© Ketsiree Wongwan

• Architects: Alkhemist Architects
• Location: Pak Kret, Pak Kret District, Nonthaburi 11120, Thailand
• Area: 340.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2013
• Photographs: Ketsiree Wongwan

• Collaborating Architect: Kraipol Jayanetra, Tongjai Tetiwong, Prueksakul Kornudom, Perapon Suriyamongkol
• Structural Engineer: Vichian Somboon
• Landscape Architect: Satanan Chanowanna
• Building Contractor: Royal House Thailand

© Ketsiree Wongwan

From the architect. The site of two houses at Nichada Village is located in a suburban gated community in Bangkok, Thailand, where the land plot is very tight for two houses.  The houses belong to two brothers, who are very close, yet, have a different lifestyle. They wish to live close to each other and spend some time together.  However, they also wish to establish a private distance when they need. The architect initially began the design process by using one simple building typology and repeat it on both houses. However, once this design development get into the detail level the logic of repetition has evolved to response to a difference need of two different individual.  As a result, these two houses at Nichada do look appropriately similar on the first glance, yet they can contain their own specific atmosphere once we dwell within them.   

© Ketsiree Wongwan

The typology of these two houses is organized in a long rectangular format.  The automobile garages are located on the west at the entrance of the houses, and the main double volume living area is on the east at the end of the houses.  Then, programs such as foyers, dining area, kitchens, toilets, and guess bedrooms are place in between the garages and the living area to perform as a transition from the outside as we move further inward to house.  The main master bedrooms are placed on top of these transitional area allowing a direct visual dialogue to the main living area.  Both of houses are visually connected as one big living room through the large sliding doors on both house, and they are marked the edge of the house by single flight stairs.  Basically, these two house share this repetitive logical organization.

Cross Section Houses A/B

However, in sense of dwelling, these two houses contain a different atmosphere which reflect the character of the owner.  The white and blue house is belong to the elder brother, a professional golfer who enjoys outdoor lifestyle but also love to be in a solitude atmosphere.  He wishes to spend most of his time working, dining, and relaxing around the living area, and only wish to retreat to a bedroom at late night. To achieve the wish of the client, the architect decided to make a large opening on both the north and the east of the living area in order to let the light to cast through the large double volume white brick wall, the main core element of this house. The other elements both brick and blue color wall, are chosen to work as a subtle contrast effect between calm and vibrant atmosphere. 

© Ketsiree Wongwan

The dark brown house, on the contrary, reflects a different character of the younger brother, a night club entrepreneur who love to party.  From the beginning, he expressed his desire to dwell in a dark raw industrial like atmosphere, but the house should also be cozy as well. Again, to achieve his wish, the architect repeatedly uses light as a tool to define the atmosphere of this house, but at this time, he intend to cast the light in order to create a subtle dramatic affect for this house.  First due to its position where the living area has to face the south side in order to visually connect with the elder brother’s house, it is not proper to exactly repeat the double volume glazing similar to elder’s brother sliding door. A large corner opening sliding door at the lower level and the solid blank wall with few opening at the top level of the living room was used to maintain the concept of connection between the two houses.  On the other sides of the top part of the living area, rather than a large opening window similar to the elder’s brother house, few narrow opening were used to control amount of sunlight to create a lantern effect to this room.  In return, rather than providing a grand monumental effect like the white and blue house, the details of this dark brown house have shape the house to be more in a subtle dynamic mood.

© Ketsiree Wongwan

1st Floor Plan

© Ketsiree Wongwan

Though these two house initially begin its design process by adapting the same building typology, however with a careful concern to the individual personality of the dwellers, the site’s climate and contextual, this one building typology will gradually transform to response the specific needs of the requirement. The architect strongly believe that this design approach can allow the architect to establish the coexisting relationship between being unique and being uniform all together.

