© Ilana Bessler

• Architects: METRO Arquitetos Associados
• Location: Rua da Lapa, 108 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Team: Gustavo Cedroni, Martin Corullon, Helena Cavalheiro, Marina Ioshii, Amanda Amicis, Gabriela Santana, João Quinas, Luís Tavares, Manuela Porto, Rafael de Sousa, Renata Mori.
• Area: 425.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Ilana Bessler, Angelo Dal Bó

• Construction Company: Souza Camargo
• Structural Consultant: Ricardo Bozza – Inner
• Electrical Consultant: PKM Consultoria e Projetos
• Hydraulic Consultant: Usina Consultoria e Projetos
• Climate Control: Bonar Engenharia Térmica
• Acoustic Control: Marcos Holtz

© Ilana Bessler

“a small miracle!” said Massimo Bottura at the press conference of the Refettorio Gastromotiva Cafeteria on the day of its inauguration in Lapa, Rio De Janeiro. He was not referring to the food, but to the construction timeframe of the project, whose 450m2 were constructed in just 55 days. This combination of restaurant and school is the result of a partnership between Massimo Bottura elected best chef in 2016, the food critic Alexandra Forbes and the NGO Gastromotiva, run by celebrated chef David Hertz. Together they assembled a creative team including Vik Muniz, Maneco Quinderé, the Campana brothers and METRO who were responsible for the architecture, art and design for this new environment.

© Ilana Bessler

The Cafeteria was inspired by Masimo Bottura’s ‘Food For Soul’ initiative, which aims to combat global food waste by transforming products that might have been discarded into sophisticated and nutritious meals. The site chosen for the project  – between the Lapa Arches and the Aterro Do Flamingo – was donated by the city and has a large homeless population who will be eligible for free dinner as part of the project while paying guests bring revenue during lunch time.

© Ilana Bessler

Section

© Ilana Bessler

Situated on the edge of a small square and adjacent to one of the city’s main thoroughfares, the restaurant was designed to reinforce connections with these public spaces and the surrounding community. The kitchen occupies the centre of a long and narrow site, 50m in length and 6m wide. A single volume alternates between single and double height spaces and has generous openings onto the road and the neighboring square. The building is clad in translucent polycarbonate panels that ensure that the restaurant feels welcoming and accessible to all.

© Ilana Bessler

The material palette is of authentic, industrial materials that are commonly found in the area, resulting in an honest, no-frills aesthetic that celebrates the essential construction elements and services. In this environment chefs were invited from all over the world to create delicious meals with the surplus of the 2016 Olympic Games, offering nourishment with dignity and beauty to people in vulnerable social situations.

© Ilana Bessler

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© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

• Architects: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk
• Location: Andopen, Flakstad, Norway
• Team: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk, Anette Bringsverd, Elisabeth Øymo, Halvard Amble, Hilde Rostadmo
• Area: 25.0 m2
• Photographs: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

• Client: Private

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

This project for a summer retreat is an addition to, and rehabilitation of an old “Nordlandshus” (traditional northern Norwegian house) on a remote site in the coastal island area of Lofoten. The original idea was to encapsulate the old and worn-down timber core within a new climatic shell, leaving the old house standing freely and structurally unstressed inside, with the traditional timber constructions exposed. The added construction followed its own grid module, which – apart from a number of technical advantages – gave an interesting “syncopation” of window openings between the old and new structures.

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

However, in the project that was built, a more conventional renovation approach was chosen for the existing house. This reduced our architectural contribution to apply to the addition towards the west, and a small annex. The addition is a pure extension of the existing building, and re-uses the geometrical principle with asymmetrical dormer windows to let in light and give a view from the loft. The primary construction for the extension is prefabricated pine glulam. The interior is clad in birch plywood, while the exterior is clad in untreated spruce, which has grayed after two years of exposure to sunlight and rain. The roof is clad in standing seam zinc roofing, and the windows have two-fold frames with aluminum in the exterior and wood in the interior.

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

Floor Plans

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

The climate in the area really is quite extreme, especially with wind conditions in mind. While the old house is guy-wired to the ground, the extension is wind-anchored to the encapsulating concrete slab that acts as a stabilizing counterweight.

The artwork (this must be the place) is by the Swedish artist Jan Håfstrøm. 

© Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk

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© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

Unequal distribution of public space when it comes to pedestrians, cyclists and people driving cars is an issue that urban mobility specialist Mikael Colville-Andersen calls “The Arrogance of Space.” 

The urban planner and founder of Copenhagenize believe that this term can be applied to streets that are dominated by traffic engineers from last century where streets were made primarily for cars. 

To illustrate his position, Mikael analyzed the amount of space allocated to each of these groups, in addition to “dead space” and space for buildings, in the streets of Calgary, Paris, and Tokyo by comparing each sector using different colors. 

Take a look at the findings below. 

Paris

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

Looking down at the intersection of Quai Branly and Pont d’Iéna in Paris from above, we see the spaces for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars. It is color-coded, using red for automobiles, blue for pedestrians, yellow for buildings and purple for cyclists. It is obvious that motorists are the ones getting the square meters that should have been allocated to public space. 

In addition, the gray areas referred to as “dead space”, could easily be given to cyclists and pedestrians. 

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

Using the image of the same Paris intersection as an example, Colville-Andersen made a quick tally of the number of citizens in each sector of the public space categorized according to its use. 

While this survey may not be 100% accurate, since the photograph wasn’t taken at a time that best represents the movement within the intersection, Mikael assures us that this tool shows us that the use of space doesn’t correlate to the demand. 

This is because pedestrians who are waiting at a crosswalk, (represented in dark blue) not counting the ones on the sidewalk, outnumber motorists (represented in red). 

Calgary

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

In the case of the Canadian city, the founder of Copenhagenize states that although the picture was taken specifically of a parking lot, the ideal would be to see citizens in movement, a principle that is fulfilled in cities that are, to a certain extent, walkable. 

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

Tokyo

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

At the busiest intersection in the world, Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, there are both pedestrians and cyclists. This is because there are several bike racks around the nearby the bus stops and by Shibuya Station. 

Unlike the previous images, in Tokyo, we notice a slightly more equitable distribution of space, and since the crosswalks are diagonal, they give pedestrians more visibility in relation to the cars arriving from different directions. 

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

© Mikael Colville-Andersen, via Flickr

Via Plataforma Urbana. 

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Courtesy of Sharon Lam

Have absolutely no idea what to get your architecturally-predisposed friend or family member? Or perhaps you think you’ve managed to decipher their Moleskine-toting, coffee-drinking veneer and know just the perfect gift? Perhaps, even, you are the architecturally-predisposed family member, looking for a convenient way to show others what to get you. Either way, architects have rapidly evolving and often incredibly niche tastes that can be hard to shop for. But worry no longer, the secret guide to what and what not to give architects this holiday season is here:

DO NOT Give: Books about architects you’ve heard of.

DO Give: Books about architects you’ve NEVER heard of.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from <a href='http://ift.tt/2hv39sK of the 21st Century</a>

DO NOT Give: Electronics—they probably have all the latest gadgets already.

DO Give: Pens and notebooks—they can never have too many of these.

© Sharon Lam

DO NOT Give: Netflix subscriptions—they’re distracted easily enough as it is.

DO Give: Spotify/Apple Music subscription—less of a distraction, more of a sidekick.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from flickr user <a href='http://ift.tt/2grQfqH; licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2d3G0ZW BY-SA 2.0</a>

DO NOT Give: Modelling software—they probably already get free versions as a student or employee, and don’t want to be reminded of CAD in the holidays.

DO Give: The Sims 4—so they can not only design houses, but do whatever they want with the clients!

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from flickr user <a href='http://ift.tt/2grFPY5; licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2d3G0ZW BY-SA 2.0</a>

DO NOT Give: Tote bags—chances are they have 50 different ones already.

DO Give: Tea bags, for caffeine without the coffee-induced jitters.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from Wikimedia user <a href='http://ift.tt/2hv8P6m; Mediocrity </a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2ei2s0Y BY-SA 2.5</a>

DO NOT Give: Tissues. Even though they might look like they constantly want to cry, that’s just their normal expression.

DO Give: Rolls of butter paper/baking paper—just slightly thicker than tissues, and a classic old-school studio tool that’s also incredibly useful.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from Wikimedia user <a href='http://ift.tt/2hv7RH3; licensed under Public Domain

DO NOT Give: Clothes—they could have very picky sartorial tastes, even if it doesn’t look like it.

