CASA2N - Cristina Rampazzo

February 25, 2013, 5:21 am

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Cosa c’è di intimo quanto un nido tra gli alberi?

L’obiettivo è trasferire al nuovo volume edilizio quel senso di purezza, d’intimità, tipico delle case rurali. L’idea di una casa in campagna mi porta all’immagine di un “nido tra gli alberi”, sospeso nella natura circostante. Da qui, il gioco dei volumi: quello del piano terra, destinato alla zona giorno, contiene ed eleva il volume del piano primo, destinato alla zona notte delle due unità abitative. I due volumi si distinguono nell’ uso dei materiali e dei colori: le pareti esterne, scure del piano terra contrastano con il rivestimento della parete ventilata di legno (Parklex) del piano primo. Questo gioco di cromie dà al verde maggiore risalto e toglie quel senso di incombenza, a volte prepotenza, del manufatto edilizio nei confronti della natura in cui si inserisce. Il contrasto dei colori è il richiamo di un campo arato: l’aratura dove passa rimuove la terra e porta in luce zolle di terra scura, nera. Risalto del verde all’esterno, risalto della luce naturale all’interno, elemento di definizione spaziale.

Il progetto L’edificio insiste su un lotto d’angolo a ridosso di due strade di quartiere. L’ingresso è per mezzo di tre gradini, l’ultimo per dimensione e forma sottolinea l’angolo dell’edificio. Benché si tratti di tipologia a schiera le due unità abitative hanno una loro individualità dettata non solo dalla configurazione del lotto, ma anche dalla composizione architettonica. La zona giorno è distribuita al piano terra, con servizi e garage a nord, mentre al piano primo si collocano le camere da letto e i relativi bagni. Luce naturale e vista sul verde caratterizzano gli ambienti interni grazie all’uso di volumi non completamente chiusi, di grandi vetrate, di finestre e lucernari. La camera matrimoniale è caratterizzata da un volume più basso che inquadra il verde per mezzo di una grande finestra, con apertura a bilico per accesso al balcone. In corrispondenza delle aperture di facciata sono stati messi a dimora degli alberi di alto fusto che in questo contesto assolvono il compito di garantire l’affaccio sul verde dall’interno dei vani.

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The Building that Grows - Maison Edouard François

February 22, 2013, 7:49 am

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The Building that Grows is a rare encounter between architect and developer in the field of desires. The desire was for something different, material, purposeful, pleasurable, ephemeral and meaningful.

The study of the balcony was a key part of the project. There are “balcony-gardens” to dine in with many friends, “balcony-cabins” perched among the trees for more intimate encounters, “balcony-lookouts” to curiously explore the foliage of the treetops, and “balcony-terraces” for reflection and contemplation. The project could have been called “the balcony in all its forms” but instead it was named “the building that grows.”

One morning, when handling rocks, chicken wire , and concrete, we invented a living skin. It had to grow; to sprout. We put bags of potting soil and plants behind the stones. We watered it with organic fertilizer. It was seeded by mountain climbers. Then we installed an automatic irrigation system on the façade.

The building grows. Slowly. Its skin has become a kind of mini-ecosystem. The water collects in the interstices, algae forms and then dies, mosses grow and herbs colonize the resulting compost. Scattered, physical traces reflect these transformations.

This project was used in a campaign for architectural quality by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Photo by Paul Raftery. Published on February 22, 2013.

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Huis aan ‘t laar - 51N4E

February 20, 2013, 7:59 am

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The non-profit organization Monnikenheide has become a laboratory for health care architecture in Belgium during the last decade. It is located in a small forest in Zoersel, a municipality in the province of Antwerp. Monnikenheide offers services to people with a mental disability and their families. On the terrain, an outpatients’ clinic was established, together with a short stay home, and a home for people who need constant guidance during their dwelling. In 2009, because of the growing need for new residences, Monnikenheide decided to build a new home. After a small competition, the Brussels office 51N4E was asked to build the ‘Huis aan ’t Laar’ (‘House at the open space in the forest’) – a residential project with 16 studio flats for (young) adults with an intellectual disability. The clients live in this house day and night, and they are part of a group of eight members. Each group has one companion.

The first design decision by 51N4E was to accommodate these two groups in one building – a decision that is not evident, and that is mostly avoided by reverting to the construction of different pavilions. For practical and psychological reasons, it is better for these clients not to have contact on a daily basis with more than eight other individuals. Therefore, the ‘Huis aan ’t Laar’ consists, in a certain sense, out of two identical houses. Nevertheless, the building does nowhere show its double nature, except in the remarkable split stairway, which cuts like a scissor through the heart of the house. These flights of stairs are at the beginning of two separate routes, connecting eight individual rooms, a bathroom, a washhouse and a living room with a kitchen, leading outdoors to the garden. At some places, like in the studio flat of the companions, the two circuits meet. The combining of the two groups and their spaces results in a compact building, consisting of three stories and a cellar. It functions perfectly, although it never simply shows its own nature or structure.

This somewhat mysterious quality is proper to the exterior as well. The floor plan of the building is irregular, as it is defined by both internal and external conditions. In order to avoid the all too rectangular and overtly functional rooms that are mostly designed for health care architecture, 51N4E wanted every room to have at least one corner – and at least one window looking out in a different direction than the other one. This does indeed result in different studio flats, that are not that large (although with an average of 27 square metres they surpass the standard), but that nevertheless can be very easily divided into different living spheres – for sleeping, watching television, reading or just looking out the window, at the many trees. Exactly because of the existing trees (and of the splendid views they offer), the contour of the building is stretched or dented in order to approach the direct environment, or to move away from it.

