Courtesy of Snøhetta

• Architects: Snøhetta
• Location: Singapore
• Client: Aesop
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Courtesy of Snøhetta

Courtesy of Snøhetta

From the architect. Aesop recently announced the opening of a new Snøhetta designed signature store in Singapore. Situated just off the bustling thoroughfare of Orchard Road, Aesop ION opens on May 12. The interiors commemorate Orchard Road’s original incarnation as a nutmeg plantation. Inspired by its obscured past and underground location, Snøhetta created an upside-down forest using a sensitive assemblage of materials, colors and forms.

Courtesy of Snøhetta

A dark ceiling references the orchard oor, complemented by sisal carpet in the same rich tone. Thin timber battens hang from the ceiling, forming walls that curve throughout the space like three trunks in a grove. Selected central battens are suspended with horizontal ‘branches’  xed to the stems acting as product displays. Exposed walls are pink, reminiscent of the color of mace, the other spice harvested from the nutmeg fruit.

Ceiling Battens

A connection with the nearby Aesop Raf es City is established through the use of brass in functional elements such as the sales counter and sink – the metal’s luster enhanced by overhead lighting.

Courtesy of Snøhetta

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Courtesy of Snøhetta

Aesop ION is the fourth Snøhetta designed Aesop signature store to open. Aesop Raf es City, which is also designed in collaboration with Snøhetta, was opened in Singapore earlier this year. Snøhetta has further been involved with the design of Aesop’s  rst signature store in Oslo, Norway, as well as the store in Fasanenstraße, Berlin.

Courtesy of Snøhetta

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© Brett Boardman

• Architects: Enter Projects
• Location: 20 York St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
• Area: 945.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Brett Boardman

• Client: Primo IP
• Builder: CJ Duncan
• Fabricators: Enter Projects, Charisma Joinery

© Brett Boardman

From the architect. Enter Projects has recently been commission by Primo for Lot 1 Café & Restaurant, located at 20 York Street, Sydney CBD in the ground floor and basement of the 950sqm John Solomon building. Being in the coffee industry for 3 generations, the client enthusiastically embraced the design concepts, using patterns that delicately lace the infamous ‘Café latte’ as the primary design inspiration.

© Brett Boardman

Lot 1 at 20 York St is a conversion project from an original storage house & cart-way, to a retail store, to Lot 1. The design explores complex geometry and the connection of form and functionality utilising digitally fabricated interiors. Curved timber geometries using native Australian materials join seamlessly to circulate, unfold and connect all of the functions of the venue while providing a journey through the historic Sydney interior.  Spaces were stripped back to reveal the existing fabric of the building; principally exposed brick, sandstone walls, wooden columns and old steel work, all serving the building during it’s many stages and all integral to the rich, original tapestry. The existing features are intelligently juxtaposed by the continuity of the new form and the smooth Australian hardwood veneers are further layered by an adaptable lighting scheme.

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Plan 0

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Careful spatial planning has maximised foot traffic within the interlinking coffee shop and restaurant. The downstairs offers private lounges and dinner booths with the basement mezzanine giving an option of alfresco dining.  Dynamic geometries interlace the many spaces with 3 dimensional curves ensuring that the project cannot be comprehended from one single vantage point.

© Brett Boardman

From conception, to early renderings and 3D models, through to laser cutting and CNC, only 3D models were used without construction drawings or conventional plans and sections. The result embodies conceptual swirls that motion a dialogue between the building, the brand and the user.

Diagram

Excellence in the design lies in how Enter Projects artistically interpreted the everyday, familiar coffee swirl pattern and transformed that into a fully functioning 600 seater café, bar and restaurant.  The space now serves not only as a hallmark for the coffee company themselves but also as a destination for the many end consumers in Sydney’s CBD.

© Brett Boardman

The design solution is an example of excellence in Interiors given the unusual marriage of awe-inspiring aesthetics and full functionality within one given space: using non-orthogonal geometry, it delivers a form that remains responsive to its function and surroundings.  Rigorous space planning was required both front and back of house alongside a well defined but subtle colour palette which created a comfortable and atmospheric environment. The gymnastics of the geometry were required to perform multiple functions including service, seating, privacy and lighting.