DO Give: Underwear—the more clean underwear, the less frequently one has to do laundry, which your time-strapped architect friend will be thankful for.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from flickr user <a href='http://ift.tt/2grM3XO; licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2d3G0ZW BY-SA 2.0</a>

DO NOT Give: Succulents—these are so last year.

DO Give: Sea monkeys—a much better desk companion, and will offer some sentient companionship during long work days.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from Wikimedia user <a href='http://ift.tt/2gQPg47; licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2aA6y58 BY-SA 3.0</a>

DO NOT Give: A shipping container—again, very mainstream, every architect under the sun is making things out of shipping containers.

DO Give: A dumpster—these are forecast to be the next shipping containers of the architectural world, so make sure your special architect has one before everyone else. Maybe they’ll even make a tiny house out of it for you! Or if they don’t, at least they’ll have a convenient place to put all their old models and drawings they no longer have a use for.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from Flickr user<a href='http://ift.tt/2hv38VI Manning</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2d3G0ZW BY-SA 2.0</a>

DO NOT Give: A Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chair—way too mainstream.

DO Give: Eileen Gray’s “dragons” armchair—a true bespoke piece of furniture once owned by Yves Saint Laurent, and a steal at £19.4 million.

© Sharon Lam

DO NOT Give: Anything you’re still not 100% sure about.

DO Give: Cold hard cash. There’s a good chance they’re short of it.

© Sharon Lam, using image via screenshot from Wikimedia user<a href='http://ift.tt/2grOUA7; licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2d3G0ZW BY-SA 2.0</a>

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Courtesy of Ricky Gui

Ricky Gui showcases a stunning series of “Hidden Doors” located behind shophouses in Singapore. Working for over a year, Gui highlighted over 600 “Hidden Doors”in his documentation. These doors are usually looked over as they hide behind shophouses and alleyways where people are unlikely to venture into. 

Courtesy of Ricky Gui

“What attracts me about the “Hidden Door” is the design, shape, colors, and the various intriguing details of the overall architecture surrounding. It took me more than a year to explore various back lanes of the shophouses in my country” said Ricky Gui. 

Courtesy of Ricky Gui

Courtesy of Ricky Gui

While most of Gui’s documentation occurred on the weekends of his business trip, the timing allowed him to take photos without any interference. Gui added that the small details (i.e. cats or hanging clothes) in front of the door brought personality to each image.

Courtesy of Ricky Gui

Courtesy of Ricky Gui

“Behind every ‘Hidden Door” lurks possibility of past tales of childhood, romance, and history.”

See all 600 unique doors here. 

News via Hidden Door.

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© Stéphane Chalmeau

• Architects: a-LTA
• Location: ZAC du Moulin Hérel – Îlot 6, Boulevard François Mitterrand, 44800 Saint-Herblain, France
• Project Team: Le Trionnaire (x2) – Tassot – The Chapelain – a / LTA  architects + TPFi  + Paysage de l’Ouest
• Label: BBC EFFINERGIE RT 2012
• Area: 3091.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Stéphane Chalmeau

© Stéphane Chalmeau

From the architect. We sought a neat volumetry with a cut of the templates to frame the views.
Transparencies and porosities on the city block (layout, crossing hall) offer views of the landscape.
The cutting of the constructions converses with the distant foliage.
The operation consists of 4 housing buildings marking the corners of the plot.

© Stéphane Chalmeau

The dynamic implantation of buildings allows  conservation of existing trees.
Volumetric cutting offers altimetry variations and visual clearances on the ground.

© Stéphane Chalmeau

The whole is articulated by a landscaped space with vegetable and mineral nuances (landscaped parking, collective space and private gardens).
We think that “beautiful” dwellings are luminous, well-oriented and with great views.

© Stéphane Chalmeau

Diagram

© Stéphane Chalmeau

This is what we have developed for the 4 buildings with views towards the town center of Couëron or towards the green landscape or the heart of the plot.

© Stéphane Chalmeau

Every housing benefits of large external space, South oriented (garden, balcony or terrace).
The periphery of the buildings is treated with polished raw aluminum (cladding and louvre) and the inside of the plot is in gray coating.

© Stéphane Chalmeau

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© Gili Merin

The Futuro House looks more like an alien spacecraft than a building. Designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968 as a ski chalet, the radical design was subsequently marketed to the public as a small prefabricated home, easily assembled and installed on virtually any topography. Its plastic construction and futurist aesthetic combined to create a product which is identifiable with both the future and the past.