And so this project is at the same time a perfect example of contemporary and dignified health care architecture, and a denial of every formal cliché that could be attached to a building with this kind of service. Whoever approaches it, becomes gradually aware of its presence in between the trees, mounted on the top of a small green hill. On one side, the slope suddenly falls, making space for what seem to be the roots of the building, but what is rather the entrance to the cellar, where bikes can be parked and deliveries can be made. On the other side, the hill inclines slowly, so that the slope can be tread on from inside the living room, and can be used for eating or sitting outside. It is not only the anchorage in the (artificial) landscape that defines the appearance of the building – it is also the contrast between the green of the natural environment, the blue of the sky, and the black of the facade. Black, indeed – only the windows, seemingly scattered at random, are like yellow, square patches, stuck to the facade as soon as the evening falls. This facade is made of boards of Siberian larch, slightly carbonized so that the surface is blackened, and the durability is heightened. This treatment of the facade material might – together with the pert, both formal and functional design attitude – be considered as an homage to the houses of the Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori, whose projects often have a somewhat fantastical or at least unworldly character. The same goes for the ‘Huis aan ’t Laar’ that, as if it came from a dream, does not wish to reveal its meaning. But whoever lives in it, or has paid a visit to it, knows how obviously it functions.
Author: Christophe Van Gerrewey

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Optical Glass House - Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

January 10, 2013, 8:11 am

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This house is sited among tall buildings in downtown Hiroshima, overlooking a street with many passing cars and trams. To obtain privacy and tranquility in these surroundings, we placed a garden and optical glass façade on the street side of the house. The garden is visible from all rooms, and the serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house. Sunlight from the east, refracting through the glass, creates beautiful light patterns. Rain striking the water-basin skylight manifests water patterns on the entrance floor. Filtered light through the garden trees flickers on the living room floor, and a super lightweight curtain of sputter-coated metal dances in the wind. Although located downtown in a city, the house enables residents to enjoy the changing light and city moods, as the day passes, and live in awareness of the changing seasons.

Optical Glass Façade
A façade of some 6,000 pure-glass blocks (50mm x 235mm x 50mm) was employed. The pure-glass blocks, with their large mass-per-unit area, effectively shut out sound and enable the creation of an open, clearly articulated garden that admits the city scenery. To realize such a façade, glass casting was employed to produce glass of extremely high transparency from borosilicate, the raw material for optical glass. The casting process was exceedingly difficult, for it required both slow cooling to remove residual stress from within the glass, and high dimensional accuracy. Even then, however, the glass retained micro-level surface asperities, but we actively welcomed this effect, for it would produce unexpected optical illusions in the interior space.

Waterfall
So large was the 8.6m x 8.6m façade, it could not stand independently if constructed by laying rows of glass blocks a mere 50mm deep. We therefore punctured the glass blocks with holes and strung them on 75 stainless steel bolts suspended from the beam above the façade. Such a structure would be vulnerable to lateral stress, however, so along with the glass blocks, we also strung on stainless steel flat bars (40mm x 4mm) at 10 centimeter intervals. The flat bar is seated within the 50mm-thick glass block to render it invisible, and thus a uniform 6mm sealing joint between the glass blocks was achieved. The result　—a transparent façade when seen from either the garden or the street. The façade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness.

Captions
The glass block façade weighs around 13 tons. The supporting beam, if constructed of concrete, would therefore be of massive size. Employing steel frame reinforced concrete, we pre-tensioned the steel beam and gave it an upward camber. Then, after giving it the load of the façade, we cast concrete around the beam and, in this way, minimized its size.

Location: Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima, Japan
Site area: 243.73m2
Total Floor area: 363.51m2
completion year: March,2012
structure : R.C.structure

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Greensquare - Flint Architectes

February 27, 2013, 8:24 am

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Réalisation de 40 logements, Lot 12- Rue Ray Charles- Parc Marianne Extension -ZAC Parc Marianne

La résidence Greensquare bénéficie d’un emplacement privilégié au coeur de l’extension de la ZAC Port Marianne, à Montpellier. En bordure du Parc Marianne, qui sera aménagé par le paysagiste renommé Michel Desvigne, et sur les berges du ruisseau de la Lironde, la résidence à l’écriture contemporaine offre un cadre de vie de grande qualité environnementale. S’élevant sur 6 niveaux, elle abrite 40 appartements en accession du 2 au 4 pièces, disposant tous d’un stationnement privatif en sous-sol semi-enterré.

Le dialogue avec l’environnement naturel , qui structure fortement l’espace et l’image du secteur, a nourri la réflexion des architectes de l’esquisse à la construction de la résidence. Les deux bâtiments se décomposent en 4 éléments forts offrant de belles vues dégagées sur l’environnement : le Socle, élément unificateur du quartier; la Taille de Guêpe, ceinturée de balcons continus; le Corps principal, en léger porte-à-faux creusé de spacieuses loggias d’angle; et l’Attique , offrant de vastes terrasses périphériques en hauteur. Sculptés par de généreux cadrages vers le paysage, les bâtiments offrent de belles perspectives sur le Parc et une luminosité optimales aux logements. Ces derniers disposent tous de beaux volumes lumineux, d’une double orientation et d’agréables loggias, terrasses ou jardins prolongeant l’espace de vie à l’extérieur.

