Arch Daily |
- Oberriet Cemetery / Tom Munz Architekt
- Design for a Modular House Proposes a Synergy Between Prefabrication and Carpentry
- House in Pirita / Kadarik Tüür Arhitektid
- Wuyishan Bamboo Raft Factory / TAO - Trace Architecture Office
- House in Chau Doc / NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS
- Brickface House / Austin Maynard Architects
- Fire Station of Guangzhou Holdings Nansha Industrial Park / Atelier Y
- Huamark09 Building / INchan atelier
- Cirqua Apartments / BKK Architects
- Go Inside BIG's Converted Nazi Bunker in This 360 Video
- Bráz Elettrica Pizza Restaurant / SuperLimão Studio
- The Best Structures of Burning Man 2017
- Kaleidoscope House / Paul Raff Studio
- Nano House / Punto Arquitectónico + ARCICONSTRU
- What's Stopping Urban Designers From Creating Walkable Neighborhoods From Scratch?
- Simple House / Moon Hoon
- This Pavillion Lives and Dies Through Its Sustainable Agenda
- 10 Even More Beautiful Staircases - Part III
| Oberriet Cemetery / Tom Munz Architekt Posted: 30 Aug 2017 10:00 PM PDT  © Ladina Bischof
 © Ladina Bischof Initial Situation The cemetery building no longer satisfied the requirements for interfaith use. The perimeter of the new hall for public viewings and funeral services was limited by existing areas for graves and urns, and demanded a sacral interpretation together with a suitable atmosphere.  © Ladina Bischof Concept The new location of the building in the southwest corner of the parcel strengthens the spatial relationship to the chapel and its perception within the complex. The power and significance of the number 3 constitutes the basis of the conceptual approach. The vertical and horizontal design of the new building, consisting of three elements, is also rigorously applied in its materialization.  Floor Plan Implementation Acting as connecting elements between heaven and earth, the base and roof are designed with a smooth formwork surface. Granulated concrete façades stretch between them. The external materiality creates a connection to the interior, and guides visitors. The public viewing romos create a dialectical break from the external experience. The warm, natural character of the wood and the new dimensions and proportions create a dense and intimate atmosphere.  © Ladina Bischof  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Design for a Modular House Proposes a Synergy Between Prefabrication and Carpentry Posted: 30 Aug 2017 09:00 PM PDT  Cortesía de abarca+palma Seeking to connect the traditions of carpentry and the prefabrication industry, Chilean practice abarca+palma have developed a modular house proposal made up of 10 different types of module, capable of forming 5 different house layouts. The house is constructed in pine wood—using composite beams and pillars—with prefabricated SIP panels.  Diagram Description from the Architects. This is a system of prefabricated modular units of space within a modular structure constructed on site. The wooden structure is built in situ by carpenters prior to the arrival of the prefabricated panels that are mounted inside.  Cortesía de abarca+palma In this mixed system, carpentry traditions and industry are linked directly. We believe that the viability of the hand labor of carpentry also depends on it being merged with industry, thus avoiding complete dependence on prefabricated components that threaten to make craft trades obsolete.  Cortesía de abarca+palma The structure is designed to be built in pine wood using composite beams and pillars. The prefabricated SIP panels will be of variable thickness, depending on the climatic conditions of the country the project is built in.  Climatic variable The 10 spatial modules correspond to living spaces with a specific use which can be combined according to the requirements of each inhabitant. These modules include bedrooms, living rooms, terraces, bathrooms, and kitchens, among others. The modules also vary in their finishes using natural wood, wood painted in carboline oil, corrugated zinc, smooth zinc, and other materials.  Modules This allows for a greater range of alternatives to satisfy the diverse requirements of the users. In terms of climate, the house is characterized by a large roof that protects the entire constructed area with eaves over 1 meter in length. This ensures protection from the rain and the sun, giving greater durability to the exterior of the dwelling and considerably decreasing its maintenance.  D. Image Cortesía de abarca+palma This cover is separated from the modules to reduce the transfer of heat from the sun into the modules, and also to improve air circulation. In addition, the width of the house and the sequence of windows allow an effective cross ventilation of all the enclosures.  Combinations Architecs: abarca+palma  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House in Pirita / Kadarik Tüür Arhitektid Posted: 30 Aug 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Tõnu Tunnel
 © Tõnu Tunnel From the architect. Two storey private house is located in a picturesque residential housing district in Pirita, Tallinn. The plot is surrounded by a lush pine forest from two sides. Existing natural environment and orientation to sun has been the major initiator for the design.  © Tõnu Tunnel The main character of the building lies in the volumetric play of the roof to frame the views towards the natural forest in the back and catch the daylight in front of the house. Varied size of openings offer modulated natural light all day long.  © Tõnu Tunnel Common areas are located on the ground floor and have direct connection to the garden. Dining area with kitchen is placed in the southward protruding volume receiving the full spectrum of daylight. Livingroom with sauna are facing evening sun in the west and have direct access to the covered terrace. The terrace is part of the landscape which has been designed to gradually grow out of nature to become part of the building and dissolve the boarder between inside and outside.  © Tõnu Tunnel  Section  © Tõnu Tunnel Upper floor serves as a private space with four bedrooms and bathrooms. Three bedrooms have access to common roof-terrace facing evening sun.  © Tõnu Tunnel As natural environtment required for respective materiality the whole building is clad with vertical black pine wood. Relatively large volume is visually reduced and its sculptural form underlined with monochromatic color scheme  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Wuyishan Bamboo Raft Factory / TAO - Trace Architecture Office Posted: 30 Aug 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Shengliang Su
