Arch Daily |
- Cour et Jardin / Atelier Fernandez & Serres
- Duplex in Kurkowa / 3XA
- One @ Tokyo / Kengo Kuma & Associates
- Bamboo Sports Hall for Panyaden International School / Chiangmai Life Construction
- Loft House 'The black' / Design Guild
- House No. 242 / J T A Co.
- R7 Barangaroo / Durbach Block Jaggers
- This Super Fast Algorithm Edits Photographs Like a Professional – Before You Take Them
- MALHA / Tavares Duayer Arquitetura
- "Hallo Darkness!" Why Not All Buildings Need To Be Cheerful All Of The Time
- The Palmas House / Revolution
- BIG's Cactus Towers in Copenhagen Will Stand Next to an Urban IKEA
- Tudor Apartments / Urko Sanchez Architects
- 7 Annual Competitions Every Architecture Student Should Try at Least Once
- Landelijke woning / ARKS architecten
- KOSMOS Creates 6 Speculative Public Space Interventions for Basel
- Proposal For A Transparent Museum in Cyprus Rethinks The Urban Square
| Cour et Jardin / Atelier Fernandez & Serres Posted: 07 Aug 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Stéphane Chalmeau
 © Stéphane Chalmeau From the architect. The implantation site of the cultural equipment is an urban and sensitive situation. It talks about the city shapes of Vertou, it's downtown, its church, and its large landscape.  © Stéphane Chalmeau The project aims to put at the center of reflection, framing the territory and its integration.For the scenography of the place, this construction offers a new welcoming public space for the city.  Ground Floor Plan Everything starts with a walk, a stroll in the city center of Vertou with steepness and prospects. The project is an extension of this geography, a rebuild soil that as to turn around and form the building, a man-made geography.  © Stéphane Chalmeau The equipment is a «fun machine» to see and receive. The basin and the court, a true outdoor room of the building, which welcome visitors entering this «Golden Cream» stone monolith.  Cross Section  Axonometric The roof is evocating Vertou's roofs. Then the user finds a bright, pure interior, staged by plays of boxes which contains program and large frames opening on the landscape of Vertou.  © Stéphane Chalmeau  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Stanisław Zajączkowski
 © Stanisław Zajączkowski From the architect. This contemporary duplex is housed in Kurkowa 14, one of the first new builds in Wrocław's up-and-coming Nadodrze district. Located right on the Odra River, the multi-family development has clinched numerous architectural awards.  © Stanisław Zajączkowski The 85 square meter apartment designed by 3XA Architects, was designed with functionality in mind so as to maximize living space for all familial wants and needs. This resulted in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom division that included an office and open kitchen-cum-living room.  First Floor Plan  Second Floor Plan Elements were deliberately kept light and neutral, with white serving as the dominant color for the resin floors, walls, and various furnishings. Simplicity was highlighted with the use of plywood that provided a degree of warmth and served as a uniting motif throughout the apartment – functional yet decorative. One of the most conspicuous features is the minimalist staircase encased entirely out of plywood, providing a raw feeling which helps offset the ultra-clean white interior. To enhance space-saving versatility, a built-in refrigerator, chest of drawers, and small utility room are all found underneath the stairs. This eliminated the need for additional clutter in the kitchen.  © Stanisław Zajączkowski  © Stanisław Zajączkowski The kitchen itself was designed to take full advantage of any available storage space by featuring deep and spacious upper cabinets that stretched all the way down to the countertop. This provided a clean and simple visual effect. The final touch was provided by dichotomizing the light sources. Indiscernible housings mounted at the ceiling level provided ambient light whereas bold, black fixtures were used for accent lighting.  © Stanisław Zajączkowski  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| One @ Tokyo / Kengo Kuma & Associates Posted: 07 Aug 2017 05:00 PM PDT  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo
 © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo From the architect. ONE@Tokyo is a new type of hotel situated near Tokyo Sky Tree in the dense urban district of Oshiage. Formerly one of the liveliest districts in Tokyo, Oshiage developed quickly due to light manufacturing industry. To recall the rather rough but still approachable quality of this area, we employed extruded cement panels with a wooden screen for the façade, evoking the former small factories standing side by side.  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo For the interior, the combination of an exposed ceiling and structural plywood produces an atmosphere familiar to its surroundings, a quality absent in many contemporary hotels.  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo The ground level of the hotel includes a restaurant, bar, and a reception area for guests, spaces which are integrated through the application of wood.  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo By opening the wooden screen at the ground level, the hotel lobby and passage in front of the building become unified as a single space, resulting in a hotel which co-exists with its local community.  © Keishin Horikoshi / SS Tokyo  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Bamboo Sports Hall for Panyaden International School / Chiangmai Life Construction Posted: 07 Aug 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Alberto Cosi
 © Markus Roselieb From the architect. Chiangmai Life Architect's Bamboo Sports Hall for Panyaden International School combines modern organic design, 21st century engineering and a natural material – bamboo.  © Alberto Cosi The design was based on the lotus flower as Panyaden International School is in Thailand and uses Buddhist teachings to infuse values into its academic curriculum and teach the underlying mechanisms of the human mind.  © Markus Roselieb The brief was to build a hall that should be big enough to hold the projected capacity of 300 students, but still smoothly integrates with the previous earthen and bamboo buildings of the school as well as the natural hilly landscape of the area. It should provide modern sports facilities and use only bamboo to maintain the low carbon footprint and the "Green School" mission of Panyaden.  Main Floor Plan The hall covers an area of 782 sqm, and hosts futsal, basketball, volleyball and badminton courts, as well as a stage that can be lifted automatically. The backdrop of the stage is the front wall of a storage room for sports and drama equipment. On both long sides balconies provide space for parents and other visitors to observe sporting events or shows.  © Alberto Cosi The design and material enable a cool and pleasant climate all year round through natural ventilation and insulation. At the same time, the exposed bamboo structure is a feast to the eye and an exhibition of masterly handicraft.  © Alberto Cosi The hall was designed with the help of 2 independent engineers to modern safety standards of loads, shear forces etc. to withstand the local high-speed winds, earthquakes and all other natural forces.  3d Model 01  3d Model 04 The innovative structural design is based on newly developed prefabricated bamboo trusses with a span of over 17 meters without steel reinforcements or connections. These trusses were prebuilt on site and lifted into position with the help of a crane.  © Alberto Cosi Panyaden's Sports Hall's carbon footprint is zero. The bamboo used absorbed carbon to a much higher extent than the carbon emitted during treatment, transport and construction.  Section The bamboo was all well selected for age and treated with borax salt. No toxic chemicals were involved in the treatment process. The life span of the bamboo hall is expected to be at least 50 years.  © Markus Roselieb  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Loft House 'The black' / Design Guild Posted: 07 Aug 2017 01:00 PM PDT  Courtesy of Design Guild
 Courtesy of Design Guild From the architect. When it comes to dealing with old houses, what is the most important thing is keeping harmony and balance between old things and new things. The old part of house doesn't need to be looked like new and doesn't need to be looked like brand new but anyway new part looks new renovating and expanding old building is all about creating 'old newness'  Courtesy of Design Guild When we first saw this house, there was nothing special, but just an ordinary house in an ordinary boring village and even the road was really narrow (3.5 m). we thought it needed some strong stimulation to break this boring atmosphere. The answer was people. We tried to make a shape to attract people and feel not ordinary and usual anymore.  Courtesy of Design Guild Our solution was 'back to basic'. When the kids are asked to draw a house, they always draw a gabled house. Nobody asked and nobody forced, but they draw gabled pentagon house. We chose the gabled roof for the main shape as an extension, so all the units which are facing the sky can have their own attic. Because this house is intended to be used as a guest house.  Section Diagram In order to reinforce structure for vertical extension, we installed another steel column at the front side of this existing house and made another slab on top of building to support upper newly made space for the new extended part, we used light wooden structure to reduce total load to the existing house and since we installed column and beam at the front side, we made balcony for the new extension using those columns and beams.  Courtesy of Design Guild We hope this unusual way of extending will be another way of developing the old town and it can attract people like any other European city.  Courtesy of Design Guild  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Linesiam Photography
 © Linesiam Photography From the architect. The house No.242 is situated in a housing estate in Bangkok, Thailand. The site is a 734 sq.m. elongated plot that orients north-south.  © Linesiam Photography The priorities are to:  © Linesiam Photography The facilities required are:  © Linesiam Photography The design was inspired by a desire to engage with the landscape, permeability between interior and exterior, and to celebrate the existing trees.  © Linesiam Photography The architectural design prioritizes the use of natural lighting and cross ventilation, with large openings facing north and south. We proposed passive ventilation and lighting solutions in order to reduce energy usage.  Section A The site is surrounded by 2 neighboring houses in the north and south, while the west is not part of the housing estate and is an unpleasant context. In order to maintain privacy and connectivity between inside/outside simultaneously, the garage is located directly in front of the house to save space for the main house, and help conceal the house from the street.  © Linesiam Photography Sustainability is very important and the house is organized in two levels to be integrated into the natural landscape. The majority of compartments face south to receive natural wind and is shaded by the geometry of the balconies and louvers to avoid heat gain. Apart from orientation, cross and stack ventilation, the double wall with an air gap in the middle to the east and west provides protection from the sun.  Rainwater Harvesting System On the roof, 2" thick closed-cell Polysio Foam Core with waterproof PVC sheet membrane together with 3" thick 2 sided aluminum foil and heat bloc type ceiling are used to block the heat gain from the roof. Roof mounted, grid connected photovoltaic panels are installed to generate electricity. Synergy heat pump is used to make hot water for the house.  © Linesiam Photography Water conservation has been taken into account as well, with series of low flow fixtures. This house uses gray water together with rain water harvesting to watering the garden. The non-formaldehyde bio-composite board is used instead of plywood.  © Linesiam Photography Self-cleaning, no lead, no mercury and heat reflection paint, is used for exterior paint, while washable, anti-bacterial, zero v.o.c. and APEO free paint is used for interior paint.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| R7 Barangaroo / Durbach Block Jaggers Posted: 07 Aug 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Rodrigo Vargas
 © Guy Wilkinson From the architect. Barangaroo was formerly part of Sydney's working harbour, redeveloped into a commercial and retail district with parkland on the harbour's edge,  Sketch R7 forms part of the entry sequence of small buildings to Barangaroo - a hinge - between the city and the harbour.  © Anthony Browell R7 and its neighbour R1 are linked, sitting in the round between the existing development of King Street Wharf and the higher density of Barangaroo South.  North Elevation In the competition winning scheme, the action of the building is brought to the surface, through the external wrap around stair, linking every floor to the ground plane.  © Guy Wilkinson This vertical overgrown promenade terminates in a rooftop restaurant and sheltered garden courtyard.  © Guy Wilkinson The facade is constructed of stacked and offset timber columns, grading from more dense at the base to lighter at the top.  © Lend Lease In pure elevation the facade appears open, in obtuse views, the timber appears more solid and prominent  © Anthony Browell To the East the facade curves and cants back, a gentle, embracing gateway to the whole site.