Divisare - Projects — Top Favorites of the Week

Designed in 2012 this house is situated in a typical residential area. The plot is characterized by a typical Belgian large rear garden. The goal was to make a house that ensures spacious, bright and contemporary living. Using a specific glass façade results in a light living space with a great view on the garden.

Area surface: 1180m2
Built surface: 215m2
Design: 2012
Built: 2013

On a unique location in the inner city of Ghent, a single family house is constructed within the walls of an old industrial building. The former forge and carpentry became the scene for a new home. Some of the existing shed roofs are teared down, some parts remain. Similarly, part of the concrete flooring is kept and part demolished.

The house, a combined wood and steel construction with a rational structure and clear materialization, cuts the parcel in two. As a result, a south oriented beam shaped volume absorbs the confrontation between two complementary outdoor spaces: a walled garden and a workplace.

The house is designed as a transparent filter between these front and back areas: the classical principle where glazing is movable and walls are fixed is inverted. Opening a door has an immediate impact on the spatial constellation. Even the division between front and back façade becomes ambiguous.

Three containers are placed at strategic locations on the street side.For economical benefit, these compact steel prefabricated modules are used as winter entry and storage, perpendicular to the house, and as a B&B high above the entrance gate.

Location: Bomastraat 20 – 22, 9000 Gent
completion: december 2010
surface: 102 sq m (floor surface area on ground floor) program: Rebuilding of a former forge to a single-family house with Bed & Breakfast.

The commission consisted of the construction of a shelter for a family that will house two large areas. In the first, the space around the fire and the kitchen to be constituted as a module without divisions, with the fireplace, wood stove and a play room. And in the second, a module for the bedrooms and bathrooms. From the commission, the project proposed the following set of rules:
Site
The project is located in the forests of the Andes, in a place called “El Buchen”, in the region of Maule, Chile. It is a place of ancient trees and difficult access.
The project is located in a forest clearing in order to avoid interfering with existing trees, an element that defines the length, width and height of the volume.

Habitability
From the commission of building a shed arises the problem of how to inhabit it, understanding that it is a single undivided space. We propose the construction of spaces differentiated by lower volumes containing the various program requirements, which in turn are able to differentiate the temperatures necessary to inhabit them, obtaining different areas that are climatically controlled.

This led to three types of spaces
_Vestibule space, mediating between interior / exterior. It can be used as a terrace in the summer, opening its doors and allowing cross ventilation. It can also be used as a hall in winter, behaving as the first barrier of climate control.
_Common area, living / dining / kitchen, which takes advantage of the full height of the building, establishing itself as a mid temperature space. 
_Private space, bedrooms and bathrooms. With low ceilings and openings controlled by their orientation, in order to achieve thermal comfort.

Form / Sheds
The study of forms arose from the observation of wood sheds in the area, which yielded as a result the following set of rules: The idea of working with closed volumes, without eaves and with controlled openings, wherein the roof is constructed first to protect from the weather, and then the interiors are built. One form within another. As a result of building the roof as the first action, the idea arose of organizing the program through smaller volumes within the overall volume. For this, we chose to build two smaller sheds inside the larger one, which grouped the bedrooms on one hand and the bathrooms on the other. These differ in color and materiality from the rest of the construction.

La casa Boza – Camus se ubica, casi en la coronación de un pequeño cerro en el sector de los Dominicos. El terreno se encuentra en el faldeo norte, mirando al valle de San Damián, y enfrentando la imponente Cordillera de los Andes. La condición propia del lugar presenta una topografía muy pronunciada potenciando la condición de ser un mirador prácticamente natural. A Partir de este hecho es que la idea de proyecto se genera al querer aprovechar y enmarcar esta condición visual de apertura hacia el norte y generar un dialogo constante con la topografía y el cerro.

El programa unifamiliar se diseña en su primer nivel,a partir de una sucesión de piezas para los niños, la piscina temperada semiolímpica y la sala de máquinas. Es aquí donde se genera y percibe el patio que mantiene la relación con el cerro y que al mismo tiempo hace de traga luz para los distintos recintos en cada nivel. La planta superior se organiza a partir del patio de luz antes mencionado en base a 2 naves: uno, el que acoge el programa de la pieza principal, baño y estudio, y el otro que conforma la cocina y servicios. El vacío que queda entre estos volúmenes, son una sucesión de espacios fluidos comunes, como terraza, living, pasillos y la biblioteca. Esta últimade diseña como un elemento programático multifuncional alfuncionar comobiombo entre el patio de luz y el exterior, ser el conector en su sentido vertical con la escalera principal y finalmente como un mueble que ordena los libros.

