© Marcel van der Burg

• Architects: MAATworks
• Location: Edmond Halleylaan 44, 1086 Amsterdam,The Netherlands
• Architect In Charge: Lidewij Lenders
• Area: 312.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2010
• Photographs: Marcel van der Burg

• Contractor: Kerkhofs Houtbouw, Henrik-Ido-Ambacht
• Structural Engineer: Raadschelders-Bouwadvies b.v., Spaarndam
• Client: dhr. L. Verbeek, Amsterdam

© Marcel van der Burg

In spite of the prefab wood elements used in this construction, this private house on Steigereiland in IJburg conjures up the idea of an outsize, five-storey wood-carving. Maatworks architects were commissioned to fill the entire building envelope with a town house inspired by the clients’ beloved Scandinavians houses. As in previous projects in IJburg, the architects used one material in particular: pine wood.Here that material was even painted bright red for the facade. Behind that eye-catching facade lies a prefab system based on glulam building components that allows the architect to connect nearly all the components both structurally and spatially. For example, the wall of the staircase are both banisters and walls for the adjoining rooms. Via a large skylight and several small openings in the stairwell, daylight penetrates deep into the house, an effect that is further enhanced by the floor-by-floor widening of the stairwell as it rises.

© Marcel van der Burg

The house required minimal detailing because the dimensionally accurate prefab internal walls allowed for plain connections, while all the ducting and recesses for wall sockets were concealed during prefabrication. Pine’s tendency to yellow has been counteracted with a coating of lye. Maat architects avoid monotony in the interior with whitish-grey doors and cement covering floors, with integrated floor heating, finished wit fair-faced concrete.

Floor Plans

The house was designed in accordance with the passive solar energy principle: large expanses of south-facing glass ensure that solar heat floods the house in winter, while architectural solar shading in the form of balconies and a roof overhang above the terrace prevent overheating in summer. Surplus heat is expelled via the skylight above the stairwell. In combination with the material properties of this “wooden house”, this provides for a pleasant indoor climate and Scandinavian-style domestic bliss in the middle of the big city.

© Marcel van der Burg

Product Description. The wood construction of the house consists of prefab cross laminated elements. The elements were made by the german company Züblin. Due to the precision of the product,  we could even use it for the interior, for example the stairway in this house. 

© Marcel van der Burg

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© Thomas Mayer

• Architects: BINAA
• Location: Hendek, 54300 Hendek/Sakarya, Turkey
• Architect In Charge: Burak Pekoglu
• Architects : Burcu Kara, Ecenur Yavuz, Yavuz Selim Can
• Area: 3000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Thomas Mayer

• Communication Designer: Yavuz Selim Can
• Client: Sakarya 2nd Industrial District Management
• Client Representative: Tunay Can (REMA)
• General Contractor: Yuksel Avsar (AVSAROGLU)
• Construction Chiefs: Zekai Acar & Huseyin Gumus
• Structural: EPAS
• Mechanical: MEKANIK Proje
• Electrical: BERSIS
• Mechanical Works: ZIRVE Engineering
• Electrical Works: BORTEK Engineering
• Auditorium: DEKORIST
• Façade Contractor: MAYEM
• Metal Facade Fabricator: KASSO Engineering
• Stone Fabricator: KARASU Marble

© Thomas Mayer

Situated in the Sakarya region—some 170 km east of Istanbul, in Turkey’s Hinterland–S2OSB is a pioneering management building, headquarters and conference hall, of our client, Sakarya 2nd Industrial District’s Board of CEO’s. Uniting the vision of their management and engineering teams, it is also an iconic structure in the area, engaging people into a new way of looking. 

© Thomas Mayer

A new way of looking leads to a new way of knowing as it can reflect the core concept of industrial development. A new and unexpected presence creates a unique character for the area and provokes people’s thinking: they become curious about the end product: How did this structure come about? What is the story behind it? What collaboration took place behind the scenes? 

© Thomas Mayer

Axonometric

© Thomas Mayer

The façade is very important in triggering these questions. The façade is the interplay between exterior and interior; it opens one world into another. The envelope is how a building performs, how it expresses itself, similarly to how a garment makes a fashion statement: it is the building’s character. S2OSB’s façade expresses not only the building’s character but also its function. 

© Thomas Mayer

Detail

© Thomas Mayer

The façade, made of thoughtfully crafted metal, wraps around the building and helps communicate the structure’s multi-faceted purpose: from head offices to the conference hall (170 seats). At the conference hall, the geometrically textured shell starts with mostly solid panels followed by perforated panels, increasing rhytmically until they detach as a double facade that filters controlled daylight to the offices. The interior is camouflaged by the exterior whereas the users can see outside. Daylight continuously changes the look of the anodized, satinated, folded, and mathematically orchastrated metal exterior. At night, the lighting design reiterates a dual purpose: at the solid facades, lighting is integrated into rhytmically distributed perforfated panels, which then gets fully perforated at the offices where the internal lighting expresses an alternative perception of the facades’ pattern. Thus, the façade is dynamic and expressive of the building’s purpose in an artful way. 

