© Christophe Camus

• Architects: Atelier du Rouget Simon Teyssou & associés
• Location: 15120 Lacapelle-del-Fraisse, France
• Area: 130.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2011
• Photographs: Christophe Camus

• Collaborators: Chadebec (ingénierie)
• Project Manager: Mathieu Bennet
• Entreprises: PUECH, Terrassement – menuiseries intérieures bois / MEYNIEL, Gros-oeuvre / BOUYSSE, Charpente – menuiseries extérieures bois / CROUZET SANCHEZ, Couverture – étanchéité / VEINAZES DECO, Cloisons doublages – peinture / LEYBROS, Isolation / SEMETE, Plomberie / LONGUECAMP, Electricité / CUMINGE, Carrelage
• Software / Programs: autocad LT / 3DS max

© Christophe Camus

From the architect. The house nestles against the slope. Partially buried to the north, it opens to the south over the valley of the Veinazès through a wide glass-panelled façade.

© Christophe Camus

Reinterpreting several elements of the vernacular architecture from the area of the Châtaigneraie in the département of the Cantal, the design of the house aims to fit it into the environment, as it favours responsibility and sustainability. Thus the concrete volume embedded in the soil benefits from an exterior facing in granite on which rests a structure in Douglas fir. The joint-covered siding is a technique frequently used in the region. The green roof contributes to blend the construction into the landscape as well. From stone to wood, from shade to light, its design also incorporates a bioclimatic approach. The north/south orientation of the construction allows passive solar gain. The masonry volume which shelters the buffer space adds inertia. In winter, the latter accumulates solar energy during the day and feeds it back at night. In summer, combined with a natural ventilation system, it cools the house. The living spaces are set in the wood volume. They extend outside onto a wood terrace sheltered by a wide roof overlap, which screens the sun during the summer months. 

© Christophe Camus

Plan

© Christophe Camus

At the intersection of the two volumes, a circulation space with a strip of natural light links the different areas. The green roof also provides inertia and improves climatic comfort. The insulation is made with cellulose wadding and hemp, optimizing the project’s energy performance and environmental report. The interior ceiling and wall covering is in wood. The choice of Douglas fir for the structure and of larch for the exterior favours local resources. The firms involved in the building are local as well.

© Christophe Camus

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© Charlotte Clements

• Architects: Architect's Creative
• Location: Redcliffs, Christchurch 8081, New Zealand
• Architect In Charge: Daniel Sullivan
• Area: 356.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Charlotte Clements

• Structural Engineer: TMCO ltd – Matt Blyth
• Landscape Architect : Ben McMaster
• Site Area : 910m2
• Building Area : 356m2

The rebuild of the owners’ previous home lost to the Canterbury 2012 earthquake created an opportunity to reimagine their family home on a new site. Their brief called for a robust dwelling to allow for everyday living to occur on a single level, with the lower level to accommodate their growing family on occasions.

© Charlotte Clements

Conceived as a sculptural form, this hill house comprises a palette of raw materials including concrete, steel and timber, composed and detailed in a refined manner. Precast concrete walls extend into the landscape and anchor the house to its site. 

© Charlotte Clements

Black zinc wraps over the upper level providing a protective metal clad enclosure perched on, and cantilevering beyond, the precast concrete wing walls below. 

© Charlotte Clements

Exposed structural steel portal frames provide a quality of lightness by way of allowing the upper level living area to float into the view. Honest use of each material exposes the structural integrity to the occupants.

© Charlotte Clements

Accessed off a quiet right of way, privacy is afforded by solid walls of zinc, concrete and cedar. Entering through a dramatic backlit space, occupants make the transition from privacy to transparency and are rewarded with expansive views over the estuary to the Southern Alp’s beyond from the main living spaces. The lower level is accessed through a cedar-lined stairwell overlit by large skylight offering a continually changing quality of light. 

Diagram

Timber finishes provide richness and visual warmth to the interior. High quality materials used throughout will patina gracefully ensuring the longevity of the dwelling. Meranti plywood sheets line the ceilings throughout and return down the walls capping the crisp white plasterboard walls. Meranti plywood is used in joinery throughout.

© Charlotte Clements

Concrete block masonry forms the lower level wall finish and is finished with a coat of white paint to express the construction technique used.

Plan

Custom made fittings, such as oak sliding door pulls and turned blackened steel handrail caps add to the crafted nature of this project.

© Charlotte Clements

Designed with passive features in mind this dwelling is orientated for maximum solar gain, with opening arrangements for cross ventilation to utilise predominant breezes ensures this dwelling maintains a temperate interior.

Section

Outdoor living is accommodated by eastern, western and northern terraces offering a choice for protection from prevailing winds and the ability to follow the sun as required throughout the day.

© Charlotte Clements

The resulting home offers a sense of security, substance and permanence, and affords moments of calm within spaces for reflection, embodying a way of living to better suit its occupants.

