© Fernando Javier Urquijo

• Architects: Studio Milou architecture
• Location: Holland Park, Singapore
• Area: 2000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2013
• Photographs: Fernando Javier Urquijo

• Main Contractor: Milliard pte ltd.
• Civil & Structural Engineering: PEC Civil Consultant pte ltd.
• Mechanical & Electrical Engineering: Gims & Associates pte ltd.
• Quantity Survey: CPG Consultants pte ltd.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

From the architect. 33 Holland Park in Singapore is one of the rare private residential projects carried out by the studio. With a design centred around the creation of an intimate yet expansive garden sanctuary holding layers of seamlessly linked living spaces, this project represents a concentration of the key architectural philosophies which recur in the studio’s larger civic projects: the importance of elegant meditative environments characterised by fluidity and a fusion between exterior and interior spaces, a deep respect for existing structures, the history and potential of a site, and the imperative for a design to be harmonious with the wider natural and human surrounds.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

Thanks to the open and supportive relationship between the studio and the client, this project presented a unique opportunity to explore, on a human scale, the studio’s defining interests.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

Challenges

The original site consisted of around 2,000 square metres of broadly triangular-shaped land with a 1930s single-story bungalow of around 300 square metres built of brick masonry with a wooden frame, flat roof tiles and interior teak flooring. Originally built for an English civil servant, the house is on the national conservation listing. As a result, no additional building could be added to the existing structure and a certain distance was required to buffer the original house from any new construction.

1st Floor Plan

At the same time, the brief required 700 sqm of new living spaces including common areas, a music room, 6 bedrooms to serve three generations, and a pool. Key challenges of the design, then, were to transform the unusual land shape and spatial/conservation limitations of the existing site into a beautiful house able to combine many diverse living areas filling the greater part of the land with a sense of expansiveness and spatial harmony which is a signature of studio Milou.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

A House of Views

33 Holland Park is also a house of views. From each of the house’s hallways and common areas are views which traverse and link one space to another, whether from one wing of the new house to another, or between the main residence and the conservation house. Large glass windows frame.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

A Garden Home

The intense foliage at every opportunity, offering a warm palette of rich greens beside the stone and polished Burmese teak of the floors and walls. From the landscaped roof of the new building are tree-top views of surrounding houses, and in turn, neighbours enjoy views of Holland Park’s verdure, which discreetly contains the monumental nature of the design.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

 A Transparent Paravent

studioMilou’s project overcame the limits imposed by the land’s shape and the existing conservation house with a design giving a sense of transparency and fluidity between the old and new buildings, between interior and exterior. To achieve this, the outer wall of the new structure is a paravent-like wall system, consisting of rising screens opening onto a walkway which winds around the site, with both borders lined with lush vegetation that appears to venture both into the house on one side, and over the neighbouring properties on the other. A feeling that the house expands into the garden, and that the garden inhabits the house is accentuated by the closeness of plants to the house’s closed surfaces. Dense foliage caresses the many glass surfaces of the house, and towers to the second-floor spaces.

Sketch

A discreet welcome, a private place 

Upon entering the house from the driveway, the visitor is unaware of the almost monumental scale of the new house, covered as it is by vegetation and carefully designed proportions aimed at avoiding any stark comparison with the one-storey conservation house. To further unify the two buildings, the conservation house serves as the key reception area and kitchen, through which one passes to the new residence, the door of which is aligned with the exit of the former. A rectangular pool lines one outer wall of the new house, with water and green-grey tiles softening the visual links between the conservation house and the new structures. The simplicity of the conservation house’s interior – white ceilings and walls, uncluttered furnishings – adds to a sense of openness towards the exterior and the paravent form of the new building walls, which seem to encompass the historic house in a protective manner. It is only when inside the new residence that the largesse of its design gradually becomes apparent.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

Unifying Materials, Colours

Another approach common to studioMilou’s work is the restricted use of materials and colours. Accordingly, the materials chosen for the exterior, including grey glass-reinforced concrete columns and stainless steel, have been composed in such a way as to play with the colours of the vegetation and to accentuate the impression of an architecture which is transparent and in conversation with the trees and light. The reflections and movement of the pool’s water, set off by the soft grey-green stone tiles, contribute to the play of light and life, and seem to belong equally to both houses. Sharing light wall colours and the warm glow of Burmese teak floors, the interiors of both buildings offer calm backgrounds for the ever-present plants whose foliage reaches towards and into the house from all angles.

