Architects: Daniil Lorenz, Natalia Sidorova, Konstantin Khodnev, Ilya Prezhezhetsky, Elena Serebrova, Maria Kochurkina, Nadezhda Kulikova, Alexander Ivanov, Alexander Krokhin, Andrei Taranukha
From the architect. The house and surrounding landscape form one strong unit. The terrace overhangs the artificial pond. Garage and maintenance building are designed as a hill with a green roof park above. The hill also conceals house and the terrace from the road. All the inner house facades are made from water resistant and super strong merbau wood. The outer contour is of grey Jura limestone. Windows are equipped with sliding wooden jalousie screen. They allow light through and at the same time give sense of privacy. The interior is in the same color scheme as the facade: red wooden and grey-beige stone shades. The architects developed interior and construction elements, starting from the door knobs to sculptured staircase. The upper skylights open the interior to sun beams.
From the architect. This project is located in an abandoned factory campus in a former concession district of Shanghai, surrounded by colonial architectures.
Sketch
The design objective is to take advantage of the city’s heritage to recall the memory of the district, and create an open public office space.
Based on the surrounding old buildings, abstracted prototype units with similar scale are created. Several terraces are provided by interlocking and setback of this units, which provide opportunities for communication, and create a facade with rhythm rather than a dull building edge.
Diagram
Two passages directed to the city landmark went through the lower part of the building and connected the courtyards.
From the architect. The following renovation project aimed to transform a botanical garden located near Lake Ashi in the Hakone area, into a museum / a multi-purpose space.
The site is surrounded by a rich natural environment centering around a lake (Lake Ashi) and a mountain (Mt. Hakone). A large banyan tree, a tree emblematic of the botanical garden, used to stand at the centre of the glass dome serving as the entrance to the existing building. In this environment, precipitation(moisture) from the area would percolate through the site’s soil and collect around the roots , thus creating a natural spring filled with pristine waters.
For the purpose of the museum renovation project, we were tasked with designing a space inside this entrance that could accommodate a kitchen, a dining space, and a stage for temporary exhibitions and performances, such as concerts and plays.
We envisioned a place that would adapt to the museum’s needs by enabling a variety of activities.
First, we poured new concrete over the entire floor and created an octagonal amphitheater at the center of the entrance dome where the banyan tree used to be. A transparent resin was then spread at the bottom of the amphitheater floor to form a spring filled with the profound serenity and mystery surrounding water by acknowledging the memory of the botanical garden’s naturally occurring body of water, as well as the Hakone landmark that is Lake Ashi.
The octagonal amphitheater functions as a multi-purpose venue that can be used as seating for dinning, as a central performance area surrounded by tiered seating for concerts or plays, or as a display area for a temporary exhibition. We considered that layering the ever-changing image of the venue’s daily configurations over the shimmering movement and changing appearance of water filled with memories would be the best approach for this location.
Floor Plan
In the same way that a lake is the accumulation of water droplets brought from various water sources, the transparent resin floor was flooded with elegant and lively elements using different reflective materials, such as mirrors, pieces of glass and fragments of metal, to produce a variety of light shining off the water surface.
Just as changes occur in the flow of water when one stream meets another, the flow of materials blend and interact with each other as individual bundles of light gain momentum and send beautiful ripples traveling across the surface.
The changes created by these reflective materials confer abundant expressivity to the light which glows with the organic vitality of water, thus deepening its poetry while imparting beauty and mystery to the memory of water.
Like the surface of a lake that mirrors the evolving landscape, the changes in natural light, such as that from the morning or evening sun, the seasonal variations in the color of the trees, such as the fresh green leaves of spring or the red autumn leaves, all come together in a signature gradation that spreads throughout the newly built concrete and transparent resin surfaces like a wave of color filled with lively movement.
Furthermore, we applied vivid colors, such as purple and light blue to the steel frame(column and beam) and concrete parts of the dome walls, as if the vibrant colors contained in the lake surface were splashed onto its surroundings, to lend the gloss and freshness of water to the entire space.
The brown walls of the kitchen booth are covered with wood plates shaped like dancing shards of light from the spring. Moreover, the rough grain motif of each of the plates can be perceived as the flow of a waterfall, thus infusing the space with the vitality produced by the resonance between the energy of water, and the trees found in the surrounding mountains.
By bringing unity to the space and reflecting minute changes in its natural surroundings, this spring of memories spreads the image of water to the entire landscape and creates an environment where one can experience the wonder and mystery of natural phenomena while enhancing the fun and joy derived from human activities.
As the building undergoes a transformation from botanical garden to museum, the world ushered by the memory of the spring becomes engraved in our hearts along with the sparkle of flowing water, and its narrative is spun into the future.
The site is located in a cluttered town with busy traffic, surrounded by overflowing people, cars, and bikes. Upon entering the restaurant, away from such bustle of the city, a quiet and comfortable space welcomes the guests as if entering a different world. Our intention was the creation of a space for people to feel “Japan” by eating soba cuisine prepared by a soba master.
The existing building has a narrow shape with about 5m width and 25m depth.
The first floor consists of the bar with a 10m counter made of solid wood from Africa, the soba making area surrounded by glass walls that faces the main street, the kitchen at the back and the counter kitchen connected to it.