© Brett Boardman

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Courtesy of Acton Ostry Architects Inc. & University of British Columbia

Construction is underway in Vancouver for the world’s tallest timber tower by Acton Ostry Architects. The 18-story Brock Commons Student Residence at the University of British Columbia, which began construction in November 2015, will be completed in the summer of 2017. At 53 meters tall, with housing for 404 students, it will be the tallest mass wood hybrid building in the world. The structure’s two freestanding concrete cores will be completed by the end of May, after which, the erection of the mass wood structure will take place.

The $51.5 million project is being completed with Architekten Hermann Kaufmann of Austria as tall wood advisors, Fast + Epp as structural engineers, and GHL Consultants Ltd. as science and building code consultants. Brock Commons demonstrates the benefit of a hybrid design that combines mass wood and concrete, with costs that are comparable to all concrete and steel structures.

Courtesy of Acton Ostry Architects Inc. & University of British Columbia

The building’s construction is comprised of a one story concrete podium, the two concrete cores currently under construction, and 17 stories of mass timber topped with a prefabricated steel beam and metal deck roof. Lateral stability is provided by the cores, while vertical loads are carried by the timber structure. The building’s glulam columns are fitted with steel connectors that provide a direct load transfer between the columns and a grid of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels, allowing the building to meet new seismic design requirements for the 2015 National Building Code of Canada.

Courtesy of Acton Ostry Architects Inc. & University of British Columbia

Upon completion of the concrete cores, it is projected that the mass wood hybrid structure and facade will be erected at a rate of at least one floor per week. Speed is being achieved by use of prefabricated materials, including the CLT slab panels, glulam columns, steel connectors, and facade elements. As a proof of concept for the swiftness of construction, a two story project mockup was successfully built in July of last year. The building, which has been designed to target LEED Gold certification, will tap into the UBC district energy system, and by employing carbon-trapping wood construction, it will have a carbon benefit of 2,563 tonnes (the equivalent of taking 490 cars off the road for a year). The hope is that once Brock Commons is completed and able to be studied, British Columbia’s building codes for tall wood structures will be revised and mass wood construction will become more common.

Courtesy of Acton Ostry Architects Inc. & University of British Columbia

Courtesy of Acton Ostry Architects Inc. & University of British Columbia

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© Luuk Kramer

• Architects: Marcel Lok_Architect
• Location: The Netherlands, Houthavenkade 5, 1506 PC Zaandam, Netherlands
• Design Team: Marcel Lok, Freddy Koelemeijer, Coen Smit, Niels Westmeijer, Nadine der Kinderen
• Area: 20971.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Luuk Kramer

• Contractor: Vink Bouw, Nieuwkoop
• Engineer: Pieters Bouwtechniek
• Physics Consultant: S&W consultancy, Vlissingen
• Client: Building4you Developments, Heerhugowaard
• Gross Floor Area: 6.762 sqm
• Usable Floor Area: 4.186 sqm

© Luuk Kramer

From the architect. The Houthaven in the Amsterdam western harbour area is the final piece of the long-term development of the southern side of the river IJ in the Dutch capital. The completion of blok0 (block 0) yields the first phase of developing the Houthaven. As part of blok0 the project IJ4you covers the final plots 8 and 9, the southern end part of this ‘superblock’. The complex consists of a 9-layered building with apartments at the Haparandaweg and a 4 to 5-layered building part with apartments to the quay of the future Houthavenkade. In developing this project, the future residents have maximum impact on the layout and the final elaboration of the houses. Each apartment is tailored differently and individually designed for its residents.

© Luuk Kramer

The building encloses a double layered parking garage with a collective roof garden on top. Because of the wide and open surroundings of the location at the IJ and the industrial character of the port area, the choice was made for a robust materializing of the façades and a restrained detailing. The corner block is designed in an industrially manufactured brick with a clear brick grid of vertical and horizontal layers with an apparent depth. The block attached is designed in a natural limestone with horizontal cantilevered edges. On the city side façade, floor-to-ceiling aluminium sliding window frames and wide balconies give a terrific view over the city and the river IJ.

© Luuk Kramer

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© Luuk Kramer

The quay apartments include a private roof terrace and are directly orientated towards the street because of floor-to-ceiling folding window frames on the ground floor level. The roof garden is accomodated with a wide variety of trees, such as the ‘Prunus dulcis’. This communal inner court is accessible from the attached apartments, as well as from the Houthavenkade by a broad stairway. The inner court is a representation of the inner courts with the connected traditional neighbourhood of the adjecent Spaarndammerbuurt, famous for its monumental Amsterdam School social housing complexes.

© Luuk Kramer

Foor Plan

© Luuk Kramer

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