The QL House is located in one of the most exclusive areas of Algarve, on the Portuguese southern coast, a singular presence in an essentially residential neighbourhood.
From where it was erected it is possible to see captivating surroundings: golf courses, residences, the estuary and, dominating the background, the Atlantic Ocean.
The QL House project was an exercise in balancing spaces and landscape integration. The articulation of two overlapping and perpendicular spaces generated not only a particular spacial dynamic, but also different visual relations between full and empty, light and dark – caused by the dynamic of shadows – between private areas, semi-private areas and the view of the surrounding landscape.
Two stories and a basement encapsulate a precise functional program: garden, swimming pool, sun room, living and dining room, bathrooms, a regular kitchen and a summer kitchen, four bedrooms, an office and space for a playroom.
Circulation takes place through a continuous stairway along the indoor garden, which illuminates all the indoor spaces in this home. This nuclear garden structures the direct interaction between the entire indoors and the outdoors, gifting all spaces of the QL House with the luxury of natural lighting.
Floor Plan
The spaces were designed to create constant and singular relations between the indoor and outdoor spaces, in a permanent and multifaceted dialogue.
The bedrooms, on the first floor, face the green surrounding landscape, and take advantage of the terrace on the roof of the living room and summer kitchen in order to create areas for contemplation on the top floor. The space occupied by the bedrooms extends in both directions beyond the bounds of the first floor, hovering over the empty space, in a serene and quiet balance.
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On one side, a balanced veranda greets the main entrance to the house, on the other side, a pergola provides shade for the living area by the pool and living room, making particularly hot summers more enjoyable.
The main entrance to the house is through a door of unusual dimensions, in line with the imposing scale – one of the singular features of this architectural piece.
White concrete walls formalize the spaces in the QL House, in a chromatic mimicry of the buildings in this region of Portugal – designed with a particularly hot climate in mind.
The natural cork lining, a traditional Portuguese material, is articulated in the connection between the space and the land. The bedrooms, on the other hand, feature slats and motorized metallic shutters in their lateral openings, which filter light without making it impossible to contemplate the surrounding landscape, surely one of the valuable assets of the QL House.
The project was structured primarily with the goal of valuing the relationship between the indoor and outdoor spaces, the creation of complicities between the user and the landscape, and the former with the created space. As built, the QL House exceeded expectations and once again endorses the work of Visioarq- Arquitetos.
For children especially, hospitals can be anxiety-inducing and overwhelming space. New media studio ENESS aims to change that experience with their installation LUMES, a light-emitting wood piece, the first of which is now on display at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, Australia.
LUMES is designed to engage patients in a positive, calming environment. The interactive material straddles the worlds of art and technology, coming to life as people walk past. According to the designers, animals peek their heads out of grass that grows with movement, animated raindrops fall on passers-by, rockets launch and animated runners follow human movements—all in bright colors displayed on natural materials.
Courtesy of ENESS
“Our goal was to maximize the space with interactive experiences that children could intuitively use,” said Andrea Rindt, Nurse Director for Women and Children at Cabrini Hospital.
Next, ENESS hopes to expand LUMES, spreading its interactive whimsy to other programmatic spaces, such as hospitality and retail. By leveraging its specialties in lighting, software, interactive media, product design, sculpture, and architecture, ENESS intends to collaborate with interior designers to broaden LUMES’s material palette and integrate LUMES into new architectural concepts.
New year, new me! Or perhaps for architects, new Moleskine, new me? While a lot has happened in the world of architecture this year, it’s just as important to reflect on your own personal architectural practices. Whether 2017 ushers in the start or end of a degree, a new job, a new project, or just more architectural life as usual, there’s no better time to make a resolution or two. As we approach the calendar change, here are 22 ideas for how you could improve yourself in the new year.
1. Introduce friends to your favourite buildings around town.
2. Cut down on the “final_render,” “final_render_final,” “new_final_render” file naming.
3. Declutter your hard drive. Digital feng shui is important too.
4. Take up a new non-architectural hobby and see how it helps your architectural side (further possible suggestions: krav maga, pickling things, origami, banjo).
