof-garden area, and the suspended volume of the upper level (the ground level).
The ground floor is the part of the building that holds all levels together. Acting as the border between the uncovered-roof-garden and the covered-day-area, metal (vetrata wall) and glulam surfaces wrap around the spaces; connecting the ground level with the upper one.
The first floor consists of various rooms and private spaces typical of a house (bath/sauna, study etc.)"

"The volumes of the house are metaphors - to the pieces in a game of tetris, albeit at a much larger scale.
The base is covered in stone, juxtaposed with the volume covered in white plaster; the base 'is cut' on the forehead in the west, by a vetrata wall, all the way upto its height; while the overlapping volume is intersected by a wedge of the free shaped circular hall."

Photographs by Alessandro Ciampi.

A-ring | Atelier Tekuto | Architecture

2009-11-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

A-ring (Aluminum-ring House 3) Atelier Tekuto

A-ring (Aluminum-ring House 3) –

House that coexists symbiotically with the environment
Since November 2005, Yasuhiro Yamashita/Atelier Tekuto, together with about 20 universities and companies, have been working on the Aluminum House Project. Its aim is to develop next-generation houses that coexist symbiotically with the environment. The project has focused on developing a single piece of aluminum that would be able to serve various functions at once – structure, ventilation, lighting and household fixtures.

Two prefabricated houses made of wood and aluminum were completed in 2008 and July 2009, while a third house, the culmination of the project’s efforts, was finally built after 4 years in Kanazawa, one of the most challenging environments in Japan.

A year before its completion date, this house was selected to receive an inaugural government grant as part of Japan’s initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the construction of houses and buildings.

The following is a list of systems developed for the project.

1. Development of structural system using aluminum-rings

By developing modified deck plate molds composed of columns, walls and binding joists that could be held together using one basic dice mold, and opting to use ordinary bolts to hold the structure together, we were able to achieve better construction quality, reuse materials and reduce waste.

2. Development of composite units that combine structure, a heating/cooling radiator system and water section.

A pipe was passed through the aluminum mould in order to serve as a heating/cooling radiator panel. This effectively created a large radiator that also served a structural function. Unit baths and kitchens were also built into the aluminum rings.

3. Development of natural energy harnessing unit

An improved system of obtaining heat from groundwater and geothermal energy using solar power was developed. Improvements to this system cut energy costs by half.

4. Development of structure + lighting system

By installing LED lights that made use of aluminum’s reflective properties inside the aluminum structure, as well as replacing all lighting fixtures in the house with LEDs, we were able to reduce energy consumption by 80%.

5. Development of “green curtains”

A “passive fence” was created by sprinkling water inside the frame. A hemp cord was passed through an aluminum frame, and plants were made to twine around the cord. Installing tanks for collecting rainwater then allowed water to circulate inside the aluminum frame, while a portion of the water was turned into mist for watering the plants and cooling the house inside.

Future developments

In the three months after the Kanazawa house was completed in August 2009 and before move-in, various experiments were conducted to measure temperature changes in the groundwater, changes in water temperature above ground, changes in the temperature of the aluminum panels, changes in indoor and outdoor air temperature, and so on. Starting in November, one person will move into the house and live there for about a year while carrying on various other measurements. Based on the data from these experiments, improvements to the system and the various units will be made with a view to preparing the product for the market.

Cité du Design | LIN | Architecture

2009-11-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Cité du Design, Saint-Etienne, France by LIN

This is the 41.5m€ competition-winning International Centre for Design in Saint-Etienne, France by LIN, a practice which works from Berlin and Paris

The development, which is located on the 17,250m² site of Saint-Etienne’s ancient arms manufacturing facilities, includes the renovation of some of the site’s historic buildings, as well as newly integrated facilities.

These include an auditorium, media library, exhibition rooms, public spaces, internal gardens and an observation tower, collectively referred to as the ‘interclimatic laboratory’.

The scheme is held together by a single ‘platine’; a latticed three-dimensional mega-structure based on a 2.1m frame which acts as roof and walls, freeing the interior space from any need for intermediary support.

The vast interior is subdivided into functions by acoustic partition walls which also create independent, climatically stable units for different functions.

Energy consumption is minimised by recycling thermal outputs between zones. For example, the warm pre-conditioned air from the internal gardens is dispersed to nearby zones for heating in winter.

