London Design Festival 2016: Joe Doucet and Inga Sempé are among the designers to have created simple glassware pieces for Turkish glassware brand Nude (+ slideshow). (more…)
Joe Doucet and Inga Sempé design carafe and cupolas for Nude glassware
Architecture
Leisure Pavilion / Palinda Kannangara Architects
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
- Architects: Palinda Kannangara Architects
- Location: 3rd Ln, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Sri Lanka
- Area: 142.0 sqm
- Project Year: 2010
- Photographs: Palinda Kannangara Architects
- Structural Engineer: M.A.P Wickremaratne
- Quantity Surveyor: Sunanda Gnanasiri
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
Addressing the client’s requirements for a space for leisure and entertainment, this pavilion was built to function as a venue to entertain friends and family of a young couple in urban Colombo. The clients wanted to maintain the privacy of their own residence and since their lifestyle involved frequent entertaining requested an additional building on a site away from their residence, in a center city location of Colombo 3.
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
Choosing to design a garden pavilion instead of a closed building allows for a great degree of openness and enables indoor/outdoor living and entertaining. The pavilion is a double height roofed space that is open to the gardens on both sides. It contains an enclosed timber box that contains the necessary services (pantry, care taker’s room, and toilet). The timber box contains a lounge area at the upper level with a tranquil lily pool. The roof slab of the pavilion is planted. The entry into the building is through the timber box, a dark passage way gives very little idea of the openness and scale of the space encountered within. The entire building is designed for entertainment. The living/ dining areas area open to the gardens. The gnarled Ficus against the cement boundary wall forms a backdrop to the entertainment space, and is a lit sculpture in the evenings.
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
Section
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
The use of available materials and technology was an important part of the project. The choice of exposed concrete (fair faced) as a predominant material in the project was determined in context to the client’s requirements and background. The client had also collected timber which he requested to be reused in the design.
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
The pavilion belies its location with a busy upscale center city location of Colombo 3 (the center city location). The pavilion accommodates large events and gatherings but it is also simply a place of leisure for the family.
© Palinda Kannangara Architects
House in Sabae / Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
- Architects: Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
- Location: Fukui, Fukui Prefecture, Japan
- Area: 367.49 sqm
- Project Year: 2014
- Photographs: Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
- Structural Engineers: KAP
- Building Area: 124.82 sqm
Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
This house is built for a married couple living with husband’s mother in Hokuriku region in Japan. The area is located in countryside surrounded by mountains and a lot of nature. Different strengths of wind is created by weather, and you can feel the wind moving across from the rice field expanding southeast.
Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
Plan
Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
On the other hand, the place is near by an intersection, and cars make noise of road traffic. Therefore, to combine these environment and make a comfortable living space, considering line of sight from the road, noise, and draft was required for this design.
Courtesy of Tetsuya Mizukami Architects
Mohican Hills House by Robert Gurney Architect overlooks the Potomac River
This single family home built by Robert Gurney Architect outside Washington DC takes cues from its many Mid-century Modern neighbours (+ slideshow). (more…)
Y-House / ON Architecture
© Joonhwan-Yoon
- Architects: ON Architecture
- Location: Ulsan, South Korea
- Architect In Charge: Woongsik-Jung
- Design Team: Hyukki-Kim, Hansol-Yoon
- Area: 281.0 sqm
- Project Year: 2014
- Photographs: Joonhwan-Yoon
- Partner In Charge: Namsu-Kim
- Site Area: 1,956 sqm
- Building Area: 253 sqm
© Joonhwan-Yoon
From the architect. The project was to create a new living space in place of an existing old house where a couple has kept their country life. The main concern for the project was that introducing a unifying space of programs and nature while preserving the garden and site surroundings adorned by the couple over a long period of time. The new house is designed as a rural house which all elements such as living space, office and spacious log storage(indispensable for country house) permeate each other without losing their own independency.
© Joonhwan-Yoon
The site has a spectacular view to the east, yet it loses the sunlight relatively early due to the mountains in the south. Therefore, in response to these factors, the house is arranged to make a shape so that not only the whole space can be exposed to the sunlight as much as possible, but also the house can exploit a good view toward the east with a small pond near the village as well as the surrounding mountains. The Y shape helps to connect the house, the office and the storage and also secures a separated outdoor space for each space as it works as an intermediate space projecting toward two different directions.
Plan 1
Plan 2
The converging point of Y, the heart of the house is arranged after a delicate research on views to all directions from the point. It embraces the living area and provides an immersive spatial narrative which is rendered by a communication between the main floored room (Daecheongmaru) and the outside void garden.
© Joonhwan-Yoon
© Joonhwan-Yoon
The architect asks himself a question whenever he designs a house; ‘what do we need most to create an affluent life in terms of space?’, and he believes the simplest answer is Korean style space where native Koreans have belonged until now. After various experimentations on modernization of Korean space, the architect has found out that diverse communications with outdoor space is the key to lead an abundant life in country houses. Therefore, in this project, many outdoor gardens such as upper garden, entrance garden, void garden, service garden, sky garden, crocks garden are produced. And then a number of modernized Korean style floored areas such as Daecheongmaru, Numaru and Toenmaru are designed to promote communication between the inside and those outside gardens.