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This Super Fast Algorithm Edits Photographs Like a Professional – Before You Take Them Posted: 07 Aug 2017 09:00 AM PDT In the past decade or so, smartphones and social media apps have revolutionized our culture's relationship to images. From Instagram to Facebook to Pinterest to Youtube, photographs and videos are now so ubiquitous that they have become literally disposable, with apps such as Snapchat trading on their promise to delete your images after a certain period of time. But while smartphones are a very visible driver of this change, what is often forgotten are the huge developments in image-editing software that have supported this revolution—from the HDR built into your smartphone's camera to the wide range of filters provided by Instagram. Now, as reported by MIT News, Google and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory may have created another cosmic leap forward: an algorithm that can provide automatic, professional-level image retouching so quickly that you can see a preview before even snapping the photograph.  Image <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAe0qKKQY_I'>via video</a> by researcher Michael Gharbi Presented last week at digital graphics conference Siggraph, the algorithm is designed to improve values such as an image's contrast, color-balance, saturation, and brightness—in effect, to correct everything that a professional photographer might adjust to produce a natural-looking but high-quality image. The algorithm is far more sophisticated than existing in-camera technologies such as filters, which apply changes either uniformly or depending on simple information such as a pixel's brightness, and far quicker than editing a photo manually after it's taken.  Image <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAe0qKKQY_I'>via video</a> by researcher Michael Gharbi The process works thanks to a machine learning system, which analyzed an input of thousands of photographs to understand how they were transformed by a professional editor. This learning then feeds into an algorithm which allows complex edits to be made in just milliseconds, allowing the changes to be displayed in real-time as you take the photograph.  Image <a href='https://jonbarron.info/GharbiSIGGRAPH2017.pdf'>via PDF</a> uploaded by researcher Jon Barron To find out how the algorithm works in greater detail, read the article on MIT News or watch the video below. News via MIT News.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| MALHA / Tavares Duayer Arquitetura Posted: 07 Aug 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © Ilana Bessler
 © Ilana Bessler From the architect. MALHA was created to be an innovative platform for the fashion world. A way in which creators, entrepreneurs, producers, suppliers and consumers, committed to building a new way of operating in the fashion world, could establish connections between one another. More collaborative, local and independent, aligned with the issues involved in the debate on sustainability, new forms of consumption and environmental concerns. The physical space, therefore, should reflect this.  © Ilana Bessler With this in mind, the first decision was to take advantage of an existing structure. A warehouse space was chosen because it`s an open plan space, it stands at a height of 9 meters, and it contains translucent tiles, which allow the entrance of natural light, all fundamental components.  Floor Plans The program consisted of small offices for residents, a photographic studio, a sewing studio, showroom, natural food restaurant, shared kitchen, administrative area, as well as a multipurpose room, co-working space, and auditorium.  © Ilana Bessler The project to occupy the hangar should not only reflect the MALHA collective`s concerns about sustainability but also promote meeting and exchange. Space should be treated as a great democratic site of debate and learning.  © Ilana Bessler The starting point for the occupation strategy was the use of containers as the main constructive element that would allow the distribution of the program throughout the hangar, as well as a quick and clean construction.  Sections The logic of the occupation consisted in the creation of empty spaces between the forty-two repurposed containers, distributed over two levels along the interior walls. This empty space between the containers structures the project and was intended to provide different ways of appropriation and occupation, such as parades, markets, debates and film screenings.  © Ilana Bessler Some pallets have been spread throughout the space, serving as seating, and small plant beds have been set up which, combined with the sofas, benches, and tables, create an atmosphere that blends the ambiance of a house with that of a public space.  © Ilana Bessler The photo and sewing studios and the showroom were arranged near the main entrance, while the natural food restaurant, multipurpose room/coworking space, administration room and shared kitchen are concentrated on the opposite side. There was also an open space for lectures and cinema, which consists of a kind of grandstand facing a big screen.  © Ilana Bessler For the occupation of the interior of the containers, six different uses were proposed, among them, offices, meeting rooms, and pop-up stores. In addition to the container, materials of low environmental impact and low cost were chosen, such as plywood, metallic tiles, and translucent tiles, applied to the internal façades.  © Ilana Bessler Through all these choices, the MALHA project was committed to rising to the contemporary challenges posed by architecture practices in big metropolises, such as Rio de Janeiro, which involves, among other things, exploring the potential of existing structures. This implies studying new forms of construction and new spatial mechanisms for the occupation of interiors.  © Ilana Bessler With this in mind, the project sought to contribute some solutions to these problems. The fact that MALHA works as a public space, welcoming innumerable people, in addition to those who work there, allows the debate to be extended beyond architecture circles, since the strong presence of the containers and materials chosen does not go unnoticed by visitors.  © Ilana Bessler  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| "Hallo Darkness!" Why Not All Buildings Need To Be Cheerful All Of The Time Posted: 07 Aug 2017 07:00 AM PDT  The Destruction of the Temple of Solomon, by Maarten van Heemskerck. From Freemasonry and the Enlightenment, by James Stevens Curl (Public Domain). Image In a world in which the "happy" architectural image feels all-pervasive, the British architect and academic Dr. Timothy Brittain-Catlin reveals its darker side suggesting why, and how, we might come to celebrate it. You can read Brittain-Catlin's essays on British postmodernism here, and on colorful architecture, here. "Contemporary buildings celebrate openness, light and free-flowing movement," says the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in the March 2017 issue of the Institute's journal. This is what at my school we call an "announcement", rather than a statement of fact. Indeed, all architects and architecture students hear these words all the time. But are they true? Should they be? There's no historical justification for the assertion that buildings should "celebrate" any kind of openness, or indeed any kind of cheerful feeling. Erik Gunnar's Asplund's upbeat extension to the court house in Gothenburg was astonishing because it was the first major building of its type to be like this: previously court houses were designed to be heavy, stifling, possibly even depressing or puzzling. Many buildings were: some obviously so, such as mortuary chapels and grottoes. Freemasons' lodges were intended to be enigmatic so that masons and not intruders could comprehend them. No one is surprised that houses that appear in paintings, or in novels, are depressing. It is a fair bet that as many depictions of buildings in other media are downbeat, dark or forbidding, as the opposite. Not only because they have low ceilings and poky windows in the way that unimaginative speculative housing often does, but because writers and artists see depressive emotions as being as important as cheerful ones. And of course they also realized that the evocation of contrasting feelings, such as through a long dark entry to a bright room, can be elating.  