© Fernando Javier Urquijo

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© Henrik Kam

• Architects: Snøhetta
• Location: 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
• Partner In Charge: Craig Dykers
• Project Architects: Aaron Dorf, Lara Kaufman, Jon McNeal
• Area: 460000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Henrik Kam, Iwan Baan, Joe Fletcher, Jon McNeal

• Senior Architects: Simon Ewings, Alan Gordon, Marianne Lau,
Elaine Molinar, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen
• Design Team: Nick Anderson, Behrang Behin, Sam Brissette, Chad Carpenter, Michael Cotton, Aroussiak Gabrielian, Kyle Johnson, Nick Koster, Mario Mohan, Neda Mostafavi, Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, Carrie Tsang, Giancarlo Valle
• Associate Architect: EHDD, San Francisco
• Ehdd Team: Duncan Ballash, Principal + / President Lotte Kaefer, Project Architect / Rebecca Sharkey, Project Manager
• Project Managers: Terry Reagan, Don Young, Bob Reuter, TJ Reagan, Inc.
• Webcor Builders, General Contractor: Jes Pedersen, CEO , Matt Rossie, Vice President-Project Executive ,Pat Reidy, Construction Manager, Matt Paves, Senior Project Manager , Jim Roux, Senior Project Manager , Adam Bird, Project Manager ,Joe Hovan, Senior Superintendent
• Plant Construction Company, Special Projects: Conrado Vellve, Vice President / Ken Ahrens, Senior Project Manager / Mizell, Project Manager / Cliff Durant, Superintendent / Bob Klovich, Superintendent
• Av Design: BBI Engineering
• Civil Engineering: KPFF
• Conservation Studio, Lab And Art Storage Design: Samuel Anderson Architects Electrical: The Engineering Enterprise
• Façade Maintenance Engineer: CS Caulkins
• Façade Design Assist: Kreysler & Associates, Enclos
• Fire Life Safety Code And Sprinkler Engineering: The Fire Consultants
• Furniture Selection And Design: Studios Architecture Graphics + Signage: SOM Graphics
• In Situ Restaurant Design: Aidlin Darling Design
• Landscape Architecture: Snøhetta
• Lighting, Acoustics, Av And Façade Engineers: ARUP
• Living Wall Consultant: Habitat Horticulture and Hyphae Design Lab
• Mechanical And Plumbing: Taylor Engineering
• Museum Store Design: Shopworks Design and EHDD
• Network Design: TEECOM
• Phyllis Wattis Theater Consultant: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
• Phyllis Wattis Theater And Gina And Stuart Peterson White Box Design Architect: EHDD Security design: Turk Technologies
• Sightglass At Sfmoma Coffee Bar Design: Boor Bridges Architecture
• Structural Engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
• Sustainability Consultant: Atelier Ten
• Vertical Transportation: EWCG
• Project Construction Cost: $305 million

© Jon McNeal

From the architect. SFMOMA’s leadership worked closely with Snøhetta to design the new museum as an outward- looking and engaging gathering space. Connections to the surrounding neighborhood and city were carefully considered, along with bringing the benefits of landscape and the outdoors to the museum spaces. New pedestrian pathways around the museum and a new public entrance on Howard Streetbetter integrate SFMOMA into the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood and activate the surrounding streetscape.

© Henrik Kam

The iconic eastern façade of the Snøhetta-designed expansion, inspired in part by the waters and fog of the San Francisco Bay, is comprised of more than 700 uniquely shaped and locally fabricated FRP (fiberglass reinforced polymer) panels. Throughout the day, the movement of light and shadow naturally animates the rippled surface. Silicate crystals from Monterey County embedded in the surface catch and reflect the changing light. Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta and leader of the firm’s design team for SFMOMA, said, “Our design seeks to create an intimate experience, welcoming a diversity of visitors to the magnificent collection, and fostering a connection between the visitor and museum for years to come. All of the senses will be engaged as part of the experience. Wonderful day lit staircases lead visitors from floor to floor, the galleries create a comfortable viewing experience of the art, and terraces allow for moments of repose, to be reinvigorated by fresh air, sunlight and vistas of the city between galleries. The visitor should sense that the building is inspired by one of the great cities of the world, San Francisco”.