© Thomas Mayer

The interior consists of two separate foyers: one serves the offices and the other—the auditorium. The grand canopy allows access on both sides, which provides a semi-enclosed space for larger activities or programs. The conference hall fits inside the solid panels: the inner shell is made of acoustacilly engineered, geometric, laminated wood panels. The natural stone and wood create a warm atmosphere inside, in contrast to the cold metal exterior. The offices are designed specifically for executives and engineers who are in charge of the industrial district and its shared facilities. The building serves the day-to-day needs of the industrial complex but also becomes a bridge to public use by inviting a global audience to its conference hall, for the exchange of knowledge.  

© Thomas Mayer

The building’s mission is the convergence of various industries and people. Such convergence, on the one hand, opens people’s minds to the great potential that industries hold, and on the other—shows the important role of design and architecture in beginning to realize that potential in Turkey’s Hinterland.

© Thomas Mayer

Product Description. Principle material used for the project’s façade is aluminum. Specs of the metal is 3mm aluminum sheet, alloy 5754 & tempered H22. Façade panels making process consists of 1500×3000 mm sized sheets being satinated, folded and anodized.    

© Thomas Mayer

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© Julien Lanoo

• Architects: NEXT architects
• Location: Di Hua Mei Xi Hu Pan, Yuelu Qu, Changsha Shi, Hunan Sheng, China, 410205
• Architects In Charge: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Jiang Xiaofei, Jurriaan Hillerström, Luuc Sonke
• Area: 185.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Julien Lanoo

• Advisor Construction: CERI Engineering Technology Co., Ltd.
• Advisor Lighting: H.G.lighting
• Main Contractor: Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Company limited
• Client: Municipality of Changsha

© Julien Lanoo

From the architect. NEXT architects are working on a unique series of bridges all over the world. This time, their latest design isn’t an intriguing bat bridge (nominated for the 2016 Dutch Design Awards), but an iconic bridge in China: the Lucky Knot. The new steel pedestrian bridge in the Chinese mega city Changsha is 185 metres long and 24 metres high and fits perfectly in the sequence of extraordinary bridges that characterise NEXT’s practice; by explicitly engaging with the local context, the bridge designs offer new perspectives.

© Julien Lanoo

 The eye-catching Lucky Knot has down-to-earth Dutch roots: NEXT architects holds offices in Amsterdam and Beijing. In 2013, after the completion of their breathtaking Melkwegbridge in Purmerend, NEXT was invited to take part in an international competition to design a new bridge to be constructed over the Dragon King Harbour River in Changsha’s rapidly developing ‘New Lake District’. For this special commission, the teams in Amsterdam and Beijing joined forces to come up with the unique, winning design: the Lucky Knot. Combining the Dutch team’s expertise in infrastructure and water management and Chinese team’s perseverance and knowledge of the local context was a crucial part of the process. The bridge has already become an icon, and was selected by CNN as one of the “most spectacular bridges that break the mold.”

© Julien Lanoo

“NEXT’s designs for both international and national clients distinguish themselves for their singular relationship with their surroundings, their enhancing of the experience of the specific location, and their added value to the site. This is also the case in Changsha. The city is growing and changing rapidly. This context called for a unique gesture to inspire passers-by,” comments Michel Schreinemachers, partner at NEXT architects Amsterdam. 

© Julien Lanoo

A thousand and one steps

The bridge is a key project in developing the area’s public space, and was designed with recreational, ecological and tourist activities in mind. The bridge connects multiple levels at different heights (the river banks, the road, the higher-placed park as well as the interconnections between them). The final shape of the bridge is the result of -literally and metaphorically- knotting all these routes together. “The shape of the Lucky Knot was inspired by the principle of the Mobius ring, as well as by the Chinese knotting art. In the ancient decorative Chinese folk art, the knot symbolises luck and prosperity,” says John van de Water, partner at NEXT architects Beijing. The bridge owes its imaginative appeal to the combining of tradition and modernity.

Section

“The Lucky Knot is more than a bridge and a connection between two river banks. Its success lays in bringing cultures together, and in the fusion of history, technology, art, innovation, architecture and spectacle,” adds NEXT architects Beijing partner Jiang Xiaofei.

© Julien Lanoo

The Lucky Knot connects, illuminates and entertains. The bridge offers a spectacular view of the river, Meixi Lake, the city of Changsha and the surrounding mountain range. Thanks to its remarkable LED lightshow, the bridge is set to become a landmark attraction in the light route that traces the path of the Dragon King Harbour River.

Section

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© Kuomin Lee

• Designers : Waterform design
• Location: Taiwan
• Space Design: Li Zhixiang, Lv Siting, Chen Xi
• Area: 100.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Kuomin Lee

Design Inspiration

Inspired with paper patterns created by fashion designers for garment making to interpret their imagination, this interior design, taking silhouettes from such patterns, starts dialogues with the young residence owner, a French educated female fashion designer. Just as dress drawings, folding and twisting in pattern making are transformed to clean-cut presentation of sharply defined copper tubing of pendant lamps hanging down from ceiling and wires braided on the glass bookcase.

