Collaborators: London School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, NOW Gallery, London Festival of Architecture, BD Landscape Architects, City Sq, Creative Aluminiun Solutions
From the architect. An experiential garden den has been created for the London Festival of Architecture 2016 by pH+ Architects on Peninsula Square, Greenwich. Conceived as an inclusive sensory space, The Milkshake Tree is a pop-up inspired by the practice’s work for the London Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy (LCCCP) in Haringey. The installation stimulates and encourages play through sounds, smells, movements and reflective surfaces.
The Milkshake Tree is part of the philosophy of learning through play, embraced at the LCCCP. Using specific education techniques, which were specifically developed for children with cerebral palsy or other movement disorders, the charity’s aim is to inspire disabled children to develop independence, confidence and self-esteem to achieve their full potential. The pop-up is named after a request from one of the children for a milkshake tree in their new Centre.
Located outside the NOW Gallery, the installation includes a ramped walkway bounded by a screen of timber fins combined with copper xylophones which can be played by the children as they pass by. The walkway wraps around a 12 sq metre gold mirrored cube with leaf-shaped cut outs, an Amelanchier tree and a glass prism in the centre creates a kaleidoscope of colours and light.
Glass walls slides and fold open to completely reveal the living spaces of this house in Brazil by Studio Arthur Casas, allowing residents to look out on their swimming pool and over the golf course beyond (+ slideshow). (more…)
Centurion Building is a private residence renovated by Ardesia Design. It is located in London, England and was completed in 2016. Centurion Building by Ardesia Design: “Ardesia Design recently finished a refurbishment project of a two-bedroom apartment in Centurion Building. Located next to Chelsea Bridge Wharf, it is one of London’s most glamorous riverside developments adjacent to the wide-open spaces of Battersea Park, the new Power Station development with views..
From the architect. The city of Turku has gone through many changes during its 700 years of history and architecture reflect different stages of that history. The last stage in architectural progress, newest modernism, is exhibited by Ikituuri student apartments. The copper tower was designed by Architecture Office SIGGE Ltd. It is an oval 12 story building with copper facades manufactured by Luvata Pori Ltd. These Green Living facade cassettes give the building a streamlined and extraordinary textural feel and look.
An architectural competition was held and the winning entry by Pekka Mäki’s Sigge Ltd was awarded the commission. The building site is situated between a main motorway and Turku Student Foundation’s student home townscape. The Ikituuri building is to be used as living quarters, but in the townscape its function is also to be a land mark.
Site Plan
The building mass is divided into two parts; Basement and tower. In the triangular basement there are rooms for HVAC and bicycles. Staircase and elevator are in the middle and rooms are situated in a radial way along the corridor along them.
In each level there are eight rooms, singles and doubles, 30-45m2 in area. Each of them has a glazed balcony. Noteworthy is, that the oval form also feels and shows clearly in the interior of the apartments, but without causing any difficulties in furnishing or decorations. The way the apartments are designed gives a thrilling feeling. In the topmost floor there are a conference room and a sauna and a large sun deck. The deck is visible in the facade form and finishes the tower in an elegant way.
Floor Plan
The colors of the building are springing partly from the materials. The foundation is covered with rusty red steel net and the tower growing above gets its color from the pre-patinated copper. The patina looks and feels natural as the copper ages, but is industrially made and the color is sustainable.
Architect Pekka Mäki has arranged the lighter and darker copper cassettes so that the lay-out gives the oval a dynamic feel.
In the interior the architects have used strong color effects: The staircase is painted in concentrated green, the bicycle garages oval concrete wall have a luscious red color as well as the kitchen cabinets. Otherwise the living quarters are painted in light color which’s gives the dwellers good possibility to decorate the rooms according to their own tastes.
Ikituuri is an interesting building also when considered its building physics. The oval form causes a sail effect and works like a stationary rotational sail. The on molten concrete frame was quite simple to make strong enough, but the mounting of the copper cassettes is specifically constructed so that both winds suction strength and the coppers ability of electrochemical attack are considered. Therefore the mounting grid is build of stainless steel profiles.
Floor Plan
Ikituuri is also geothermally heated. The process is bi-directional. In wintertime it produces heat and in the summertime the geothermal wells are used in cooling by pumping the warmed air loads back into the wells in the bedrock.
The representative of the Student Foundation of Turku believes that the decisions have been correct regarding the use of copper and technical questions. Also the use of geothermal energy gives an ecological advantage and is also a question of sustainable development.
And so Turku got a new landmark situated near the motorway. The dwellers are getting more value, not only trough a modern home, but also having a chance to live in stylish and modern building with exceptional architectural design with copper facade.
Sardenya is a private residence renovated by Nook Architects. It is located in Barcelona, Spain and was completed in 2015. Sardenya by Nook Architects: “We found ourselves with a dwelling in Barcelona’s Eixample District, located in one of its iconic chamfered corners, a situation that implicated certain peculiarities in terms of distribution and structure, main points in our proposal. Its beams, perpendicular to the walls that support them, become a..
Trollhus is a private home located in Norden, California, USA. Completed in 2016, it was designed by Mork-Ulnes Architects. Trollhus by Mork-Ulnes Architects: “Located in the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, 2.5 hours northeast of San Francisco, this 5 bedroom ski cabin was designed for 3 generations to enjoy simultaneously. The essential diagram is straightforward: take the alpine chalet building type andlift it onto a concrete plinth to protect it from..
From the architect. VINTED is the place where community and staff are connected by common ideas, work environment and friendly office spaces. The new office of 600 square meters which symbolically we call VINTED 4TH is situated in Žirmūnai district in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, on the fourth floor of the old administrative building. Entrance to the office is right from the elevator!
Color cuts in the plan shows difference in the taste of every person who works there or who uses its service. Not to enchant colorful environment too much, the main working area we left bright and calm, what counts as strong fundamental stone of the company.
Every detail in new interior is little add-on to the idea, that everyone can find the right place in one office. Working areas have their own shapes of light above the tables to find the perfect working position. To erase the limit from work and rest we looked at some little details as hammocks and swings. Those small things helped to escape pressure, be more flexible with working and thinking. Since the office shares common ideas we left old doors from male and female WC but made them lead to the same space and it gave another addition of equality in the working environment. Every space in the office has something to tell and to show, every space has his own new born history in the path of the company.