© Ketsiree Wongwan

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© Jan Mahr

• Architects: ATELIER 8000
• Location: Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
• Architect In Charge: Martin Krupauer, Jiří Střítecký
• Area: 2075.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Jan Mahr

© Jan Mahr

From the architect. A closed complex of modernized and new buildings meets the needs of a modern industrial works. There is a new office building close to the river and a bike path, and a repair hall with a crane runway and workshops by the road. Grown trees separate both parts of the complex.

© Jan Mahr

The complex will substantially upgrade the original deteriorated condition – green areas will be larger complemented new pathways. The shape and size of buildings respond to the natural shape of the lot and copy its borders. Buildings are mutually positioned to establish differentiated environment outside and inside the area and a screen visually and functionally separating the industrial complex from the main roads.

© Jan Mahr

Sections

© Jan Mahr

By its morphology and traditional building materials – wood, concrete, glass and steel structures for shading sails/screens – the oblong office building evokes the relation of the business with water and with water structures. The main wall is clad in wood and window openings cut through it act as a flood barrier at the same time. It is continued by a glazed part, shaded by a system of independent sails set in front and terminated by a reinforced concrete gable roof.

© Jan Mahr

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Existing Nuclear Power Station at Hinkley Point. Image © Image Courtesy of Wikipedia User: Richard Baker licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

“What is the most expensive object on Earth?” posits an article by Ed Davey published by the BBC. A new nuclear power station being being in the south west of the United Kingdom may well end up holding the title. At £24 billion ($35 billion) Davey estimates, “you could build a small forest of Burj Khalifas – the world’s tallest building, in Dubai, cost a piffling £1bn ($1.5bn).” The article later compares the construction to other projects like bridges and particle accelerators, as well as historic precedents like the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China, Hong Kong International Airport, or the International Space Station – the last of which cost a whopping $110 billion. But comparing monumental building and engineering projects comes with some caveats, such as: “what is strictly an individual object?” “Is cost measured by today’s values or those at the time of construction?” “Are we talking about modern methods or those used historically?” Read the full article here.

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© Fernanda del Villar Jiménez

• Architects: Crescente Böhme Alemparte
• Location: Cartagena, Cartagena, Valparaiso, Chile
• Area: 35.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2013
• Photographs: Fernanda del Villar Jiménez, Courtesy of Crescente Böhme Alemparte

© Fernanda del Villar Jiménez

From the architect. Based in Cartagena, Valparaiso Chile, the project is located in a subdivision area, small plots and home built by their owners. The exact site is a parcel of land of approximately 10 x 20 meters, with a gradient of approximately 15% that runs along the lots from east to west.

First Floor Plan

The land has been inhabited (or occupied) for the last ten years by a train car. It worked as a sleeping wagon, and recently adjusted to something like a stationary home living place by an old lady who used to work as an English teacher, and who lives alone since 2010.

Courtesy of Crescente Böhme Alemparte

Courtesy of Crescente Böhme Alemparte

Because of the land, since its very narrow, and its rare in front of the sea, the train car was re-located  along its diagonal , seeking a foreshorteningview of the sea , but with no success given the conditions of the land itself.

© Fernanda del Villar Jiménez

The requirement is modest but significant, it has been asked to extend the zone inhabited and sum a bedroom, living room, bathroom and a terrace in a space of no more than 35 M2. Therefore we design a strategy which consist in building   a metallic squared table of 6.2 x 5.3 meters, as far as it can be from the front, passing under the train car, and set up a volumetrically independent body above it, all interconnected by interior stairs.

Model

Section

We thought of a neutral and contemporary esthetic, trying to make -and highlight-   a difference with the train car, while it allows to conserve its identity and presence by contrast. However, and despite their difference, there are two elements taken from the image of the train car, in an attitude of rescuing and re-interpreting its preexistence: steel and wood. Thus, in order to achieve this idea, we designed a structure based in pillars and diagonals of steel, as the support of the volume sheathe by wooden slats and painted in black to highlight the red in the train car.

© Fernanda del Villar Jiménez

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