 © Shengliang Su From the architect. Located atop a plateau in the rural Xingcun village, the building complex is a manufacturing and storage facility of bamboo rafts, used to sail the nearby Nine Bend River in Wuyi Mountain for tourism. Each winter 22,000 bamboo stems are harvested which, following a storage period, are used to manufacture 1,800 bamboo rafts annually.  © Shengliang Su  Workshop Axonometric  © Shengliang Su Its architecture and layout reflect distinct programmatic, topographical, and climatic requirements. The "L" shaped manufacturing workshop accommodates six fire areas for the bending of the bamboo and the assembling of rafts. The interior of the workshop is an open layout of 14 meters span required for the working space. Natural light is filtered through oblique skylights, which are oriented northward in order to get softer and homogeneous light.  Master Plan Aside from the working areas, the workshop houses resting spaces, storage rooms, restrooms, courtyards, and other service functions. The office and dormitory building adopts a veranda layout, with offices occupying the first floor, and dormitory and cafeteria occupying the second floor. Bamboo stalks are applied along the veranda to form shading louvers, which also provide well-ventilated insulation.  © Shengliang Su Considering the principle of localization and economy, in-situ concrete is used for the structure, hollow concrete blocks for the exterior wall system, cement tile for the roofing material, and bamboo and wood for the sunshading, doors, windows and handrails. Without overmuch surface finishing, all the materials present their own characters.  © Shengliang Su The industrial character of the project discourages superfluous design; by using the most basic elements for its construction, the architecture naturally reveals its structural and material logic. The project reconciles aesthetic simplicity with an economy of means, by which the architecture can demonstrate its resolution of form and function.  © Shengliang Su  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House in Chau Doc / NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS Posted: 30 Aug 2017 05:00 PM PDT  © Hiroyuki Oki
 © Hiroyuki Oki From the architect. Located in a suburb of ChauDoc town in AnGiang province, Southern Vietnam, this house is a sharing residence of 3 nuclear families who are kin. Although this project budget was tightened with local standards, which only allowed us to build a house with thin corrugated metal panels, we have tried to satisfy not only the regional spirits but also the rich lifestyle in which is fulfilled by sunlight, greenery and natural ventilation, as it were, living in a half-outdoor gardens.  Sketch Around 7 hours travelling from HoChiMinh city by long-distance bus and ferry, ChauDoc, a border town closed to Cambodian boundary, has been developed along a branch of Mekong River. Wandering around the neighboring site, what we could easily recognize is the several layers of the regional environment. The first layer is depicted by hundreds of floating houses on the river, and secondly, there are embanked roads along two sides of the river banks which turn into the main traffic for the local society, while the third layer is scattered with a plenty of pilotis houses extended from the roads by private small bridges, and the last one is painted in green by beautiful rice-field as far as our eyes could reach. Generally, pilotis houses in this area are mostly composed of stone or concrete columns on the ground and floating timber frames wrapped by thin corrugated metal panels. Due to the height limitation of the column which only can lift the house over flood water and also due to the minimum dimensions of timber frames for the local daily floor-sitting lifestyle, we could feel about the human-scaled and gentle impression from these local houses. And the more deeply we approached into their living context, the better we could understand about the harsh natural environment that they have to cope with, when all the grounds except the embanked roads used to be under the water during 4-5 months in the rainy season annually till they have completed the concrete embankments very recently. Anyone who visit this area could recognize the scent of their intelligence about how to co-exist with the large-scaled Mother Nature for such a long time.  © Hiroyuki Oki On the other hand, ironically, we have found that their daily-life has become unstable and un-organized especially after the recent drastic changes when they compulsively eliminated floods which had given a lot of inconveniences to them. An apparent evidence is that almost all the inhabitants have abandoned their ground level with their no-use garbage or excreta from their domestic animals such as pigs, gooses and chickens. This fact could drive their living environment into bad condition since those houses have too low ceilings without insulations and too small windows for ventilations. Formerly, flood in the rainy-season would wash away all excreta accumulated in the dry-season, and the covering water would be helpful to lower the surrounding temperature as well.  © NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS Based on these conditions mentioned above, what we aimed is to adopt regional customs such as local materials, carpenters' techniques and their construction methods as much as possible except 3 new architectural intentions below. 1/ To invert the roof shape from ordinal-roof into butterfly-roof in order to open the interior space to surrounding environment, and then cover all the site by 3 butterfly-roofs in different heights.  Axonometric 2/ To hang up rotating metal windows from end to end at the big openings between each roofs and façades to adjust the amount of sunlight and natural wind.  © Hiroyuki Oki 3/ To replace all the internal solid walls into movable partitions to create one big continuous space.  © NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS These 3 architectural principles are clearly intended to realize a half-outdoor and contemporary spaces with full of natural elements such as sunlight, wind, water, soil and plantings. However, at the same time, it is also an important theme for us to preserve the regional customs and spirits inside the house which can be listed as floor-sitting lifestyle, human-scaled dimensions and floating timber frames on the concrete columns. This theme is also consistent with its exterior design, which is to blend with the surrounding environment but to outstand by modern design languages.  Section Nowadays in Vietnam, urban and stateless housing style starts spreading even into the rural areas and changing their unique cultures, landscapes and lifestyles of their own regions. (In fact, 5 story building is under construction on the adjacent plot). It would be one of emergent subjects for us, Vietnamese architects, to propose alternative and contemporary way of living by inheriting their cultures, not by fading out their regional spirits.  © NISHIZAWAARCHITECTS  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Brickface House / Austin Maynard Architects Posted: 30 Aug 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Tess Kelly
