Arch Daily |
- Quinta da Boavista / SAMF Arquitectos
- Baan Klang Suan / ForX Design Studio
- Beigang Cultural Center / MAYU architects+
- Terada House / Mizuno architecture design association
- Mandala Filling Station Phuc Duy / vn-a
- New Images of Studio Gang's Solar Carve Tower Revealed as Project Gets Underway
- Country House in Lanaudière / STOA ARCHITECTURE
- 8 Architectural Winter Stations Brighten Up Toronto's Beaches
- Kuvasz house / Estudio Galera
- Renzo Piano Designs 36-Story Hotel and Apartment Tower in San Francisco
- Eclipse / FAHR 021.3
- 6 Unique Long Weekend Travel Ideas for Architects
- Osler House / Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan + Suzana Glogowski
- Farrells Unveils Design for High-Speed Railway Terminus in Singapore
- Does it Pay to Invest in Good Architecture? The Case of 'The Iceberg' in Aarhus, Denmark
- The Green House / URBAstudios
- Lighthouse Interiors: Call for Entries
- Thirty-pine Villa / Aleshtar Architectural Office
| Quinta da Boavista / SAMF Arquitectos Posted: 27 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST  © José Campos
 © José Campos The main building of the "Quinta da Boavista", is situated in a privileged location along the margins of the Douro River, overlooking the sinuous valley, sculpted by man over the centuries to produce wine. Besides the agricultural function, this wine-producing estate also serves the private use of a large family and touristic use as a guest house.  © José Campos  Floor Plan Level 00  © José Campos Our project is the last phase of a series of additions that began in the 18th century with the construction of two buildings, the main house and the servants' quarters, standing a few meters apart. Eventually, they were united with new construction, but a complex circulation still revealed this original separation. After a fire in the 1950's, a new floor was built on the secondary building, adding a new level to an ensemble that adjusts organically to the terraced platforms.  © José Campos  Section  © José Campos Our intervention began with a separate house for the caretaker, liberating space in the main building. This new project attempts to clarify the circulation between the different parts that have been united, and adds a new feature to the group by closing the L shape of the two original buildings set perpendicularly, with a new addition, changing the L into a U form, creating a courtyard with an open portico that frames the river view.  © José Campos Rather than set a strong contrast between old and new, the intervention sought to investigate what was unique in the building and landscape and to intensify it. Despite major alterations in the spatial organization, the character of the interiors was maintained: stucco, wooden floors, handmade cement and glazed tiles, wooden trellis and a pervading deep blue that unites all the carpentries.  © José Campos In the new buildings our approach was more topographical, relating to the landscape rather than to the existing volumes. The main addition is a continuation of the stone walls, whitewashed in the local tradition of differentiating particular moments in these long contour lines. The new living room is defined by three elements: the stone wall and staircase that redraw and conclude the exiting terrace, a veranda framed by slender steel columns protected by sliding panels of blue trellis, and a slab which is the continuation of the level of the upper terrace.  © José Campos The other addition, a new staircase, is a white rendered cylinder that unites the corridors in both floors in the most fluid and direct way. Even if the spiral form and a circular skylight provide drama to the inside space, from the outside, the form tries to blend with the existing walls, and its cylindrical presence recalls the industrial wine silos that can be seen punctuating the landscape.  © José Campos The intervention also attempts to change the way the existing building was "fortified" against the exterior. New openings were made so as to encourage a more direct relationship with the outside space, which was given a separate character according to its inner functions. A large window was added to the entrance patio, in contact with the new kitchen and its big chimney. The new rooms in the lower level gained a direct access to the outside terrace, limited by a row of cypress trees. The new courtyard was given another window and a covered portico which offers refuge from the sun and rain.  © José Campos Still, the aim was not transparency, such as was desired by Modernism. Here, all the openings can be obscured, and even the new living room with its open veranda over the river can be protected from a view that, if ever present, can be too overwhelming, in line with a Portuguese tradition, of Moorish origins, which favours seeing without being seen.  © José Campos  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Baan Klang Suan / ForX Design Studio Posted: 27 Feb 2017 02:00 PM PST  © Tinnaphop Chawatin
 © Tinnaphop Chawatin From the architect. A rural home designed for a retired doctor and his family in the west of Thailand. Situated away from the town, the house only occupies half of the land; leaving the surrounding as green open space with existing coconut and fruit trees which camouflage the house from its setting; blending in architecture with the environment.  © Tinnaphop Chawatin The house is two storey with pitched roof and elevated ground floor with all the functional spaces on the upper level of the house as in traditional Thai house which helps reduce heat and protects the house during the flooding season. The idea is then adapted with the use of modern material such as concrete, steel and mix with timber. The overall design is contemporary but still local friendly to its neighbourhood.  © Tinnaphop Chawatin The house is design to play with the sense of indoor and outdoor and taking advantage of its rural setting. All the walkways are semi outdoor with changing lighting conditions throughout the day is a transitional space before entering into the house. These slope walkway connects from ground level parking to the bedroom and bathroom on the main floor is also making the house accessible by wheelchairs which might be required in the future.  © Tinnaphop Chawatin  Second Floor Plan  © Tinnaphop Chawatin A courtyard garden on the upper level is the centre of the house to provide green space for the upper level and to create a sense of "ground". The rooms have fully opened timber swing doors which opens to the terrace which also functions as a semi-outdoor walkway linking two wings of the  © Tinnaphop Chawatin  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Beigang Cultural Center / MAYU architects+ Posted: 27 Feb 2017 12:00 PM PST  © Shawn Liu Studio