La façade de bois enveloppe partiellement le bâtiment et le rythme de grandes ouvertures qualifiant chaque façade. Elle est conçue sur le principe d’une peau extérieure en tasseaux de bois de mélèze, qui laisse apercevoir en profondeur une peau intérieure de couleur blanche, au travers de généreux percements. Les percements dans la peau en bois sont répartis de manière harmonieuse, en jouant de décalages et d’alternances de vides et de pleins, afin de rompre la linéarité de la façade, et d’éviter les vis-à-vis. La peau de bois se décline avec un rythme plus au moins ajouré qui permet d’optimiser l’apport solaire selon l’orientation et les usages : tantôt en bardage devant les murs venant au nu extérieur du corps principal, tantôt en brise soleil devant certaines fenêtres secondaires et devant les loggias. Le lattis constitue également un filtre qui intimise les loggias tout en laissant passer le regard vers l’extérieur.

La conception s’inscrit dans une démarche environnementale ( BBC) alliant performances énergétiques et prestations de qualité. Le chauffage et l’eau chaude sanitaire sont alimentés par une sous-station collective raccordée au réseau de chaleur Montpelliérain, et par des capteurs solaires thermiques sous vide installés en toiture terrasse. Bois, verre, pierre, les matériaux répondent à une certaine sensibilité environnementale. La qualité de l’enveloppe mariant le béton et le bois à une isolation renforcée fait la force environnementale et esthétique du projet. Le traitement des espaces libres plantés est particulièrement soigné. Les appartements de rez-de-chaussée disposent chacun d’un jardin privatisé planté avec terrasse. Le jardin commun, à la manière d’un jardin japonais, recouvert de galets et planté d’essences locales diverses, est aménagé afin d’offrir aux résidents un élément visuel d’agrément de qualité, et de créer un léger filtre assurant leur intimité.

Greensquare, un havre de paix et de verdure en ville!

Credits:
Maîtrise d’Ouvrage/ Contracting Owner: Vinci Immobilier Résidentiel
Maîtrise d’oeuvre et conception architecturale / Project Management and architectural design: Flint architectes
Mathilde Berthomier, chef de projet / project architect
Christophe Gautié, architecte cogérant / Co-manager architect
Maîtrise d’oeuvre d’exécution / Project Management in charge of the construction: Artelia-Sotec
Bureau d’études techniques / Technical design office: Artelia-Sotec
Entreprise générale / General building contractor : Sogea Sud
Contrôle technique / Technical Controller: Socotec
AMO BBC / Thermic Engineering: Socotec
Architecte Coordinateur de ZAC / Architect and town planner of the district: AS.ARCHITECTURE-STUDIO

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Amarante’s Hospital - ACXT

February 25, 2013, 6:32 am

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The Hospital of Amarante is located on a plot of land of mild relief. Its program combines the uses of an outpatients’ department with those of an emergency department. Each one has its own access. The outpatient clinic, to the north, is on the ground floor; the emergency ward, to the west, is on floor -1.

The building, four storeys high, is shaped like a rectangle, formed by a grid of independent volumes, interconnected by a longitudinal axis. The interstitial spaces between the volumes create two types of patios: closed on the inside and open to the outside.

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Swimming pool / terrace addition to a historic building - I/O architects

February 22, 2013, 3:26 am

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The new structure is a swimming pool/terrace addition to a historic building located in its hidden back courtyard. The swimming pool is underground on the basement level yet completely open to the narrow garden beside it. The metal frames are fully glazed with several different in terms of opacity, colour and reflection glass panels. The rhythm of the frames and the transparency/reflection of the glass dissolve the new structure in the garden rather than making a formal composition with the existing building. The roof terrace is at the level of the main story and is accessible from both the garden and the house. Its translucent surface glows with water reflections at dark. The linear internal space is confined by the stone masonry of the classic base and the light and silhouettes between the metal structures. The black stone cladding marks the excavation and integrates the heating system.

Site area: 2335 m²,
Building area: 110 m²,
project 2009,
construction 2010-2012

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École De Musique Maurice Durufle - OPUS 5

February 19, 2013, 7:29 am

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LE SITE
L’ancien couvent des Pénitents, en centre-ville de Louviers, est un exemple très exceptionnel de « cloître sur l’eau » formé d’un assemblage complexe de constructions consécutives. Le couvent a été construit entre 1646 et 1659 pour les frères du Tiers Ordre de Saint-François sur un terrain traversé par un bras de l’Eure. Il était originellement composé d’une église à l’ouest, de deux ailes conventuelles au sud et à l’est et du cloître central au milieu duquel coule le bras de l’Epervier, ce qui lui vaut aujourd’hui encore la dénomination de « cloître sur l’eau ». En 1789, le couvent est vendu comme bien national, les bâtiments conventuels sont alors transformés en prisonetl’égliseentribunaldepremièreinstance.Ce changement d’affectation entraine des modifications architecturales importantes. Dès l’origine de la prison, l’aile sud est agrandie au-dessus de la galerie de cloître. En 1827, l’église est démolie, le tribunal est transféré dans le bâtiment nouvellement construit, à l’est de l’ancien couvent. Au début du XXème siècle, après 1905, un bâtiment sur rue est ajouté contre l’aile est. Il abrite le logement du gardien de la prison. La prison est fermée en 1934. L’aile sud, vraisemblablement en mauvais état, est vouée à la ruine. L’édifice, désormais en partie amputé, est réutilisé comme école de musique à partir de 1990. Malgré les démolitions et les transformations carcérales du site, les bâtiments et les parties ruinées ont acquis valeur de paysage, composante essentielle de l’identité de Louviers. Les vestiges du cloître et les bâtiments au-dessus de l’Epervier forment un tableau « impressionniste » où se conjuguent la pierre, le végétal et l’eau dans une belle harmonie. C’est cette valeur paysagère qui a été mise en exergue et interprétée dans le projet de réutilisation.