Mountain View Double Gable Eichler Remodel is a private residence renovated by Klopf Architecture. It is located in Mountain View, California, USA and was completed in 2015. Mountain View Double Gable Eichler Remodel by Klopf Architecture: “Klopf Architecture, Outer Space Landscape Architects, Sezen & Moon Structural Engineer and Flegels Construction updated a classic Eichler open, indoor-outdoor home. Everyone loved the classic, original bones of this house, but it was in..
Awarding the top ecological projects of the year, d3 has announced this year’s winners of its Natural Systems competition. Established in 2009, the annual competition has grown into one of the most notable awards in speculative, performance-based design. The brief challenges architects, designers, engineers, and students to develop ideas for sustainable living by exploring natural processes. This year’s program was co-directed by Ji Young Kim of Shigeru Ban Architects and Gregory Marinic of the Syracuse University School of Design.
Read on to find out about the jury’s picks for the top three projects and seven special mentions.
First Prize: Hydrological Cluster / Anna Budnikova (Russia)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
The Hydrological Cluster is dedicated to one of the natural environment’s most global problems—water resource depletion and rising sea levels. Climatic disasters and anthropogenic impact cause a gradual depletion of water resources. Biomimicry is a modern response to global environmental problems.
Self-reproducing automata is a process of design that occurs after a theoretical investigation about the intercourses and the exclusions between dipoles—subject and object, natural and artificial, intention and randomness, design and not-design. The design tools that are chosen are non-dimensional points. The design shifts from the conceived object to the processes that materialize the object. The main principles that are finally chosen are those that condense the phenomenon of life (movement, metabolic exchanges, reproduction).
Third Prize: Delta Raefiguratoria / Jose Alberto Gonzalez Martin (Spain)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
The Ebro Delta, one of the most unique productive landscapes in the Mediterranean Sea, is sinking. The massive construction of reservoirs all over the Ebro River basin in the 20th century has caused the sand needed to sustain the Delta to stay in the mountains. DELTA Raefiguratoria (Delta del Ebro Low Tech Architecture Reconfiguration) is an architectural treatise from the past for the future. With a retrofuturistic language, DELTA Raefiguratoria is meant to be a manifesto for low-tech architecture: for more than two thousand years it has achieved everything we know so far, why not give it a chance in this high-tech world to keep building our future?
Special Mention – Building Performance: Hybrid Skytree / Teymour Benet (Spain)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Urban Strategy: Taking it to the Ex-Stream / Abi Haire, Ed Gant (UK)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Performative Landscape: Floating Polder System / Hyeeun Kim, Haerang Jung (Korea)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Alternative Typology: Wallmorphology / Ka Wai Cheung (Hong Kong)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Urban Adaptation: Vorte(x): Lightwell Symbiosis / Chenyu Pu, Mengxing Wang (China)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Oceanic Intervention: Hyperatoll / Shao Xutao, Wang Jingyi (China)
Courtesy of d3
Courtesy of d3
Special Mention – Landscape Urbanism: Migratory Landforms / Dana Cupkova, Colleen Clifford, Thomas Sterling (USA)
From the architect. The collective DIY-housing project Amstelloft consists of spacious loft-apartments. Inspired by dwellings in old schools, churches and warehouses: flexible space with double height which can be turned into living spaces ranging from open lofts to four-bedroom-apartments. The future inhabitants were intensely involved in the realization benefiting the pronounced posibilities and character of the design.
Living Like in Old Schools, Churches and Warehouses The living spaces have a height of 5,5 meters which allows every household to realize their own demands and dreams. The concrete structure can be filled with extra wooden floors which are easily adaptable when the interior no longer fits due to, for example, increased family size or a change of job.
Initiative, Design and Mentoring of Realization WE architecten took initiative to start this DIY-housing development. At information evenings a group of enthusiast future inhabitants was formed around the spacious living concept. The municipality awarded the initiative with a beautiful site with a fanstastic view on the river Amstel, running through the heart of the city of Amsterdam.
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Character-Filled Structure The arched facade openings enhance the experience of the double-high spaces and give the DIY-housing structure a binding and outspoken character. Large facade openings and voids making it possible to create deep and bright apartments since daylight can enter deep into the building. Making a compact building was important to realize the high sustainability ambitions.