 © Shawn Liu Studio From the architect. Beigang Township is the epicenter for the Taiwanese worshipping of Mazu, a Chinese sea goddess. Therefore, the Beigang Chao-Tien Temple for Mazu and its surrounding form a core area with local historic significance. However, Beigang as well as other cities in the western plain of Taiwan faces the same suburban sprawl, exacerbated by disorderly building development resulting from the lack of a cohesive planning guidance. The project site itself is located at the northwestern corner of the 90-years-old Bei-Chen Elementary School campus, sitting right on the axis of the sprawling expansion.  © Shawn Liu Studio The program of the new Beigang Cultural Center is mainly composed of a 400-seat auditorium, a permanent exhibition space and a special exhibition space. Because of its significant volume and being a civic building, the culture center can anchor the adjacent streets and establish an important city block. The L-shaped building is further divided into two volumes, responding to the adjacent street intersection. The larger auditorium volume and the smaller exhibition hall volume are each sheathed with different types of granite. The top of both volumes is also angled differently to create a dialogue to each other. The roofs are free from rooftop equipment so that the culture center has a clean and refined appearance, which stands out from the surrounding buildings dotted by unsightly equipment and bland building covers. In addition, the plaza in front of the building varies in elevation, and elongated stairs form the linear edge along the paved walkway next to the adjacent street. Unique in Taiwanese cities, this site planning creates subtle grading variance and generates dynamic visual effect that changes with viewing angles.  © Shawn Liu Studio  Plan_1  © Shawn Liu Studio The interior spatial flow and the transparency created by the ground-touching ribbon glass windows do contrast with the substantial opaque building volumes above. In fact, the transparency below the opaque volumes becomes a datum line that links the opaque volumes and lifts them together as if they are floating above the plaza. The linear lobby extends out the circulation along longitudinal axis of the building. It joins with the stairs at the center turning node of the L-shaped plan and unites the stacked exhibition spaces with the secondary entrance in a dynamic way. The stairs at the other end of the lobby lead to the overhanging second floor foyer that not only blurs the inside-outside spatial relationship, the movement inside the transparent foyer is also being displayed to the public until the circulation of visitors is returned inwardly toward the auditorium. The interior of the auditorium is shaped into a pure sound chamber known as shoebox typology instead of relying on individually placed sound reflectors. The angled roof above the stage and inclined perforated wood acoustic panels flanking the auditorium help to reverberate the sound properly and eliminate standing sound waves. The conditioned air is distributed through vents located underneath the auditorium seats so that the energy efficiency is achieved while the main air conditioning equipment can be located below the auditorium instead on the rooftop, freeing up the rooflines to convey the building form.  Process_sketch_1  © Shawn Liu Studio  Process_sketch_4  © Yueh-Lun Tsai  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Terada House / Mizuno architecture design association Posted: 27 Feb 2017 11:00 AM PST  © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos
 © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos From the architect. Terada House is an annex built on a vacant lot next to the existing house. It is a new home for the client and his family (his wife and two children). Due to the limited buildable area, the building was designed within a 7.28m x 7.28m plan based on the standard module of wood structure.  © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos  Section  © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos The roof ridge lines were designed to align with diagonal lines of the square plan. We chose this configuration because it enabled us to study various configurations and the level of comfort in the interior space and simultaneously figure out the most effective dimensions of exterior walls considering the surrounding environment by parametrically adjusting heights of four top points of the cuboid.  © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos Our idea was to determine a volume that does not overwhelm the existing house or surroundings, as well as providing an interior space that is comfortable, open, and secure at the same time. By seeking a good balance between the effort to reduce the volume of architecture in consideration for the surrounding environment and the desire to increase the interior space, we aimed to create architecture with the high spatial density.  © Yoshiharu Hama / Studio melos  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Mandala Filling Station Phuc Duy / vn-a Posted: 27 Feb 2017 09:00 AM PST  © Robert Herrmann
 © Robert Herrmann From the architect. Petrol filling stations is a complexity. People, animal, vegetation, machine come and stay to exchange energy. Not only in the substantive value but also in the mental value, all of activities are linked and reacted together in a vital circulation. Filling station Phuc Duy is organized in a circle, where the functions are closed with each other as possible but have enough distance to strengthen the peaceful servicescape.  © Robert Herrmann  Ground Floor  © Robert Herrmann Further more than an energy exchange point, station Phuc Duy play a roll of a relaxed meeting point like an eco-friendly stop during the journey. With the mixed symbolized form like a village of many roofs the area of almost 1700 square meter is covered to get shadow. The roofs with clay roof tiles in archetype form keep the spirit of the place in industry facts of this service architecture. Filling Station Phuc Duy allows the people to act and relax like they are at home. According to the relationship between speed and length of stop, all the functions of the station from short-term like filling to long-term stop like living of the crews are organized and joined together in a natural order and the harmony way –like Mandala!  © Robert Herrmann  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| New Images of Studio Gang's Solar Carve Tower Revealed as Project Gets Underway Posted: 27 Feb 2017 08:10 AM PST  © Neoscape. Courtesy Studio Gang New renderings have been revealed of Studio Gang's Solar Carve Tower, located at 40 10th Avenue along the High Line in New York City, as the project gets set to begin construction. Initially conceived by the architects in 2012, the tower was presented to New York's Board of Standards and Appeals on four occasions before finally receiving planning approval in November 2015. In the new images, the building's interiors and roof terrace are seen for the first time, as well as its relationship to the nearby Pier 55, the proposed park along the Hudson Waterfront designed by Heatherwick Studio.  The Solar Carve Tower, with Pier 55 in the foreground. Image © Neoscape. Courtesy Studio Gang The Solar Carve Tower has been designed for minimal intrusiveness on the High Line – by carving into the building volume, the maximum amount of sunlight is still able to reach the elevated park below.  © Neoscape. Courtesy Studio Gang "In a project like the Solar Carve Tower on the High Line, we are commenting on the primary importance of public space, even when that space is mid-block and not protected by typical set-back zoning," explained Jeanne Gang in an interview with Vladimir Belogolovsky last November. "We noticed that new buildings around our site were beginning to crowd the High Line's solar access and that if we were to follow traditional zoning requirements we would be contributing to that kind of destruction of the public realm. So we sculpted our building using the angles of the sun... We treated the High Line as public space to be protected by not blocking its sunlight."  © Neoscape. Courtesy Studio Gang  © Neoscape. Courtesy Studio Gang The office building will contain a total of 139,000 square feet, including a 10,000 square foot rooftop terrace and an 8,000 square foot outdoor space at the level of the High Line. According to the New York Post, all office floors excluding the 7th floor will also feature private terraces. The building has been designed to achieve LEED Silver standards. Solar Carve Tower is anticipated to open in early 2019. Solar Carve Tower / Studio Gang Architects Jeanne Gang: "Without an Intellectual Construct Life is Boring" How a Retired 88-Year-Old Solar Design Pioneer Became one of 2017's "Game Changers"  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Country House in Lanaudière / STOA ARCHITECTURE Posted: 27 Feb 2017 07:00 AM PST  © Normand Rajotte