LE PROGRAMME
Il s’agissait d’une part de doter la cité d’une nouvelle école de musique moderne, fonctionnelle, attractive et emblématique de la politique culturelle de la municipalité, d’autre part de mettre en valeur un patrimoine archéologique et un site d’exception au cœur de la ville. Enfin, le projet se devait d’exprimer la fonction, d’afficher une nouvelle image du lieu et de faire oublier son caractère carcéral. Le projet de la nouvelle école de musique de Louviers dans le couvent des Pénitents – 24 salles d’étude, une partothèque et deux grandes salles d’orchestre – posait une problématique particulière en matière de réutilisation en raison d’un programme très lourd dans lequel les extensions se révèlent plus importantes que le bâtiment qu’elles complètent. Ceci dans une parcelle très exiguë, ce qui a conduit à combler tous les espaces libres, à supprimer les « respirations » et àémerger au-dessus des murs de l’existant. Le résultat est un projet extrêmement compact où les parties neuves dominent sur les éléments anciens, alors que la construction historique semble l’emporter. C’est aussi un programme « intériorisé» dans lequel la plupart des fonctions réclament isolement et concentration et peuvent s’accommoder de la compacité et du caractère fermé du projet.

L’INTERVENTION ARCHITECTURALE
L’EXISTANT
Les restaurations et consolidations ont comporté bien sûr tous les confortements nécessaires à la parfaite stabilité des maçonneries – injections de mortier, rejointoiements, rocaillage, des ruines sur les parois de moellons affaiblies par le fluage des mortiers. Des enduits à la chaux grasse, à l’identique des fragments anciens encore en place ont été réalisés mais de façon légère, laissés à« pierre vue », pour conserver à cet ensemble ce caractère de « ruine romantique » qui lui confère cette expression paysagère si attachante. L’édifice dans son ensemble a été restauré«à l’identique» en le cristallisant dans l’état dans lequel il nous est parvenu, mais le pignon de l’aile Est sur la rue des Pénitents, altéré par les transformations de l’époque carcérale, a été restitué dans son état originel, visible sur les photographies du début du XXème siècle.

LES EXTENSIONS
Le couvent des Pénitents est une construction où les éléments architecturaux sont àéchelle presque miniature, avec de arcades de cloître de 1,60 mètre de hauteur. Nous avons donc cherchéà intégrer des extensions de volume extrêmement simple et d’expression très homogène pour ne pas introduire de mouvement qui écraserait les parties en place et rester dans le registre extrêmement mesuré et sobre de cet ensemble. Calmes, limpides les extensions malgré leur volume conséquent demeurent pures, lisses et sereines.

L’EXTENSION SUD
La deuxième extension en lieu et place des parties disparues de l’aile sud, expose sa façade sur l’eau, vers le cloître, vers la ville. Cette position remarquable en fait le visage du nouvel équipement. Elle abrite l’élément majeur du programme, la grande salle d’orchestre, salle de concert à ses heures, cadrée, magnifiée et mise en exergue comme représentative du programme. Elle est à la fois l’appel et l’emblème de l’école de musique, et composante de ce paysage insigne avec l’eau, la pierre et le végétal. Cette façade s’inscrit dans un simple rectangle de verre à bandes chromées qui reflète ses abords et se perd dans le ciel. Elle s’affiche comme ouverture sur la musique, image poétique avec ses abat-son souples et aériens qui se détachent sur le ciel. Elle a un double visage – douceur et suggestion le jour, lumières et éclat la nuit. Dans ce cadre clos et quelque peu austère elle seule peut exprimer la musique, c’est-à- dire l’art partagé, extériorisé, le travail, mais aussi la communion, le plaisir et la transmission. C’est une vitrine, un rideau levé sur la vie de l’établissement, une paroi lisse et calme où se fondent les reflets de l’eau, de la pierre et des nuages.

Photo: © Bruno Decaris. Published on February 19, 2013.

L’EXTENSION EST
Une première construction neuve prend place dans les anciennes cours de prison. C’est un volume clos, à trois faces aveugles qui prend le jour sur une rue intérieure, épine dorsale du projet, articulation entre l’ancienne et la nouvelle construction et permet la lecture de la façade ancienne sur toute sa hauteur. Cet espace d’attente pour les élèves, éclairé par une lumière zénithale, irrigue tout le projet et crée une respiration dans la densité de cet ensemble bâti.

Photo: © Bruno Decaris. Published on February 19, 2013.

LA FACADE VITRÉE
La façade nord est réalisée en vitrage feuilleté dont le parement intérieur est revêtu d’une couche miroir argenté (titane, siliconitride, chrome et siliconitride). Un système d’attache du verre non traversant laisse les fixations invisibles depuis l’extérieur. L’ensemble est maintenu sur des raidisseurs en inox poli miroir de 10 mm d’épaisseur et 25 cm de profondeur suspendus à une poutre caisson en acier mécanosoudé de section 450×900 mm servant de gaine de soufflage pour la salle d’orchestre.

LES PANNEAUX BÉTON EN MITOYEN
Les façades en limite de mitoyenneté sont traitées en panneaux de béton préfabriqué. Les panneaux, réalisés par l’entreprise Jousselin, de 8 cm d’épaisseur, de 1.80 m de largeur et de hauteur variable, épousent en partie basse l’arase de la maçonnerie ancienne. Ils sont raidis par des profilés métalliques à l’arrière des panneaux, fixés en tête sur le nez de dalle supérieure et maintenus en butée en partie basse sur l’ossature métallique verticale recevant le complexe d’isolation thermique et les parements intérieurs et les dalles béton des planchers intermédiaires.

