House on a Cliff - petra gipp arkitektur, Katarina Lundeberg

February 18, 2014, 7:32 am

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The clients wished for a living in interplay with the experience of this environment
The site is found in an area of temporary dwelling where small, elemental wooden houses from the mid 1900’s provide holiday housing. At the very tip of a cape, the house overlooks the bay from high up on a cliff. The clients pictured dwelling here as an interplay with the experience of this environment, with the possibility both of privacy and transparency. The house turns away from the settlement, towards the water.

Two distinct volumes take hold of each other to create the conditions for the life that is led here. One of the volumes contains elemental cells for sleeping, which have a direct connection to the outside via a separate entrance. There is also a large bedroom with an adjacent terrace, and a bathroom, which is open to the sky. The other one of the two volumes houses a generous living room and a kitchen, where the public aspects of dwelling take place. The kitchen presents a degree of simplicity and abstraction, which aesthetically as well as functionally brings it into the same realm as the living room. As a release between the two volumes, an internal light well forms itself where light cuts down through a large lantern. The idea is to allow this release to define a conceptual cut between the two parts of the house; the closed space that turns inwards, and the generously outward looking, open volume.

The spacious living room blurs the boundary between inside and outside. Part of the volume forms an outside space with nothing but a roof as protection from the elements, this part transitions into the large terraces. The clients envisioned terraces to bring the house and the cliff together into a whole. Thus, in order to retain a concentrated totality of form, the generous terraces formally belong to the main structure while they connect it to the ground. On the outside, steps are carved out of the volume to connect the bedroom terrace to the roof.

Materials and details are chosen with care to emphasize an architectonic whole. Elemental panelling consisting of boards of varying dimensions has a coat of iron sulphate and mitred corners; it follows the fluctuating profile of the form, internally as well as externally. Throughout the building, the floors are covered with soaped spruce, and in order to accentuate a unity within the form, so are a few of the vertical surfaces. Concrete cast on site and details out of sheet zinc are other materials used.

Our intention has been to create something sustainable through the use of materials that age with dignity, to enhance the experience over time, both of the house and of the site. The open foundation rises above ground and leaves the site untouched. There is a strong desire to inflict as little damage on the site as possible, visually as well as conceptually.

Location: Stockholm archipelago, Sweden
Project year: 2008-2009
area: 150 sqm

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Top of Tyrol - LAAC Architekten

July 1, 2011, 6:19 am

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During recent years a number of observation platforms have been created attempting by different means to confront the visitor with the beauties of nature. This panorama platform was commissioned by the management of one of the five glacier ski arenas in Austria. Like most of its competitors the management is intent upon retaining a high level attractiveness of its ski region. One hour’s drive from Innsbruck, the Stubai Glacier offers a large variety of mountain climbs and hikes. The aim of the newly erected platform is therefore mainly the revival of seasonal and summer tourism. During the winter season the platform can be accessed the weather conditions permitting. Like the structural engineer we were directly commissioned for the project. The client placed complete trust in our team and left the team with unlimited scope for implementing an innovative design.

The mountain station Schaufeljoch at 3180 metres above sea level is reached via the mountain station. The path to the mountain peak platform starts from the funicular. One climbs up a number of steps to the ridge leading to the Great Isidor. After another 70 meters walk through natural landscape one arrives at the platform.

The Great Isidor is centrally positioned in the Stubai Glacier and divides the Stubai Glacier into a western and an eastern half. Only by creating access has a panorama view become feasible enabling the onlooker to grasp the dimensions of the landscape. The unique position of the platform opens up an unobstructed view onto the permanent glacier as well as the 109 three thousand metre peaks of the Tyrolean Alps. The breath-taking 360 degree panorama stretches from the Zillertal and Stubai Alps to the Dolomites and Chalk Alps. The platform invites the visitor to take a rest and to enjoy the peace and beauty of the mountains.

“As clients we wanted to create a spiritual place in which even stressed mountaineers can find peace and recuperate while letting their thoughts wander and enjoying the seemingly endless expanses of the mountain world” says Reinhard Klier, Head of the Stubai Gletscher Bahn. The observation of the glacier during the summer months with a critical eye to climate change and the resulting melting of the glacier is a though-provoking interesting experience.

As unusual as the panorama from the platform might seem, so crucial is the question concerning the solution to the invasion of nature or natural space. The platform is intended to represent a reaction to, and also form part of this natural environment.

So the design goal was more the design of a situation in space rather than a building. By setting in scene and exaggerating the existing topography the landscape generates shaped architecture, in other words, artificial landscape. It expresses both a dynamic and static aspect and forms part of its transformation: an obstruction interacting with the landscape, each reflecting and influencing the other.

The panorama platform on Mount Isidor is a drawing in snow, architecture as a walk along and transformation of a ridge. Path and platform are found in the brittle rock; for six months the lamellas will disappear under the snow; only the swords extending beyond the northern cliff will remain visible all year round. As in a sketched drawing, wind and sun expose the lamellas like feint traces on the snow surface. Through the external influence of the glacier the structure of the steel design is transformed, providing a vantage point for shapes of ice and snow.

Due to its high iron content the rock has a red hue. It is clearly textured and serrated, which gives it a unique character. The choice of materials emphasises a contrast to the zinc covered steel structures of the surrounding ski region. The platform is a steel construction made from weather resistant steel. The construction principle of the girder grate is an unstructured grid. The twisted, excrescent swords of Corten sheet steel are box section beams with a triangular cross-section. The standing girders to the rear of the foundations are supported by reinforcement strips. Between the 50 cm tall supports there is the floor of grating. The arched railing is monolithic. The handrail and bench are made of larch wood and the filling consists of a stainless steel net. The load is transferred to the foundations and to the upslope rock anchors. The platform lies in the high alpine permafrost area. This requires the foundations to be braced by 15m long rock anchors in the load area and a steel-reinforced concrete foundations on which the structure rests. The sandblasted steel swords of weather-resistant steel extend 9m beyond the rock edge. All in all 19 tonnes of corten steel, 60 m2 of grate and 50 m wood banister larch with stainless steel net were worked. The structure was erected exclusively by helicopter. Therefore the adaptation of the elements of the structure to fit the load limits of the helicopter and the perfectioning of the mounting surfaces and accuracy of fit were essential aspects of design improvement. A high level and standard of pre-fabrication, simple mounting surfaces and accuracy of fit are essential criteria for erecting an edifice 3200 meters above sea level. As the erection of the building site, concrete works and the mounting of all the building components had to be achieved by helicopter, the weather conditions obviously had a considerable influence on planning and execution.

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KRAMPON - Shogo ARATANI Architect & Associates

February 20, 2014, 4:05 am

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This is a residential area where the magnificent nature still remains. The site is situated on a sloped land among natural forest. Two large trees with beautifully shaped branches (one is a camphor tree and the other a cherry tree) stand on top of the site. These trees are integrated into the residential design.

Photo by Yutaka Kinumaki . Published on February 20, 2014.

The entire site is steeply sloped, and the gap between the top and the bottom is as large as approximately 11 meters. And the ground composed of a rock bed is extremely hard. Considering these landscape conditions, we decided to place volumes along the sloped ground to minimize excavation.