Via Google Cultural Institute <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_(Millais)#/media/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Mariana_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">John Everett Millais</a> licensed under Public Domain. Image via Google Cultural Institute / Wikimedia Commons Look at John Everett Millais' 1851 painting Mariana. This is the heroine from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, who was rejected by her fiancé after her dowry is lost, only to be exploited by the political powers in her city. The architecture of the room expresses her tragedy through the stained glass and the deep shadows created in the wall. It is obvious that a Mariana standing in one of the RIBA president's cheerful rooms would be ridiculous. It is also obvious that if all rooms were to have the same character, there wouldn't be scope for expressing any difference of feeling between them.  A House in the Welsh Hills: The Stair Hall, by Craig Hamilton Architects (completed 2010). Image © Paul Highnam The reason for this is that if buildings "should" be doing anything, they "should" be reflecting the real cycles of life. That means not just different daily moods, but also the themes of life and history. That way people other than architecture critics will understand them and be enriched by them. John Outram recently told me how the iconographies he devises are drawn from a lifetime's study of ethnography – the patterns of life of different peoples and the symbols that accompany them. The understanding behind this is that if a designer can draw on ancient ideas and symbols that have developed over hundreds of years, people with no particular specialist education will understand something from them and relate to them. A building can then speak back to them, in the way that a cathedral does. Like much else that re-emerged in 1980s postmodernism, this was a late Victorian or Edwardian idea, carefully and slowly told by W.R. Lethaby in his Architecture, Mysticism and Myth of 1891. The best architecture provides a layering of ideas: some fresh, some inherited, some interpreted. Just making shapes won't do it. A piece of advice sometimes given to young novelists struggling to develop their narrative out of a dead end is to contrive a meeting between the story's two most improbable characters. Look around and see how well this approach once served some of Europe's greatest historical architects.  An Oratory in the South of England: The Nave and Sanctuary, by Craig Hamilton Architects (consecrated 2015). Image © Paul Highnam It is the greater awareness of the idea that variations of mood can enrich building that has made the current upsurge of interest in neo-classical architecture much more exciting than it previously seemed. Modernism had one line only about classical architecture: that its time was over. But the best neo-classicists today are already imaginatively playing with mood: see for example Craig Hamilton's recent additions to his own house in Wales, or his chapel in Oxfordshire, and John Simpson's fellows' dining room at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Hamilton's new entry hall, with its mysterious skylights, single column, and stair with no balustrade presents a wonderful sense of distance between the visitor and the private areas of the house.  French Lodge design for the Reception of a Master Mason, 1801. From Freemasonry and the Enlightenment, by James Stevens Curl (Public Domain). Image For younger designers looking for ideas about where this might take them, James Stevens Curl's fascinating and masterful book Freemasonry and the Enlightenment has become something of a bible. Curl, who has published a great deal on the architecture of death, not only describes the masonic lodges themselves throughout history (and that is interesting enough) but also traces the origins of the masons' Mysteries – that is, their accumulated myths and ceremonies, and the architectural symbols used to depict and them. Here, in hundreds of mostly eighteenth-century engravings, are the broken columns, the all-seeing eyes, the ruined pyramids, the cenotaphs, the sepulchres and tombs, both inside buildings and across landscapes. In some cases, these features are arranged mnemonically so that a person passing through them might be reminded of the architectural sequences of Solomon's temple or a pharaonic tomb. These features have a tragic air because they represent, in Curl's interpretation, the masons' battle against the philistinism and mob rule prevalent in the societies in which they were devised (and, he adds, as if addressing Brexit, "that is given so much credence in the twenty-first century"). It therefore makes sense that the symbols of death or perpetual trial and torment should have been intended to represent eternity, the thing that goes on beyond the frustrations of day-to-day life and the petty concerns of a certain kind of political or religious leader. To have a building made from symbols and forms that outsiders or uneducated people do not understand can furthermore be gratifying and rewarding for the designer who thereby can also add to their own elevated status, the part of the profession that no "project manager" will ever usurp.  Asclepeion of Cymatic Trading: Capriccio after James Stevens Curl, by Patrick O'Keeffe (2017). Image © Patrick O'Keeffe The only historical architect whom modernists seem to have accepted is John Soane. Perhaps it is because his buildings can be described, in Le Corbusier's hollow, echoing phrase, as the "masterful, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light". Indeed, Margaret Richardson and MaryAnne Stevens' definitive book about Soane is called Master of Space and Light rather than Master of Gloom and Death, which would have deterred most publishers. But this light filtered through indirectly, and through colored glass; some of the best known spaces that Soane designed, including in his own house, were mausoleums or designed to look like them. His plans have a weighty and labyrinthine quality: a sense that people are pressed downwards within a building seems to have been a recurring theme in the architecture of the Mysteries. Whereas by contrast the Gothic Revivalists and their modernist successors talked all the time about elation and building upwards towards the sun. There was another tragic aspect to late eighteenth-century neoclassical architecture: we know in retrospect that it was doomed to die out, to be replaced by gothic, by industrial construction systems, by modernism, until finally it became a parody of its earlier self. Yet now it is back, and the eternal sunshine of the neo-Modernist practitioner is in danger of becoming the architecture of the grinning idiot.  Detail: Asclepeion of Cymatic Trading: Capriccio after James Stevens Curl, by Patrick O'Keeffe (2017). Image © Patrick O'Keeffe  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © The Black Rabbit