MAITRISE D’OUVRAGE: Ville de Louviers
MAITRISE D’ŒUVRE
Architectes : Opus 5 architectes Bruno Decaris Agnès Pontremoli Pierre Tisserand
Économiste : Votruba
BET structure : Batiserf BET fluides : Choulet
Acousticien : Impedance
OPC : ISBA

Montant des travaux : 4 500 000 euros HT
Surface : 2 000 m2
Date de réalisation : études 2007 -2009
chantier 2010 – 2012

Photo: © Bruno Decaris. Published on February 19, 2013.

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Skatchkoff house - HUB

February 19, 2013, 3:58 am

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Skatchkoff house is a detached passive house on the outskirts of Kortrijk. The design brings together two memories in a crystalline form: the saw tooth structure of the local textile industry, and the wood texture of the dacha in the client’s homeland Russia. The house is mainly organized on the ground floor, in function of maximum accessibility for the plucky, but somewhat older, resident. The design sustains life-long living, but in an inverted manner: today, it is ideal for a single person, with room for an indwelling help in time, but it includes the future possibility to expand to the front side for a family with children.

Furthermore, the house is implanted in such way that, on the west side, a twin accommodation can be built. The essence of the design is the sculptural saw tooth roof – ideal for the reception of passive solar heat to the south – and the central core which structures the plan and houses all ventilation techniques. All other rooms lay in a free and flexible plan around this core. The varied height of the roof form creates a changing perception of the spaces and at the highest point, provides room for a secretive attic. The construction and cladding consist entirely of wood and was manufactured by CNC technology. This allowed the complete structure to be completed ~~wind and rainproof~~ within a few weeks, while construction details were used that go back to ancient knowledge. All interior joinery was designed specifically for this house and consists of a subdued but warm material palette. The carefully detailed and tactile interior enters into a dialogue with the pragmatic and rather basic look of the exterior.

Design: 2006-2007
status: completed
program: 140 m²
site: B-8500 Kortrijk
budget: € 190.000

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House in Joanópolis - Una Arquitetos

February 27, 2013, 8:10 am

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The region is located at the foot of the one thousand feet high Mantiqueira Mountain, along the banks of Piracaia Lake.

Our attempt was to get integrated with the descending slope bringing about its attributes. The process was realized in sections.

The stone walls were built with the use of local techniques with rocks collected locally, originating a continuous but not straight line, for self-sustention, that forms the framing wall. Thus, three interrelated courtyards are formed outside the inner rooms of the house.

Out from the street there is only the view of the white tower which holds the whole infra structure and a 8×40 meters horizontal ruler comes up as the roof garden.

A first plateau comes in an intermediate level between the street and the house. This level takes you up to the roof garden or downstairs through a little tunnel leading to the entrance gateway that reaches the courtyard outside from the living room.

The suggested usage would be the mingling of many people in simultaneous activities .The conviviality spaces are gathered by the fireplace and ovens.

The house opens up to a second grass-plateau leveled with the pool. The construction of the pool and its solarium holds underneath a pool table room and a storage.

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Garoza house 10.1 - Herreros Arquitectos

February 26, 2013, 5:42 am

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The second home is sometimes understood as a relaxing and idyllic counterpoint to the exhausting life in the city. However, others find in it an additive component for a system that includes elements of a wide range of intensities, which are taken as the necessary and exciting parts of the so-called “urban culture”. Within this complex system, Nature would represent the conscious materialization of a dream where it does not work as the opposition to the city, but as an expansion of records and experiences of its inhabitants involved.

Garoza House 10.1 is conceived as an industrialized, scalable and growing prototype, which is adapted to its users´ basic and specific requirements, and that is ready to become larger as do their needs and interests. This first phase has been designed around a large double – height interior space, that houses all the primary and daytime typical functions, such as living, cooking and eating. For the moment, corners, mezzanines and transition spaces become the places where to sleep, work and store, just beside the entrance and the bathroom. Outside the house, a non – proportional terrace has a double function, firstly as an observatory, but also as piece of the artificial landscape created by the house. This house doesn´t acquire a piece of land for gardening, nor aims to modify Nature at all, but leaves the ground untouched by letting its weight rest on a few legs, which show how softly and carefully it was planned to dialogue with a landscape, which is admired and confronted to the most contemporary aesthetics and technique.

Finishing materials, shape and openings distribution might change in forthcoming houses, while the idea of integration by contrast more than by mimesis will remain. Materials, because when using surfaces that are able to change due to the variable incidence of light and the absorption of winter leaden colors of the sky. The appearance of the house will always be unique and different: integrated by reaction rather than by camouflage. Shape, because it is the way to express how the house is interested in the landscape, showing where it wants to look at or which orientations it tends to protect from. Openings, because their size and location depend on the purpose, whether it is looking for light, sun, ventilation, shading or views, but not betraying from the outside, the content of the inside.

Building this house at specialized factories using 3m wide modules, which measure depends on the limitations for road transportation, and moving it to its specific location in one day, means that it is concerned about a “urban” technical quality – floor heating, home automation, advanced and sustainable installation systems -. There are other advantages such as avoiding certain constructive procedures that might be aggressive with the ground, trying the nature with its runoffs and biological cycles not to be interrupted due to the foundation of the house, controlling the costs, selecting the finishes between a wide range of options, and considering construction phases that whenever they appear, will not disturb any life routine since new modules are produced far away and assembled in one day.