© Gili Merin

The original project brief which led to the Futuro House called for a small chalet which could be relocated from its initial site as, and when, needed. In order to produce a design that would be easy both to transport and assemble in varying conditions, Suuronen reasoned that a light, prefabricated structure was the ideal solution.[1] The main bulk of the house was supported by a metal ring with four legs that could be adapted for up to a twenty degree incline, obviating the need for arduous grading and excavation before relocation.[2]

© Gili Merin

While the support legs were wrought of metal, the habitable space was built of what was—at that time—a relatively novel building material: fiberglass-reinforced plastic. A number of factors motivated this unusual choice, namely the reduction of weight – a Futuro House could be lifted by a helicopter should the need arise. Plastic also performed well as insulation, a key concern for a ski chalet. More prominently, however, the material could easily be molded into the rounded, circular form that was considered cutting-edge in the early Space Age.[3,4]

© Gili Merin

Visitors to a Futuro House climb a stairway through a hatch cut into the underside of the plastic hull. Despite their small floor area of 50 square meters (538 square feet), each unit was built with an open plan living, dining, and kitchenette space, a restroom, and a private bedroom.[5] Other than the metal legs, the entire house comprised eight identical plastic modules—four on top and four on bottom—which could be delivered separately and bolted together on site. Once the design was adapted for mass production, the creation of specialized furniture allowed the houses to be marketed as fully-furnished packages.[5]

© Gili Merin

Although Suuronen believed the Futuro House’s low production cost and adaptability made it an ideal solution to housing shortages across the globe, the houses never truly caught on with the wider public. Less than a hundred were built before production ended in 1973 when the skyrocketing cost of plastic due to the oil crisis suddenly made the Futuro prohibitively expensive to both manufacture and purchase. Approximately sixty Futuro Houses can still be found today, performing a number of different functions and in varying levels of repair.[6]

© Gili Merin

While they did not become the new standard in affordable housing that Suuronen envisioned, the impact of the Futuro Houses has been felt far more in the ingenuity of their design than in the volume of their production. Although they were designed fully fifty years ago, their elegantly simple geometry and novel structure ensures that they continue to give the impression of modernity. Somehow, the Futuro House has long outlasted the cultural mindset in which it was conceived, commanding a fascination that survives to this day.

References
[1] Robson, Simon. “Concept, Design, Manufacturing and Marketing.” The Futuro House. Accessed December 8, 2016. [access].
[2] Engelsmann, Stephan, Valerie Spalding, Stefan Peters, and Ria Stein. Plastics: In Architecture and Construction. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2010. p152.
[3] Robson.
[4] Vogler, Andreas. The House as a Product. Amsterdaml: IOS Press, 2015. p23.
[5] “Futuro Houses: A Failed 1960s Attempt at UFO Living.” Atlas Obscura. December 8, 2014. [access].
[6] Robson.
[7] Engelsmann et al, p152.

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Courtesy of Ruetemple

• Architects: Ruetemple
• Location: Moscow, Russia
• Project Team : Alexander Kudimov, Daria Butakhina, Evgeny Dagaev
• Area: 48.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Ruetemple

Courtesy of Ruetemple

We propose creating a multifunctional space where you can make a choice: either to retire or be together with everybody. The space, clear of all unnecessary items, will take you to another dimension and help you to get tuned to a calm repose.  Lot’s of light and air. 

In the center of the room there is a functional zoning volume, a white cube, dividing the entire living room into 5 zones: active pastime area, TV area, dressing area, secluded relaxation area and the central area – relaxation area, located inside the white volume.

Courtesy of Ruetemple

Under the cube there are withdrawable soft modules, and inside the cube there is a live tree that is illuminated from the above roof window. This is a place for solitude, meditation and relaxation. Thus, with the help of withdrawable modules, you can create different zones for conversations, board games, and the one who needs to retire can go and have a rest under the tree.

Courtesy of Ruetemple

Section

Courtesy of Ruetemple

Also, we do not forget about a place for storing clothes. There is a cabinet along one of the walls.

The project was made for« COTTAGE SOLUTION » (” NTV Broadcasting Company “)”

Courtesy of Ruetemple

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