Fully Engineered One important principle was the separation of the building structure and the interiors in the realization process. This gave the individual households full freedom within their living spaces. This deviation from the regular building process also required a thorough coordination with the municipality. During the design process the DIY-housing concept was fully engineered in all its aspects.
Embraced by the Inhabitants The DIY-housing concept ‘Living like in old schools, churches and warehouses’ has been fully embraced by our clients. This has resulted in a surprising variety of lively and spacious interiors.
Product Description. The materials enhance the concept of ‘Living like in old schools, churches and warehouses’. The buildings’ structure is meant robust en tough and the chosen materials age well. The number of materials is limited to create a modest and timeless facade. The arched facade openings are strenghtened with the brick detailling.
Courtesy of Flickr user Phil Whitehouse (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Locked within Rome’s labyrinthine maze of narrow streets stands one of the most renowned buildings in the history of architecture. Built at the height of the Roman Empire’s power and wealth, the Roman Pantheon has been both lauded and studied for both the immensity of its dome and its celestial geometry for over two millennia. During this time it has been the subject of countless imitations and references as the enduring architectural legacy of one of the world’s most influential epochs.
This plan drawing by Georg Dehio and Gustav von Bezold reveals the unexpected thickness of the rotunda walls. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Fb78 under Public Domain
The Pantheon, which now stands on the Piazza della Rotonda, is in fact the third such structure to occupy the site. The original Pantheon was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa, the son-in-law of Emperor Caesar Augustus, and was dedicated in 27BCE. After a fire destroyed much of Agrippa’s original construction in 80AD, Emperor Domitian carried out a reconstruction effort (the exact extent of which remains unknown). However, when a lightning strike burned the Pantheon down yet again in 110, the structure which Emperor Hadrian put in its place was of an entirely new design.[1]
Under Hadrian’s reign in the early 2nd Century CE, the Roman Empire covered more territory than it ever would again. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Andrein under CC BY-SA 3.0
The reign of Hadrian arguably represented the greatest ‘Golden Age’ of the Roman Empire. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the landlocked Caspian Sea in the east, the Empire’s territory encompassed southern and western Europe, northern Africa, and a sizable swath of western Asia – the furthest that its borders would ever reach. It was also the most economically prosperous period in Roman history, with unprecedented regional stability allowing trade to pass freely through the various provinces. The many cities of the Empire underwent expansive building programs, bringing public baths, forums, theaters, and circuses to citizens on three continents. In such an era of peace and prosperity, when all of Rome seemed to be under harmonious control, it was only fitting that a monument be built in the capital to represent this ideal state of affairs.[2]
The coffers in the Pantheon’s dome, aside from their aesthetic qualities, serve to reduce the weight of the dome on the support structure below. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Michael Vadon under CC BY 2.0
Formally, the Pantheon is striking in its simplicity. It is—put simply—a large drum capped by a dome, with its north-facing entrance marked by a portico. Inside the drum is a single cavernous space, with natural light from a 9 meter-wide (30 foot) oculus spilling down onto alternating triangular and rounded altars that mark the perimeter of the room. The floor and walls of the interior are surfaced with fine stone sourced from across the Roman Empire, including granite and various colored marbles; the coffered ceiling is exposed concrete.[3] This dome was the largest in the world by a significant margin, a superlative it would retain until the construction of Brunelleschi’s engineering marvel at Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence in 1436, thirteen centuries later.[4]
Courtesy of Flickr user Michael Johnson (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Enabling this seemingly simplistic geometry was an elaborate structural system, the culmination of decades of progress in Roman engineering technology. The 6 meter (20 foot) thick walls of the rotunda, while appearing monolithic from the outside, conceal a carefully-planned network of voids and arches that act as eight piers supporting the weight of the dome above. The dome itself was made possible by the Roman material innovation of concrete. Concrete vaults were used to great effect in a number of structures during the reign of Hadrian’s predecessor (and adoptive father) Trajan, laying the theoretical framework for the construction of the Pantheon’s dome. Here, unlike in the walls, the structural solution is plainly visible: the five rows of coffers, while aesthetically appealing, reduce the deadweight of the dome between its structural members, limiting the stress placed on the arches hidden within the walls of the rotunda.[5,6]