Conceiving an object according to contemporary aesthetics and technology, and placing it into the Nature is a gesture which could be closer to art more than to the tradition of “building the house” as the classic method of appropriating the place. Rising from the ground and staring at the horizon, instead of breaking the ground and burying the roots in it. The appropriation of the place using the horizontal scenery of the view, instead of looking for the sublime connection between the earth and the sky. Dialogue against conquer. Perception of the elements as phenomenological experiences, instead of using architecture as a mean of protection against them. Its distinctly objetual nature sites this house in the culture of the latest products of affect, including the quality that generic but easy to customize production, until they become a personal reflection of its inhabitants. An exciting experience that includes both the old desire of the houses built in factories that architects have pursued from the modernity under the idea of an “installation” or “piece” that enriches contemporary art.

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Eden Bio - Maison Edouard François

February 21, 2013, 7:32 am

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Eden Bio was a study of the densification of a typical suburban block on the east side of Paris.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

Three ideas guided the project.
The first idea was to respect the surroundings and its history “à la Doisneau”. There were pre-existing buildings, full of life and devoid of pretension, some low, others tall. Long and narrow alleyways that are remnant of the area’s agricultural history interrupt the street alignment and spatially define the plot, while vegetation-filled corridors lead the eye into the sun-filled core of the block.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

The program quickly became clear: to avoid building directly on street alignments, to maintain the disparate suburban alignments, and to respect the alleys as connections that serve the whole complex. A long, low building takes shape in the core of the block, covered densely with plants. Surrounding it, small townhouses are adorned with materials typically found in the middle of city blocks: unfinished wood, cinder blocks, mechanical tiles, zinc, and raw concrete. Eden Bio is made of these disparate materials without neglecting the presence of nature.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

The second idea was that of access. In the interior of the block you will not find an upper class corridor but rather individual entrances that open directly to the outside as expressions of individuality. Easy to achieve for small houses, this idea guided the layout of the central building. External straight staircases rise, breaking free from the planted facades to serve two dwellings on each level. Each apartment has windows on opposite sides of the building. This idea was used for each apartment in the complex.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

The third idea of the project was to allow nature to inhabit the recesses of this “village-like” composition. It is not designed as a garden but rather as an abandoned landscape that is colonized by plants, scattered into all its many crevasses. To do this, the original soil of the reclaimed land was replaced by a deep organic soil, Demeter certified. A single wind-blown seed that lands on this exceptional soil can flourish easily. Three years after the building was completed on a ground void of deliberate planting, trees and plants more than two meters tall can be found alongside butterfly bushes. Only the wisteria that invade the scaffold structure of the wooden staircases were intentionally planted. A few inches tall at planting, they rise more than six meters tall today.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

Finally, to honor the agricultural past of the site, two greenhouses were built. They house the mailboxes and a room for strollers. They could be the smallest buildings ever built directly on a street front in Paris. Vines invade their interior volumes.

Photo by Nicolas Castet. Published on February 21, 2013.

The operation was quickly named Eden Bio.
In 2009, the project was nominated the Silver T-square Award as well as the Mies van der Rohe award.

Photo by Nicolas Castet. Published on February 21, 2013.

Photo by David Boureau. Published on February 21, 2013.

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House of Would - elii - Uriel Fogué + Eva Gil + Carlos Palacios

February 27, 2013, 5:32 am

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ABSTRACT
This house is located in a 1,316 m2 sloping plot of land in the district of Pedrezuela, 45 km north of Madrid. There is little to no vegetation in the section closest to the street, which nevertheless provides a good viewpoint on the surrounding lush natural landscape.

The building is made up of seven wooden-structure modules symmetrically identical surrounding a central court. Each module is dedicated to a different domestic situation, according to its functional needs. The modular structure, as well as the scale of the rooms allows the alteration of this functional logic, serving as a support for possible future layouts.

The house adapts to the plot of land in a layered fashion depending on the different degrees of privacy needed: private rooms are hidden from the street and adapt to the terrain giving a feeling of being in direct contact with the plot. The more public spaces are closer to the street and gain height gradually, until they tower over the landscape and look towards the horizon over the rest of the rooms. A series of small bridges serve as transition elements between the different areas and accommodate the different levels of privacy.

The ensemble is closed by a wooden envelope, generating a ventilated façade and roof. The central courtyard takes over part of the house’s garden. It includes a light roof that gives light to the façade, a sort of Chinese lantern that envelops the courtyard and allows the members of the household to enjoy this outside room.

The wooden roofs are arranged according to a spatial variation law which, as well as conforming to local regulations, collects rain water and directs it to the courtyard to water the garden.

PROJECT
1. Industrialising fictions. Somebody turns up at an architectural firm and states her case: “many of my happiest memories are associated to different spaces, such as a container in the middle of a forest, an “alpine type” wooden house, or living surrounded by horses and other animals”. Some of these experiences, backed with images, took place in the past and in other countries. The team of architects was entrusted with the task of editing these spatial memories and transferring them to a new space in the outskirts of Madrid.
The house is a post-production space for memories, desires and experiences.

2. A house in 21,600 minutes. The industrialised building system and the assembly of the dry-mount structural wooden panels shorten the execution periods.
There is an empty plot of land today, but, in less than two weeks, a house will have appeared.

3. The kit. The Project is executed based on the rules set by the building system, which is based on the assembly of a parts-kit. The industrialised system transfers part of the construction effort to the workshop.
The program is organised around detail. Construction becomes production.

4. Flexible organisation. The modular system of the house entails a functional, flexible organization that makes the alteration of the distribution of the rooms possible.
Architecture as a game field: To live is to make a move.