 © Tess Kelly From the architect. Brickface is a compact building situated at the rear of an existing house in Richmond, Melbourne. It consists of a garage at ground level, studio living/guest bedroom at first floor, and a roof deck. A new pool and entertaining deck extends the home's entertaining area, while the roof terrace becomes the missing productive garden. The main living area of the existing house faces south and opens up onto the new terrace and pool. The backdrop to this view is the rising high wall of Brickface.  © Tess Kelly  Floor Plans  © Tess Kelly The red brick is interspersed with contrasting red and blue glazed bricks from the PGH Vibrant range (Rhapsody and Watermelon) to introduce light & shadow, pattern and colour. The round windows of the building and the sculptural form of the parapet combine with the character of the recycled brick to soften the solid block.  © Tess Kelly  Concept Diagram Brickface sits hard up to the laneway on two sides in a corner position. The building terminates a row of garage doors and newer outbuildings that tumble down the hill. Built from recycled bricks, the structure is a solid and secure bookend, that presents a character that looks to have existed well before the other buildings along the lane.  © Tess Kelly  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fire Station of Guangzhou Holdings Nansha Industrial Park / Atelier Y Posted: 30 Aug 2017 01:00 PM PDT  South Elevation. Image © CHEN Zhong
 First Floor Park Plot. Image © CHEN Zhong From the architect. Fire Station of Guangzhou Holdings Nansha Industrial Park is located around Pearl River Power Plant and close to Zhudian Road while connecting Huandao Road, the main road of Nansha District. As a supporting facility of the industrial park, it intends to be a Class one primary fire station meanwhile serves the surrounding area, and meet the requirement of reaching the spot in five minutes.  Section Analysis Diagram With design principles of "safety, efficiency, harmony, humanity and green", the station premises the daily training for firefighters and the promptness, safety and efficiency for emergency handling, focus on humanity and user comfort. The passive green building technology is employed, which emphasizes natural lighting and ventilation, to introduce green plant indoor by balcony and yard, so as to explore the practice of energy efficiency.  Elevation Function and Spaces Shaped in a rectangle, the station is unfolded to the urban road. The station is in three stories. The first floor is designed for fire engines garage with the command center, equipment storage, and canteen. The second is the area for fire-fighters duty standby rooms and activity platform, of which the main duty standby rooms face southeast and are furnished with a washroom and deep balcony ensuring lighting and ventilation as well as sunshade and heat insulation to enhance the user comfort. The activity platform to the southwest can also be used for sun-drying. The third floor is service area containing the rooms for public exhibition, physical training, meeting, recreation, reading and office, which satisfies the demands of fire-fighters daily lives, working and training.  3rd Floor Courtyard. Image © CHEN Zhong  Section  First Floor Park Plot. Image © CHEN Zhong With two emergency staircases and one straight flight staircase, all floors are connected to the garage, which guarantees the maximum promptness and safety of fire-fighters.  3rd Midyard. Image © CHEN Zhong A fire pool, training ground, and tower are built to the north of the station for simulation training.  North Elevation. Image © CHEN Zhong  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Huamark09 Building / INchan atelier Posted: 30 Aug 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat
 © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat From the architect. Located in a rapidly expanding zone of Bangkok city, this mixed-use building is a mere solution to what it means by the contemporary tropical urban living. Within a 320 square-meter compound, the obsolete existing house structure was leveled and a new 4-storey building was planned to suit new multi functional purposes – an architectural design office on the lower floor, a house for a small family on the upper floors, and an art collection space on the top floor.  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat From the start the architect, who is also the owner, has come up with the concept "The Art of Living with Time." Such an idea is to have the inhabitants joyfully grow old with the building and be inspired by the tropical environment, so that the building has to have strong relationships with "time and trees." Consequently, the concept of time is conceived by how the architect can express the qualities of available local materials when they perpetually interact with the hot-humid climate in Bangkok. The 40% of the plot is dedicated for trees and the green space. This will of course lead to the part of joyful living, meaning that the layout and the space planning of each floor are specifically designed to provide the constant cross ventilation in order to create the thermal comfort, which would anticipate the reduction of energy consumption.  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat  Ground Floor Plan The building has a simple rectangular form, which has the wide elevations oriented on the axis of North-South and the narrow elevations on East-West. With the height of 15-mater above the ground, the building outlook is composed by planar elements on 4 sides. However on the northern side, the plane is pushed out to create a double-layered façade for the fact that the space can open up to the constant day light, yet still has a shade to protect the rain. Then the form is intentionally carved into types of void that allow the natural lighting to poetically penetrate into the interior spaces.  