 © The Black Rabbit Site  Ground Floor Plan Goal  © The Black Rabbit Concept  © The Black Rabbit The layout was L-shaped and was facing a central courtyard / garden. All spaces were transparent and visually communicated. Everything was focused around the garden. Based on such modern architecture, we were asked to make a project proposal that included: mixed double or triple height spaces, high walls for the art exhibition and large windows to allow the illumination to connect with the exterior.  © The Black Rabbit Architecture  © The Black Rabbit Second, we placed a series of concrete frames with large windows, which provide a sense of spatial fluidity through the house. In the vertical element of the layout, we create a series of spaces based on the flow of communication between them, which make up the family room. Then there is the kitchen and a garden patio that shelter all the areas of the house and serve as a circulation control between spaces. Next is the the bedroom's lobby, a transition area between the public and private spaces of the house.  Section 1 After that, the children's bedrooms are all connected by a triple height hallway that leads from the left side of the house to a window that communicates with a 14mt height vertical garden, which comes from the basement and runs through the adjacent fence to the roof. On the right side a walnut wood clad camouflages the bedrooms access. Inside, there are three bedrooms with views to the main garden, connected to each other by a linear terrace above a water mirror.  © The Black Rabbit On the upper floor public area, we placed the game and TV rooms, which are spaces practically addressed for guests.This space has a bar and a full bathroom, and has its own staircase, located immediately beside the main access so that guests can have a direct access to the living room without disturbing the house privacy. This staircase has a particular visual detail, as you finish climbing the stairs you find a window that frames a palm tree that is on the other side of the street.  Section 2 On the same floor but at the other side of the house and isolated, we have the master bedroom, with its own staircase. It covers the 3 bedroom areas on the ground floor.Following the fluid space and connection concept that I mentioned before, this 100 sqm master suite has a 12-meter long window, which is oriented towards the garden and allows our clients to enjoy the outside from the bedroom, bathroom and dressing room.  © The Black Rabbit In the basement we have a six car parking lot with an extension of 12 x 12 meters without any column. The entire public area of the house is located on top of the basement.The structural solution was a challenge as we used a reticular slab and took advantage of the hollow spaces to make a random lighting design with rectangular lamps.Since Revolution's design philosophy is always to provide the best living experience for everyone, we built service rooms with excellent lighting and natural ventilation, unlike most houses in the area.  © The Black Rabbit Finally, we created an interior garden in the basement that serves as a lighting patio for these spaces and creates a great green wall that runs verticality through all the upper levels of the house. This way we play with the house height and broke the modern house scheme with the whole program in a single level, adapting the main ideas and fluidity concept of space and transparency.  © The Black Rabbit Materials  © The Black Rabbit For the stairs and the kitchen cover we chose a black marble specially brought from a mine in Spain. The outdoor terraces and patios are covered with Basalt tiles to make an interesting contrast with the concrete light gray color. The ceilings on the outside are covered with walnut.  First Floor Plan Also, in the interior we can find a series of American walnut cladding that cover some of the walls in the hall, bedrooms and exterior of the guest´s bathroom. Finally, the rest of the walls are decorated with paintings, sculptures and installations. I would like to emphasize that the house has an intelligent automatic lighting system with a special design to keep all the art intact.  © The Black Rabbit  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| BIG's Cactus Towers in Copenhagen Will Stand Next to an Urban IKEA Posted: 07 Aug 2017 05:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of BIG A new project in central Copenhagen will see two Danish practices—Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Dorte Mandrup Architects—create a new urban IKEA store, a budget hotel, and housing linked together by green space. Set to open in 2019, the area—which sits adjacent to Kalvebod Brygge, close to the railway lines that pass through the city core—will be master-planned by Dorte Mandrup while two striking high-rise residential towers, dubbed "Cacti", will be designed by BIG.  Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Architects IKEA's urban foray, which will be without parking for cars, is based on the premise that customers will buy smaller objects and transport them home by bicycle.  Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Architects  Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Architects The site will also host a low-price hotel designed by Dorte Mandrup with 1,250 rooms spread across two volumes which will, if completed to plan, be the largest hotel in the Nordic region.  Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Architects BIG's hotel towers, which will be defined by their hexagonal cores, will feature 500 "youth rooms" and stand as the practice's first residential project in the Danish capital since those of Ørestad.  Courtesy of BIG  Courtesy of BIG News via Magasinet KBH  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tudor Apartments / Urko Sanchez Architects Posted: 07 Aug 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Javier Callejas