© Henrik Kam

Plan

© Iwan Baan

Visitors are welcomed to the new museum by two main entrances, leading to ground floor exhibition spaces that are free to all. The entrance on Third Street welcomes visitors to the reimagined Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium, where the iconic oculus floods the space with natural light. Alexander Calder’s 27-foot-wide mobile, Untitled (1963), is suspended beneath the oculus, drawing the eye upwards, and a new sculptural stair leads visitors to Helen and Charles Schwab Hall, the main gathering space on the second floor.

© Henrik Kam

On Howard Street, a new museum entrance adjacent to the glass-walled Roberts Family Gallery, allows visitors to enter the museum through Schwab Hall. Now presenting Richard Serra’s monumental sculpture Sequence (2006), the Roberts Family Gallery is a vibrant space visible to passersby, creating a visual connection between the city and the museum and showcasing SFMOMA’s community-focused mission. Inside, a set of maple-faced Roman steps provides an informal public gathering spot and seating area. From both entrances, stairs lead visitors to Schwab Hall, the hub of the new museum. Visitors can enjoy a rotating installation of artworks, such as Sol LeWitt’s joyful Wall Drawing 895: Loopy Doopy (white and blue) (1999), or obtain admission to explore the rest of the museum. From here, a maple- clad stair leads upward to the third-floor Pritzker Center for Photography and the galleries above.

Section

The new galleries in the Snøhetta-designed expansion are intimate in scale and create ideal conditions for viewing the artworks. Diverse gallery spaces support the display of specific collections and works of various scales. Minimal, flexible, column-free galleries permit countless temporary wall layouts—a blank canvas for the curators. At opening, visitors can experience a contemplative, octagonal-shaped gallery devoted to seven works by Agnes Martin and loft-like galleries on the seventh floor that offer space for contemporary artworks.

© Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

Terraces adjacent to many galleries extend exhibitions into the city, displaying outdoor sculptures and offering unparalleled views of San Francisco. The new third-floor Pat and Bill Wilson Sculpture Terrace is home to the largest public living wall in the United States with more than 19,000 plants and 21 native species. This curated sequence of spaces allows visitors to move between incredible artworks to broad overlooks, and enjoy views of the city as they circulate through and up the museum.

© Henrik Kam

Complementing the museum’s incredible art galleries, the new SFMOMA features dynamic educational program and performances. The new Koret Education Center serves students, teachers and lifelong learners with a resource library and studio classrooms. SFMOMA partnered with Bay Area innovator Meyer Sound to install sound solutions throughout the museum, including a state-of-the-art Constellation acoustic system in the newly renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater. The Wattis Theater screens archival film and offers cutting-edge 4K projection. The new Gina and Stuart Peterson White Box is a uniquely flexible space, with a theatrical truss that supports a variety of performances, events or large scale artworks.

© Iwan Baan

The new SFMOMA is on track to receive LEED Gold certification, and is one of the first museums in the country to employ all LED lighting throughout the gallery spaces. This measure helped the museum meet its ambitious sustainability goals.

© Henrik Kam

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© Olivier Hero Dressen

• Architects: Linehouse
• Location: Shanghai, Shanghai, China
• Area: 52.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Olivier Hero Dressen, Dirk Weiblen

From the architect. Baoism is a new food concept originated in Shanghai, making a modern version of the traditional Chinese street food guabao, served in a clamshell-like bun.

© Dirk Weiblen

Although the flavours are a modern interpretation, the age-old process of cooking in a traditional woven bamboo steamer is a prime focus of display in the kitchen. Linehouse took this traditional handicraft notion of weaving and applied it in a spatial way with a non-traditional material; perforated raw metal panels are woven between the structure that frame the dining area and the service area.

© Dirk Weiblen

The branding for Baoism stemmed from the concept of I Ching, an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. The text of I Ching is called Zhou yi. The basic unit of this is the hexagram, a figure composed of six horizontal lines, each line is either broken or unbroken.

© Dirk Weiblen

Linehouse used this concept of stacked and directional lines to create two structures that frame the dining and the kitchen / service area. Custom lights float in-between the structure at high level, creating a broken rhythm above.

Plan

A datum line of bronze poles defines the lower half of the structure, with raw steel above. These two materials make a playful composition of rough vs. refined. Wood leaners extend out from the structure for guests to dine at. The bar counter is composed of dead wood, with 450mm x 450mm wood sections stacked upon each other. A burnt logo is branded into the front elevation of the wood. 