Elevation Instead of using the smooth and clean surfaces from the conventional cement plaster and paint for the exteriors, the architect chooses the rough and raw texture of the exposed cement block walls in order to anticipate stains to take place over time because that can create a unique harmony with the greenery. Moreover from the technical point of view, the use of the cement block walls is done by the double-layered implementation - the concrete block for the outer and the lightweight brick for the inner with air cavity in the middle – in which the walls are active as the heat insulation during the day and to keep the cool during the night.  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat  First Floor Plan  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat On the ground level a compact tropical garden is set to be the humidity generator of the site as well as to give a pleasant visual effect. Also on the other upper levels there are several pocket gardens at different terrace spots along with climbing trees vertically situated on a few facades. So the sum of all green areas can make refreshing visual relationships not just for the interiors and exteriors, but also for the lower level to the upper ones.  © Peerapat Wimolrungkarat  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cirqua Apartments / BKK Architects Posted: 30 Aug 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Peter Bennetts
 © Peter Bennetts From the architect. Described by BKK Architects as a contemporary reinterpretation of "local, historical housing types," Cirqua Apartments weave new and obscure formal elements into an established residential neighbourhood in suburban Melbourne, playing on the familiarity of the single-home dwellings ingrained in the the collective memory.  © Shannon McGrath Situated on a steeply sloping block in the leafy suburb of Ivanhoe, the apartments echo local character through their materiality and volumetric composition. Weathered brick, standing seam metal and wooden partitions reflect the material language of the surrounding art deco and federation era homes.  Apartment Plan Large brick boxes project at various depths, replicating the rhythm of a suburban streetscape and leaving a substantial 'front yard'. Six large oculi puncture the facade, introducing formal inventiveness and reducing the overall building mass to let it sit more comfortably within its single and double storey context. This is also assisted by the steeply sloping site, allowing the bulk of the building to sit below the line of sight when viewed from the road.  © Shannon McGrath The porthole windows create vitrines to the apartments inside, flooding them with light. The windows set up a formal language which is continued internally throughout the building in details such as light fittings, door handles and tiles.  © Shannon McGrath BKK Architects say that the apartments have been designed with a strong focus on accessibility and passive environmental control, which will allow residents the comfort associated with a family home. This speaks to the shift in the way apartments in Melbourne are being conceived - from an investor market to owner-occupier market, necessitating higher quality design outcomes. For more, see BKK Architects  © Peter Bennetts  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Go Inside BIG's Converted Nazi Bunker in This 360 Video Posted: 30 Aug 2017 09:05 AM PDT In the latest in their Daily360 series, the New York Times takes us inside BIG's recently completed TIRPITZ museum, located within a former Nazi bunker on the west coast of Denmark. The video gives a panoramic tour of the museum's light-filled subterranean spaces, along with commentary from museum curator Anne Sofie Vemmelund Christensen, who notes the most transformative changes from the spectacular renovation. Via The New York Times.
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| Bráz Elettrica Pizza Restaurant / SuperLimão Studio Posted: 30 Aug 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © Maíra Acayaba
 © Maíra Acayaba From the architect. The "Companhia Tradicional de Comércio" company inaugurates a new house in São Paulo, called Bráz Elettrica. For architecture, the group - a reference to the quality of their houses - sought a language and aesthetics to dialogue with an audience willing to try the pizza in a less pretentious way than is normally consumed in great pizzerias of the city.  © Maíra Acayaba Sponsored by Anthony Falco, a pizza maker who made history at New York's bustling Roberta's, the house serves, from lunch until late in the evening, individual light-weight disks baked in a Neapolitan electric oven, fit to eat with your hands.  © Maíra Acayaba Mobility, practicality, and functionality were fundamental for designing the project. The Italian brand oven, the heart of the business, would already come on wheels to facilitate its movement. Refrigerators, counters, and boxes were also designed following the same concept.  © Maíra Acayaba The project sought a layout for optimization and fast flow of service. When you enter, you soon pick out the drinks and desserts, and in the cashier, you pick and pay for the pizza, which is picked directly at the counter. The bathroom can be accessed from the outside of the pizzeria: an internal button, triggered by the box, opens the door for customers.  Axonometric All in green tile and with an illustration on the lining, its configuration allowed the project to gain more internal space and, at the same time, a smaller flow generated by the use of the WC. The mixture of various metal alloys in coatings and electrical installations alludes to electrically conductive materials, copper being the most efficient of them, it appears in the form of pipes from that network to the furnace, which is also copper coated.  © Maíra Acayaba In the area where the pizza is prepared, on the stainless steel counter, a white stone of holy spirit gives the finish requested by the pizzaiolos as the best material for handling the pasta. In the finishing and delivery area for the customer, the Alpi green marble top resembles Malachite, a mineral from which copper is obtained, among others. The lavatory area of trays in the salon, due to its hydraulic infrastructure, is the only fixed and was coated in white tablets to consolidate its aseptic appearance.  © Maíra Acayaba The concrete floor is sanded with the exposed aggregate, intended to withstand the great flow of people. The walls of the old house keep the marks of other reforms that took place there. The textures of the walls received various collages and cuts of characters and personalities eating pizza, among them David Bowie, Madonna, and Batman. Made of pine wood, the communal tables of the hall, in a light tone, contrast with the other materials.  