When it comes to sleek, angular home architecture, Japan is certainly the place to look for inspiration. Countless homes across the country feature beautifully streamlined decor schemes and both interior and exterior designs. NT House, for example, is a veritable poster home for the kind of clean, angular aesthetic that immediately jumps to our minds when we think “modern living”. When design company Baqueratta began to customize this residence, they..
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Suvela Chapel / OOPEAA
© Mika Huisman
- Architects: OOPEAA
- Location: Espoo, Finland
- Architect In Charge: Anssi Lassila
- Project Architect: Iida Hedberg
- Area: 2150.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Mika Huisman, Marc Goodman
- Client: Parish of Espoo
- Design Team: Juha Pakkala, Teemu Hirvilammi, Jussi-Pekka Vesala, Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä, Anis Souissi, Miguel Silva
© Marc Goodman
Site Plan
From the architect. The Suvela chapel was commissioned by the Espoo Parish Union and it will be used jointly by the Espoo Parish Union, the Swedish Parish of Espoo and the City of Espoo to serve the entire community of Suvela. It is a multifunctional building that offers a space for the people of the community to use together for their many different needs regardless of their religious affiliation.
© Mika Huisman
OOPEAA embarked on the design and planning for the Suvela Chapel and the nearby community park in 2012.
The goal was to create a building that has a strong identity of its own while also entering in dialogue with the multicultural context of its suburban neighborhood.
With roughly one third of the inhabitants being of foreign descent, Suvela is one of the most multicultural districts in the Helsinki metropolitan region. Cultural diversity is both a rich potential and a challenge to the community. In the design for the Suvela Chapel and the adjacent community park, the goal was to create a building that offers opportunities for a rich variety of activities and provides a framework for the residents to come together in a flexibly adaptable and functional space.
© Marc Goodman
© Marc Goodman
Due to the relatively long, dark, and cold winters, communal indoor spaces play an important role as places for people to gather in Finland. Public buildings, such as schools and libraries, as well as churches and chapels offer spaces that are open to all. Providing schools, libraries and churches as places where people can come together on the common ground of a shared space has deep roots in the cultural tradition of Finland. These buildings serve as platforms for a variety of activities initiated by the citizens, thereby facilitating the exchange of ideas through collaboration and working and enjoying life together. They are designed to include communal spaces that offer places where local communities may hold meetings and events and where they can come together around various activities, both in the everyday as well as for special occasions. The Suvela Chapel is part of this tradition in which the architecture of church buildings and chapels offers a framework for a multiplicity of functions and a place for people of the community to come together.
Elevations
Sections
The chapel offers an approachable and welcoming space with a human scale and an inviting atmosphere. The building serves many functions providing a home base for many different kinds of organizations and forming as a dynamic place of activity. It is first and foremost a meeting place that serves members of the parish and other groups of people in the community alike.
© Marc Goodman
The local community park with its services is one of the three principal users of the building offering the children and their parents an opportunity to use the space in various ways. There is afternoon care for children after school as well as day care services for younger children. There are spaces for the youth as well as spaces for the various local community clubs to use for their activities. The building offers office space for the employees of the parish as well as for social workers and family services provided for helping people in their various needs in their lives.
© Marc Goodman
A soup kitchen providing food for a very low cost is operating in the premises as well. The chapel naturally also serves as a place for mass, concerts, weddings, funerals, and baptizings.
The location of the various functions in the different parts of the building is identifiable from the outside. While the height of the building varies greatly with the chapel hall as the tallest part, all functions are placed on just one level, and the building wraps into a single U-shaped entity forming an intimate interior courtyard in the middle. The belfry is embedded in the main building volume providing further closure to the yard.
© Marc Goodman
The different functions in the building orient themselves around the inner courtyard. The main entrance is placed in a corner where the U-shaped building opens to the courtyard, The main chapel hall with its auxiliary spaces is located in the north-east part of the building. Offices and work spaces of the parish staff as well as additional meeting and group work spaces are located in the middle part of the U-shaped volume. Spaces for children and the youth as well as spaces that are rented out to the city to serve the community park are located in the west part of the building. While the majority of the interior spaces face the yard, the spaces occupied by the community park face outward to the park.