The interactive skin consists of 14,000 equilateral triangles of different materials which control light, temperature and air flow through the building in response to changing functions on the interior. The envelope includes photovoltaic and solar panels for energy production.

- Location and topography plan

- Floorplan

- Roof plan and elevation

- Long section

Wide Open Villa | KLab | Architecture

2009-11-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

The monolithic volume is shaped by two parameters: the street, whose curve it follows, and the private garden, which imparts a planar quality to the side in question. From the outside, the building has an austere, almost monumental character.

The same language of monumentality has been transferred to the interior where large open spaces meet dominating volumes and white clinical surfaces. The most imposing feature of the house is located in the main living room, a grand stone-clad fireplace that connects both in spatial and visual terms the interior with the exterior. Additionally, the double-height space of the living room is flooded by light as a fully glazed wall provides unrestraint view of the main garden and the swimming pool.

Throughout the house the spaces are characterized by straight lines and orthogonal shapes, this is interrupted by the gentle arc of the staircase that leads to the upper floor where the bedrooms are located.

Furthermore, the villa hides a space of tranquility underground, an indoor swimming pool and a sauna occupy this lower lever and there only means of natural light is a west facing skylight that poors light into the room. Concealed lights in the ceiling ,a backlit translutent wall and the reflections provided by the water add to the serene atmosphere of the space.

Natural light plays an important role in the design of the villa, in the upper level of the house rooflights allow light to enter into corridors and bathrooms creating the appearance of larger spaces. The master bathroom is no exemption, a more playful touch has been introduced, a green glass shower partition, that gives a unique character to the space when the light passes through this green filter.

Where most of the spaces that form the interior of the villa are of grandeur scale the kitchen is designed to meet the needs of a modern family, where both the practicalities and the intimate moments can be accommodated. The dining area overlooks a small private garden that is screened by a line of cypress trees, a large island unit that is situated in the middle of the kitchen deals with the daily activities of a busy household.

Architects: KLab architecture
Location: Ekali, Athens, Greece
Project Area: 1,050 sqm
Project year: 2006-2009
Photographs: KLab architecture

Caja House | Estudio Aire | Architecture

2009-11-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

Caja house in Argentina by Estudio Aire, based in Rosario, Argentina.

The project was developed between personal wills and external demands. We enjoy narrating this process without too much theory but with architectural responsibility and enthusiasm instead.

During the first meetings we tried to talk with our clients about architecture itself not specifically a home project. We realised it was our opportunity to develop something different between both parties. We were very enthusiastic for we could have the possibility of reviewing our architectural repertoire. At the beginning there were no specific orders, which arrived as time passed by and started working together.

We had feeling to work as a team, sometimes sharing some points of view concerning design, some others not. Our clients were much concerned with the issue of privacy and intimacy as regards life in private neighborhoods such as Kentucky. We considered it important to be able to appreciate from the inside the decisions taken (morphology, geometry, materials, how to manipulate the natural lighting) rather than the criteria used in such spaces so far.

We started working on a criteria based on a central open space . Little by little it became more radical and the rest of the situations began to subordinate to the yard. We were questioning the modern language leading elements to an almost primitive instance. The concept of continuous space extends beyond the physical limit of covered surface. The Interior unroofed surface regulates the link with the outside world. One of the faces is an opening with two glass doors. Opening completely enabling to redefine the concept of externality and integrating the rest of the area.

The water here incorporates the built mass reflexes. The House becomes its own landscape. Fragmentation in the section cover is another particular moment of thought and analysis which occurs not only to fill the interior of light but to establish a link with nature, incorporating the sky.

In general we usually describe our work as a box with a yard inside it denoting a formal will at first place. However the best is inside, the richer inner space as a result of it. With two photographs from outside the story would be resolved, but it would be impossible from the inside.

The strongest effort was to decide about what not to be done or how to make it simpler.
We came to only four materials. On top “white” dominates all items, aluminum resolves openings to the inner patio , the metal for the perimeter gates and glass for transparent and translucent cladding. This reduction is the reaction to a need to avoid excessive thinking of achieving simplicity as a concept.

We are satisfied for having being able to provide a contemporary answer leaving aside modern language. Now that the work has been completed we have began to look in time to more distant examples of it. The colonial House is the first example that appeared. The potential of the yard, the opening toit, the gallery, tectonics condition, force walls, the dispossession of ornamentation, the height of the Interior.