Floors Plans The lighting, developed especially for the project, used high-voltage electric glass and ceramic parts and insulation and emphasizes the subject of electricity in a subtle and unusual way. The metal ladder and its guardrail refers to the structure of high-voltage towers. Upstairs, tables and sofas are available in different configurations. The pre-cooking kitchen is exposed through a window, behind a wall covered with pine wood and in this area, the roof shears are exposed. On both floors, a red acoustic coating of projected cellulose was used.  © Maíra Acayaba On the sidewalk, the adoption of flexible tables and bleachers that can be used in different configurations. The original façade of the house was maintained and painted in blue and yellow composing Bráz Elettrica's brand language. Located on a corner property of 140m2, with high ceilings, semi-demolished walls, community tables and two electric ovens in sight, the architectural party sought to impress an informal and unpretentious identity to the house.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Best Structures of Burning Man 2017 Posted: 30 Aug 2017 06:30 AM PDT The week of Burning Man 2017 is halfway through, and glimpses of the event are starting to make their rounds through the social mediasphere. Under the theme of "Radical Ritual," this year features as many impressive structures and sculptures as ever, including a central temple holding the wooden man built to commemorate the Golden Spike, the ceremonial final spike driven to join the rails of the United States' first transcontinental railroad. Check out our favorite structures from the event, below. Learn more about this year's installations, here.
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| Kaleidoscope House / Paul Raff Studio Posted: 30 Aug 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame
 © Ben Rahn / A-Frame From the architect. Kaleidoscope House, designed by architect Paul Raff, was built for a family of four located in the Chaplin Estates neighbourhood of central Toronto.  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame Its striking and strong contemporary exterior is integrated into a leafy, urban setting, with powerful visual and physical connections to its garden space. From the street, it is wrapped in robust but subtle zinc cladding, punctuated by expansive windows, creating the impression of a gently shifted low-relief sculpture. This sense continues in the backyard, as these interlocked structures fluidly connect with smoothly sculpted terraces and planter beds.  © Scott Norsworthy Kaleidoscope House's interior is highlighted by an abundance of natural light. In designing the building, Paul Raff took the traditional configuration of a two-storey, centre-loaded house and opened it up, transforming it in to an airy, loft-like space.  © Scott Norsworthy The home's signature design piece is a remarkable staircase, unifying the house from the basement to the upper floors. Its intricate form is like an origami sculpture, folding its way vertically through the building. The staircase presents one reflective face, the other translucent, designed to catch and reflect light, as well as various views, to create a complex and kinetic three-dimensional spatial play.  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame "Living in this house has been an adventure," says one family member. "We live with so much light, so many surprising reflections. Walking from one floor to the next is like travelling through a kaleidoscope. This sense of excitement is grounded by the calming views of our back and front gardens throughout our home."  Section B-B' At the top of the stairs, residents find a subtly sloped ceiling that opens up to large, south-facing windows, flooding light through the house — making it the rare home that is bathed with natural light in the middle.  © Scott Norsworthy "It's all about light," says Paul Raff. "The configuration of the spaces, and the strong visual connections with the outdoors, make it feel as though living indoors does not disconnect you, but instead accentuates that you are living beautifully in the natural world."  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame Kaleidoscope House's main entry opens to a study or sitting room, which flows through to a generous dining room, living room and an open kitchen. Built-in planters breathe life into the home, while creating a distinct separation between the dining and living areas. The ground floor also includes a garage, mudroom and powder room, compactly organized to one side of the level.  Ground Floor Plan The home's second storey is a split-level, with a bedroom, bathroom and office on the lower level. On the higher level, residents access a master bedroom with an ensuite, a laundry room and a third bedroom, also with an ensuite.  Second Floor Plan Kaleidoscope House's multi-purpose basement provides a variety of spaces, including a family media room that is connected to the garden through a large, planted light well that naturally brightens the room. The basement also houses an art studio with ample storage for the family's extensive art collection, a guest room, a full bath with sauna and a mechanical room.  Basement Floor Plan This high-performance building is also built with sustainability in mind: the building envelope is extremely well insulated and sealed; it includes a super-high efficiency heating, ventilation and air conditioning system; the garage is outfitted for electric car charging; and it is controlled with an elaborate, but user-friendly, smart home automation system.  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame This smart home system future-proofs the house, while providing functions the family can control with a smart phone, including turning lights on and off, motorized roller blinds, home security, and an integrated speaker system throughout the home.  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame Kaleidoscope House is a contemporary, sophisticated and beautiful home, characterized by the way it harnesses natural light to enliven a variety of dynamic spaces for this active family to enjoy.  © Ben Rahn / A-Frame  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Nano House / Punto Arquitectónico + ARCICONSTRU Posted: 30 Aug 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Tamara Uribe