© Joonhwan-Yoon
Especially the Sarangbang located in the east work as a barrier against the direct sunlight in the morning and also as secondary view point separated from the Daecheongmaru and the living area. The diagonal glass wall line of living room helps the livingroom to embrace the Daecheongmaru as it draws the landscape of inner garden and void garden deeply in to the inside, and also it helps the livingroom to become a cool lounge area in summer as it increases the speed of wind flows across the Daecheongmaru. All of these various spaces of the house will lead the client to an abundant life.
© Joonhwan-Yoon
Mohican Hills House by Robert Gurney Architect overlooks the Potomac River
This single family home built by Robert Gurney Architect outside Washington DC takes cues from its many Mid-century Modern neighbours (+ slideshow). (more…)
Hilltop Residence / Miró Rivera Architects
© Rachel Kay
- Architects: Miró Rivera Architects
- Location: Austin, TX, United States
- Area: 8070.0 ft2
- Project Year: 2013
- Photographs: Rachel Kay
- Contractor: Dalgleish Construction Company
- Interior Decorator: Rachel Mast Design
© Rachel Kay
When the new owner of this 1980s house called for a complete renovation, the architects saw the opportunity to transform its dark, dated interiors while taking better advantage of the home’s spectacular location atop a promontory offering a 180-degree view of Lake Austin and the rolling hills beyond.
© Rachel Kay
The existing driveway and garage, which had occupied a large area of prime real estate at the center of the property, were reconfigured in order to provide for a generous, landscaped courtyard accessed by a series of stepped terraces faced with Pennsylvania bluestone. What had previously been a vehicle- centric motor court was transformed into a pedestrian-oriented space that, by emphasizing natural elements like the property’s oak trees, establishes a clear sequence of entry into the house.
© Rachel Kay
Plan
© Rachel Kay
To bring natural elements closer to the house, the existing pavement was removed and replaced with landscaped Korean grass and river rocks, suggesting a quality of peace and tranquility. An aluminum overhang above the front door not only protects visitors from the Texas sun, but also provides a varied texture that subtly accentuates the entry, drawing visitors into the home.
© Rachel Kay
Inside, what was once a fragmented collection of spaces was reorganized according to a clear hierarchy. The most significant alteration was the relocation of the fireplace. Before, upon entering the house, visitors were immediately greeted by an unobstructed view of the panoramic backdrop to the living room. Now, the relocated fireplace conceals this view, separating the space, allowing the view to be gradually revealed as one transitions into the openness of the living and dining area.
© Rachel Kay
This central great room acts as a hinge point between the east wing housing the dining room, kitchen, breakfast area, wine cellar, and children’s rooms; and the west wing containing the master suite, home office, and exercise room. Zebrawood cabinets, Brazilian cherry floors, and the distinctive, textured fireplace clad in stainless steel mesh accent the interior’s subdued material palette.
© Rachel Kay
In contrast to the existing interiors, which felt dark and claustrophobic despite the presence of floor-to- ceiling windows throughout the residence, the renovated interior spaces focus outward, maximizing the connection to the surrounding landscape. An existing stone terrace along the home’s rear perimeter was reconfigured to create a transitional space between interior and exterior. A sweeping aluminum trellis unifies this zone, providing shade and capturing breezes outdoors while framing views from the interior. By concealing the relentless geometry of the deck’s angled roof, the trellis creates a softer edge that draws the eye outwards to the surrounding landscape. Meanwhile, an expanded ipe deck with built-in seating steps down to a zero-edge pool serviced by a small outdoor bar, all set against the seemingly limitless backdrop of the hill country beyond.
© Rachel Kay
Vancouver university building by KPMB features fritted glass and rough-sawn cedar
Canadian studio KPMB has completed an alumni centre for the University of British Columbia with angled, fritted-glass facades that “change dramatically from day to night” (+ slideshow). (more…)
Video: Zaha Hadid Discusses the Influence of Kazimir Malevich on her Work
This video, presented by the BBC, takes a look at the work of Zaha Hadid as inspired by her favorite artist: the Russian Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich. Featuring interviews with the dame herself, the narrative looks all the way back to Hadid’s origins, including her time at the Architectural Association School in London. It was there that she designed “Malevich’s Tektonik,” a hotel along the Thames River based upon the works of Malevich. Hadid believed that this work radically drove the architectural outlook she would employ for the remainder of her career:
“I was very fascinated by abstraction and how it really could lead to abstracting plans, moving away from certain dogmas about what architecture is. That project really liberated me, freed me from all these rules.”
Check out the video, currently on display as part of the Zaha Hadid retrospective at the Venice Biennale, for more on how Hadid drew inspiration from the Russian artist.
Spotlight: Zaha Hadid
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Fritz Hansen kits out UN president’s office with mid-century Danish furniture
The president of the United Nations General Assembly’s office has received a makeover with furniture by Danish designers Arne Jacobsen and Poul Kjærholm (+ slideshow). (more…)
Sig Nordal 