Diagram
The building is a hybrid structure with wooden as well as concrete and steel elements. A tactile sense of material has a deliberately strong presence both in the interiors as well in the exterior of the building. The exterior shell is entirely clad
in copper to emphasize the unity of the varied volume of the building. Copper was an ecological choice of material for the exterior. It is both durable and recyclable and therefore sustainable. It also ages well and acquires a beautiful patina over time. Local spruce is the material used in the interiors. In the spaces for the children’s activities, wood is present also in the outdoor canopies that provide shelter from rain giving the children an opportunity to play outside even in rainy weather. The presence of wood is most prominent in the tall chapel hall where the walls are covered with wooden scantlings.
© Marc Goodman
The Suvela Chapel is one of the four finalist candidates nominated for the Finlandia Prize in Architecture in 2016. It has also been awarded bronze in the American Architecture Prize 2016.
Tate Harmer’s “Big Tent” Wins Competition for new Museum of Scouting in London
© Tate Harmer
London-based firm Tate Harmer has won a competition to design a new £6 million ($7.4 million USD) museum for The Scout Association (TSA) at the group’s headquarters in Chingford, east London. Their proposal takes the form of a big, colorful tent that will tell the story of the Scouting movement within a fun, environmentally conscious structure.
© Tate Harmer
The new museum will be located within Gilwell Park, the first place where Scout leaders were trained in 1919, and now a Scout Adventure Center that is home to several national events. The new facility will provide accommodation for these events, as well as new activities for both the Scouts and the general public.
© Tate Harmer
The focal point of the 1,600 square meter (17,200 square foot) visitor’s center will be the structure’s ‘Big Tent’ canopy, made up of a quilt of brightly-colored Scout neckerchiefs symbolic of the various troops from around the world. The panels will be made from coated polyester, and will span from the perimeter of the central gathering space up to a 15 meter tall timber clock and bell tower. The tent and tower will serve as a beacon guiding visitors through the park’s new heritage trail, while provided stack-effect ventilation for the heritage center.
© Tate Harmer
The single-story buildings that make up the complex will be constructed from pre-fabricated, cross-laminated timber to minimize construction time on site and clad in timber to integrate into the surrounding mature landscape. The scheme will contain exhibition space telling the history of the Scouting movement, a climate-controlled archive, a new cafe and shop. Opening exhibits will range from founder Robert Baden-Powell’s Rolls Royce and Caravan to delicate film and paper items.
© Tate Harmer
© Tate Harmer
The project is aiming for a BREEAM Excellent or Outstanding rating, and will feature finishes that project the Scouting philosophy of self-reliance and sustainability.
“The concept is to provide a space for celebration – a place that is rooted in Scouting history, but also looks towards its future. The new Camp Square will be at the beating heart of Gilwell Park and the Scouting movement, and will reflect the energy and diversity of Scouting in the twenty-first century”, says lead architect Jerry Tate of Tate Harmer.
© Tate Harmer
The project is expected to be completed by 2020.
News via Tate Harmer.
5 Practical Tips to a More Restful Sleep
You’re reading 5 Practical Tips to a More Restful Sleep, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Image source: Pixabay
Don’t you love it when you close your eyes and fall asleep immediately after your head touches the pillow? Or who doesn’t like to have pleasant dreams without interruptions to wake up feeling totally refreshed and energized? Think about it. If we spend around one third of our lives sleeping, that means that an average person with a life span of 75 years, devotes about 25 years to sleep. So, shouldn’t we aim to make such important activity this enjoyable every day?
However, as Arianna Huffington (author of The Sleep Revolution and Editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post) explains in an interview with Fast Company, “The irony is that a lot of people forego sleep in the name of productivity, but in fact our productivity is reduced substantially when we’re sleep deprived”. The reality is that as much as someone tries to avoid sleeping time, most of us need 8 hours of good sleep to be truly efficient and a bad night could really have a negative impact on how the day ahead unravels.