 © Tamara Uribe From the architect. Casa Nano, is conceived as a place of refuge and shelter for a family of four. The project is divided into two stages, corresponding to the purchase of the two lots in which it is located. The volume of the house evolves according to the orientation of each space, favoring the capture of ventilation and natural lighting.  © Tamara Uribe  Lower Plan  © Tamara Uribe In the first stage, the project of the residence is developed around a central courtyard, in which all spaces converge. The first space secuence contains the social area, a double height space that houses the hall, living room and dining room, acompandying the terrace that also forms part of the central courtyard space. Volumetrically, the social area is conformed by an elevated white box that contains it and it is projected to the second solar, emphasizing the view to the lateral garden. Inside, a sequence of stepped ceilings accentuates the boundaries between each space and generates zenithal light entrances. As protection of direct sun rays, a cantilevered stone wall takes place; It wraps and floats in a small garden adjacent to the living and dining room.  © Tamara Uribe Preceding the social area, is the square of pedestrian and vehicular access along with the garage.  Sections The program of spaces, is developed on the periphery of the first plot, with a central courtyard scheme, the lateral crib houses the semi-public area: kitchen, TV room with direct access to the terrace, and flows into the back cradle, it contains the children's rooms in the most protected part and the main room, this one interacts directly with the central courtyard through a large window. The square is closed by the pool which acts as a virtual volume and generates a visual frame for the adjacent batch.  © Tamara Uribe The second lot is used to generate additional garden area, at its edge, the bar take place, a clean volumetry pavilion with a great view to the side facade of the house.  © Tamara Uribe  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| What's Stopping Urban Designers From Creating Walkable Neighborhoods From Scratch? Posted: 30 Aug 2017 02:30 AM PDT  A walkable street in Washington, DC. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/dewita-soeharjono/4558849693'>Flickr user dewita-soeharjono</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> This article was originally published by Common Edge as "Why Can't We Create Brand New Walkable Communities?" I have lived in neighborhoods where you can walk around, to a store, a movie, a restaurant, for 40 years, counting my college days. I grew up in a ranch house with a driveway, but came to adulthood in foot-based parts of cities. Others have also rediscovered the joys and benefits of walkable places. They have done this first in a trickle, then in a flood. While in total numbers it may still be a minority taste, it's a fashionable taste now, one heralded in movies and TV shows. Fewer people aspire to live in the big house with the three-car garage. Philip Langdon has written a book, Within Walking Distance: Creating Livable Communities For All (Island Press 2017), that bores down into this trend, and puts some markers on the choices involved. Because there are choices. While on a gross level urbanism is back, on the street level someone decides whether it is small stores or chains, bike paths or parking spaces, small entrepreneurs or moneyed corporations. Langdon's book, as well as a new one by urbanist Richard Florida, The New Urban Crisis, talk convincingly about changes our cities and neighborhoods are going through. The two books overlap each other, in revealing and troubling ways.  via Common Edge But first let's look at Within Walking Distance. As you might guess, Langdon is a fan of changes and construction from the ground up. In this, he is similar to Roberta Gratz, author of The Living City and other books, that praise bottom-up urbanism. Here Langdon examines six districts or neighborhoods that have reversed decay or come out of nowhere, so to speak. They are Northern Liberties, a neighborhood in Philadelphia; Little Village, a Mexican-American section of Chicago; East Rock, in New Haven; Brattleboro, Vermont; The Pearl District in Portland; and the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi. The stories are important, because they help us see that nothing is predetermined. While there has been a general urban revitalization, individuals and groups make choices that determine the flavor and health of an area. An individual can spot an abandoned house or corner store, renovate it, and anchor a neighborhood. In Northern Liberties, an abandoned industrial property sparked a successful movement to turn it into a park, which in turn brought the neighborhood together. "I came away with a greater appreciation of neighborhood associations, groups of local merchants, business improvement districts, volunteer organizations, and—most of all—civic-minded individuals, including artists, architects, entrepreneurs, homeowners, and renters," writes Langdon. The most unusual area Langdon examines is the so-called Cotton District, in Starkville, Mississippi. There, Dan Camp, a developer besotted with traditional architecture, has for decades built houses and apartment buildings with columns, lintels, cornices and various other attributes of classic old neighborhoods. And Camps is not only equipping his buildings with these cultural signposts. He has trained his crews to craft these pieces themselves, and possess skills such as hanging a window the old-fashioned way. It makes no sense from a business perspective, which is why it's interesting. You would never see this in a business school syllabus. But Camps, a for-profit developer, has made money and a reputation, both for himself and his city. City fathers now advertise the Cotton District as something that makes Starkville special. This is not the same thing as great. At least judging from the pictures in Langdon's book, Camp's buildings look more odd—the proportions on the buildings seem a bit off—rather than quaint or well-crafted. Still, it's undeniably interesting. But the Cotton District is an exception in Langdon's book because it was conjured out of basically nothing. Every other place Langdon describes is about renovation and rehabilitation, species of historic preservation, not creating anew. This gets at something that has interested and baffled me, which is that it appears impossible to create a brand new walkable place. As I talk about in this column I wrote last year, I cannot point to any new subdivision, neighborhood or city district that functions as a fully walkable environment, or nowhere near as well as an old environment. We appear able to restore walkable places, but not build them anew. I have tried