Deepstone House | Simon Winstanley | Architecture

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

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

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

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

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