Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, members of the House, members of the Senate, distinguished guests, people of Canada, thank you for this extraordinary welcome, which tempts me to just shut up and leave. Because it can’t get any better than this. Obviously, I’m grateful for the warm welcome. I’m extraordinarily grateful for the close working…
via Full text of Barack Obama’s speech to the Canadian House of Commons — National Post – Top Stories
From the architect. This is a studio and residence built from the renovation and expansion of a small single-story building inside a factory campus. The original building is brick structure with slope roof. Now we take away the old roof and change it into three stories by making use of original brick walls and adding new light wooden structure walls.
Since the surrounding environment is relatively messy, we put office and workshop which is not so private on the first floor facing the campus and make the outside relatively close. the living functions are put onto the second floor from where the orchard and farmland on the west can be seen. The third floor consists two lofts and an outdoor terrace.
The functions are organized as a series of platforms, from office on first floor, then dining room, living room, kitchen on second floor, finally to loft and terrace on third floor, spiraling up the two-story high atrium.The height differences between the platforms are determined in a way that some of the terraces are floors as well as big seats where people can sit leisurely. Due to the adjustment of sightlines by design of openings, the messy factory is hardly seen from the living space and the main view becomes the orchard. These treatments create a very casual atmosphere that when friends come to visit, they can sit and chat in the living space naturally without any cabined feeling.
We set not handrail but walls with big openings surrounding the atrium. This has concerns about the space as well as the function of strengthening the structure. With these walls, the entire space cannot be seen at one sight. A layered space that is separated and connected at the same time is created.
Now the first floor has a wood workshop along with our architecture office. The samples of our wood products are also made here.
From the architect. Located in a rather busy midtown of Jakarta, DeeRoemah is a renovation project of a two-storey house on a 280 m2 irregular shaped site which comprises of 1 master bedroom, 3 child/guest bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, office and storage.
Recognizing the potential of the surprisingly serene neighborhood, an honest design approach was developed for this particular project. The design should be humble and merge with its neighborhood. The main idea is simply to conserve the existing mass and modify it by utilizing the space under the roof on one side of the L-shaped building as a full story – letting it ‘naturally fit’ the urban setting.
On the first floor, the living room, dining room and kitchen are designed as transparent as possible towards the surrounding outdoor garden in which the existing trees are preserved to blur the inside-outside boundary, whilst each of every bedroom has the view of a small courtyard.
The semi public office on the second floor, which can only be accessed by the outdoor twirled stairs, also adapt the same level of openness as it is surrounded with clear glass looking through the terrace and garden. A see-through wooden plane (which is from re-used material of the waste from Furniture Factory) is positioned diagonally at one end as a natural shade where its honest craftsmanship accentuates the silhouette of a ‘kampong’ house. It also works as a building skin to cover inside the office activity from the outside and neighborhood.
Supporting the concept, the range materials used for this project were simplified. The cement-textured finish dominates the entire house with a hint of raw wood detail on the façade and metal for the outdoor staircase.
The need of railing was decoyed by a gray planter box with dangling vegetation while to compress the actual height of the house, a new contoured garden was reset. The landscape element is effortlessly used to soften the whole design.
Constraints and Solutions achieved
The main concern of this project is the client’s budget and the neighborhood.
The solution we took is to preserve the existing concrete structure and re-use some of the materials. This will cut the budget while also can work so that the new and renovated house not so-far different with its ‘kampong’ like neighborhood.
Details of landscaping
There are existing trees in the previous house that we preserve and integrate in the new design. The landscape and hardscape of this project really help to create an interesting ambience inside the house. It creates shades for the building while creating mood inside the house and living area.
Description of the Climatic situation
The project is located at a tropical climate in Indonesia. It is important for the house to have a cross ventilation to keep up with the humidity while also use the passive energy. On daily basis, the glass doors and window are open. The natural air breezes in to the house. And the clear glass and skylight works well to insert the natural light all day long. The vertical garden and wooden panel help to create shades inside the house.
Cultural
The re-used materials such as clay roofing and wooden panel on the façade of the building help the building to merge with its natural surrounding and its neighborhood. The newly construct upper level looks no different than the houses and other houses on neighborhood from the outside. The building holds critical cultural standpoint in the neighborhood. It is important so that the building and its habitant can communicate in the new area and creates no cultural and economical shocks that may appear, to the neighborhood.
Plates of weathering steel frame the tall doorway to this timber-clad home, designed by architects Design Base 8 and Omar Gandhi for a remote site on Canada‘s Cape Breton (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. The mission to the architect is quite clear, the sales center must be finished in one week including 2-day design, 5-day construction.
For the sake of building up the sales center quickly, using thin-walled light gauge steel structure with sandwich board and polycarbonate sheet as bounding system is the only choice for architect.
The Violet Stream Villa is close to the beautiful Yangcheng Lake Peninsula in Suzhou, which is a city filled with the most famous transitional Chinese Garden. Architect wanted to apply spirit of gardens into the center. He created clear fence and complex inside place with dimed architecture and patio. He created a chiaroscuro and garden walking with constant climax in this center which was called by the architect, a net shell.
The red was used to cover some unavoidable flaws during the fast construction at first, turned out as a highlight landmark comparing to green trees and blue lake. The other conclusion the architect found is red could erase detail and volume while produce richness at the same time. As in HAMLET‘ I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space. ’
The center only stood there for 1 month. It was demolished after villas sold out as a result of eruptible real estate blooming. So the client called it, the instant red.
Sig Nordal 