 © Normand Rajotte From the architect. Located on a steep, lakeside and densely wooded site north of Montréal, this country home was planned for a couple wanting an easy indoor-outdoor living space well integrated to the site typography.  © Normand Rajotte With the intent of extending seasonal uses and allowing new ones, the house is made of two volumes and a central interstitial space framing a preferred view of the lake beyond while offering a covered access to the main entrance. The overall organization is a contemporary reinterpretation of the "dogtrot house" typology. The two volumes are covered by a continuous flat roof. The first volume includes the living spaces and four bedrooms while the second consists of a screened porch and a garage.  Ground Floor Plan Full height glass panels enhance the desired indoor-outdoor relationship through transparency.  © Normand Rajotte The architectural expression echoes the geological composition of the site, with rock stratification punctually emerging through the ground. Two long strata define the main floor and the roof. Mostly horizontal, they are slightly bent in three locations, in response to specific spatial conditions. The lower stratum hovers above the recessed base, enhancing the presence of exposed bedrock.  © Normand Rajotte  © Normand Rajotte Eastern white cedar cladding was used for the exterior walls while western red cedar was chosen for the fascia, soffit and terrace applications. A circular opening in the passage's roof allows sun, rain or snow.  © Normand Rajotte  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 8 Architectural Winter Stations Brighten Up Toronto's Beaches Posted: 27 Feb 2017 06:05 AM PST  The Beacon / Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva. Image © Khristel Stecher Eight "Winter Stations" have been installed along Toronto's beachfront, injecting new life into the shoreline during the Canadian city's winter months. Completed as a result of the annual Winter Stations design competition, the eight projects responded to this year's theme of "Catalyst," which sought installations that "open up the waterfront landscape and reinvent the space for visitors" while considering how materials may be repurposed or reused for future iterations. Five professional and three student designs were constructed this year along Kew, Scarborough and Balmy Beaches in the heart of Toronto's Beach community. Record numbers of Torontonians attended the unveiling ceremony and family day this year. I See You Ashiyu / Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela  I See You Ashiyu / Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela. Image © Khristel Stecher North / studio PERCH  North / studio PERCH. Image © Khristel Stecher Collective Memory / Mario García and Andrea Govi  Collective Memory / Mario García and Andrea Govi. Image © Khristel Stecher BuoyBuoyBuoy / Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani and Julie Forand  BuoyBuoyBuoy / Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani and Julie Forand. Image © Khristel Stecher The Beacon / Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva  The Beacon / Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva. Image © Khristel Stecher Flotsam and Jetsam / University of Waterloo  Flotsam and Jetsam / University of Waterloo. Image © Khristel Stecher The Illusory / Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology  The Illusory / Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology. Image © Khristel Stecher Midwinter Fire / Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto  Midwinter Fire / Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto. Image © Khristel Stecher The installations will remain on display until March 27, 2017. Learn more about the winning designs, here and check out more images of this year's event via the Winter Stations Instagram. News via Toronto Winter Stations Competition. 8 Projects Selected to Transform Toronto's Beachfront in the 2017 Winter Stations Design Competition Whimsical Winter Stations Warm Toronto's Beaches  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2017 05:00 AM PST  © Diego Medina
 © Diego Medina From the architect. Kuvasz house is set on top of a dune in the forest of Carilo, an area with few neighbors in front of an un-plotted forest reserve. The house was planned for the owner's use during low season and for rental in high season. Practical requirements were set: amount of bathrooms, bedrooms, services, and other basic items for an unknown user.  © Diego Medina From a conceptual point, Kuvasz was designed as a path that accompanies and rises to the sand-dune, touching the lot in a few spots, respecting and highlighting the current topography. The path ends in the social program, as a lookout resting on the crest of the dune.  © Diego Medina Between the street level and the house's main level, a connection is made by an inclined perforated sleeve. The greyness and coldness of the material mingles with perforated circles of framed landscape.  © Diego Medina As a game of opposites, the stairs sleeve first rejects the landscape, only to then empower it.  Upper Level The house dematerializes in its interior-exterior transition. The roof slab turns into a pergola and slits open the lateral enclosure allowing sunlight and views of the outside; the wall does not reach the floor, transforming itself into a bench and opens as a mouth, creating a transitional space between the house and the forest.  © Diego Medina Materiality and the use of natural light as a resource Architecture is connected to technology, but is also connected to phenomenology, the sensorial elements and the context in which one works with.  © Diego Medina The light, the game of shadows, the reflection on different surfaces and textures, they transform the architecture from being static into something dynamic.  © Diego Medina Kuvasz was designed for a user; the house is the result of an intersection of variables based on people and their relationship with the environment and not as an object intended to be admired.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Renzo Piano Designs 36-Story Hotel and Apartment Tower in San Francisco Posted: 27 Feb 2017 04:00 AM PST  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department Plans for 555 Howard, a mixed-use hotel and residential tower to be located in San Francisco's Transbay neighborhood, have been revealed by the city's Planning Department. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop for developer Pacific Eagle, the 36-story tower would house 69 residential units and 255 hotel rooms, as well as a publicly-accessible open-air rooftop terrace. The project represents Piano's second project in the city, following 2008's California Academy of Sciences.  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department Renderings released in the planning document reveal a glass curtain-walled tower with a single step back at the 21st floor to create an outdoor terrace for residents. A 3-story lobby atrium supported by pencil-tipped columns will welcome guests into the building and offer reception and retail program elements. Located adjacent to an elevated highway on-ramp, the project also includes a plaza and park underneath the ramp structure.  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department The building will be set upon a reinforced mat foundation between eight and twelve feet thick that eliminates the need for piles to be driven into the bedrock below. Designed to meet LEED Platinum standards, the project is reportedly being fast-tracked by the Planning Department as a landmark "green" development. Construction is estimated to take approximately 3 years from groundbreaking.  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department You can see the planning document for the project in full, here. News via San Francisco Planning Department, SocketSite. H/T Architect's Newspaper.  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department  © Steelblue / Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy San Francisco Planning Department  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2017 03:00 AM PST  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
