Hot pink and orange paintwork accentuate niches in the wooden facade of this school designed by French office Dominique Coulon & Associés for the Parisian suburb of Colombes (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. My concept is to make Japan a more beautiful to live in. We built a beautiful Japanese house with the best quality material adaptation to local climate worldwide. Some of this techniques were for example the use of local plants and vegetation in the garden to grow in harmony.
Taking advantage of the spacious site, I placed 5 gardens, each one with a different atmosphere (which are all designed to ensure privacy); a traditional Japanese front yard (Maeniwa) extending to the entrance and the living room overlooking Shuniwa.
In order to maximize space, the sliding doors that separate the kitchen/dining from the living, can be completely drawn.
Paper sliding doors filtering light for better rest, with view of the garden , when opened.
The windows in the hallway are small intentionally in order to reduce light and a Japanese-style room, is overlooks the garden.
“The architectural plan is a formula to order the anarchy of space.”
In these latest images from Federico Babina, the artist explores the design styles of 25 of history’s greatest architects, abstracting the plans of some of their most famous creations onto simple geometric backgrounds. The resulting illustrations resemble dynamic labyrinths or abstract symbols, and are what Babina refers to as “Planimetric graphologies.”
“Analyzing an architectural plan is how to make a graphology study,” explains Babina. “The plans are like the signatures of architects and can reveal conceptual details about the artistic and aesthetic personalities of their authors.”
See the entire set of ARCHIPLAN illustrations, including takes on Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, after the break.
Like these? Make sure to check out Federico Babina’s previous illustration sets.
Tech brand TRNDlabs has customised its miniature drone so Pokémon Go video game players can access Pokémon in difficult places and avoid walking into hazards (+ movie). (more…)
The engineers at Geocaminos, an engineering and civil works company, came to us with the idea that their offices needed to be the faithful image of their business activity: construction materials needed to accurately and truly express how they are used, all other superfluous aspects had to be done away with. Their offices had to mirror the pure nature of basic construction materials.
Given the reduced budget and time frame to carry out the project, we decided to make the most of the interior space of the commercial premise—maintaining it just as we had found it, to introduce a mezzanine—its structure made out of steel plates that are used as auxiliary materials in civil works, to use glass for the partitions and leave all of the services in plain sight.
The upper level is accessed by a folded metal plate, suspended by tensors held to the ceiling, which eliminate vibrations and compensate the flexion of the structure while conforming a guardrail.
The office unit is separated intentionally from the facade, generating a double height space that enhances the entrance area and introduces a spatiality that is unexpected for an office premise. The separation between the facade and offices allows the crossing of glances and views to the outside.
The proposal relies on the denuded surfaces of concrete, structural steel and brickwork to define the unfinished aesthetic experience. Defects are not repaired, they are kept and highlighted, standing in contrast with the technical precision of the structure that is inserted into the premise.
Four housing projects have been awarded the 2016 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards. Given by The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Housing Knowledge Community, in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the award is given to projects that “offer examples of important developments in the housing industry.”
“Each of these developments are innovative housing opportunities offering seniors and families alike a place to thrive,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “These winners prove that affordable and accessible housing can become part of the fabric of any neighborhood and reinforce the principles of inclusiveness and opportunity.”
The prize is given to projects in four categories: Excellence in Affordable Housing Design; Creating Community Connection Award; Community-Informed Design Award; and Housing Accessibility – Alan J. Rothman Award. Read on for a brief description from each of the winners.
Recognizing architecture that demonstrates overall excellence in terms of design in response to both the needs and constraints of affordable housing.
Lakeside Senior Apartments; Oakland, CA / David Baker Architects
The project is home to 91 very-low-income and special-needs homeless seniors, many of whom have been displaced with the Bay Area’s rapidly rising housing costs. The building has extensive on-site services and is designed to support independent living, with strong transit connections to downtown Oakland and San Francisco and access to crucial retail offerings, including a pharmacy and grocery. The high-density housing—138 units per acre—provides indoor and outdoor community spaces at both the ground floor and upper levels. The central west-facing main courtyard opens visually toward the street and is warmed by afternoon sun. A rooftop suite of community spaces overlooks the lake, maximizing views for the most users. Designed with a complementary series of sustainable strategies, the building is pending LEED for Homes Mid-Rise Platinum Certification.
Recognizing projects that incorporate housing within other community amenities for the purpose of either revitalization or planned growth.
Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative (DA+HC); Chicago / Landon Bone Baker Architects
As a former Chicago Housing Authority project sitting vacant since 2007, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative (DA+HC) stands as the cornerstone of the recently revitalized Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. The project embodies a successful collaboration between private, public, and non-profit sectors committed to transforming the neighborhood into a cultural incubator through the reactivation of abandoned buildings and cultural foundations in the under-invested neighborhood. The DA+HC features a rehabilitated block of 32 of the original 36 two- and three-bedroom townhouse units that now provide mixed-income housing. Four of the center units were removed to create the focus of the development—a 2200-square-foot Arts Center complete with a dance studio, work and tech shops, and public meeting space, offering arts creation, education, performance, and display space for people of all ages.
Recognizing design that supports physical communities as they rebuild social structures and relationships that may have been weakened by outmigration, disinvestment, and the isolation of inner-city areas.
Disaster Recovery Round 2 (DR2); Houston / buildingcommunityWORKSHOP
Disaster Recovery Round 2 (DR2) launched five years after Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas Gulf Coast. The DR2 program sought to fill the remaining gap in home repair and replacement while offering homeowners choice in their disaster recovery experience. DR2 was designed to bring together the expertise of local design architects and insight from residents directly affected by the storm to build single-family, high-quality, cost-effective, sustainable designs. Through a series of community lead charrettes, the design team gathered contextual information for every affected neighborhood, including demographic research and documentation of neighborhood form and character. This approach created a collaborative relationship with the city, residents, and local designers ensuring the process supported local professionals as well as benefited residents. Over 206 homeowners have met with the design team to select the housing options that best meet their needs.
Recognizing exemplary projects that demonstrate excellence in improving housing accessibility for people with disabilities.
Port Townsend Residence; Port Townsend, WA / FabCab
This house was designed to meet the homeowners goal of creating a home accommodating to them both – he uses a power wheelchair whereas she does not. Careful site planning was essential to create a continuous accessible route from the street through the home to the terrace and onto the common garden space. The attached carport accommodates the wheelchair-accessible van with its ramp, creating a covered route from the front entrance into the van. An open plan ensures easy circulation within a modest 1,325 sf footprint. The telescoping pocket doors to the bedrooms also allow flexibility in how to use the rooms and how connected they are to the living spaces. The entry door and sidelight feature vertical glazing to allow viewing of the external approach from any height. The kitchen and bathrooms are designed to facilitate use from both standing and seated positions. This project demonstrates that universal design and accessibility features are compatible with a warm and modern aesthetic.
The jury for the 2016 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards included: Jamie Blosser, AIA (Chair), Atkin Olshin Schade Architects; Ariella Cohen, Editor-in-Chief, Next City; Kevin Harris, FAIA, Kevin Harris Architect, LLC; David Lee, FAIA, Stull and Lee, Inc.; Rachelle Levitt, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Lynn M. Ross, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Suman Sorg, FAIA, Sorg & Associates, P.C.
London Design Festival 2016: British design writer Max Fraser has been named as the curator of this year’s 100% Norway exhibition, which will return to the London Design Festival in September (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. This project is located in a tropical dry forest ecosystem, with an average annual temperature of 28 degrees Celsius that is uniform throughout the year, a feature Cauca River Valley. Because of this, bioclimatic factors such as the generation of shadow or the use of natural ventilation were decisive in the design.
TOPOGRAPHY
This house adapts to the topographical conditions of a lot that was modified earlier: a sloping hillside was cut to produce a flat area and a large rear slope. Given this condition the house makes use of the flat area, but try to restore the profile of the mountain locating the high areas with two levels to the back, and the low areas shaded to the front. In section, we define a low corridor to the landscape and rooms with two levels towards the slope, connected through an inclined reinforced concrete roof that leads the passage of the wind currents from the low to the high areas.
MODULES
In plan the house is defined by four modules coiled around a tree and the distant landscape of the Cauca River. The first module contains the master bedroom, the second and fourth modules contain two guest bedrooms each, and the third has the social and services areas. These modules connected by a corridor define a concave exterior space where the pool and recreation areas are located. Fragmentation in modules and angle changes allow the house to increases its facade area exposed to natural air currents and thereby increase its permeability.
CORRIDOR
In this case, as in the traditional architecture of the region, the corridor acts as an open, elongated shadow area to hang hammocks and watch the distant landscape; To control the sun and to close this area in some cases, large sliding metal doors were designed with a pattern of 60% perforation, allowing natural ventilation even at times when the space is not open. The house has been located so that the corridor remains shaded almost all year.