We are now studying the pompeyana House , which carry this same situations to a more primitive and radical state . All this working under the concept of modern space.We believe that the contemporary does not have to do with a completely new production or with an indiscriminate repetition of recipes. We are interested in reviewing everything that has already been produced and intervene as little as possible. We have very clear it is almost ridiculous since our activity lies in filling free spaces.

This paradox is which obsessively leads us to focus on the space resulting of it through the manipulation of shapes. We love thinking that we produce air.

Architectural photographer Leonardo Finotti

Avelgem Community Centre | Dierendonck Blancke | Architecture

2009-11-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

Avelgem Community Centre , Belgium by Belgian architects Dierendonck Blancke.

Dierendonck Blancke collaborated with architects Stefaan Onraet, Tom Callebaut and Jonas Desmyter to design the centre, built on an existing slope on the border of a nature reserve in a small village.

The concrete building consists of a theatre, a multi-purpose hall and a cafe for a local youth organisation, with a large open-air terrace.

The theatre is situated on the first floor and can accommodate up to 305 people.

The foyer and administration is on the ground floor. Seating is located near the irregularly-shaped windows, overlooking the nature reserve.

In the sunken basement there is a hall that holds 700 people and a cafe for a local youth organisation, accessed by ramps cut into the ground.

The project is situated in a small village in Belgium.

The site is on the border of a protected natural reserve on one side and near the village centre and community church on the other side.

Our aim was to construct a compact building.

By stacking the functions and using the existing slope of the site we could do this. In this way the footprint of the building was reduced and space was preserved for open air activities. This also means less foundation on an unstable underground.

The building is positioned on the border of the site to create as much as possible distance between the public building and the dwellings nearby.

The program consists of a theatre (305p) on the first level, a multifunctional hall (700p) and café (150p) for a local youth organisation in a partially sunken basement. Foyer and administration are in between on the ground floor level.

All interventions and design decisions were taken to combine the different parts of the program in one dense building in order to reduce maximally the build surface as the budget was restricted.

We proposed a multifunctional use of different entrances that allow an easy use for the owner. By combining rescue exits and entrances we reduced the circulation. The ratio between circulation and used space is very low.

The building consists of two clearly distinctive parts: a main volume that expresses certain monumentality next to the nearby church and a supporting base integrated in the landscape.

The partially integrated basement is made accessible by two large incisions in the landscape so that it is experienced as an underground construction.

On the upper Floor in the main volume is the theatre, internally designed as a functional black box, in which all attention can go to the play. The basic acoustic comfort is designed so that a polyvalent use is possible.

The foyer on the ground floor provides access to the theatre on the upper floor and the multifunctional hall in the basement. In this in between position beneath the slope of the theatre there is a visual relationship with the multifunctional hall by a large void.

This void also provides the basement of daylight through the foyer and realises an important height under the ceiling in the multifunctional hall The lobby and administration are considered as an acoustical buffer to the outside (nearby housing).

The expensive glazed acoustic buffer was filled program. By day local organisations can use the space without the feeling of being in a underground space, by night techno parties can take place without disturbing the neighbours.

Access and rescue exits for the multifunctional hall and youth café are made possible by two incisions in the landscape.

Photographer Julien Lanoo

The Torres House | GLR Arquitectos | Architecture

2009-11-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

The Torres House by Gilberto L. Rodríguez Arquitectos

Description:

Set high in the Sierra Madre mountain range, the Torres House seeks to establish an intimate contact with the natural environment in which it is located. Discreetly open towards the street, the house is accessed by crossing over a fountain from which a huge oak tree emerges, impressive both for its size and its beauty. Once on the porch, a grand mural-like door -constructed of marble, wood and steel- welcomes the visitor.

Inside, the entry hall merges into an area of contrasting materials consisting of Santo Tomas marble and volcanic stone walls. From this area there is a visual continuity with the rest of the house and with the garden that was left in its natural state as a small oak forest.

In the living room, conceived almost as a glass box, one can experience the view to the Sierra Madre peaks in the distance and the garden near by. Owing to its location within the mountain, where winters can get really cold, there is a fireplace for the family to gather around in the evenings.

From the dining room and the media room, one can access the roof terrace and enjoy the splendid views of the Sierra Madre as well as of the city of Monterrey. Here the musical background of the sounds of nature is in sharp contrast to the roar of the city below.