From the architect. The celebratory piece Eclipse marks the 20th anniversary of the classification of the historic centre of Porto as Unesco World Heritage site. A temporary installation, Eclipse is a project by architecture studio FAHR 021.3 who created a sphere that temporarily shifts the centre of the city square towards its gravitational pull.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG "The installation enters the public space with a disruption of scale that entices interaction and fruition," describe Filipa Frois Almeida and Hugo Reis from FAHR 021.3  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG Eclipse stands in an off-centre position which encourages passers-by to rethink the Amor de Perdição Square from a different perspective. It breaks the surrounding architecture's quiet historic elegance with a bold statement of sheer size and colourful disruption. This unexpected contrast establishes a daring relationship between the installation and its surroundings, thus inviting people to stop and appreciate the location from another viewpoint.  Construction Process The six meter diameter sphere is constructed using ventilation ducts that create a visual dialogue between undulating lines and empty spaces. The striking colour and spherical shape stand out in the distance, whereas the metallic texture and modular structure are revealed when approaching the piece. Furthermore, each tube allows people to peek and discover another point of view of the historical surroundings, again inviting us to stop and consider new perspectives of a familiar site. The piece introduces a dynamic with the urban context, an aspect that was explored in a sound performance that highlighted Eclipse's uncanny qualities with material sounds.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG During the day the installation reflects and spreads daylight over the square, softening its effects as the evening approaches, but it is at night that Eclipse fully lives up to its name when a spotlight illuminates one of its sides and keeps the opposite in darkness. Eclipse will be showcased at Largo Amor de Perdição until May 2017.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 6 Unique Long Weekend Travel Ideas for Architects Posted: 27 Feb 2017 01:30 AM PST  The "architectural pilgrimage" is much more than just everyday tourism. Studying and admiring a building through text and images often creates a hunger in architects, thanks to the space between the limitations of 2D representation and the true experience of the building. Seeing a building in person that one has long loved from a distance can become something of a spiritual experience, and architects often plan vacations around favorite or important spaces. But too often, architects become transfixed by a need to visit the same dozen European cities that have come to make up the traveling architect's bucket list. The list here shares some sites that may not have made your list just yet. Although somewhat less well known than the canonical cities, the architecture of these six cities is sure to hold its ground against the world's best. The locations here make ideal long weekend trips (depending of course on where you are traveling from), although it never hurts to have more than a few days to really become immersed in a city. We have selected a few must-see buildings from each location, but each has even more to offer than what you see here—so don't be afraid to explore! New Canaan, Connecticut, United StatesAfter the Nazis pushed the Bauhaus out of Germany in 1933, director Walter Gropius was invited to head the Harvard Graduate School of Design, making it the first in the United States to adopt the Bauhaus methodology. In the 1940s, John M. Johansen, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes and their professor Marcel Breuer from Harvard's Graduate School of Design began building homes for their clients and themselves in the tiny Connecticut town of New Canaan. They became known as the "Harvard Five," famous for their post-WWII work in modernist residential architecture that became emblematic of hope and change. Most of the dozens of projects built during this period have survived, and are still used as private homes. Those included on this list are no longer occupied and are open to tourists, but you can find dozens more modernist buildings to check out streetside. Glass House  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/citizenhelder/4581217976/'>Flickr user Helder Mira</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0 </a> One of Philip Johnson's most famous buildings, the 1949 Glass House demonstrates the influence of Mies van der Rohe on the Harvard Five. This project in particular is inspired by van der Rohe's stilted Farnsworth House, which also used glass controversially to build a transparent residence. Aside from the fireplace and bathroom, the wall-free house is completely exposed to—or, depending on how you look at it, integrated with—the exterior. Eliot Noyes House Eliot Noyes was the first of the Harvard Five to settle in New Canaan, and built his own home there based on Bauhaus teachings from Gropius and Breuer—also drawing inspiration from his time studying the work of Frank Lloyd Wright after graduation. The Noyes House juxtaposes heavy stone with glass to create a public-private dichotomy, and its use of natural materials contributes to a balance with the surrounding nature, which is echoed in the home's courtyard that places wildlife at the center of the design. Gores Pavilion Now maintained by the New Canaan Historical Society, the Gores Pavilion was designed by Landis Gores. His extensive work on Philip Johnson's Glass House is evident in the Pavilion's familiar cantilevers and glass walls. It was built as a pool house for its owners but now functions as a showroom and mini-museum as part of the Historical Society's effort to engage with the town's modernist architecture. Baku, AzerbaijanDespite its surviving Medieval palaces and tombs, Baku has become best known for its lavish construction of late- and postmodern monumental architecture. In a concerted urban planning effort that began somewhere around the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the State Committee for City Building and Architecture of the Republic of Azerbaijan has commissioned high profile, often semi-public urban projects to cultivate an image of Baku as a cosmopolitan and successful destination city. The result is an odd but fascinating mashup of architectural spectacle, and there are likely even more massive, dazzling buildings in the works. Travel to Baku for a critical look at how visionary master planning and tourism can shape a city. Crystal Hall  © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baku_Crystal_Hall_2014_1.jpg'>Wikimedia user Arne Müseler</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC-BY-SA-3.0</a> Gmp Architekten's faceted Crystal Hall was constructed in just eight months and meant as a temporary stadium for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, but