© Dirk Weiblen

The custom bar stool took reference from the petite wooden stools commonly seen on the street corners of Shanghai. A wooden handle extends out operating as a mechanism to move the stool and to hang one’s bag. 

© Dirk Weiblen

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© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

• Architects: Beczak / Beczak / Architekci
• Location: Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland
• Design Team: arch. Magdalena Beczak, arch. Maciej Beczak
• Area: 400.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Jan Karol Gołębiewski

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

From the architect. The first condition which dictated the structure’s shape was the desire to erect a building of considerable size on a relatively small piece of land (with an area of about 900 sqm).

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

As a result, the house was built in an L-shape and situated in the corner of the plot.

Though very complex ideas were incorporated into the building’s design, its final form is relatively simple.

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

In the initial design phase, the building was to be crowned with an asymmetric, gabled roof. Yet the necessity of creating an additional space while preserving the original layout of the ground floor forced a revision of the initial concept. Besides the functional program, the investor’s only guidelines concerned custom floor heights (3.85 m for the ground floor and 3 m for the first floor). Other than that, we had complete freedom in our decision making.

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

We strove to create a building that expressed itself simply, with clear divisions of materials and colors. In creating its façade, we decided to make use of concrete, plaster and African wood.

Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

The combination of the raw, loft-style concrete form of the garage with the graphite form of the living quarters gave rise to a contrasting composition. Its most striking feature is the way the smooth surface of the living area is cut by an irregular orthogonal grid of rustication. We sought to balance the coolness of the main materials used in the façade with knotless African okoume wood. This wood lent clarity to the façade and visually insulated the building.

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

We moderated the building’s monumentality with a large number of windows, which gave lightness to the structure and provided good illumination to its interior. During the creative process, we applied the principle of special subtraction rather than addition or ornamentation. We wanted to convey the impression of a cold cuboid with an interior made of wood, so we consistently covered surfaces created by “removing” fragments of the structure with okoume timbering. This visual cut gave rise to the terraces occupying part of the ground and first floors. This move allowed us to maintain the cubic shape of the main structure and simultaneously maximize the surface area available for greenery. Taken as a whole, the house was to be a platform floating in a sea of green, one the residents would not want to leave.

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

The minimalist interiors match the aesthetics of the elevation – contrasting colors, white and graphite, and concrete, wood and glass are used here to create the atmosphere. The large area devoted to windows allows the presence of greenery from the yard to be felt inside.

© Jan Karol Gołębiewski

The house was designed in accordance with the principles of efficient energy construction. By facing the windows to the southwest and keeping the structure relatively closed off from the north, we reduced the amount of energy needed to heat the house. The building is equipped with mechanical ventilation heat recovery, a ground heat exchanger and a wall air intake grill. The thermal insulation used exceeds the standards required in Poland.

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Courtesy of Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond

Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond have revealed plans for the “Chicago Skyline” an aerial cable car attraction spanning from the Chicago Riverfront to Navy Pier and through Downtown along the Riverwalk. The project, still seeking permission, is meant to enable visitors to experience the fabled Chicago skyline in a new way, viewing the city and lakefront from custom-designed pods or “gondolas”. The design shares many similarities with the pill-like capsules surrounding the London Eye, which was also designed by Marks Barfield Architects. The Skyline is being marketed as a practical solution to link Navy Pier to the transit network within the Chicago Loop.

Courtesy of Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond

“The Chicago Skyline could do for Chicago what the London Eye has done for London, and become a very identifiable landmark within the city, driving tourism and prosperity,” says David Marks, Director at Marks Barfield Architects. “Its design touches the ground lightly and with an environmentally sensitive and delicate presence – like jewels in a necklace – energizing the city’s Riverwalk, and attracting the eyes of the world.”

Courtesy of Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond

The “Chicago Skyline” Project is being developed with Lou Raizin, a noted figure in the Chicago entertainment industry and former Chair of the Chicago Loop Alliance, and Laurence S. Geller, current Chairman of Geller Investment Co and an accomplished leader in the hospitality industry. If built, the Skyline would operate into the evening hours and year-round. The project team includes Leitner-Poma, builder of the London Eye capsules, and Jacobs, that project’s principal engineers.

A video rendering of the proposal can be seen below by advancing to 26:42.

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