 © Javier Callejas From the architect. The project consists in 14 apartments in Tudor Creek, Mombasa-Kenya. Characterized by a moucharabiah structural shell, it is distinct with its search for privacy and optimized natural ventilation and light. With our vision, the apartments benefit from the experience of outdoor living, contact with nature and the integration of the surroundings into each private home.  © Javier Callejas Location / Context  © Javier Callejas Tudor, our intervention zone, is situated on the creek´s waterfront, which is a privileged location north of Mombasa Island. With lush vegetation all around and a serene neighbourhood, the project naturally fits into this environment. We worked closely with the client to create a building with minimal environmental impact, by adapting to the land's natural slope, and by using locally available materials and know-how.  © Javier Callejas Requirements / Situation Constraints  Building Diagram -Environmentally friendly:
 © Javier Callejas -Ensure privacy regarding theproximity of the road, and that of theneighbours in the adjacent plots: a building of flats on one side, a private house on the other with a risk of major residential development. This was a drive for creating the filtering shell.  © Javier Callejas Proposal  © Javier Callejas The proposal is an intimate development of 14 apartments, all offering breath-taking panoramic views on the creek. We developed aniconic building, with innovation of architectural designs, highest standards of product finishes, luxurious, contemporary lifestyle, and respect for the natural and local heritage.  Floor Plan The plot's slope and its narrow shape guided our design to minimize the building's impact. The steep drop towards the creek, on the lower part of the plot, was saved with three distinct and unique patio houses, stepped one into the other. On top of filtering light, the patios allow ventilation via permeable wood lattices facing the water. They are accessible via lateral stairs that descend towards the creek, passing by an integrated gym at the bottom, and arriving to an infinity pool. A measured distance from the neighbours and the road give the building a well-weighted impact, for it to be present but not overwhelming in the scenery. This way, the apartments block, enveloped with its protective skin, rises facing the road, overlooking the creek, and topped with a penthouse.  © Javier Callejas Environmental Features The development was careful to leave the mangroves and other trees intact on site. In addition, natural, passive ventilation was a guiding theme in the project design.  © Javier Callejas In the apartments, cross ventilation is possible from the sea, through the shaded terraces, to the interiors, via the integrated wooden lattices and through the surrounding envelope.  Diagram In the distinct bottom houses, the patios allow double ventilation: wood lattices allow air to circulate from the seaside through the interiors and to the patios; two superimposed lattices allow ventilation for both the house and the false ceiling, to avoid it transmitting heat from the sun on the top terraces. Moreover, vegetation is integrated in the patios and on the terraces, offering freshness and greenery.  © Javier Callejas In the absence of sufficient connection to the sewage system, we integrated a bio-digester for treating used waters before releasing them into nature, that is to say, in the creek water. Furthermore, rainwater collection provides water for care for the garden.  © Javier Callejas Structural Skin: Contemporary Muchrabiah We designed the mucharabiah skin following a study of different traditional patterns. It serves for the privacy in relation to the surroundings, and for the filtered, natural light we wanted for the houses. This skin wraps itself around the apartments block, leaving its Northern façade free, with balconies facing the sea and taking full advantage of the breath-taking scenery.  © Javier Callejas Moreover, the skin was rendered entirely structuralthanks to the engineering team. A novelty to Kenya, such structural skin was possible thanks to local and international engineers working hand by hand, and to the steel workers on-site who managed, by dedication and care, flawless bar bending work without access to any technology.  Elevation Spatially, this skin also redirects people's local tendency to put bars on their windows, becoming itself the border and the filter. Sometimes the direct limit of the internal house spaces, the shell is at other times a first filter of sunlight and heat, doubled by internal handcrafted wood-lattice shutters. In this way, light is generous and heat is broken down.  © Javier Callejas Crafts, Techniques, Team Work In addition to white, plaster finishing, the project uses mtomo finish, a coral stone cladding technique original to Lamu that helps keep thermal capacity thanks to the porosity of the coral stone. Wood work was realised entirely thanks to outstanding hand carving by local artisans from Mombasa and Lamu. Furthermore, artisans produced in situ terrazzo for the flooring of the patio houses  © Javier Callejas  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 7 Annual Competitions Every Architecture Student Should Try at Least Once Posted: 07 Aug 2017 02:30 AM PDT  Fairy Tales 2017 Competition Winner: Last Day / Mykhailo Ponomarenko. Image Courtesy of Blank Space When you're used to the grind of architecture school, breaks can hit you like rain on a warm day—cool at first, but terribly annoying soon enough. While the first few days breeze past as you catch-up on lost sleep and binge-watch Game of Thrones, you realize before long that you're going insane with nothing to absorb all your new-found energy. This is where architectural competitions come in handy. They provide a constructive outlet while being deeply engrossing, thus keeping you from hopelessly refreshing Youtube to see if Buzzfeed uploaded a new video. Also, the fact that you're no longer constrained by the direction of your studio-leader or school program enables you to experiment creatively. With diverse international competitions running at any given time, you can take your pick, depending on your individual interests and the amount of time you want to devote. However, the sheer number of available competitions can be deeply confusing as well. Here we shortlist seven of the most prestigious annual architectural competitions open to students:  1. 120 Hours: Designing with a Short Deadline 2017 Winner: IN'N'OUT VILLAGE / Agnieszka Kołacińska and Jakub Andrzejewski. Image Courtesy of 120 Hours Usually runs: Late February. This student-driven international competition uses a unique format where participants receive a mere 120 hours from the release of the brief to the project submission deadline in order to solve a complex and socially relevant assignment. Organized independently by students from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, 120 Hours works on a non-profit basis—it charges no participation fee—and is based around topical subjects. This year, the competition included 3024 participants from 79 countries, while winners were selected by a jury headed by architect-academic Jan Olav Jensen. 