was altered to become a more permanent venue for sports and concerts. The arena's exterior is a perforated metal membrane meant to look like crystal, but the real show happens after dark, when thousands of colored LEDs illuminate its massive waterfront surface. LEDs like these that create free light shows have become almost a necessity in city-making projects of this scale, with buildings throughout Asia donning colorful, attention-grabbing coverings. Heydar Aliyev Center  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/30599731862/'>Flickr user Mandy</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/'>Public Domain</a> The counterpoint to Crystal Hall's sharp, angular formal rhythm is the curving flow of Heydar Aliyev Center, named after Azerbaijan's 20th-century Soviet-leader-turned-President. The Center is one of Baku's earlier postmodern monuments, and was built at a time when Baku seemed an unlikely city for a Zaha Hadid commission. The building's vast open spaces are a feat of engineering, and its large public plaza makes the Heydar Aliyev Center a part of life even for those who never enter its museum or theater, echoing the use of squares and plazas in Soviet architecture to offset the elitism of inaccessible buildings. Maiden Tower  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/9508280@N07/32045150866/'>Flickr user Dan Lundberg</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a> Travelers to Baku would be remiss to overlook its more historic architecture—although the new buildings are creating an equally important narrative of their own. The Maiden Tower dates back to the 12th century and is a major example of the region's pre-Islamic architecture. It is believed to have been a Zoroastrian fire temple, with fire exits built throughout the masonry. The Maiden Tower is the center of many legends and myths, making it a central part of Azerbaijani cultural history, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Historical Monument. Columbus, Indiana, United States © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenlynn/279869574/'>Flickr user wyplynn</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/'>CC BY-ND 2.0 </a> Perhaps the most unlikely town to be called the "Midwestern Mecca of Architecture," the 44,000 person town of Columbus, Indiana has nonetheless earned its unofficial title. After Eero Saarinen built the town's first modernist building in 1940, a combination of public subsidy, post-WWII revolutionary thinking, and civic engagement prompted some of the world's most renowned architects, including four Pritzker Laureates, to bring their designs to this unexpected settlement. Fire Station 4  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/2481826442/'>Flickr user Mandy</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> Each of Columbus's six fire stations was built by a different architect as the city expanded. Seeing the complete collection forms a lens through which visitors can examine the development of popular architectural styles, namely evolving modernism, from 1941 to 1998. Fire Station 4 was designed by Robert Venturi, another Pritzker Prize winner, in 1967. The architect was instructed to design a building that was easy to maintain and not distracting, hence the station's planar simplicity. Irwin Miller House  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipeguy/8582115964/'>Flickr user Jeff Hart</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0) </a> One of Columbus's most notable projects, the Irwin Miller house was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1957. Mies van der Rohe's influence is present in the home, which lets steel and glass define its unornamented walls and cantilevered, overhanging roof. The use of glass quiets the separation between interior and exterior, allowing the property's lush gardens to become a part of the home. Inside, the interior design of Alexander Girard includes pedestal chairs and a sunken living room, both distinctly emblematic of mid-century modern furniture. Cleo Rogers Memorial Library  Library: © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/2481012857/in/photolist-4MeQFK'>Flickr user Mandy</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0)</a> Before winning the Pritzker Prize in 1983, I.M. Pei also left his mark on Columbus with the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library as the town's first civic building in 1969. He was tasked with creating a focal point for the town center: a defining element to unite the various disparate modern buildings that would start a dialogue between Saarinen's neighboring Miller house and First Christian Church. The library is built with native brick, and Pei mixed red dust into the mortar to minimize its appearance and imbue the building with a monolithic quality. São Paulo, BrazilIn the political uncertainty of midcentury Brazil, São Paulo took nervous, rebellious, and nationalist energies and turned them into art. Movements such as Neo-Concretism and Tropicalism in art were also reflected in a modernist architecture that was grappling with exploring a Brazilian identity amid foreign influence that was seen as both constructive and destructive at different times. The legacy of these tensions and the beauty that resulted can be found in many of the city's buildings. Copan Building  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldon/3407163021/'>Flickr user Rodrigo Solon</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0 </a> The iconic Oscar Niemeyer is responsible for much of Brazil's modern architecture, but residential architecture is rare among his many civic projects. The Copan building is massive: 38 stories of apartment units form a subtle wave shape that, seen from above, seems to cut through the urban fabric like a glacier slowly flattening the terrain. Today, conditions of some parts of the Copan building are unfortunately somewhat precarious, and with a restoration project underway that is expected to last until 2019, a mesh covering has been placed over the facade to protect pedestrians from falling tiles. Tomie Ohtake Institute  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucasnave/32323566085/'>Flickr user Lucas Lima 91</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a> Architect Ruy Ohtake designed the Tomie Ohtake Institute in 2001 for his mother, a celebrated Japanese-Brazilian painter and sculptor who settled in São Paulo in the mid-20th century and was one of Brazil's key abstract artists. The contemporary tower utilizes the colors and swirling, ribbon-like shapes that were common in Tomie Ohtake's work, and it has become a favorite in the São Paulo skyline. Museum of Art São Paulo  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldon/3407315819/'>Flickr user Rodrigo Solon</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0 </a> The MASP is one of Italian-born architect Lina Bo Bardi's most significant works in her adopted home of Brazil. The museum is suspended above a pre-existing plaza to preserve the public life that it hosted, and the lower half is buried to prevent the structure from rising high enough to obstruct the city's views. The bright red piers that support the museum are representative of Bo Bardi's admiration of Brazilian culture, as they parallel the rebellious color and forms of the Concrete movement that was taking place in Brazilian art at the time. Porto, PortugalPorto often slips through the cracks on lists of Europe's best cities for architecture. Its surviving Baroque churches and cathedrals are beautiful on their own, but several diverse projects from the last century are what makes Porto a true standout today. São Bento Station  © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/12720221@N08/25772805502/'>Flickr