© Kuomin Lee

Deco

Fabrics are what it takes to make garments. Prompted by silks and lace, the translucent texture is reinvented as metallic mesh and glass in the bookcase to reflect see-through effects as well as the contrast between the glossy glass and the unadorned slate wall creating an artistic taste with converted optical illusion showcasing the owner’s keen interest in reading fashion books. With the figurative banking out to the minimal abstract design elements of the bookcase incorporate forms and shapes of bow ties and belts from garment accessories and art deco is exhibited as delicate details within bookcase interior.

© Kuomin Lee

© Kuomin Lee

Vivid

Inspired by artworks of René Gruau, a well-known fashion illustrator, colors employed in the space take on the look of a French-style vividness and audacity. The study in warm orange, the living room in tranquil blue and the kitchen in sumptuous gold complement and contrast with one another. The thick yet bright colors in large areas bring in a taste of rhythmic and geometric montage collocating the elegant charm of linear adornments.

With a look suggesting a sewing machine the tailor-made base of the dining table breaks through hedging-in traditions of balance with asymmetric fashion deconstructing and echoes Experimentalism in the fashion design trend.

© Kuomin Lee

© Kuomin Lee

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© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

• Architects: Wutopia Lab
• Location: Shanghai, China
• Architect In Charge: Ting YU
• Photographs: CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

Challenges

In this project, the architect was facing two challenges.  First of all, he needed to bring up the video company’s nature within very low budget. Second, the historic building was a former residence of a KMT General, which cannot be changed easily.

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

According to the local regulation, the illegal structures around General’s former residence built before a certain point are allowed to exist in silent acquiescence. But it is not allowed to build more, and once these illegal structures were removed, new buildings are not allowed to replace them.

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

Strategies

The architect ignored different material and building time, painting all parts of illegal structures in black, including canopy. Black unified the differences in detail, made allocated units become background of the main building and highlighted the main building. The historical expression of the site was divided into two parts, the white parts are official history while the black parts are the unofficial history. Same design philosophy was applied on the yard, old bricks were relayed, and   new bricks were added. As the old bricks and new bricks were in different sizes, a gap was leaving between two sets of bricks. The architect used grass to emphasize the gap, rather than to bury it.

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

The biggest move was applied on the porch which is opposite to the door. The architect used two circle to change the façade, the intersection part of two circles is like the third eye. In Chinese fairy tale, the third eye stands for supernatural talent, with which you can see what normal people cannot see. The third eye represents the video company’s pursue of discovering the unusual things that people cannot find in daily life. The architect used two blue glasses on the intersection. The blue stressed the symbol and activated the black to response to people’s moving. The sun shines through the blue glass, leaving a mystery shadow on the floor. The shadow brought life into the yard.

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

ps: There was no design layout in this project, the handcrafts accomplished the renovation according to draft and instruction.

© CreatAR (Ai Qing, Mao Yinchen)

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© Tom Ferguson

• Architects: Tziallas Omeara Architecture Studio
• Location: Bowral NSW 2576, Australia
• Architect In Charge: Tina Tziallas, Tony Omeara
• Area: 330.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Tom Ferguson

• Builder: A J Corby contructions.
• Structural Engineer: Geoffrey Pryke, GP designs
• Geothermal/Hydronic Consultant: Richard Jefford, Geo-Exchange
• Interior Design: Luci.D Interiors
• Pool: Blue Haven Pools
• Addition : 199.5 sqm
• Garage: 36 sqm
• Existing House: 131.6 sqm

© Tom Ferguson

“The brief for this project was to design a beautiful addition to a heritage listed Bowral cottage – one which was private and allowed the existing cottage to appear unchanged from the street. The clients were passionate about restoration of the original parts of the building, and replacing the dysfunctional 1980’s addition to the rear of the building. 

© Tom Ferguson

Plan

© Tom Ferguson

The additions were to maximise the solar-passive performance of the house, create a large entertainers kitchen in the heart of the home, allow for a new living and dining area, provide for a new sunken media room and guest accommodation. The client was keen to explore a contemporary approach to the new work, allowing for the new addition to juxtapose with the original weatherboard cottage. Most importantly, the house had to ‘work well’ from an environmental performance perspective. 

© Tom Ferguson

The new additions have been detailed to eliminate thermal bridging, create a well insulated and airtight envelope and to maximise passive solar heat gain and natural cross ventilation. The house has been designed to capture the sunlight in winter, and to exclude it from heating up the spaces in summer. A geo-thermal heat recovery system heats the pool, floor slab and domestic hot water and 35kW of solar panels provide more electricity than the occupants are likely to use (feeding the surplus back into the grid). A charging station in the garage powers an electric vehicle.”

© Tom Ferguson

Product Description. Windows and doors- ThermalHEART range. ThermalHEART™ window and door systems are thermally broken to deliver improved energy efficiency for building. The thermal break in ThermalHEART™ windows and doors is created using a polyamide strip between the aluminium exterior and interior elements. The thermal break minimises the transfer of heat and cold through the aluminium window frame, giving the thermally broken aluminium window excellent insulation properties. 

© Tom Ferguson

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