That’s why I’m sharing 5 tips that I’ve personally found helpful to avoid these annoyances from disturbing our dreams and try to make good use of every single minute of our sleeping time:
1 Stay away from ‘intense’ TV shows before bed
Image source: Flickr
I know there are people who use TV to lull them to sleep. If that’s the case for you, I don’t pretend that you change this habit just because you read it in this article, but you could definitely choose wisely what type of content you watch before closing your eyes.
Die-hard fans of these kind of thrilling series will not stop watching any episode just for sleep’s sake, but there are ways to ease the inevitable agitation that they cause. Take a shower before you go to bed, watch a comedy series, a short web series, read a book, or find any other activity that unwinds you from the intense emotions and clears your mind a bit. Which leads me to the next tip…
2 Light yoga or meditation at night
Image source: Yoga Sanctuary
If it is not something on TV which causes you stress before sleeping, your busy life might be enough. Our jobs could not only alter our mind peacefulness with constant thoughts about the tasks that need to be done, but our bodies can also get stiff after sitting for long hours or being tense due to the daily grind. The good news is that a brief yoga session at night could help with both.
Even if you’re not a yoga advocate, there are simple yoga poses that relieve tension in your shoulders and spine, such as an Easy Forward Bend or Child’s Pose. During your practice, you could also experiment with some breathing exercises; and if you want to completely empty your mind, you could try a few minutes of meditation. Just don’t do very intense sessions, or your heart rate will be too high, making it harder to relax in bed.
3 Ambient music
Image source: Pixabay
I’ve found out that this kind of music not only reduces the outside noise, but it helps to lower the mental noise as well. It’s relaxing and gives you a nicer alternative to lull you to sleep than the TV. More specifically, I recommend the album Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep. by Moby, which he shared for free earlier this year.
4 Drink just enough water
Image source: Pixabay
There is a common belief that you should not drink water before sleeping, and while it is true that the need to go to the bathroom could disrupt your dreams, it’s also true that dehydration at night could cause severe discomfort and insomnia. According to Simple Organic Life, drinking water before sleeping helps our body to liberate toxins, avoid muscle cramps and feel fresh in case the weather is too hot. And if you suffer from nasal congestion, proper hydration keeps the mucus thin and loose to breathe perfectly while you sleep.
I’d recommend to drink just one glass of water about 30 minutes before going to bed and learn to know your body from there. If it makes you go to the bathroom, drink just half a glass or do it a bit earlier.
5 Do not watch the clock in the middle of the night
Image source: Pixabay
Lastly, even if we follow every single advice to sleep better, inevitably there will be times when we wake up in the middle of the night. When this happens to me, my hope is that it is still early so I can remain in bed longer. Thus, it is only tempting to watch the clock to check how many hours are left till I have to wake up. But in my experience, this generally leads to bad news and I end up turning the screen of my phone on just to realize that there is not much time left.
This leads to some sort of anxiety that doesn’t let me enjoy whatever is left. Whether it’s 20 minutes or 2 hours, in my mind I know that it will soon be over, making it hard to fall asleep again. That’s why I highly recommend to not check the time by any means; if you wake up, just relax, imagine that there’s plenty of time and let your alarm ring whenever it has to.
Alberto G. Güitrón is a contributing writer to BookYogaTeacherTraining.com. He is a journalist, committed yogi and meditation enthusiast. Equally passionate about blue ink and inversions poses. Author of the fiction novel “El Sueño de Unos“
You’ve read 5 Practical Tips to a More Restful Sleep, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Casa do Choro Institute / Ateliê de Arquitetura + Alfredo Britto + B|AC
© MCA Estudio
- Architects: Ateliê de Arquitetura, Alfredo Britto, B|AC
- Location: R. Visc. de Pirajá, 550 – Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil
- Architect In Charge: Anna Backheuser
- Area: 980.0 m2
- Project Year: 2015
- Photographs: MCA Estudio
- Authors: Alfredo Britto, João Pedro Backheuser, Anna Backheuser e Elaine Fachetti
- Team: Ilana Luztman, Evelyn Gomes e Valmir Azevedo
- Construction : Studio G
- Lighting : Rio Branco e Faccini
- Set Design : Pedro Lessa
- Acoustic : Celso Junto e Roberto Thompson Motta Arquiteto Ltda.