2. Fairy Tales: Architectural Storytelling Competition 2017 Winner: Last Day / Mykhailo Ponomarenko. Image Courtesy of Blank Space Usually runs: September – December. Organized by New York-based online platform Blank Space, Fairy Tales invites architects, designers, writers, artists, engineers, illustrators, students and other creatives to submit their own unique architectural fairy tales. A successful entry crafts a text narrative through five images in the most spectacular way possible. 3. eVolo: Skyscraper Competition 2017 Winner: Mashambas Skyscraper / Pawel Lipiński, Mateusz Frankowski. Image Courtesy of eVolo Usually runs: July – February. Established in 2006 by architecture and design journal eVolo, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world's most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It asks the following questions: What is a skyscraper in the twenty-first century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures? eVolo recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, or spatial organizations. Architects, students, engineers, and designers from anywhere in the world are eligible to participate. 4. Architecture at Zero: Zero-Net-Energy Design Competition 2016 Winner: Energized Canopy / Romain Dechavanne. Image Courtesy of Architecture at Zero Usually runs: May – January. This competition, now in its seventh year, was conceived as a response to the zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in its 2008 report. The challenge is to create energy-efficient design while the final review includes an evaluation of the design's technical components. Architecture at Zero is open to students, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, and designers anywhere in the world, and student registration is free. This year, up to $25,000 in total prize money will be awarded to student and professional winners. 5. The Dencity Competition: Redevelopment of Informal Settlements 2017 Winner: Palestine: The Right to Water / Majed Abdulsamad, Jun Seong Ahn, Maria Isabel Carrasco, Haochen Yang. Image Courtesy of Shelter Global Usually runs: January – April. Organized by the interdisciplinary not-for-profit organization Shelter Global, the intent of this competition is to foster new conceptual ideas about how to better handle the growing density of unplanned cities. Contestants are asked to consider how design can empower communities and allow for a self-sufficient future. The competition limits constraints on participants in order to give them the freedom to think in the most creative ways possible: there are no restrictions in regards to site, program, or size. Architects, students, engineers, designers, thinkers, NGOs and organizations are all invited to participate with no requirement for professional qualifications. 6. What Design Can Do: Responding to Current World Problems 2016 Winner: Agrishelter / Narges Mofarahian. Image Courtesy of What Design Can Do Usually runs: May – September. Working in partnership with IKEA and Autodesk, Amsterdam-based What Design Can Do (WDCD) was initiated in 2011 as a platform to showcase design as a catalyst of change—a way of addressing the societal questions of our time—and not just something that makes things pretty. While the competition's 2016 brief dealt with the refugee crisis, WDCD has chosen to focus its attention on climate change for the next two years as it invites students, creative professionals, and imaginative start-ups from all countries and disciplines to participate. Interestingly, the competition also allows participants to create customized briefs, depending on their design approach, subject of interest, and project location. The winners, selected and evaluated by an international jury, share an award package worth €900,000 which includes a project production budget. 7. The Berkeley Prize: Essay Writing CompetitionUsually runs: Initial round September – November. Semifinalists round December – February. Established in 1998, The Berkeley Prize is endorsed by the Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley. Open only to full-time undergraduate architecture students, the competition encourages participants to expand their academic education by going into their communities and investigating how the built environment best serves and reflects the everyday lives of those for whom we design. Each year, a topic critical to the discussion of the social art of architecture is selected and a related question is posed; students are invited to submit a 500-word essay proposal in response. From this pool of essays, around twenty-five selected contestants move to the semi-finals where they are asked to submit a 2500-word essay expanding upon their proposals.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Landelijke woning / ARKS architecten Posted: 07 Aug 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Koen Van Damme
 © Koen Van Damme From the architect. The old agricultural poldersite was sanitized and the existing farmhouse with salvages was rebuilt into a low-energy housing within very strict urban planning regulations.  © Koen Van Damme The main volumes of storage space on the north side were refreshed and stripped of all outbuildings. In a next phase a bed and breakfast will be built on the west side of the site, within the gabarite of the old shed. Two central axes connect the various buildings and re-read legibility and structure in this site.  © Koen Van Damme  Section  © Koen Van Damme The typical rural appearance of the old house with storages – one building layer with saddle roof – was integrated in the new house and is enhanced by the tight design.  © Koen Van Damme The red-brown tones that featured the old polder farm were revived by cladding both roof and façade with a mix of three different clay tiles (1/3 Amaranth -1/3 Rustic – 1/3 Toscana).  © Koen Van Damme This upholstery, along with the white tectiva lining and the glass in the south façade, creates a tight, contemporary building which is integrated in the environment.  Plan The plan can be classified in a simple, open way by making use of a steel portal structure over the entire length of the house. Sleeping areas, storage and sanitation are bundled. The living areas fill the open space and a corridor along the north side connects all functions on both levels.  © Koen Van Damme  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| KOSMOS Creates 6 Speculative Public Space Interventions for Basel Posted: 07 Aug 2017 01:00 AM PDT  © KOSMOS Emerging international architecture office KOSMOS has unveiled 6 projects exploring potential collective spaces in the city of Basel, Switzerland. Unveiled during Art Basel, the speculative projects were featured in the Forum Basel exhibition curated alongside Museum Director Andreas Ruby and emerging Chilean practice Plan Común. Held at the Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM), the architecture exhibition was held "in reaction to the increasing commodification of urban space today" and dedicated itself to investigating new possibilities for public space in Basel. Check out the projects, with descriptions from KOSMOS, below.
