Icy river in Rockwood Conservation Area ❄ 📸: @lili.paradi !
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#canada #explorecanada #ontario #exploreontario #rockwoodconservationarea #nature #landscape #winter #snow #cold #river #winterscene #winterwonderland #white #beautiful #adventure #destination #wanderlust #photography #photographer #trees #canadiandestinations #viewsaddict #visualsoflife (at Rockwood Conservation Area)
For Bangkok, or any other modern-day cosmopolitan cities, living conditions and spatial form continue to evolve. Bangkokians are now yearning for new possibilities of outdoor living space that can effectively answer to the tropical heat and its dense living condition where there is not much space for the outdoor. ‘The Commons’, a small retail development in the city center, is an attempt to create a new active outdoor space where people can comfortably enjoy it at anytime of the year.
‘The Commons’ proposes a vertical open-air public space folding upward as a backbone of the building. It starts with ‘the Ground’ which is a landscape of steps and ramps integrated with platforms, seatings, planting and small kiosks. The area is well shaded by the third and the fourth floor structure above protecting the entire space from the sun and the rain. ‘The Ground’ vertically opens up through large voids on the upper floors, connecting to a large public open-air area occupying nearly thirty percent of each of the third and the fourth floor plate. The space vertically and horizontally flows in and out the entire building and allows for natural ventilation throughout. Two sets of industrial fans are incorporated into the ceiling screen below the skylight. One set draws hot air upward and out; the other set blows the wind downward to effectively increase the air movement in extra hot days. This airy semi-outdoor space is well incorporated with gardens on all levels. It becomes an active vertical urban living area. It is a place for strolling and relaxing at any time and in any seasons.
‘The Commons’ also provides a solution answering to a classic challenge of a multi-storey retail building on how to draw people upward to the upper levels. The wide ‘Ground’ with its gradual series of steps and platforms connecting the street level to the second floor naturally draws people to walk up leisurely. A series of openings in the third and the fourth floor further enhance a continuity of the vertical space. Shops on the upper levels are clearly seen from different angles from ‘the Ground’. People flow to every floor effortlessly.
A building skin on the upper floors answers to another challenge. While the project wants to open up the facade for a through ventilation, the different identities of various shops on the façade would have made the building appear to be fragmented. The project applies a thin sheer steel mesh over the façade to partially mask off the differences among the shops providing a unified surface while allowing for visual transparency from the inside, a through ventilation, and the lightness appearance from the outside.
The ceiling of ‘the Ground’ is carefully up-lighted creating a floating effect to the mass above and give a cozy atmosphere to the area. The exterior light on the meshed façade fades in and out slowly. With light, the surface of the building skin comes into presence, while when the light fades away, the façade becomes transparent and briefly reveals what is inside. It feels as if the walls could breathe and the building itself is alive.
Product Description.
Expanded Metal – V&P
Expanded metal was selected as the material for a building facade thanks to its see-through and wind-through quality. The thin material was folded to add its structural stability, was cut into patterns to allow clear view through the voids. When lit up by LED strip, the material softly carries the light upward and appears to be a sheer illuminated layer afloat in front of the interior space.
Wood Substitution – Tree Concept.
Wood plastic composite was selected to substitute timber floor for the entire Common Ground due to its reasonable cost, durability and easy maintenance. Real timber is not a sensible choice because of its price, potential termite problem and tendency to change its color over time.
From the 4-6 of November, the Mediterranean Real Estate Fair, URBE 2016, featured an installation by São Paulo architect and urban planner Guto Requena. The public artwork, entitled “Can you tell me a secret?” is a collection of temporary street furniture: a phone booth that records visitors’ stories and plays them back randomly into five wooden benches.
At night, the pieces transform into light sculptures that use warm colors and movement to coincide with the volume and tone of the audio recordings. LED lights are mounted inside the furniture pieces, amplifying the installation’s presence in Coronel Fernando Prestes Square and developing a dreamlike landscape.
The site is an energetic public square within the Bom Retiro neighborhood in São Paulo, which is now populated largely by immigrants but served as the site of torture and repression during Brazil’s period of Military Dictatorship. The work is one component of Estudio Guto Requena’s ongoing investigations into the nexus between emotion, memory, design, and digital technology. It encourages viewers to engage reflectively with their everyday urban surroundings, looking deeper into the transition between private and public spheres.
News via: Estudio Guta Requena
Paint Mines Interpretive Park – Colorado – USA (by Joel Tonyan)
This article is part of our new series “Material in Focus“, where we ask architects to share with us their creative process through the choice of materials that define important parts of the construction of their buildings.
Casa Restelo was designed by Portuguese studio João Tiago Aguiar – architects. The 225 square meter project consists of the expansion of a 50’s residence in the Restelo neighborhood, an area of semi-detached houses. For this project they also completely renovated the exterior facades, keeping the current look in mind while creating a new interpretation of the patterns inspired by traditional Portuguese tiles. We talked with the architect João Tiago Aguiar to know more about the material choices and the challenges of this project.
What were the main materials used for this project?
JTA: We used phenolic panels on the posterior façade, wood for the floors, stone, and glass.
What were your biggest sources of inspiration and influences when choosing the materials used in this project?
JTA: Traditional Portuguese architecture with the use of cement tiles and colored tiles with patterns.
Describe how the material decisions influenced the design of the project.
JTA: To start with we wanted to make something more traditional. Then we took the concept to using modern materials and traditional methods but reinvented it and adapted it for the present day.
What were the advantages that this material offered for the construction of the project?
JTA: It created a unique and different look and also helped solve the issues of shade and security.
Did the choice of materials create any challenges for the project in any way?
JTA: Yes, a little, since we needed to think of a light, durable, resistant solution that at the same time wasn’t too expensive.
Did you ever consider other possible materials for the project? How would that have changed the project?
JTA: Yes, metal plates or laser-cut lacquered aluminum, for example, or even GRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete). After some discussion and comparing costs, thicknesses, decisions on sliding brackets, etc., we ended up going with the phenolic panels. They seemed like the perfect solution for the desired effect. As I mentioned, if we had opted for one of the other materials, the slenderness and lightness on the whole, would certainly not be the same. It would have another thickness, another weight, and probably would have ended up being more expensive as well. However, I think that in spite of everything the effect would be quite similar and the concept that served as the basis for the whole project wouldn’t have changed much.
How did you research the suppliers and builders appropriate to the materials used in the project?
JTA: To be honest, I didn’t do much research. Fortunately, one of the contractors who was bidding for the project and who ultimately got it had an excellent sub-contractor for metal work and we developed the details with them and they helped make the concept something real and tangible.
Check out the full project below:
Restelo House / João Tiago Aguiar Arquitectos
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