Did IKEA copy the design of a bed by e15? Readers are debating whether the German brand is right to take the Swedish furniture giant to court in this week’s comments update. Read more
“This design is too basic to be afforded any legal protection”
Architecture
Dezeen’s Christmas gift guide 2016: interior design lovers
Next up in our series of Christmas gift guides, we’ve selected 12 perfect presents for anyone with a passion for home decor, including decorative terrazzo objects, knotted cushions and pleated vases. Read more
Sharply pitched roofs break up the scale of Kengo Kuma’s kindergarten in Saitama
Kengo Kuma & Associates has designed a kindergarten in the Japanese city Saitama with a series of roofs that pitch steeply in opposing directions. Read more
UK designers could still qualify for European patents and Erasmus exchanges after Brexit
Competition: win a book detailing Topotek 1’s landscape architecture
Dezeen has teamed up with landscape architecture firm Topotek 1 to give away a book showcasing its projects, including a colourful park in Copenhagen, bright pink street furniture and an assortment of sports fields. Read more
Dezeen’s top 10 houses of 2016
Over 500 houses featured on Dezeen in 2016. Continuing our review of the year, editor Amy Frearson picks out the 10 most exciting properties, including a home-studio with a pyramid garden on its roof and an idyllic rainforest retreat with an infinity pool. Read more
New Short Films Reveals the Lives of Residents in Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park
In this video, filmmaker Ryan Clancy takes us inside Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, home to the world’s largest collection of buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe.
Due to the redevelopment of Detroit and the surging popularity of mid-century design, home prices and cost of living in the neighborhood have dramatically increased in just 5 years time – leaving the community on the cupse of turnover. Seeing the need to document Lafayette Park before it changes for good, Clancy uses his camera to capture the diverse group of existing residents in their homes, highlighting their relationships to the timeless architecture.
Primarily known for being the largest collection of Mies Van Der Rohe designed homes in the world, Detroit’s Lafayette Park is usually the subject of Architectural interest, leaving little said about its socioeconomic climate. This project narrates the experience of living in an iconic and rapidly changing neighborhood. The area has been influenced by a grim past and faces an uncertain future, making this footage a valuable documentation of a fragile moment in time. As a result, “A Poem of Glass and Steel” questions the worth and sustainability of beauty and community.
To learn more about the film, visit the official website, here.
AD Classics: Lafayette Park / Mies van der Rohe
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Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park Named National Historic Landmark
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Villa Tempérée / ARTELABO
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
- Architects: ARTELABO
- Location: Hérault, France
- Architects In Charge: Nadine and Laurent Fayard
- Area: 120.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Marie-Caroline Lucat
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
From the architect. The project is a second home located in the countryside, in a small village near Lodève, at the north of Montpellier.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
The plot of land has a sloping topography organized in a series of platforms supported by old stone walls. It is opening on the north on a magnificent view on wooded steep hills.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
The projet integrate this landscape : following the lines of the platforms transversely to the slope, it takes shape in a ground floor building stretched in length and turned towards the view.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
The outlines of the platforms are preserved. The dry stone wall below the house is simply rebuilt and extended with the site material.
A terrace with a swimming pool is created on the south side of the house.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
A new retaining wall is created in a raw concrete that, by its compact minerality, contrasts sharply with the field’s material, revealing it, while in turn the site refers to the purity of the lines of architecture. The pool is digged against the wall, which closes the space of the terrace and forms a nested and intimate place in the heart of a large garden.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
With its flat roofing the house has a horizontal line which highlights the shape of the landscape.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
Its mineral aspect makes it merge with the stony platforms, and, seen from above, the projet « melts » within the landscape.
The plan is composed of a very simple rhythm of identical opaque thin « blocks », alterning with large gaps corresponding to the openings of the house.
Floor Plan
Each block is a « servant » space with attributed functions, and between them are rooms wide opened on the outside.
The project is made of two independant buildings (a main house and children’s rooms) connected on the ground level by a large terrace and up, by a light pergola.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
The terrace is at the heart of the project. Second open living room, it allows to live outside while being still in the heart of the house. Its decorative shadows, inspired by the site, gives the living space a poetic dimension.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
The project’s balance, in a potentially disturbed harmony – thin changes occurring between identity in variety – as its regular intervals and measures are the keys of its unity.
© Marie-Caroline Lucat
Construction Begins on World’s Tallest Religious Building
Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio
Construction is underway on a 700 foot (213 meter) tall Hindu temple in Uttar Pradesh, India that, upon completion, will be the world’s tallest religious building. Designed by Indian firm InGenious Studio, the structure (named “Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir”) will surpass the Ulm Minster in Germany, the current tallest church at 530 feet (162 meters).
The earthquake-resistant structure will rise 70 tiered stories and cover an area larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and will house a variety of religious and cultural facilities – as well as a theme park filled with attractions.
“Attractions planned in the theme park would be like park rides, animatronics, light, sound and special effects as well as the Vraja Mandal parikrama shows and laser shows,” project director Narasimha Das told The Spaces.
Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio
Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir will be dedicated to Hindu deity Lord Sri Krishna, who scripture states grew up in Vrindavan. The temple will be surrounded by additional social and residential facilities, set into a 30 acre forested area planted to recreate the 12 forests of Braj.
Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio
Current work is concentrated on the building’s 180 foot (55 meter) deep foundation, which will contain 511 columns.
News via The Spaces.
Larson Bergquist / Salmela Architect
© Paul Crosby
- Architects: Salmela Architect
- Location: Schroeder, MN, United States
- Architect In Charge: David D. Salmela FAIA
- Area: 1400.0 ft2
- Project Year: 2014
- Photographs: Paul Crosby
- Intern Architect: David Getty
- General Contractor: Rod and Sons Carpentry
- Structural Engineer: MBJ Engineers
© Paul Crosby
© Paul Crosby
The retreat is sited near Taconite Harbor where the boreal forest meets the exposed bedrock of Lake Superior shoreline. The utmost character of the project reveals the predominance of place. There is a sense of old and new, an ageing beauty in the materials that reflect both permanence and impermanence. It is an encounter of something unexpected, of things that are in opposition.
© Paul Crosby
1st Floor Plan
© Paul Crosby
Arriving at the site a garage and elongated storage shed to house kayaks form the stone entrance path. Clad with black paper-resin composite, repetitive cedar battens provide each otherwise stealth structure a sense of scale, warmth and resemble adjacent birch tree-trunks. Once on the path, the main building, courtyard and sauna come into view. Native grasses encroach on the path from the sides and through the gaps in random sized stone pavers. Descending and passing through a gap in a low stone wall you enter the court. To the right is a traditional white-washed masonry sauna with outdoor baking oven. The purity of white upon closer examination reveals the texture of the masonry and heightens the slight imperfections embodied in the construction. Ahead stands a L-shaped unchimney which defines the corner of the outdoor gathering area. The residual soot patterns mark the visual, auditory, olfactory stimulation from the presence of fires previous. Permanent outdoor furniture suggests uses related to the outdoor oven, unchimney and sauna.
© Paul Crosby
Sig Nordal 