user mmmmngai@rogers.com</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a> José Marques da Silva's 1916 São Bento Train Station is an example of the Beaux-Arts style that began in Paris and then spread throughout Europe, and later the United States. It is a return to ornamented aesthetics and Baroque and Classical styles after the use of machined cast iron popularized during the Industrial Revolution. The São Bento Station also has an impressive interior, with mosaics of 20,000 tiles that depict scenes from Portugal's history. Leça Swimming Pools  Pools: © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/7666989@N04/4899696709/'>Flickr user Cecilia</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a> Just a twenty-minute drive from Porto, the Leça da Palmeira beach of Matosinhos is home to Álvaro Siza's famous Piscinas de Marés. The saltwater swimming pools nearly enter the sea, but are bordered by dark concrete and rock formations that blend with the surrounding beach, making the pools feel almost magically carved from the earth. Serralves Villa  © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_de_Serralves_01.jpg'>Wikimedia user Bill Rand</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en'>CC-BY-SA-2.0</a> The art deco Serralves Villa from the 1930s occupies a park of the same name. Its flamingo pink exterior displays the verticality and machinic roundness common in art deco, and it looks like a set of the next Wes Anderson movie against the manicured lawn. The interior houses an unbeatable collection of early-20th-century European designers, among them Edgar Brandt and Émile Jacques Ruhlmann. In the same park is another Álvaro Siza project, the Serralves Foundation Museum, which is typical of Siza's white sculptural style and houses one of Portugal's most revered collections of contemporary art. Guadalajara, Mexico © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/17307535685/in/album-72157651957981148/'>Flickr user Alan Levine</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> Although Luis Barragán is best known for his work in Mexico City, his career really began in his hometown of Guadalajara. The Guadalajara projects of the 1920s are living glimpses into Barragán's evolution as an architect, and demonstrate his creation of a visual vocabulary of large windows, flat planes, and colorful stucco. His association with the Guadalajara School, which prioritized regional traditions in architecture, began at this time, and this regionalism is evident in his work's materiality and spatial awareness of its natural surroundings. Jardines del Bosque A precursor to the Las Arboledas and El Pedregal neighborhoods built later in Mexico City, the Jardines del Bosque is a housing subdivision planned by Barragán and constructed after the controversial destruction of the area's woods to make way for the new development. Also located within Jardines del Bosque is the Parroquia el Calvario, making the neighborhood ideal for learning not only about Barragán's early urban planning, but also his conceptions of spirituality in architecture. Casa Franco One of few completely white structures in Barragán's portfolio, Casa Franco is a perfect example of the regionalism espoused by the Guadalajara School, with its geometric wooden fence separating the courtyard from the street and foreshadowing the secluded microenvironments for which Barragán is best known. The building is now home to Travesia Cuatro, a Madrid-based art gallery, meaning it is possible to see the interior, although due to a renovation the interior now follows the conventions of an uncontextualized white cube art space. Casa Efraín González Luna Barragán's commission for the locally prominent intellectual Efraín González Luna is regarded as the stylistic peak of his Guadalajara period. Like the other Guadalajara buildings, Casa Efraín González Luna is in some ways rooted heavily in regional tradition with its clean arches and stucco walls. But Barragán took the time to experiment here, further developing his concept of the garden as a retreat, and developing a play of light that emphasizes the openness of the space. Bonus City: Songdo, Korea © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/welix/7045644487/'>Flickr user Weli'mi'nakwan</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> Songdo is Korea's experimental smart city, and was planned from the ground up as a speculative, futuristic business hub. It incorporates a slew of models for the "cities of the future," including a smart waste system, green building techniques and energy usage, and integrated parks. It sits on reclaimed land that's just a fifteen-minute drive from Incheon International Airport, making it an ideal quick exploration trip for a long layover.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Osler House / Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan + Suzana Glogowski Posted: 27 Feb 2017 01:00 AM PST  © Pedro Vannucchi
 © Pedro Vannucchi From the architect. The site of the Osler House lies at the edge of Brasilia's pilot plan, at the tip of one of Paranoá Lake estuaries. The house is a poetic commentary on modern architecture, above all on Brazilian modernism, starting from a contemporary re-reading of the building materials and techniques.  Cross Section  Longitudinal Section  Elevation The plan of the Osler house is structured by a ground floor volume, a suspended volume and a deck with an outdoor pool. The box of concrete and wood on ground, houses the main suite, a bedroom, bathroom, the utilities area and the garage. The vertical wooden brises filter the light and can open in their entirety, diluting the relationship between the internal and the external. The upper volume propped on the ground-floor volume, on one side, and on pilotis on the other; accommodates the living room, the kitchen (done with low-height furniture) and a small office. This upper box creates a shady area and over the ground-floor prism, an extension of the living room, is the solarium.  © Pedro Vannucchi An outdoor staircase connects the deck alongside the pool to the upper solarium. An indoor staircase forms the daily circulation of the house. Near the main circulation, in the foyer of the house, an Athos Bulcão panel was especially designed and it is, possibly, his last project. The tiles that are in most famous classic buildings in Brasilia build the space here as well; a work of art designed for the house, designed with the architecture, that the artist could not see completed.  © Pedro Vannucchi  Ground Floor Plan  © Pedro Vannucchi  Upper Floor Plan  © Pedro Vannucchi The brises, the pilotis, and the plan with two perpendicular volumes are, in this house, a commentary of the modern architecture of Brasilia; the panel by Athos Bulcão, a great privilege for the inhabitant and for the architects.  © Pedro Vannucchi  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Farrells Unveils Design for High-Speed Railway Terminus in Singapore Posted: 27 Feb 2017 12:00 AM PST  © Farrells Architecture and urban design firm, Farrells, in collaboration with AECOM, have won the competitive tender to design the Singapore terminus of the new Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail. Sited in Singapore's "futuristic second Central Business District" of Jurong Lake, the design was conceived as a new civic landmark and a part of the district's new master plan currently in development by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and a team of consultants led by KCAP Architects & Planners. While the railway station's platforms are located below ground, the design aims to create an above-ground focal point that will mark the station as a new international gateway to Singapore.