to figure out why walkability eludes even the best minds of our planners and developers. And I haven't come up with clear answers. What some developers and architects have told me is that even in new districts created with lots of transit, even with a subway line underneath it, the routine and habitual efforts to accommodate driving and parking kill or at least dilute the urbanism to the point where it's impaired. In a way, Langdon's book is an admission of defeat, because, with the exception of the Cotton District, which by the way doesn't actually look that walkable, all his places are old places. Yet Langdon served for years as senior editor of The New Urban News, whose chief role was promoting New Urbanist places like the famous Seaside and Orenco Station outside Portland. That Langdon doesn't mention any of these new places, except in passing, is to me, telling. Langdon comes close to saying so in his Introduction, where he says that after the housing crisis of 2007-2008, "it became clear that the walkable communities Americans were most interested in were... old city neighborhoods, downtowns, former industrial precincts, and compact first-ring suburbs." And just where are these walkable communities that Americans are interested in? If we widen the lens further, we see that most of them, the thriving ones that Langdon examines, are part of or near rich metropolises, the world-class cities that have taken off over the last generation. And it's here that we start to overlap with Florida's now book, whose full title is the distressingly long, if revealing, The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing The Middle Class—And What We Can Do About It. It's a nice piece of luck that it has the words "New Urban" in it, which Florida means in a very different way.  via Common Edge Florida, who made his name as a promoter of cities and the idea of the "Creative Class" taking root in them, agrees with Langdon that city-living has come back. But he then points out something that is now coming into stark relief: it's really only the global, super cities that are reviving, and they're doing so hand-in-hand with wealth and income inequality. The broader revitalization of cities, sadly, is just not part of this trend; it is, in fact, helping cause it, as lopsided wealth-creating industries such as tech, which thrive on the person to person contact, start in or relocate to walkable environments. In response to this, the average folk, the non-walkers so to speak, are rebelling. Florida tells of moving to Toronto in 2007, home of streetcars and legendary urban saint Jane Jacobs, only to see Rob Ford elected mayor, the crack-toking buffoon who campaigned on ripping out bicycle paths and promoting car use. It was the suburbanites who elected him, those who felt left out of the "complete streets" visions of the elites downtown. Something similar happened on a national level with the election of Donald Trump, Florida says. This too was a rebellion of the cul-de-sac dwellers. These are the people left out of the urban fairylands portrayed in HBO's Girls and other shows. What Langdon doesn't say, and perhaps doesn't see, is that most of the places he portrays, while occupied by hard-working, down-to-earth people, are mostly appendages to big global cities that have found a way to make it in this new era of global wealth and income inequality. They are lapel pins on the jackets of some very rich dudes. So while the garden growers in Northern Liberty may seem humble, they exist because greater Philadelphia has managed to carve out a role for itself, mostly through higher education and healthcare, the so-called "eds and meds," and its proximity to New York City (it's described by ex-pats from Brooklyn as "the 6th borough"). It may be overstating it to say that only the rich, unequal cities have come back, and Florida overstates his case some. But not by much. While there are some humbler cities that have come back—my hometown of Norfolk comes to mind— there are dozens of other highly walkable towns and cities that lie abandoned or semi-abandoned. They range from the highly publicized blocks of Baltimore, to anonymous small towns spread over every part of this country. So what to do? First of all, the urban revitalization is a good thing, even if it does accompany inequality. But we should address that inequality by the most direct means. This means higher taxes on the wealthy, and better, more complete social benefits, such as universal health care, pension plans, family leave and vacations. It means addressing, not through tinkering with the design of our streets and sidewalk and setback rules, but with how we allocate jobs and income. It means adjusting the rules of that game. If we address that, we have a chance of producing a more even mix of urbanism, one that spreads from smaller towns and cities in the midwest, to the famed coastal metropolises we hear so much about. And there's no reason those places can't be walkable. Alex Marshall is the author most recently of The Surprising Design of Market Economies and Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities. He is a Senior Fellow at Regional Plan Association, the non-profit urban planning body in New York City.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2017 02:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of Moon Hoon
 Courtesy of Moon Hoon From the architect. The weather is strong, it dominates jeju life, it is very windy quite often, and weather changes instantaneously. The basalt rocks are everywhere, demarcating fields, and individual houses. The orum, which is like a little hill, is everywhere, more than 350 of them in jeju island. It creates a scene. The island is sort of an exotica among Koreans, weather and vegetation reminds them of tropics. In the past, it was home for many exiles from the mainland. Time flows rather differently here. Weather is the ruler.  Courtesy of Moon Hoon The secretive life-style of the client is presumed and imagined by the architect. Thus the bunker like home trenched into the earth, with an atrium in the middle was the first plan. The horizontal slit like villa savoye cut the home in half, one submerged, the other floating. The unbearable lightness of the heavy being is an aspiration to be held hostage to the idea of anti-gravity. The humble low lying curved roof paid much homage to the traditional homes of jeju. Many times a well agreed upon scheme is dropped due to sudden mood changes of the well-off clients. This was another one of those cases.  