© Nathan Rist

Students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Taliesin West have designed and built “Little Shelters,” a collaborative project in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, as part of a design and build studio led by little maps.

The project began with an individual exercise, where students Daniel Chapman, Mark-Thomas Cordova, Jaime Inostroza, Dylan Kessler, Pablo Moncayo, Natasha Vemulkonda, and Pierre Verbruggen each created their own temporary shelters. Partially due to harsh desert conditions, the students, with their instructor David Tapias, later decided to design and build as a collective effort instead.

The main objective was to utilise as many on-site resources as possible, but with a $2,000 budget from the school, the students purchased inexpensive materials from warehouses giving them the freedom to further explore their designs. 

© David Tapias

Overall, the project took 12 weeks to complete, and led to the construction of two shared shelters and a gathering space. Over future years, these shelters will be utilised by other students, who will transform, maintain, and document them on the little maps Website.

© David Tapias

© Nathan Rist

© David Tapias

News via the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Taliesin West.

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© Matej Lozar

• Architects: AB objekt d.o.o.
• Location: Zgornja Kungota 11a, 2201 Zgornja Kungota, Slovenia
• Architect In Charge: AB objekt d.o.o.
• Area: 850.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Matej Lozar

• Architects: Boštjan Matul u.d.i.a., Dominik Sagadin u.d.i.a.
• Collaborators: Aleš Strašek u.d.i.g., Matevž Germadnik d.i.g.
• Investor: chef Gregor Vračko, Restaurant House Denk

© Matej Lozar

Floor Plan

From the architect. Renovation and addition of House Denk, a restaurant with a long-standing tradition and a renowned reputation, started with a bold vision in a head of a young, dashing chef Gregor Vračko. After perfecting his cooking skills in the finest restaurants of Portugal, Germany, Austria, The United Kingdom, The States and elsewhere, he returned home, determined to merge the tastes and aromas of the world with local tradition. But first, he needed a place with the appropriate atmosphere. Boštjan Matul and Dominik Sagadin, two young aspiring architects seemed like the perfect creators to materialize his vision. The restaurant standing today at the crossroad in a small village next to the Slovenian-Austrian border could be seen as merely a renovation, but the splendid fusion of modern breeze and local tradition surpasses everything in its close and distant region, architecturally and culinary.

© Matej Lozar

Even though the extension of House Denk looks rather contemporary, its simple structure of two longitudinal volumes doesn’t marginalize the rest of the village. The first volume is facing the street, inviting the guests to come closer, whereas the second offers an intimate meal with boundless views of the surrounding garden. The two volumes comprise and subtly hide the existing building; their appearance is on the edge of being only an extension. Not only that they complete the old house, they also refine the village of Zgornja Kungota.

© Matej Lozar

The main entrance in the eastern volume welcomes guests with its solemn ambience; dark textile floor, dark brick walls combined with rough wood, dim light and antique pieces. After a few steps, a whole new world opens through a transparent wall overlooking the green atrium: it is the passage to the dining area. The second volume with its pavilion formation poses as a contrast to the entry one. It strings along southern side amidst trees and ponds; detached from the main house and accessed through a glazed bridge, it is generously lit with large windows, but still, the wooden floors and a dark ceiling provide just the right dusky atmosphere for the chef’s creations. Both volumes are connected with a spacious outdoor terrace; the rhythm of pillars from the entry volume is gradually vanishing until it finally reaches the edge of the terrace. The dining extension and terrace refuse to follow slight descending of the terrain; they are lifted on refined metal pillars above the garden instead, letting the nature pass through and ramble around the atriums.

© Matej Lozar

Restaurant House Denk stands proudly with its bold presence and just like its chef, exceeds expectations. A varied and an integral whole is gently woven into rural surroundings, boldly surpassing its domain.

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A new video by JDS Development Group, Building Knowhow: Skybridge, begins with an anecdote of a day when the firemen showed up at the site. “We got a call – the buildings are falling down!” the chief fireman told Michael Jones, director of JDS. Jones responded with a chuckle, “they’re supposed to be like that!”

Located on the East Side of Manhattan, the American Copper Buildings, designed by New York-based SHoP Architects, test the boundaries of engineering. In an informative video, JDS Development Group documents the building of a skybridge between the towers, outlining their detail-oriented, step-by-step approach. Located 300 feet in the air, it is New York’s first major skybridge in 80 years.

However, the skybridge is not merely a ‘footpath’ between the towers; the bridge also transfers electricity and condenser water between the towers. 

SHoP Architect’s designs for 626 First Avenue were revealed only last year, and the building is estimated for completion in 2017. 

SHoP’s 626 First Avenue Coming Soon to NYC’s East River
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Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti

In the past two weeks, ArchDaily readers have held debates on the preservation of the past in OMA’s Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, and discussed the future for the people of Makoko in Lagos after their much-praised floating school designed by NLÉ collapsed due to heavy rain. Read on to find out what they had to say about these stories and more.