Built Area:5,942 sq ft

Project Team: Bernardo Chapa, Joaquín Jenis, Tomas Güereña, Diana Guerra, Eduardo Fuentes

Photography:Jorge Taboada

Panama House | Marcio Kogan | Architecture

2009-11-03T06:56:00.000-08:00

Marcio Kogan’s Panama House is a residence designed for art. Located in São Paulo, Brazil, the house makes a powerful but subdued statement in its low, open, elongated elegance — a hallmark of Kogan’s architecture.

In the past few years, the award-winning, Brazilian-born architect’s Studio MK27 has produced a steady stream of low-rise, boxy work – all with an uncanny intimacy, yet without any of the usual stuffy treatments that supposedly create intimacy.

At the Panama House, there are no cozy nooks, no soft furnishings, no homey touches. And yet, there is a feeling of comfort and livability in this art-gallery-of-a-house that makes you want to move in tomorrow.

All levels of the three-storey house — including the bedrooms, office, gardens and patio — are used to display the owner’s substantial collection of predominantly modern Brazilian art and sculpture.

An uninterrupted connection between inside and out makes the entire space seem unlimited, translucent, as if without walls, although the structure is essentially a wooden box inside a C-shaped concrete cask made of cement slabs and a wall.

The sliding vertical wood lathes that form the brise soleils for each room’s facade, are also an important part of establishing the prevailing openness. The brise soleils also provide comfort and privacy, and enable the control of the artworks’ exposure to direct sun.

Most beautifully, they also create the soft play of light that matches the overall linear shapes — created by creases in window treatments, the floor boards, the rows of pillows on long sofas, the stone work outside — continuing the elongated language of the entire building.

The São Paulo-born architect Marcio Kogan graduated from Mackenzie University in 1976 and created films until the age of 30. His considerable talents of creating drama, understanding a setting and leading the eye are certainly evident in the award-winning Panama House.

Villa in the Woods | Zecc Architecten | Architecture

2009-10-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

Zecc Architecten projected this new villa located on a wide constructing site in the woods of Soest, in the Netherlands.

The villa has a spatial connection between the three floors thanks to the void that goes from the basement to the second floor. Standing at front entrance a view over the void, directly into the garden, is provided. Functions as the toilet, wardrobe and closets are connected to this void. The parapet around this void continues smoothly into these functional spaces and make sure a sculptural link between the three floors is created.

V23K18 | Pasel.Kuenze | Architecture

2009-10-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Design for a private house in an urban master plan by MVRDV.

As the plot does not allow for traditional front or back gardens, the design incorporates open-air spaces within the build structure. The open floor plan with its voids generates exciting views inside the volume and enhances the relation between inside and outside spaces. As the wooden facade is vertically extended, the roof provides a hidden garden with a maximum of privacy.

Architects: Pasel.Kuenzel Architects
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Project Area: 130 sqm building + 60 sqm garden
Project year: 2005-2009
Photographer: Marcel van der Burg

Atherton Residence | Turnbull Griffin Haesloop | Architecture

2009-10-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects have designed a home in Atherton, California.

Located on the peninsula south of San Francisco, this house sits on an internal suburban flag lot. The previous 1950’s house, which was removed due to structural problems, featured mature landscaping and a manmade pond that the clients wanted to preserve.

They wanted their new house to be a private retreat that maximizes the drama of the pond and takes advantage of the privacy of the site. As advocates of year round outdoor dining and entertaining, the clients wanted a house that would open up to the landscape and have as many outdoor rooms as possible.

The design solution breaks the program into four buildings – main house, study, pool house and garage – that ring the edge of the site and focus inwards on the pond, garden and pool.
The main house features a butterfly roof that turns up to the south with a dramatic overhang. Large sliding glass doors open directly out to the pond and terrace.

The roofs conceal photovoltaic and solar hot water panels. The house is heated with a radiant system in the stone floors, and despite the hot climate it is not air conditioned, but passively cooled with a combination of overhangs, shades, and operable windows.

The house also features many green building materials, including high fly-ash concrete, formaldehyde-free casework and denim insulation. The new house creates a special place for the clients, making a main residence feel like a vacation retreat.