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Frei Otto: Spanning the Future, a documentary focusing on the life and work of 2015 Pritzker Prize winner, Frei Otto, has finished production and will be screened at various venues during the course of 2016. The film features one of the last interviews Otto gave before his death, in addition to commentary from renowned architects and engineers, including Zaha Hadid and Jürgen Hennicke, on the importance of his work. In the film, Otto discusses the influences on his work and his approaches on form finding and the development of tensile structures.

Check out a few clips from the documentary below:

AVIARY:

PHILOSOPHY:

BUCKMINSTER FULLER:

See additional bonus video footage and learn about upcoming screenings of the film on the official documentary website, here.

“Spanning the Future” Documentary Traces the Life and Work of Frei Otto
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© Federico Kulekdjian

• Architects: Besonías Almeida Arquitectos
• Location: Buenos Aires, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Design And Project Management: Estudio Besonías Almeida (Arch. María Victoria Besonías, Arch. Guillermo de Almeida)
• Area: 174.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Federico Kulekdjian

• Collaborators: Arch. Diorella Fortunati, Arch. Micaela Salibe
• Site Area: 474m2
• Built Area: 174m2

© Federico Kulekdjian

From the architect. The Place

It is a lot in a new closed district, with a young vegetation and very few buildings, so that the house had to be conceived lacking of all data provided by an already established neighborhoods. The particular location of the lot, still without adjoining houses, neither added relevant data to the described environment, except those related to its orientation.

© Federico Kulekdjian

The challenge of this request then was to conceive a house which will set their own laws, pending completion of the boundaries lots that, according to the regulations of the neighborhoods, shall be only free buildings surrounded by gardens.

© Federico Kulekdjian

The Commission

The clients, a young couple with a small child, arrive at the studio following the interest aroused by our concrete houses. They value of them both its material and the fluid relationship established between indoors and outdoors, emphasizing the ones which proposed a complex spatiality. As a special requirement they mark out the possibility that some of the rooms may be highlighted with a greater height in relation to the standard.

© Federico Kulekdjian

The Program

Quite free, they only added that they had in mind a family growth, certainly indeterminate over time and on its components. They assumed it was logical to think in three bedrooms, not knowing if all would be used as such, and they let us free to propose. It was clear they needed a generous gathering place with an integrated kitchen, a veranda with barbecue and a swimming pool that should be protagonist.

Plan 1

The Proposal

In response to such indeterminate environment we proposed a house with an open interior garden and closed to the street and its future neighbor, defined by two volumes perpendicular to each other that, when intercepted, determine the vertical circulation and, that by its position, leave defined the expansion yard and the pool.

© Federico Kulekdjian

The volume of two plants parallel to the street contains the access and the most private areas of the house and closes itself to the street through concrete walls in different planes that work as screens, letting the light in and controlling the visual. The opposite facade opens frankly to the patio.

Section

The perpendicular volume is on one level and it was proposed of 3.50 m tall and raised on a podium to meet the request of the clients of having a more hierarchize room, and also get a better view of the garden and a better relationship with the two floors volume. In this sector develops the social area that stretches through openings from floor to ceiling in an also elevated expansion, which extends along the pool to finish on the grill area.

© Federico Kulekdjian

Light Treatment and Landscape Views

This is a topic that interests us particularly, so there is, in all the projects, a special intention addressed both to control the incidence of sunlight on glass surfaces as to improve natural light as a project material which brings wealth to the living spaces.

Section

If we understand the openings as such, not as standardised elements with preset measures and positions, but rather as carved into the buildings which, of course permit ventilation and lighting environments, but also leave undefined the indoor-outdoor relationship, framing the landscape, filtering light, reflecting it on a wall, etc., these perforations will be the result of the special way in which we want to establish these relationships.

© Federico Kulekdjian

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Fallingwater. Image © J.B. Spector

Brick by Brick features a spectacular collection of more than a dozen LEGO-built structures of engineering marvels, constructed by LEGO Certified Professional and Chicago native, Adam Reed Tucker. These model structures include:

• • A 60-foot-long Golden Gate Bridge
• • The Hoover Dam, made with 42,000 bricks
• • The American Eagle roller coaster from Six Flags Great America, and it even operates!
• • The Roman Colosseum, whose oval structure was designed more than a dozen times to get it right
• • A 9-feet-tall Burj Khalifa

Colosseum. Image © J.B. Spector

Guests will also experience hands-on building challenges that reinforce key principles of engineering, construction and architecture—and encourage creativity. Get inspired by the architectural feats in the exhibit, and go head to head in a design challenge or build a structure that can withstand wind and turbulence!

One World Trade Center. Image © J.B. Spector

Hoover Dam. Image © J.B. Spector

• Title: Brick by Brick
• Type: Exhibition
• Organizers: Museum of Science and Industry Chicago
• From: March 10, 2016 10:00 AM
• Until: February 28, 2017 12:00 AM
• Venue: The Museum of Science and Industry
• Address: 5700 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60637

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