5. Look or Touch. Different ways of interacting with the plot are presented. From the private rooms, which are in direct contact with the environment, to the public areas, the areas of social representation which look out into the landscape and profit from the views.
Like the song says, “No tocarte y pasar todo el día junto a ti”(To not touch you and spend the day by your side)

6. Russian dolls. The organisation of the house allows the house to be fragmented into a smaller one without using the whole of the building.
A house within a house.

7. The “extras”. The Project includes the construction of a support made of elementary finishes made up of few elements. The end user will finish the house at a later date.
The house itself is the hardware. Daily practices are its software.

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House in Takaya - Suppose Design Office

February 20, 2013, 1:12 am

≫ Next: Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea - TACOA arquitetos

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Location: Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima, Japan
Principal use: single family house
Main Structure: Timber construction
Site Area: 259.15 sqm
Building area: 78.66sqm
Total ﬂoor area: 114.34sqm
Completion: March.2011
Design period: August. 2007 – October. 2010
Construction period: November. 2010-March. 2011

Project team : Suppose design office | Makoto Tanijiri,
in charge :Mariko Shimada
Structural Engineer: Ohno Japan

Photo: © Toshiyuki Yano. Published on February 20, 2013.

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Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea - TACOA arquitetos

February 20, 2013, 5:48 am

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Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea is located in Brumadinho, a village near Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state. A personal initiative of the mining industry businessman Bernardo Paz, the museum has an unusual architectural concept. Instead of sum up all its installations into a unique building, it is composed of many pavilions spread out in a park of approximately 35 hectares.

Photo by Eduardo Eckenfels. Published on February 20, 2013.

The Adriana Varejão Gallery was commissioned to shelter two works of the artist acquired by the museum and exhibited at Cartier Foundation: the sculpture Linda do Rosário and the polyptych Celacanto Provoca Maremoto (with the further development of the project, the artist created another four works for the building). The project should occupy a hillside with a small slope (typical of the topography of Minas Gerais, composed of old and smooth hills) partially surrounded by the native forest, an area formerly used to store containers. The original topography was modified for this new use: a huge displacement of earth has cut it, creating the great horizontal plane necessary to the storage.

Photo by Vicente de Mello. Published on February 20, 2013.

The orientation of the project aimed to recompose the site’s original topography and inserting on it an artificial element: a regular block in reinforced concrete (prestressed wasn’t necessary), partially inserted in the hillside. The building structure is composed by an irregular retaining wall that gains the space in the ground floor and receives the loads of the block, in its deepest part, trough two beams, in the middle, trough 4 columns integrated in the wall.

Photo by Vicente de Mello. Published on February 20, 2013.

The building was also conceived as a spiral path that connects two different levels of the park, alternating moments of contraction/passage and expansion/exhibition: from the ground floor, (1, contraction) in the middle of the water pound, in a narrow promenade, away from the building; (2 expansion: Varejão’s piece Panacea Phantastica, a tile bench with drawings of hallucinatory plants) The small square plaza of the groundfloor; (3 contraction) The promenade turns to the building; (4 expansion: the sculpture Linda do Rosário and the paiting The Collector) the ground floor, inside the hill, below the concrete block; (5 contraction) The stairs; (6 expansion, the polyptych Celacanto provoca maremoto) The first pavement, inside the concrete block; (7 contraction) The ramp; (8 expansion: another tile bench, now with drawings of birds, Passarinhos-from Inhotim to Demini) The terrace, above the concrete block; (9 contraction) The bridge. And vice versa.

Photo by Vicente de Mello. Published on February 20, 2013.

Photo by Eduardo Eckenfels. Published on February 20, 2013.

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House in Taíde - Jean Pierre Porcher, Margarida Oliveira, Albino Freitas, TOPOS Atelier de Arquitectura

February 21, 2013, 4:25 am

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This house was built in accordance with the pre-existent farm buildings’ implantation and orientation. The aim was to explore two autonomous construction methods by confronting and intercepting them: one uses the existing granite walls from the farmhouse, its windows and doors, to shelter the entrance garden and house work areas; the other, which enfolds the living areas and bedrooms, is made of a continuous concrete structure with aluminium frameworks. In the garden, a flagstone pavement reunites the swimming pool and the original stone tanks.

Photo by Xavier Antunes. Published on February 21, 2013.

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Fouquet’s Barrière Hotel - Maison Edouard François

February 21, 2013, 8:16 am

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A set of seven buildings including real and pastiche Haussmannian styles, as well as a building dating from the 1970’s, formed a nearly complete urban block in the Triangle d’or (the corner of the Champs-Elysées and the Avenue Georges V). The restaurant Le Fouquet’s is the flagship property of the Barrière company. The goal was to unify these disparate elements and to make it the next parisian “Palace”, thus establishing a strong new image.

In this sensitive context, both historic and ostentatious, we invented the concept of Moulé-Troué (Cast and punctured). We replicated the authentic Haussmannian facade of the block. We then applied it onto the facades, like a bas-relief from Petra. The molded casting is then pierced by large openings that are completely independent of the Haussmannian lines but very relevant to the plans and the visual comfort of the rooms. The courtyard is colonized by a forest of vertical aluminum branches. A hanging garden on the terrace of the first floor offers enchanting scenery. The new interior layout achieves the expected level of luxury.
Since its opening, the hotel has become an essential fixture in Paris.

Photo by Floriane de Lassée. Published on February 21, 2013.

Photo by Paul Raftery. Published on February 21, 2013.