The interior of the Pantheon contains a perfectly spherical volume – a cosmic symbol which triumphantly asserted the authority and might of the Roman Empire. ImageDrawing by Francesco Piraneni. Via Wikimedia user Bkmd under Public Domain
The carefully premeditated planning of the rotunda stands in ironic contrast to the relatively disjointed portico. Rather than joining directly to the rotunda, the pediment connects to a rectangular transitional block, which features the outline of a pediment at a higher elevation than that which crowns the portico. This apparent misalignment led several architects to hypothesize over the centuries that the portico and rotunda were built at separate times by separate emperors, with one having been an awkwardly-proportioned addition to the other. Examination of the foundations and stamps on the bricks used in the structure, however, indicate the entire Pantheon was built as one cohesive project.[7]
This 1836 painting by Jakob Alt depicts the Pantheon with its Renaissance-era bell towers, additions which were widely scorned until their eventual removal. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user GianniG46 under public domain
The mismatch of the portico and rotunda is evidently the result of logistical issues in acquiring stone at the size specified by the Pantheon’s builders. A pediment at the height implied by the outline on the transitional block would require taller, thicker columns than those used in the temple as it is built; however, unlike those smaller columns, the hypothetical original design would conform neatly to the established proportions used in religious Roman architecture. The cornice line of the roof would also connect to the middle cornice line encircling the rotunda, whereas the existing roof does not seem to relate to any part of the structure. Despite the sheer financial power of Hadrian’s empire, however, adequate material could not be quarried for both the Pantheon and the simultaneously-constructed Trajan’s Temple, and the former was subjected to an ungainly compromise in order to expedite construction of the latter.[8]
Due to the mid-construction changes to the portico, the cornice line of the pediment does not match with that of the rotunda behind it. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Michael Johnson under CC BY 2.0
The awkward proportions of the portico could not diminish the impact—or the meaning—of the vast space enclosed within the rotunda. The diameter of the rotunda’s interior is almost exactly the same as its height: 43.4 meters (142.4 feet). Combined with the hemispherical volume expressed within the dome, the space implies a perfect sphere.[9]
The cosmic implications of this geometry are clear: the sphere was an analogy for the heavens, all contained within the Pantheon’s concrete walls. At the highest point of the heavens (in this case, the oculus) shone the light of the sun, casting its beams on the various statues of planetary deities that occupied the niches in the walls as the day wore on. While the gods and heavens were honored in this symbolic design, however, it was the Roman Empire itself which was truly glorified. The cosmos embodied and enclosed by the Pantheon represented the Empire, its disparate lands and peoples held together by the celestial authority and perfection of Rome. Its name may imply religious consecration, but the Pantheon was truly a testament to the might and glory of a worldly government.[10]
Courtesy of Michael Vadon (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
As a symbol of the Empire, the Pantheon was subjected to a series of indignities as Rome began its slow decline over the following centuries. In the early 7th Century, the Emperor Constantius II of the Eastern Roman Empire visited Rome and officially gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV for use as a church; before doing so, however, he took the gilded bronze tiles which once covered the roof of the dome for his own use. Now known as the Church of St. Mary of the Martyrs, the Pantheon had its golden roof replaced by one of lead. Two centuries later, Pope Urban VIII ordered the removal of several large bronze beams from the portico for use in Bernini’s altar canopy at Saint Peter’s Basilica, as well as for cannons at the Castel Sant’Angelo (the fortified Roman residence of the Pope). As a consolation gesture, Urban commissioned a pair of bell towers to be added above the portico; these towers were generally considered ugly and out of place, however, and were removed in the 19th Century.[11]
From this angled perspective, careful observers can note the outline at the originally intended height of the pediment on the transitional block. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Michael Vadon under CC BY 2.0
Perhaps thanks to its repurposing as a church the Pantheon is one of the best-preserved monuments of Ancient Rome. Its celebrated dome remains the largest in the world to be built from unreinforced concrete and, in spite of the addition of Christian altars and frescoes, its design remains largely the same as it did under Hadrian’s rule. Its form has served as the inspiration for an entire canon of buildings since the Renaissance, among them the Panthéon in Paris, the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the library at the University of Virginia, and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.[12, 13, 14] Between its architectural legacy and its own endurance, the Pantheon stands as a lasting testament to the faded glories of the Roman Empire – a monument as eternal as the city in which it stands.