La casa está hecha esencialmente de hormigón armado, revestido de una piel de madera en su exterior.En el primer nivel se utiliza. Los cielos son de hormigón a la vista y gran parte de los muros interiores se revistieron de madera de coihue.

Las escaleras y la biblioteca son de fierro pintado negro, al igual que las vigas canal que enmarcan la vista hacia el norte. Tanto el cuidado por los detalles en la casa y por el mismo por el lugar, son los desafíos en torno al desarrollo de una casa de características contemporáneas y que respondan a las necesidades respecto a la eficiencia energética. Esto nos lleva a la utilización de una cubierta sembrada por distintas especies nativas del norte de chile, hasta la disposición de paneles fotovoltaicos. Es así como una piscina temperada de 25mt, se transforma en un termo para la calefacción general de la casa. La casa se sustenta con energías renovables y no ocupa gas. En síntesis, el proyecto Boza-Camus proponeuna manera de habitar la pendiente en torno a un gran patio de luz, convirtiendo la casa en una gran plataforma mirador.
Cristián boza Wilson _ enero 2014

Designed in 1999, this house is a tribute to local brick as a building material. This house seems to be sculpted out of terracotta, with chunks cut out of the mass revealing the same material. The use of a proper traditional red brick could also be considered as an attempt to ‘fit in’ with the neighbours in this typical suburban street in a small Flanders’ village. But if the choice of the external material is befitting for the single family home, the geometry and complexity of the internal layouts and the choice of the internal surfaces do not.

Photo: Alberto Piovano. Published on January 16, 2014.

The house occupies 2 plots in its’ width and consists of 2 stacked volumes that have been moved slightly off centre from each other. The plan is organised around 2 axis that form a cross in plan: one starts from the entrance hall and allows a view through the whole house to the other side of the site, whilst the second axis runs back to front between the two staircases and connects the formal rooms at the front with the informal family rooms at the back.

Photo: Alberto Piovano. Published on January 16, 2014.

As the street elevation is almost completely closed off to the street, natural light is pulled into the plan via one large window and several patios. The house is interspersed with these ‘cours anglaises’ and the focus on intimacy and privacy is consciously pursued. Only the rear elevation opens up fully to the landscape beyond. The organisation of the house is otherwise quite traditional – living on the ground floor and sleeping on the upper floor, accentuating the circulation areas with double height ceilings and indirect natural light. The palette of materials is extremely limited but rich in pattern, colour and texture. The roughness of the brick, that is experienced inside and out, completes the smoothness of travertine and walnut, both used for floors, walls, built in furniture.

Design/Realization: 1999 – 2008

Photo: Alberto Piovano. Published on January 16, 2014.

The bridge through the Schanerloch gorge is part of the impressive road from the city of Dornbirn to the hamlet of Ebnit which picturesquely situated by the well of the river Dornbirner Ache at the foot of scenic mountains. The spectacular route to this ancient settlement area is characterized by a series of natural rock tunnels and stone bridges.

Originating from the well known typology of the stone arch bridge, modern technology takes the geometry of the arch to its very limits. The reduction of the arch rise to a statically necessary minimum is combined with a twist along one axis. The latter is also responding to the bending road as a curve immediately follows the bridge in both driving directions. The result is a concrete sculpture that might look unspectacular in plan and from the driver’s point of view, but from the shore of the river winding through the gorge it unveils its compelling fascination: it playfully mimes the frozen dynamic of the mountain road and captures the dramatic place in reinforced concrete. Perfect in form, a masterpiece of design and statical calculation precisely fixed in the spectacular scenery.
[Marina Hämmerle]

This single family house is located just between the area of Ghent and Antwerp in a small village Temse. The house is designed in 2010 and constructed in 2011-2012.

House KS appears as a wooden box that lies in the garden as an independent element. The volume consists of two accentuated levels. The exterior, the entire building in fact, is using a wooden finish, whose windows behind scatter diffused light into the house. The construction, the wooden façade covering and the interior is entirely done by local contracters. Main characteristics of the residence: using principles of low energy consumption and use of truly natural materials.

Area surface: 906m2
Built surface: 287m2

Studio Gang Architects (SGA) is pleased to announce the completion of the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park along the north branch of the Chicago River. Designed and built by SGA, the state-of-the-art facility opened to the public on October 19, 2013. It is located at 3400 North Rockwell Avenue on the northwest side of the City of Chicago.