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Recreational Island House - Rocco Reukema, Remko Remijnse, 2by4-architects

February 20, 2013, 8:28 am

≫ Next: Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse - HWCD

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place: Breukelen year: 2011 size: 21 m2 status: completed client: private client

Recreational Island House / South east facade

On an island in the lake of Loosdrecht we designed a recreational house that answers to the specific needs of the client. The house embraces the natural context of the island and subtly blends in. It’s transparent facades create a visual tunnel effect; emphasizing the island’s slim but long shape.

Recreational Island House / Sliding door

The house is completely customized and allows the space to change according to its function. On warm days the northern facade can be opened towards the water. The wooden floor of the living room then becomes a jetty from where the water can be accessed. In this configuration the house functions as an outdoor space with a roof.

Recreational Island House / Interior

The restrictions to the maximum volume that was allowed to build asked for an efficient and creative use of the available space. To maximize the feeling of open space we designed a furniture in the living room for the programs that needed privacy and enclosure. In this furniture one finds a toilet, a shower, cupboards and storage, installations and a kitchen.

Recreational Island House / South east view

Coming from the shore the house is elegantly elevated. Visitors will first walk around the house before they can enter. This way the house and the context are shown from different points of view. Passing the house the visitor has to take a step up to the terrace. The terrace floor continues into the lounge area inside. A free hanging chimney is the central point around which the lounge area is situated. Behind the lounge area the visitor takes another step up the enter the dining area. The dining area has an open connection to the kitchen. From the elevated floor of the dining area the visitor can enjoy the view of the open landscape in the back of the house.

Recreational Island House / North west view

Recreational Island House / Design sketch

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Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse - HWCD

February 22, 2013, 4:05 am

≫ Next: Country house - DVA ARHITEKTA

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Located in the ShiQiao garden in Yangzhou, a city to the northwest of Shanghai, there is a floating Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse designed by Chinese architect Sun Wei, partner of HWCD. As an international design practice with offices in Shanghai, London and Barcelona HWCD has developed a broad variety of projects, specialising in boutique hotels, residential and mix-use developments. HWCD’s projects try to emphasize the existing “worldwide interconnectedness” of the architecture and design spheres by bringing together traditional Asian aesthetic and a more modern design language.

Photo: T+E. Published on February 22, 2013.

The Bamboo Courtyard is an example of the HWCD design philosophy, embracing traditional Chinese garden design fundamentals while blending into the natural environment. The bamboo is arranged vertically and horizontally to produce a “depth” to the buildings fabric, it also allows for the buildings skin to change and morph as you move through the space. Tall rows of bamboo form the corridors along the outdoor walkway and are organized in asymmetric fashion on the lake. Traditionally, Yangzhou courtyards are formed with inward facing pavilions, creating a landscaped courtyard space. Drawing inspiration from this, the bamboo courtyard was designed from a basic square footprint, the form was fragmented into small volumes creating an internal landscape area. Each of the spaces has views into the surrounding lake, with each room afforded a unique vista of the internal courtyard.

Photo: T+E. Published on February 22, 2013.

From the exterior, the bamboo courtyard is a cubic form with a variation of solids and voids. The strong verticality becomes more apparent at night when the teahouse lights up to illuminate the surroundings. The simple form illustrates the congruent blending of architecture with nature. Moreover, the natural materials such as bamboo and bricks provide sustainable sensibilities. The voids in the outer skin improve natural ventilation within the bamboo courtyard while the thick brick wall retains heat in winter, reducing the dependency of mechanical heating and cooling systems.

Photo: T+E. Published on February 22, 2013.

Tea is one of China’s most precious cultural heritages and has remained popular for thousands of years. A traditional Chinese tea ceremony requires an unassuming setting in order to appreciate its lengthy process. The bamboo courtyard provides the ideal surroundings for this experience, emphasizing the underlying importance of design and architecture.

Photo: T+E. Published on February 22, 2013.

Location: ShiQiao, Yangzhou, China
Client: Building And Construction Authority of YangZhou Economic and Technological Development Zone
Client-side Project Manager:YaoQiang
Building Area: 400m2
Completed: May 2012

Photo: T+E. Published on February 22, 2013.

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Country house - DVA ARHITEKTA

February 21, 2013, 5:51 am

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The approach of the proposal was to develop a residential complex in strong connection to the context. Located in a remote, poorly inhabitated part of West Herzegovina canton, the site stretches over 35 000 square meters of wild landscape, bounded by strong stone walls. The ambient relies on tradition, where places like this provided social contact and events. All three units, six buildings alltogether, are carefully placed to gain views according to client’s wishes. Guarding the entrance, the steward house and auxilliary facility are located. Further along, the terrain climbs steeply towards the highest point where main unit is found. The location offers control of the whole site as well as exceptional views of the surrounding mountains. Towards the sports facilities the terrain descends in number of terraces planted with olive trees and grape vines. The football and basketball court together with dressing rooms form third unit.

The main unit contains the house for the owner, guest house and summer house with vine cellar and place for barbecueing. The interrelation between the houses creates fine outside spaces, protected from the wind, suitable for enjoying time spent on fresh air. Houses are mainly two- storeyed, with daily life happening on the ground level, having contact with the outdoor. Houses are focused both on outside and inside, due to climate conditions, harsh winters and hot summers. Architectural language is pure and elementar, adjusted to the hand of local builders. Concrete construction is cladded in stone from the local quarry. Stone frames around the openings in facade, also traditional elements, are here made in plaster and emphasized to achieve the playfulness of basic stone element. Connections between units are paved in same local stone. Houses are heated by heat pumps using air and very well isolated which makes them low energy.

project year: 2007
completion year: 2011
site area: 35 000 m2
total floor area: 950 m2

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