Inspired by Singapore's reputation as a Garden City, the station's roof will feature skylights to create natural lighting and continuity between interior and exterior space. In addition to the Singapore railway station, Farrells has designed other large high-speed termini, including the Beijing South and Guangzhou South railway stations in China, as well as Singapore's Punggol MRT Station. The overall Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project is expected to open by the end of 2026. News via: Farrells. Beijing South Station / TFP Farrells Guangzhou South Railway Station / TFP Farrells  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Does it Pay to Invest in Good Architecture? The Case of 'The Iceberg' in Aarhus, Denmark Posted: 26 Feb 2017 10:00 PM PST  The Iceberg / CEBRA + JDS + SeARCH + Louis Paillard Architects. Image © José Tomás Franco It is often said that architecture only makes projects more expensive. That architects only add a series of arbitrary and capricious complexities that could be avoided in order to lower their costs, and that the project could still work exactly the same without them. Is this true in all cases? Although they are more profitable economically, human beings don't seem to be happy inhabiting cold concrete boxes without receiving sunlight or a breeze everynow and then, or in an unsafe neighborhood where there's no possibility to meet your friends and family outdoors. Quality in architecture is a value that sooner or later will deliver something in return. Balance is key, and a good design will never be complete if it's not economically efficient. How do we achieve this ideal? We reviewed the design process for 'The Iceberg' in Aarhus, Denmark. A project that managed to convince the authorities and investors when proposing a high-impact and tight-budget design, which in its form seeks to respond to the objective of guaranteeing the quality of life of its users and their neighbors. We were invited by The Architecture Project, to visit the city of Aarhus to learn about a series of large-scale developments and projects that are taking care of its rapid population growth. In the last ten years, the city has received 15,000 new residents; a situation that has forced its municipality to expand its housing supply and to promote the construction of new buildings, facilities, and public spaces.  The City of Aarhus. Image © José Tomás Franco Since 2012, the municipality has developed an ambitious official architectural policy related to the public projects, with the aim of making the city "internationally renowned for its architecture and quality of its urban spaces," in the words of Stephen D. Willacy, City Architect of the City of Aarhus. "The city believes that when planning and architecture are treated holistically, their aesthetic dimensions and livability factors are mutually interdependent and of the highest regard," he adds.  Aarhus Ø / The Aarhus docklands. Image © José Tomás Franco Despite being forced to follow the procurement processes established by the European Union, where price is a very important parameter when choosing City Council related projects (the highest bid for procuring a site with project design, or the lowest price for a building commission), the municipality of Aarhus has adopted a set of tender procedures for public projects characterized by always incorporating competition between proposals from different architecture offices; mostly pre-qualified teams. In some of these cases direct alliances are made between these offices and developers/contractors, and in others, despite selecting only one of the proposals presented, all of them can be incorporated into the final development plan.  The Iceberg / CEBRA + JDS + SeARCH + Louis Paillard Architects. Image © José Tomás Franco "Regardless of the chosen procurement route, design qualities and ambitions for each project are outlined in the competition brief together with other allocation criteria requirement documents. Acclaimed architectural judges including the Chief City Architect are included in the evaluation processes wherever possible and their appraisals are presented to the municipality politicians who make the final decision as to the choice of preferred partner," says Willacy.  The Iceberg / CEBRA + JDS + SeARCH + Louis Paillard Architects. Image © José Tomás Franco THE ICEBERGWith 22,000 meters square and 208 departments, the project developed by CEBRA, JDS, SeARCH and Louis Paillard Architects, presents a relevant design process in the context of the growth of the city of Aarhus, as it exposes a case in which collaboration among all these actors seems to be quite successful. Let's review 5 key actions that defined this process. 1. Question the Local Master Plan'The Iceberg' was originally developed for the Tækker and Brabrand Housing Association through a competition by invitation. Aimed at a diverse group of residents, including students and other low-income groups, it is a project that from its conception questions the rules of the game, in order to carry out the necessary operations to deliver a high-quality result.
 Facade 2. 'Play' with the RegulationsTo achieve the density established for the project, the team of architects had to negotiate with the regulations imposed by the local development plan, since it only allowed the construction of buildings with a maximum height of 6 and 7 floors in certain areas. The complex increases the maximum height to 12 floors but making sure that the average height meets the restrictions of the plan.
3. Variety of Typologies / Variety of InhabitantsSince its conception, the project has had 3 clients: Jørn Tækker, PensionDenmark and currently NREP. Following the requirement of the original client, the project takes advantage of its unique form to mix different sizes and types of departments, ranging from simple two-bedroom units to townhouses and exclusive penthouses flats. At the moment, NREP is selling the departments one by one, causing 'The Iceberg' to be owned by a large number of people; its owners and neighbors.
4. Dialogue with the AuthoritiesTo achieve all the objectives explained above, the team had to sit down and talk to the authorities involved. The operations proposed, by ensuring a series of concrete benefits for its future residents, convinced the municipality to 'relax' the rules that initially forced a more traditional residential building.
 Mikkel Frost, Founding Partner of CEBRA, explaining us 'The Iceberg' during the Press Tour of The Architecture Project. Image © José Tomás Franco 5. Make a Difference, Avoiding an Excessive CostAlthough it may seem like an expensive project and thought exclusively to draw attention, its architects claim that 'The Iceberg' is the result of "a series of pragmatic solutions and was never intended to be an iconic building." However, today the project has become a brand image for Aarhus, and a must-see tourist attraction for people visiting the city. Benefits that are not a direct result of a generous budget.