Location: Atherton, California
Year completed: 2008
Architect:Eric Haesloop, FAIA, Mary Griffin, FAIA, and John Kleman
Interiors:Margaret Turnbull Simon, ASID of Turnbull Griffin Haesloop
Landscape Architects:Lutsko Associates
Turnbull Griffin Haesloop 1660 Bush Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA 94109(415) 441-2300 www.tgharchitects.com
Engineer: Mike Forbes, Fratessa Forbes Wong
General Contractor: Carter Seddon, Carter Seddon Construction

Dentist Clinic | UID Architects | Architecture

2009-10-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

Dentist Clinic in Fukuyama, Hiroshima UID Architects

Keisuke Maeda of UID Architects, designed a building for a multi-tenant project in Fukuyama // Hiroshima. Maeda used a somewhat unconventional approach to his design of this multi-tenant building as he and his clients tried to rethink and evaluate the possibilities of a multi-tenant building that would symbolize an “appealing contemporary philosophy while taking into account such routine considerations.” Usually, such projects and the offices which design them place their entire emphasis on profit maximization and the optimization of the floor area. Maeda believes that such projects and their architecture often incorporate superficial elements.

Image Courtesy of Keisuke Maeda // UID Architects

With a long and narrow plot, which is surrounded on all three sides by neighboring houses Maeda embedded a steel structure while the building’s cedar-clad plywood shell neatly encloses the premises of the dental clinic, a beauty salon and UID’s Architectural office. The dental clinic is located on the first floor while the beauty salon and the architectural office are on the second floor; truly a mixed-program regarding the businesses in the multi-tenant building.

Image Courtesy of Keisuke Maeda // UID Architects

In an attempt or rather a challenge to give as much value to the interior spaces as to the street frontage, Maeda designed two boxes which are oriented toward the east and the west, while a third box in the middle includes a staircase and a forest. The sequence of four walls which are formed by the layout of the boxes was designed to create a sense of integrated diversity in the architecture as a consequence of the layered openings between the boxes.

The porous walls which progress from the street to the back of the plot create a small forest in the buildings void. With this design approach Maeda has minimized the transition of the interior and the exterior as he has brought exterior elements into the interior. With an objective to create a vague distance Maeda wanted to create an environment which would spread out in an organic matter.

The tenants were actively involved in the design and decision-making process of the building from the planning stage to the interior design. As they understood the framework of the building, they all took a practical approach in deciding how the interior spaces would be designed. Each of the spaces is separated by a slender plywood screen while the window openings ensure privacy by the way they are positioned.

When the building is viewed from the exterior the varied positioning of the window openings on the façade creates a pattern as if you’re expecting to see the square opening in the box building. The occasional alignment of the windows throughout the different layers of the box construction allows for ample of natural light to surpass the building although it is constructed in a long and narrow plot with neighbors on all three sides.

Undoubtedly, any future visits to the dentist for the residents of Fukuyama will be in a harmonious Zen environment. The sound of the drill may not sound as freaky as it used to if you are lying on the dentists chair and enjoying this magnificent scenery which very much reminds us as if you are in a tree house overlooking a forest through the square windows. The application of the cedar plywood walls creates a feeling of serenity and calmness more than the white walls of a usual dentist’s office which are said to be relaxing.

Architect Designer: Keisuke Maeda / UID
City: Fukuyama-city, Hiroshima,Japan.
Floor area: Total 403.10㎡, 1Floor: 183.45㎡, 2Floor: 175.89㎡, 3Floor: 43.76㎡
Cost: 675,000 €
Date of completion: January, 2009

Athlone Town Centre | Murray O'Laire | Architecture

2009-10-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

Athlone Town Centre Murray O'Laire Architects

Athlone Town Centre can be seen as a new urban quarter adjacent to the footprint of the historical quarter of the town. The site is an assemblage of infill and backland plots, ‘brownfield’ uses and semi-derelict structures comprising c.2.9 hectares in the centre of Athlone. Its location and physical attributes are fundamental to the architectural and urban design approach pursued.

The challenge, to insert a large mixed use development in to an historic setting, was assisted by the shape, topography and particular features of the site. The project is about ‘stitching and mending’ existing streetscapes, and making connections and spaces, as much as it is about giving appropriately authentic contemporary expression to its core function, the retail centre.

Exploiting the site gradient effectively conceals all parking, servicing and delivery facilities on two subterranean levels, eliminating vacuous expanses of surface parking and allowing the range of new buildings to extend towards and integrate with existing development on all edges. A new order is overlaid on the site, imposing a pattern of streets and lanes, squares and courtyards on land that was hitherto excluded from the fabric of the town.