Courtesy of Flickr user lysander07 (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
References [1] Marder, Tod A., and Mark Wilson Jones. The Pantheon: from Antiquity to the Present. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015. E-book. [2] Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. p217-219. [3] Platner, Samuel Ball, and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1929. p382-386. [4] “Pantheon Rome.” Pantheon Paris. Accessed December 20, 2016. [access]. [5] Lancaster, Lynne C. Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. p97-98. [6] Cowan, Henry J., and Trevor Howells. A Guide to the World’s Greatest Buildings: Masterpieces of Architecture & Engineering. San Francisco, 2000: Fog City Press. p24. [7] Jones, Mark Wilson. Principles of Roman Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. p200-202. [8] Jones, p204-210. [9] Stamper, John W. The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005. p196. [10] Kostof, p218. [11] Papandrea, James Leonard. Rome: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Eternal City. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2012. p34-35. [12] “Pantheon Rome.” [13] King, Ross. Brunelleschi’s Dome. London: Chatto & Windu, 2000. [14] Fiederer, Luke. “AD Classics: University of Virginia / Thomas Jefferson.” ArchDaily. December 08, 2016. [access].
Location: Piazza della Rotonda, 00186 Roma, Italy
Commisioner: Emperor Hadrian
Project Year: 125
Photographs: Courtesy of Flickr user Phil Whitehouse (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Michael Vadon (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Flickr user Michael Johnson (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Bkmd (Public Domain), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Andrein (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Fb78 (Public Domain), Courtesy of Courtesy of Wikimedia user GianniG46 (Public Domain), Courtesy of Flickr user lysander07 (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Sky Central was designed to challenge conventional ideas of workspace; embracing and evolving the simplicity of the industrial shed, to define a new model for the industries fast-paced and evolving future.
The vision reflects the workings of the organisation with a campus connected by the assets that drive the Sky business forward: creativity and people. AL_A along with PLP and Hassell brought this vision to life with naturally lit, overlapping voids within deep floor plates to create high levels of visual connectivity.
Sky Group CEO, Jeremy Darroch said: “Our culture and our people are fundamental to Sky’s sustained success. Our people want to do their best and be their best, and we want to support them in doing so, creating an inclusive and creative workplace that facilitates the flow of brilliant ideas and creativity.”
Open and flexible spaces are designed in clusters of neighbourhoods to accommodate a new type of creative industry, where the traditional distinctions between creative, technical, production and corporate have been broken down. These have been replaced with an interwoven, fluid workspace that can be utilized by all of Sky Central’s different expertise and needs.
Ho-Yin Ng, Director at AL_A said:’ “Sky is proud of its beginnings on an industrial business park on the fringes of central London. AL_A worked with Sky to re-imagine a simple ‘shed’ typology as a means of bringing the broadcaster’s activities and people together under one roof in a series of modern and people-centric workplaces on its campus in Osterley.”
The architecture boasts a large triple height central atrium above the bustling 100-metre long Sky Street that runs the entire width of the ground floor. Sky Street acts as a connector for the whole building, bringing together touchdown workspaces as well as informal working elements alongside amenities ranging from restaurants and cafes to a supermarket and a 200-seat cinema. The whole building is a new holistic, inclusive way of working and living, as Director at AL_A, Ho-Yin Ng said it is “defining a new model for the industry’s fast-paced and evolving future”.
Cape Cod Beach House is a private home located in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. It was designed by Hariri & Hariri Architecture. Cape Cod Beach House by Hariri & Hariri Architecture: “We cannot go on indefinitely reviving revivals. Architecture must move on, or die. Its new life comes from the tremendous changes in the social and technical fields during the last generations…there is no finality in architecture—only continuous change.” Professor,..
Sig Nordal 