Courtesy of Moon Hoon  Cross Section  Courtesy of Moon Hoon A rather showy and extravagant gesture was called upon to the mood changes of the client. The final form is a complete antithesis of the first design, therefore the effect is nullifying if you witness both of them simultaneously. The initial 1 storey home was dug up, and made to stand vertically. The dimension change brought about a very linear space stacked on top of each other, providing three storeys with an opening right in the middle of the 2nd floor. The erected houses now boasted much presence, but needed something more to give it a distinct character. Then the strong wind and rain started cracking the floors, and slowly three floored and rotating home came into existence. Too much wind gave nausea and anxiety. Something had to be done, thus the binding structures between the end points to other points.  Courtesy of Moon Hoon  Cross Section  Courtesy of Moon Hoon The rotation has brought multiple view points to the living spaces. It also gave birth to many large verandas where different outdoor functions could be accommodated. Finally the client's wish is fulfilled, and the architect is also quite happy, because he has been to two extremities of spatial qualities and experiences.  Courtesy of Moon Hoon  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This Pavillion Lives and Dies Through Its Sustainable Agenda Posted: 30 Aug 2017 01:00 AM PDT  © Krishna & Govind Raja Are the concrete buildings we build actually a sign of architectural progress? Defunct housing projects abandoned shopping malls, and short-sighted urban projects are more often than not doomed to a lifetime of emptiness after they have served their purpose. Their concrete remains and transforms into a lingering reminder of what was once a symbol of modern ambition. Stadiums and their legacies, in particular, come under high scrutiny of how their giant structures get used after the games are over, with few Olympic stadiums making successful transitions into everyday life. With a new approach to sustainability, the Shell Mycelium pavilion is part of a manifesto towards a more critical take on building. Say the designers on their position: "We criticize these unconscious political choices, with living buildings, that arise from nature and return to nature, as though they never existed." The Shell Mycelium Pavillion is a collaboration between BEETLES 3.3 and Yassin Areddia Designs and offers an alternative to conscious design through temporary structures. Located at the MAP Project space at the Dutch Warehouse, the pavillion formed part of the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016 Collateral in India. Read on for more information from the architects:  © Krishna & Govind Raja  © Krishna & Govind Raja From the architects: In an era of concrete jungles and overcrowded cities, degradability, sustainability, and liability become parts of the responsibility of architecture. It is an innovation in the field of biology and architecture, a concept that stresses the need for temporariness. A way of mimicking nature to forge our path onward, where existence questions permanence. Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus like mushrooms and it is being touted for the first time in India.  © Krishna & Govind Raja  © Krishna & Govind Raja Planting a seed"Architecture is a permanent sign in any territory. During major events like the Olympic games, expos, FIFA world cups, multiple structures are constructed. In most of the cases, the structures constructed are permanent, making use of heavy construction material. This approach leads to many practical difficulties in demolition and disposal. Many of the structures are erected as a sign of the prosperity and strength of a nation's economy and the cities unconsciously pay the price. At the end of the event, after the entire world has danced and celebrated, the city remains a scarred body, devoid of life. The city is ravaged and the ghost town that is left behind takes decades to metabolize. We criticize these unconscious political choices, with living buildings that arise from nature and return to nature, as though they never existed."  © Krishna & Govind Raja  Exploded Diagram Taking Root
 © Krishna & Govind Raja  © Krishna & Govind Raja The installation is site specific which means that not just the display area was considered, but local labor and materials as well. They started off with research at a local mushroom farm. Experiments led to the selection of the right mushroom and study of growth patterns. The wooden structure for the Shell Mycelium installation was designed to sit within the degrading Dutch Warehouse. A reflection of sorts. The openness was an invitation to explore and the structure was designed to disintegrate according to their design. The structure was then covered in coir pith which contained the fungus. After a few days of tending, the mycelium grew and formed a snowy covering over the structure. The top layer died due to sunlight and formed a shell that protects the bottom layers. As the Biennale came to a close, the structure had slowly started to disintegrate, while curious visitors experience it.  Panels Assembly  Timber Wood Structure Joineries Detail  © Krishna & Govind Raja A living installation that shows that everything that is born must grow and then die.
Architect' Firm: BEETLES 3.3 - Yassin Areddia Designs  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 10 Even More Beautiful Staircases - Part III Posted: 29 Aug 2017 11:00 PM PDT The stair is one of the most fundamental elements of architecture. Whether thin and delicate or bold and colored, in some projects a staircase becomes the buildings' main protagonist and serves as a focal point for the entire project. It is through staircases that architects create spatial forms and visuals that reveal new ways to perceive a constructed space. For this reason, we've searched our archives (again!) in search of some more inspiring stairs. Scroll down for ten more selected stairs:  © Adam Mõrk Two Houses in Monção / João Paulo Loureiro  © José Campos The Greja House / Park + Associates  © Edward Hendricks Casa Lomas II / Paola Calzada Arquitectos  © Jaime Navarro Soto Bridging Teahouse / FR-EE / Fernando Romero Enterprise  © Iwan Baan 10Cal Tower / Supermachine Studio  © Wison Tungthunya Patio-House in Gracia / Carles Enrich  © Enric Fabre House in Miramar / e|348 Arquitectura  © José Campos Joaquim Antunes' Apartment 149 / Metro Arquitetos Associados  © Ilana Bessler White House / Studio MK27 - Marcio Kogan + Eduardo Chalabi  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG See more stairs here:
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