The project accommodates an appropriately diverse use-mix incorporating 66 retail units; 148 residential units in disaggregated blocks of apartments and townhouses set around squares, courtyards and playgrounds; restaurants and cafes; a crèche and a primary healthcare facility; and a 170-bed 4-star hotel rising to an 11 storey signature tower at its core, heralding the commercial centre of town.

Hotel DevelopmentThe 11 storey hotel is the central iconic element of the eight acre mixed-use redevelopment in Athlone’s town centre and it will have a pivotal role in promoting and sustaining day and night activity throughout the week and year. Comprising a tower on a two-storey plinth, the hotel accommodates 170 bedrooms; two restaurants; a bar; a generous foyer; a function room; meeting/seminar rooms; a spa and leisure centre and ancillary service areas.

The majority of standard hotel rooms are arranged around a raised internal courtyard / terrace that can also be used as an outdoor space for larger functions. Guests can cross this courtyard through a glazed link to the bedrooms in the tower on floors five to nine which offer breathtaking views across the flood planes of the River Shannon through a floor-to-ceiling glazed facade. The top two floors of the tower comprise four penthouse suites and a bridal suite with a mezzanine bedroom level and private roof terrace.

The majority of the shared public spaces, including the hotel foyer, restaurant and function room, are located in the two-storey plinth. The basement of the building accommodates a spa and leisure centre comprising changing areas, treatment areas, a tepidarium and an extensive retail area offering pedicure and manicure services. A number of the treatment rooms are expressed as copper boxes and dramitically cantilevered into a double-height pool hall. Both the spa and leisure centre benefit from high class, durable materials such as granite, limestone, glass mosaic tiles and solid oak.

Like the new shopping mall and apartment buildings, the hotel has a modern contemporary look. The tonal range of external finishes, from the sophisticated curtain walling to the tower, through to the use of sandstone, is warm, light, responsive and visually rich.

By treating the skin of the accommodation blocks differently, and by introducing a curvilinear geometry to one ‘wing’ any potential negative impacts of mass are mitigated. The quality of the interiors and materials reflect and surpass the high standards of a new four-star development and create a relaxed athmosphere that embraces hotel guests and visitors with a sense of warmth and comfort.

A restrained, well-balanced palette of colours carries the eye through all public spaces, yet subtle twists give each area their distinct character. Warm natural stone and dark mahogany and wenge are the prevalant materials.These link an array of different spaces, ranging from the introverted spirituality of the spa to the understated luxury and richness of the large ballroom.

Bookstore of Palazzo delle Esposizioni | Officina Del Disegno Srl | Architecture

2009-10-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

Bookstore of Palazzo delle Esposizioni

"The Palazzo delle Esposizioni bookstore is part of a more general renovation project.", says Officina Del Disegno Srl on Bookstore of Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

Words from the architect

The Palazzo delle Esposizioni bookstore is part of a more general renovation project. In addition to integrating commercial functions within the museum, the store aims to be one of the most specialised art bookstores in the city.

The project is based on the almost sculptural design of the bookshelves and the effect of this "sculpted walls/mass", emphasised by the thickness of the shelves and their vertical supports, is counterbalanced by the total rarefaction of the central spaces.

The primary materials are wood and lacquered steel and the single chromatic quality of the white finish reduces the scale of the space, stepping away from the monumental character of the Palazzo's display spaces.

Photograph by Alberto Novelli, courtesy of Officina Del Disegno Srl.

The bookshop has two entrances: one directly from the exterior, and one from the interior of the museum, connected with a cafeteria.
In addiction of the bookshelves along the walls, in the central spaces low platforms are used to display books or objects of design.
The space is also characterised by its dropped ceiling, composed of suspended sails and perforated by cuts that allow a view of the vaults above and the penetration of the lighting systems, offering visitors a controlled and concentrated visit.

Credits
Text: Officina Del Disegno Srl
Photographs: Alberto Novelli

Project details
Project Name: Bookstore of Palazzo delle Esposizioni
Location of Site: Rome, Italy
Design Team: Officina Del Disegno Srl (Firouz Galdo, Alessandra Gobbo, Andrea Schingo, Carlo Magoni)
Project Type: Renovacion
Client: Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
Site Area: 470 mq
Cost of Construction: 600,000 Date of completion: 2007