New Debates

Making Sense of OMA’s Fondaco dei Tedeschi Renovation

Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti

After their renovations at the Fondazione Prada and the Garage Center for Contemporary Art, OMA’s transformation of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice into a department store has continued to cement their reputation as a new force in the realm of architecture preservation. Their approach—which follows the popular tactic of revealing a building’s history, but is unusually bold in making striking new additions—seems to have won a few fans among our audience:

It’s an elegant, tongue-in-cheek intervention that grafts OMA’s spatial vocabulary into a historical Venetian palazzo. I love the un-puritanical juxtaposition of geometric cuts and flying stairs/escalators against the atrium’s colonnade, the ‘fake’ opus-incertum walls and the Venetian red-painted handrails—a whole theatrical paraphernalia that works quite well in this case. – soperdida

OMA’s alteration and exposing of layer upon layer of older gross modifications strikes me as rather joyous. Along with the historic Fondazione Prada complex, OMA’s approach becomes clear. No sterile meaningless restorations and especially little if any creation of phony “new-old” interventions. Like all of OMA’s work this is not about a “style” but a fresh pragmatic approach—the essence of modernism. The insertion of yet another new function into a structure 6 centuries young promises centuries more of workable, enjoyable space for commerce and social participation. Bravo! – Steven S Dornbusch

However, not everybody agrees, as some felt that OMA’s boldness was disrespectful to the fabric of the listed heritage building:

Quite disrespectful, I realize that modern should not be confounded with the old, but making concrete so rough is too much. The first impression was nice, but after studying it profoundly it turned out to be a big mess. There is no correlation between styles, material, and shapes, the the architects mixed up styles (or everything they knew), things which are not suitable together. The building was treated as if there was no old building. – SomebodyThatIUsedToKnow

What is the Future of NLÉ’s Floating School After Its Collapse?

via NAIJ.com

For the past three years, the architectural community has been promoting NLÉ’s Makoko Floating School as an intelligent response to the challenges facing poor communities in precarious spaces, both physically and economically. However, all of that was brought into question this week by the structure’s sudden collapse. What happens next will depend heavily on the reaction of the NLÉ, the people of Makoko, the architectural media and the rest of the profession at large. One reaction was provided by our readers, one of whom seemed to see the collapse as a minor setback at most:

I would not say this is a negative against NLÉ. This structure was an innovation towards solving a social problem, using design in an inexpensive way. Much like how we learned how to keep today’s buildings standing, all of us architects should look at this example to further the discussion on how can we can build a similar situation to withstand the extreme elements. – Sean

Continuing Discussion

Wild Ideas in the Windy City

Courtesy of Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond

After our last AD Readers Debate, in which one commenter asked whether the Chicago cable car designed by Marks Barfield and Davis Brody Bond was intended as a tourist attraction or a piece of the city’s transport infrastructure, another commenter took the opportunity to criticize the idea in more certain terms:

The advantage of public transit is that it has the ability to move large numbers of people efficiently and allows for flexibility (getting on and off in different places). Gondolas were designed for a very different purpose and thus don’t function well as mode of urban public transit. Also, they are constantly closed due to high winds. Need I remind everyone of Chicago’s nickname, of which it most definitely lives up to?

This is a great 2nd year studio project, utopian and whimsical, but from legitimate architects? It’s one thing to put it out there as a fun exercise in thinking outside the box but reeling in engineers and developers and selling it like it is something that it is not, is naive. Unfortunately these gimmicky publicity stunts cause many outside of the discipline of architecture to question our relevance and ability to tackle the complexities of the real. – J Davis

Keep the debate flowing! Please post any responses to these topics in the comments below.

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© MgA Tomas Manina PhD

• Architects: Architekti Šercel Švec s. r. o.
• Location: Kaplnská 40, 925 22 Veľké Úľany, Slovakia
• Architect In Charge: Architekti Šercel Švec s. r. o.
• Area: 110.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: MgA Tomas Manina PhD

• Architects: Peter Šercel, Andrej Švec
• Garden Architects: NuGarden

© MgA Tomas Manina PhD

Site Plan

From the architect. The area of architecture is placed in a centre of a small village Veľké Úľany (South West Slovakia). The ground is unique for its specific irregular shape which tends to be narrowed at the edge. This place is situated near to a protective zone of Calvary, an important municipal monuments with high vegetation.

© MgA Tomas Manina PhD

Concept

Main concept of design is based on a markedly conservation of its authentic genius loci. The mass of the architecture forms on a traditional shape of a house located between the existing trees. Efforts to keep symbiosis with surrounding nature led to the connection of flat and sloped roof. The two-storey building purposely respects the street line and its location opens up a view of the entire area. Steeper slopes of the roof to the south promotes the lightness and subtlety of garden and creates its nice background. Human scale brings airiness into the backyard and decreases towards the entrance which consequently seems less personal, but still attractive.  

© MgA Tomas Manina PhD

The house designed as open space can be comfortably used by four member family. On the ground floor is a hall accessible directly from the level of parking places for cars (grassing tiles). Right after the entrance the house offers a nice view to the garden passing through the living room and large glass wall. The bathroom with toilet forms the northernmost tip of the object with the entrance through the hall with wardrobe and technical equipment. The daily places are partly divided by the mass of staircase. Dining room with kitchen and living room creates one operating circle whose circumference is the strongest architectural feature: connection of the exterior and interior. Open bedroom area adds breathability to the house. First floor serves as the night zone of the house with two separate rooms. 

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Perspective

From the daily zone, there is an exit to the terrace and garden. The garden is designed in the context of flowers, useful plants and herbs. The realisation of the garden, including the selection, planting and treatment of existing trees as well, was accomplished with care and high attention.

The house construction just complete the main idea of preserving existing trees. The building is based on a reinforced concrete foundation slab, using cellular glass insulation to do not break the root system under the house and retain the original green high vegetation on the area. In the interior and exterior as well, there are used only natural materials as wood, stone, steel and concrete in its rough form. The entrance and courtyard facade is adjusted by wooden panelling, which is left to natural oxidation. Medium high fence is built only around garden area – it is formed to gabion with fulfilled and empty parts. The house looks small and compact and still benefits from native trees which maintain a comfortable climate in its interior and environment nearby. Thanks to the open space disposition of whole area, house and its surrounding keeps its holistic harmony of exterior and interior.

© MgA Tomas Manina PhD

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