Collage
From the architect. The Casa do Choro Institute seeks to endow a city of a place where a preservation, teaching, practice and production of the brazilian kind of music 0 “choro” will be adequately sheltered.
© MCA Estudio
The building that houses the institute integrates an architectural set of great cultural interest for the city of Rio de Janeiro and is implanted in a typical glebe of the center of the city, with dimensions of 10,00 m of front by 21,00 m of depth. A two storey floor planted in the period of predominance of Eclecticism and stylistic freedoms with a facade with clear Moorish inspiration, which earned him a nickname of “Mourisquinho”.
© MCA Estudio
The implementation of the architectural program necessary for the full functioning of Casa do Choro’s activities required a withdrawal of the remaining internal elements and an introduction of a metal structure independent of a new internal spatial organization. It means a presentation of one building within another. The volumetry, its cover with a remarkable dome and a main façade with its mass adornments, iron details and wooden frames were rigorously restored from prospecting and research of photographic material.
© MCA Estudio
The new occupation allowed a reception and a small auditorium at the ground floor with capacity for 100 people that allow an agenda with the best of the musical genre; a space to store all the collection of the School of Choro – one of the best in Brazil with space for studie, administration and classrooms in various dimensions in the middle floors and the last floor a bar for students, meetings and realization of “Rodas De Choro. All interconnected by a single prism consisting of a metalic stair and elevator.
Section
The contrast between the “old building” and the new is maintained on walls with apparent massive brick and a new metallic structure highlighted in the guava color. The other materials facilitate the maintenance of intense day-to-day movement with a predominance of molded concrete flooring, demolition wood and laminate type coatings.
© MCA Estudio
Along the Mississippi River Flyway in Iowa, Port Louisa National…
Along the Mississippi River Flyway in Iowa, Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge provides important habitat for migratory birds. Floodplains and forests are used by many wildlife species including migratory songbirds, waterfowl, hawks and eagles, deer, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. After a recent snowstorm, it’s also a stunning winter sight. Photo by Jessica Bolser, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
How To Choose Headphones That Best Suit You
The sound of music – the sound of life. The projection of sound by a suitable headphone can give so much joy. I have noticed that a lot of people are concerned about the design, weight, and comfort a headphone affords them, which is good because you don’t want to spend more than 150 bucks on something you wouldn’t enjoy after a while. And since this website is all about saving money, it would be a good idea to write an article on how people can properly decide on a pair of headphones suited for them without going for an inefficient trial-and-error method.
A Look at the Drivers
The drivers in a pair of headphones convert electric signals into an audible sound. You can think of it as a tiny loudspeaker. The size of the driver is useful in gauging its capability in producing good sound. Interestingly, the quality of the driver unit makes a huge difference in the sound being produced. Headphones with dynamic drivers do a better job of producing powerful bass and can achieve the right amount of sound pressure with less power.
Frequency
The human ear can listen to sound between 20 – 20000 Hz and most headphones have frequencies within this range. The first number represents the base end while the last number represents the treble end of the spectrum.
You should note that better frequency response does not always mean better sound quality. However, the frequency response is important because it measures the ability of the headphones to produce all frequencies equally, that is, from the lowest to the highest tones.
As much as the manufacturers might put up a range of numbers indicating the range over which tones can be reproduced; the best way to know the pair of headphones that suits you is to listen to them. Try to see if more tones are reproduced exactly the same way since it’s not so easy for headphones to reproduce every tone perfectly.
See Also: Hack Your Soundscape To Boost Your Productivity
Consider the Headphone Impedance
This is the reason why headphones sound differently when plugged into different devices. Headphone impedance is measured in ohms. You can choose either low impedance headphones or high impedance headphones depending on what you intend to plug them into. Headphones with high impedance (maybe 100ohms and above) are not designed for portable devices such as your smartphone.
Lower impedance headphones (within 16 – 32ohms) are preferable when your device is portable. Headphones with lower impedance require little power to deliver high audio levels. Low impedance headphones work well with portable music players, phones, and other portable devices. If you use them with powerful amplifiers, they will likely just blow out.