Project #1: Hidden Garden New use of Birsig underground river: botanical park. Image © KOSMOS Location: Gross Basel The project turns Basel's underground river, Birsig, into a botanical garden, hidden underground, but open for public. Lights, hydroponic technology and heaters transform the tunnel's contained microclimate into warm and humid space. The Hidden Park will serve as a place for romantic walking, botanical explorations or transit on a rainy day.  Diverse botanical conditions in contained environment.. Image © KOSMOS  "Uncovered" axonometry: underground park in the city. Image © KOSMOS Project #2: Art Drop Floating art gallery: both infrastructure and public space. Image © KOSMOS Location: Rhine River The beautiful Rhine and famous Art Basel are important Basel city landmarks. The "Art Drop" project combines these two main attractions together. It is a new initiative, which proposes to create a multifunctional floating platform, using the existing technology of traditional Basel Ferries, moved solely by the current of the river.  Performance on the river. Image © KOSMOS  Potential use of the Aer Drop ferry. Image © KOSMOS Project #3: Thermae Urbano View of Thermae Urbano on cold autumn day.. Image © KOSMOS Location: Münsterplatz The winter urban spa, "Thermae Urbano," takes the idea from traditional Basel fountains and proposes to heat up water inside the historical fountain on Münsterplatz in winter, to transform it into a space for winter bathing. Steam above the square, half-naked bodies in a warm common ritual with amazing winter settings...  Urban spa in the fountain in winter. Image © KOSMOS  View of Munsterplatz, location of Thermae Urbano Project. Image © KOSMOS Project #4: Triangle Unbound Deregulated corner between three countries. Image © KOSMOS Location: Dreilandereck The "Unbound Triangle" project gives 'Dreilandereck' - the corner between France, Germany, and Switzerland, a status of exterritoriality and lifts the regulations. Social processes are encouraged, shadowy processes are not prohibited. This speculative project does not propose an architectural intervention but a protocol of deregulation.  Boundaries of the "Triangle Unbound". Image © KOSMOS Project #5: De-Fence! De-fenced corporate campus, allowing people in (off the working hours).. Image © KOSMOS Location: Novartis Campus A new regime of use of public space in the city's corporate territories. The territory of Novartis Campus opens to the public outside of office working hours: after 7 PM daily and on Sundays. We propose to redesign the fence of the campus into a transformable wall serving as a separator during working hours and as a continuous canopy outside working hours.  Campus during working hours: closed. Image © KOSMOS  Campus outside of working hours: open. Image © KOSMOS Project #6: Discharge Calendar © KOSMOS Project: Guerilla Calendar An Invented Protocol for deregulating life in a Swiss city. Analogous to official Swiss Abfuhrplan – a calendar, which meticulously describes the process of recycling and trash collection, we propose a Non-Official Discharge Schedule – an alternative calendar, giving to the citizens' ideas of where to spend good time for free, where to find urban adventures or semi-legal stuff.  Guerilla Calendar. Image © KOSMOS Information Courtesy of KOSMOS
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| Proposal For A Transparent Museum in Cyprus Rethinks The Urban Square Posted: 06 Aug 2017 11:00 PM PDT  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis Responding to a competition brief for a new archaeological museum in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, a proposal submitted by Greek architects Alkiviadis Pyliotis and Evangelos Fokialis uses the traditional elements of the line, atrium and stoa to inform the composition of the envisioned landmark. The design of the museum is intended to form a new central hub, celebrating Cypriot history and culture through the synthesis of indoor and outdoor spaces on various levels to rethink the function of a museum.  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis "Our conscious intention was to design a new archeological museum in Nicosia that would be a city landmark, a cultural and creative core," explain Pyliotis and Fokialis. "A museum that is an integral part of the site, reconstructs archetypal spatial arrangements and uses the elements that make up the Mediterranean expression as a means of synthesis. In other words, a dynamic multicultural core that would go beyond the narrow confines of the museum building."  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis To facilitate the transition between city and museum, an elevated platform rethinks traditional notions of the square and atrium, creating an inviting entrance for visitors as they approach via an existing urban axis. The buildings are organized around this square, with the main entrance, gift shop, ticket office and temporary exhibitions on this level, "so as to establish a reciprocal relationship with the square and its people."  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis The central museum facilities are accommodated in a rectangular building adjacent to this square. Administrative spaces are also located on the elevated square, with direct access to the public programs, while the project as a whole creates a cultural park, merging the park of Pedieos and the Municipal Garden of Nicosia.  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis Three core principles drove the structure and organization of the museum. The first was the allocation of all public programs to the square level, interacting with the pilotis created by the elevated museum. This area references the stoa, serving as the social core of the project and using temporary exhibitions to appeal to visitors. Secondly, the location of the permanent exhibitions in the transparent museum building creates a unique journey for the visitor, as they ascend from the square into the museum, constantly moving through museum units and rest areas to observe the city.  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis Lastly, the creation of three inwardly focused cores with distinct structural systems allows for an expansion of 25%, given the city's ongoing archeological discoveries. This organization also allows for a concentrated understanding and appreciation of the history and exhibits on display, forming a vital part of Cypriot culture and identity.  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis Naturally, light plays a central role in the functioning of the museum, "which facilitates exceptional spatial qualities and visual outlets into the modern city of Nicosia, and organizes the main museum course." The designers claim that 548 different qualities of light are made possible through a series of changing filters, while another method of light management is through a system of perforated double sheets of iron, managing the transparency and perforation of interior spaces while naturally aging over the course of time.  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis  Courtesy of Alkiviadis Pyliotis The competition received over 129 proposals, with Theoni Xanthi's scheme being selected as the winning entry. The winner, selected from a jury that included Sir Peter Cook and Elia Zegelis, will receive €100,000 and have the opportunity to further develop the design proposal with contractors supervising construction. News via Alkiviadis Pyliotis
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