Látrabjarg cliffs is the largest sea-bird cliff in Europe and westernmost point of Iceland. On a clear, sunny day it is sometimes possible to see the glare from the ice cap in nearby Greenland, only 278km (173 miles) away.
The great cliffs of Látrabjarg are one of the great natural wonders of Iceland. The vertical wall of layered basalt drops straight down into the waters of Breiðafjörður from such dizzying heights that the human eye fails to take it all in
From the architect. LSD Residence was designed for a couple of soon to be empty-nesters. A significant driver behind the came about from the irregular sized lot on which the residence was built. The aim was to make both inhabitants and visitors unaware of the change in width reducing from 12m to 8m wide. The perceived width of the property is maximised through the careful consideration in the programming of both levels. As the site is fairly linear, the design was conceived as 3 blocks punctuated by 2 glazed interstitial zones which contain the staircase/entry and kitchen/bar/alfresco areas.
The kitchen’s design proves to be a novel element in LSD Residence. The clients required a public kitchen or bar to be presented in such a way for it to be a natural hub when visitors and family are around, however also wanted another private kitchen for the real cooking and cleaning to take place. This resulted in a butler kitchen designed in close proximity to the central island of the now communal kitchen area.
Additionally, the master bedroom, which has been designed in the guise of an open plan hotel suite, has a feature façade glazing which extends from below the floor level to the parapet line allowing for completely full height windows which maximise view lines. The room also incorporates an innovative oculus in the concrete rendered shower which features a concealed LED lighting halo as the only artificial light source. The curved wall of the shower animates the stark façade of the building, which, depending on the lighting levels and time of day emerges and submerges from view from the street.
Apart from the irregular block for the site, a major challenge during the project were town planning restrictions. Attempting to maximise view lines on such a constrained block brought up limitations with overlooking. Additional challenges that needed to be catered to were overshadowing, and boundary walls due to the limited space present.
Sustainability
LSD Residence achieves a 6 star energy rating through the use of multiple sustainable design featured. All glass employed in the design is high performance and has a low E value and the use of brick veneer walls and an insulated concrete slab on ground further improves the thermal performance of the house. The finishes and render used internally and externally are significantly hard wearing and low maintenance allowing the building to age gracefully. Solar boosted hot water and rain water harvesting is also present in the design. The 2 feature ponds are also intended to assist in passive cooling. The limited palate of natural materials, namely cement render and unfilled travertine are used throughout the house both internally and externally. Over time the contrasting effects of external wear and internal protection will allow the inherent nature of these materials to become more pronounced adding another layer of interest and subtle contrast to the house.
Hello, happy pervert people of the Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the dating advice column that’s instrument-rated on the black, red and blue lions.
If you’ve attempted tricky yoga moves, you know all about tools like blocks and straps that can help you get closer to a pose that you can’t quite do on your own—yet. Now Greatist shows us another way of mastering challenging moves: with a suspension trainer.
We’ve seen several deals lately on RFID-blocking front pocket wallets, but if none of them have been quite what you’re looking for, maybe this one will fit the bill. It’s leather, it can hold at least six cards, an ID, and some cash, and it’s only $8 today.
Mac: It’s easy enough to use a system service to launch Terminal from any folder in OS X
, but you don’t have much in the way of options. TermHere does the same thing, but allows you to pick your Terminal app of choice, and even open multiple directories.
Earlier this week, the temporary sea wall that had been separating the Louvre Abu Dhabi from the seawater of the Persian Gulf was removed, creating a new harmony between site and structure as envisioned in the original project renderings. The building, which was conceived in 2007 and designed by Jean Nouvel, is set to open later this year.
The museum sits on an artificial island that employed a hydraulic cutoff wall to remove water during construction, allowing for excavation, piling, and subsequent building to proceed with dry conditions. The recently completed saturation process can be seen in a time-lapse video above, in which adjacent waters rise slowly and systematically, allowing for the structure to be precisely framed by the seawater; an opposition of white stone and azure waters. According to Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), the master developer of tourism, cultural, and residential construction in Abu Dhabi, which is also behind the museum project, the removal of the seawalls and subsequent site flooding took place in three stages.
“This is a great milestone in the development of Louvre Abu Dhabi,” said His Excellency Ali Majed Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Board at TDIC. “This delicate process is the result of months of planning and preparation to ensure that the inflow of seawater takes place in a controlled manner around and within strategic places in the museum. We are confident that once it is concluded future visitors to Saadiyat island will be able to see the beauty of Louvre Abu Dhabi and experience first-hand how the vision for this project has been turned into reality.”
The latest version of Ubuntu came packed with support for a new app distribution service called snap that significantly simplifies app installation. Now, that’s available on just about every popular Linux distribution around.
Sig Nordal 