 Aarhus Ø / The Aarhus docklands. Image © José Tomás Franco Check the project in detail in our previous publication. [1]Official project description available here.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST  © João Morgado
 © João Morgado The room that aimed to be an apartment and turned into a “House” The project is located in a XIXth century building in the historical centre of the city of Porto. The object of the intervention was a room of 36m2 in a damaged state, facing towards the front of the third floor of the building. The vertical communication of this kind of building is typically situated in the centre, so that there is a room facing the front and one facing the back of the building.  Diagram The programme was ambitious for a 36m2 space. The client wanted to build, with a limited budget, a complete apartment for short term renting, able to allocate 4 to 5 people with the best possible privacy.  © João Morgado The approach aimed to take away the temporary and impersonal character typical of short term renting apartments by using a familiar and universally recognizable concept/image.  Plan Given that the project is in the top floor of the building, it was possible to expand the space towards the attic gaining more than 13 m2 of usable area. Moreover, it enhanced the strong, universal and simple image that defined the concept and the whole strategy of areas organization that visually transformed the apartment into a “House”.  © João Morgado With a contemporary and willingly bold language, the space was divided in two halves. One green and one white.  © João Morgado The green side, covered with the same material on all of its surfaces (floor, walls, ceiling) and painted in the same colour, is organized on two levels and mirrors the image of a “House”. Inside this half we find a first level with the entrance, the kitchen, the bathroom and the sleeping area, while in the second level, a mezzanine, there is one more sleeping area accessible through a vertical ladder.  Sections The white side has a double height ceiling, where the living room is located and from which you can access a small balcony with a panoramic view over the city. Because of the communal purpose of the area and of the language used in this half of the apartment, we can metaphorically think of this part as the patio. In a sense it brings you outside of the “House” and lets you perceive its volumetry. Although small, this design responds to the functional needs of the programme and aims at creating a spatial experience based on the feeling of surprise and contradiction by having the image/ concept of a House in the 3rd floor of a building.  © João Morgado Despite being a completely opened loft, the green colour plainly identifies the space organization. Moreover, natural pine slats are used to create partitions without breaking with the existing visual relation.  © João Morgado The House was completely covered in MDF panels that maintain a wood-like texture also after being painted, conveying a feeling of coziness.  © João Morgado In the living room, the pre-existing “Riga” wood floor was recovered and the walls and ceiling were painted white to maximize brightness. In the kitchen, the white “Estremoz” marble of the counter and of a part of the wall stands out, adding personality to this area.  © João Morgado Na zona social o soalho em Riga pré-existente foi recuperado e as paredes e tecto foram pintados de branco maximizando a luminosidade. Na cozinha, a aplicação de pedra Mármore “Estremoz” branca no balcão e em parte da parede destaca-se conferindo-lhe personalidade.  © João Morgado  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Lighthouse Interiors: Call for Entries Posted: 26 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST  CODE – Competitions for Designers – and Gruppo Romani S.p.A. announce "Lighthouse Interior," a competition for designers and creatives for luxury ceramics. The jury gathers outstanding personalities like Savin Couëlle, Clemente Busiri Vici jr, Martino Gamper, Ken Eastman and Manuel Aires Mateus. A total amount of €10,000 in cash prize will be awarded to the winner proposals and the first prize will be realized.  From Iberian Peninsula, passing through Americas, until Asian shores, designers and businesspeople have recently started to focus their attention on lighthouses. In the era of GPS, sonar and automatic navigation, a number of signal towers have lost their original significance, being abandoned and turning into ruins. They stand as relics of a bygone era, now waiting to be rediscovered and re-used in a more contemporary fashion. To this end, a number of projects, both private and public, have been put forward, which aim to renovate lighthouses for the opening of new, unparalleled accommodation facilities. The old coastal buildings stand, majestic and isolated, in breathtaking landscapes that are perfect locations for unforgettable holidays and ideal destinations for the most discerning and demanding of tourists.  Following this trend, Gruppo Romani, which has led the industry of top-quality ceramics production for decades, has launched Lighthouse Interior, a competition for the creation of a new collection of furnishing accessories and pottery, drawing inspiration from the myth of lighthouses and coastal towers to create new products of exquisite elegance, conceived for this new network of accommodation facilities, as well as for seaside tourism in general.  The new collection will be an extension of Cerasarda Atelier, a brand established in the 1960s at the dawn of the myth of the Costa Smeralda, and now open to the latest trend of seaside and niche tourism: lighthouses. The competition will create a new line of products which will contribute to memorable holidays enjoyed in unspoiled nature and in the shadow of the old signal towers. The collection that Gruppo Romani aims to create for Cerasarda Atelier will have to be evocative of relax, of holidays at the end of the world, lulled by the roar of the waves and the cries of the seagulls. It will have to tell a story of holidays in a timeless dimension, blue skies and windy shores, deep silence and solitary towers. Gruppo Romani has launched an exciting challenge that emphasizes the charm of remote places and wild nature, so as to create objects that will be symbols of style and elegance and will become an ideal line of products for the suites of any luxury hotel with a view of the sea.  Jury
Prizes
Calendar More information on: www.competitionsfordesigners.com
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| Thirty-pine Villa / Aleshtar Architectural Office Posted: 26 Feb 2017 07:00 PM PST  © Farshid Nasrabadi
 © Farshid Nasrabadi From the architect. The project of Thirty-pine Villa was redesigned and reconstructed through anastylosis in the countryside of the city of Esfahan, Iran. This project consisted of an open landscape and a small construction within.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The garden therein has thirty 30-year-old pine trees. The path to the building was formed as bad as possible as it started from the garden door, continued under these pine trees, and ended by the building entrance. It had jeopardized the life of these pine trees.  © Farshid Nasrabadi  Diagram  © Farshid Nasrabadi The building was not in concordance with the landscape of the garden in terms of dimensions and visual aspects and, therefore, did not meet the employer's demands for an appropriate hospitality for the parties and symposiums.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The design strategy of the landscape of the garden building was to pay full attention to the nature and, more importantly, to preserve the life and privacy of the pine trees. The project was thence named Thirty-pine Villa.  Diagram The number "30" is a significant number in Persian mythological literature. Hence, famous Iranian mystics and poets have written legends on the basis of number 30, the most famous of which is the story of Simurgh by famous Persian poet, Attar of Nishapur, where the moral of the story is the rule of trust among 30 creatures of the story that ensures their survival.  © Farshid Nasrabadi As of the story of Simurgh, we also considered each of the pine trees as an entity living in the garden; hence, we did our best to modify certain conditions for the trees to let them relieve from the overwhelm of the building materials and to make a circulation path for the garden and, at the same time, connect the garden and the building to form a fluid circulation in the landscape architecture. This way, we could make suitable and harmonious paths along the garden from the garden gate to the building. Therefore, the myth of Simurgh and the story of thirty birds were adapted not only for the number of 30, but also in the application philosophy of the atmosphere and life space in the architecture of 30-pine villa. The outcome was a pleasing combination of the trees, the interior design, and the myth of Simurgh, which, as a whole, became an influential totality.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The designing process was initiated by spatial design of the environment where the 30 pine trees were living. The pine trees were prioritized and were fully considered. All the paths and traffics were directed towards the trees. The paths, intertwined among the pine trees, made the spatial structure and traffic in the garden. The inappropriate primary lines were subverted and new appropriate environmental spaces were thus obtained; cozy spaces for solitude, personal contemplations, twosome dialogues, children playgrounds, spaces for family parties in the center of the site, etc.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The environmental design lines for flooring were of two types. First, the lines adjacent to old walls that continued among the columns there. These coarse lines with 90 degrees formed one side of flooring. Second, those lines that reduced the width of the paths as they continued along the connection of the pine trees and reacted towards the trees and also reduced by a fracture which was based on the dimensions and sizes of the bricks and this way the pine trees were separated from farming areas. Such a composition let the beholders experience unique and appropriate perspectives.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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