Headphone Sensitivity
Headphone sensitivity works hand in hand with headphone impedance. Sensitivity has to do with how well certain headphones are able to convert electric signals into clear and distinct sounds. The sensitivity and impedance of these headphones must correspond so as to regulate and produce sound without distortion. It is measured in decibels of sound pressure level per milliwatt (dB SPL/ mW). The sensitivity of headphones is within the range of 80 – 125 dB SPL /mW but note that at 120 dB, the human ear begins to replace the sense of hearing with that of pain.
Headphones with lower sensitivity require more power. As such, if you are to use them with portable devices like tablets and phones, this will adversely affect the sound quality as you will need to turn up the volume of your device and hence risk a quick drain of your battery.
See Also: Get “In the Zone” on Command with a Focus Song
Noise Cancelling Features
The beauty of listening to music without distractions, even in the midst of distractions, is what headphones with noise canceling features afford you. It enables you to listen to music by reducing unwanted sounds around you using active noise control.
You might not want to worry yourself over the details of the process, but headphones have a tiny microphone that listens for unwanted noise, analyses it and reflects sound waves back into your ears. This process zaps out the noise, helping you hear nothing but music. These headphones are quite expensive, though. They also require that you charge them up. But keep in mind that they give a pretty awesome listening experience.
Noise isolation is different from noise cancellation because it employs passive noise control. Passive noise control headphones are headphones that are pressed tightly against, or that are completely covering your ears and they cut out outside sound in the process.
Whether you are considering earphones or full-sized headphones, all of the above should be put into consideration. These specifications are essential. Each of them, if correctly understood, can help you make a wise choice as per what headphones to get. So take your time, choose the pair of headphones with a perfect driver, superb frequency, great sensitivity, and moderate impedance for whatever purpose you might have in mind.
Also keep in mind that the more expensive a headphone is, the higher its chances of producing great sound quality due to better engineering and the use of quality materials.
What sure beats any of the above is taking your time to listen via the headphone options you have, to see which suits you well.
You can share your thoughts with me as I am open to discussions, opinions, and questions.
For those people, here is an infographic to help you out. Remember to scroll down to the infographic below for detailed information.
The post How To Choose Headphones That Best Suit You appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Architecture Architecture Renovates a Home in Australia
Few things are as beautiful as an open concept home. That is, perhaps, except for an open concept home with so much architectural personality that it actually compels the owners to give it a beautiful name to match its whimsical appearance. If you’re curious about the kind of home we’re talking about, then just check out The Kite! The Kite is a gorgeously unique residence in Australia that we recently..
The post Architecture Architecture Renovates a Home in Australia appeared first on HomeDSGN.
House Cave / UMMO Estudio
© David Vico
- Architects: UMMO Estudio
- Location: Villarrubia, 14710 Córdoba, Spain
- Architects In Charge: Andrés Moreno, Manuel Murillo
- Area: 104.0 m2
- Project Year: 2012
- Photographs: David Vico
© David Vico
The Cuevas del Pino estate sits in the foothills of Sierra Morena, in calcarenite stone terrain arranged in slightly sloping strata that gives rise to various geological formations native to the area, among which are the caves that traditionally have been used for farming and livestock.
© David Vico
Floor Plan
Courtesy of UMMO Estudio
© David Vico
Historically, the product of these hollows in the rock emerged when livestock watchmen used them as small shelters. Today they have been rehabilitated to form rural housing and accommodate new countryside activities.
© David Vico
Both the pre-existing walls and the rock itself enclosed and defined an area of great spatial and material wealth, and for this reason, we decided to focus the intervention toward a fluid and continuous dialogue between those pre-existing conditions and the new architecture, always from a respectful position seeking proximity rather than direct contact.
© David Vico
Within this dialogue we have created a new spatial experience that manages to value the tectonic nature of the area through the use of new architectural elements: clean and quiet volumes, bright and ample spaces, use of stone materials for the flooring, such as concrete or marble, glass openings to the south to conjure natural light and handcrafted wooden furniture to give warmth to the cave house.
Ström Architects completes contemporary bungalow that eschews “staid” retirement home model
One end of this larch-clad retirement residence in the English countryside by Ström Architects cantilevers over a wall to protect a parking spot for a vintage car. Read more
Sig Nordal 