In order to provide a relaxing atmosphere for dining, the ceiling height was lowered from the previous 3.6m to 2.4m. The see-through, wooden hanging frame above the counter ensures the openness of the space, while properly dividing the guest tables and the kitchen. The vintage lumber, the painted walls resembling rammed earth, and stone masonry walls create a Japanese atmosphere.
The second floor consists of the tables and private dining room.
In order to efficiently place tables in a 5m wide shop, millimeter-scale fine adjustment is necessary for compromising sizes such as the tables and isle width. Arrangement of the tables and dividing them are of the utmost importance since spacing is directly linked to comfortability.
In order to avoid crossing the lines of vision between customers or an excessive feeling of enclosure, the see-through wooden partitions with various shapes and finishes are used to ensure comfort. The only private dining room is located at the backmost location of the shop, dynamically surrounded by large solid wood boards and granite, creating a uniqueness in the restaurant.
HMFH Architects worked closely with educators to develop the concept for this new grade 3-5 elementary school. The educational program for the school is built around a team teaching methodology and inclusionary instruction that makes use of directed learning, small group activities, skill building, individualized instruction, and project-based learning as well as other techniques to ensure that the needs of each student are addressed. This is reflected in the design that features a series of shared spaces and small learning communities for the school’s 985 students.
Reinterpreting the predecessor Woodland School’s open plan concept, the new school is organized around grade-level learning. Each grade occupies one floor in the academic wing, grouped into three smaller clusters of six classrooms with a learning commons just outside the classrooms. These common areas, including a media space, amphitheater, circular storytelling rooms and an array of project areas, encourage a range of flexible teaching approaches. Educators can easily shift from classroom environments to large-group events, team projects, and small-group work sessions in the adjacent learning commons. Sinks and flexible furniture are included within the project areas to support “messy” hands-on activities.
The school’s flexible academic wing was also designed for Woodland’s approach to differentiated instruction and RTI (Response to Intervention), in which students of differing abilities work in smaller groups in shared, small-group spaces next to pairs of classrooms. These small rooms are visible from the adjacent classrooms and allow students to stay near their “home base.”
Bookending the three-story academic wing are two wings housing core and community spaces: a dining/arts wing, which houses a cafeteria/performance space with stage, kitchen, music rooms, art rooms, a STEAM room, a viewing balcony, and administrative offices; and an athletic wing, containing a gym and a multipurpose wellness center.
The new Woodland Elementary School has allowed the Town of Milford to address several critical facility issues, including realignment of town-wide grade configuration that reunites grades 6-8 in a single middle school, first-stage implementation of a new district-wide educational technology program, and accommodation of a growing elementary-aged population. The new school was constructed adjacent to the existing school, which allowed students to safely attend school without disruption while the new school was built.
Product Description. The three-story academic wing is primarily clad with a concrete panel rain screen system. The concrete panels, in an 8-inch horizontal plank configuration, complement the brick masonry employed on the two-story ‘dining/arts’ and ‘athletic’ wings on either end in its range of texture and subdued color tones, as well as in its durability. The lightweight application and thinness of the product allow the panels to freely wrap the fold-out faces of classroom bay windows at the academic wing. Because of the directionality of the bay windows, the concrete panels are the most visible component of the façade until closer approach reveals bright colored panels in the fold of the bay windows, creating an element of surprise.
The Plaza of Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie has opened to the public. The concert hall’s observation deck, located 37 meters (121 feet) above ground level, is designed around a public square concept and is accessed via a 82 meter (269 foot) long, curving escalator, providing visitors to panoramic views of the city and harbor.
To mark the event, the Elbphilharmonie has released a new set of photographs by Iwan Baan, showing off the newly completed interior spaces. The full building is set to officially open to the public on January 11 and 12, 2017.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has named Gensler’s Shanghai Tower as the 2016 Best Tall Building Worldwide, citing its “innovative design scheme in traditional Shanghainese architectural traditions.” The building was selected from among four regional winners, which included BIG’s VIA 57 West (Americas), Jean Nouvel’s The White Walls (Europe) and Orange Architects’ The Cube (Africa).
The tallest building in China, the design of Shanghai Tower drew from the concept of shikumen, a vernacular housing typology that blends indoor and outdoor space, in its unique sky atria located between layers of the building’s double skin facade.
The jury also lauded the building for its “sustainably minded design,” which used advanced form modelling techniques to result in a building form that reduces wind loading by 24 percent.
“Shanghai Tower shows the greatest commitment to communal space in a tall building since Commerzbank Tower completed in 1997,” said CTBUH Executive Director and jury member Antony Wood.
“It contains the world’s first truly ‘inhabitable’ double-skin façade on a skyscraper, which is not only remarkable for its intended greenery, but its incorporation into the tower’s overall ventilation strategy. The sacrifice of valuable floor area to realize this social amenity proves that the aspirations for Shanghai Tower went far beyond mere commercial gain.”
The VPVC office is a project commissioned to solve the demanding layout for a new bureau of lawyers, located in a single 500 sqm story of a translucent curtain-wall building with a single central circulation core in Santiago. Our proposal resulted the winner in a private competition.
The programme requested contemplated allocating 23 individual lawyer’s offices, 4 secretaries, accountants, interns and an area of services. As it is commonly arranged there are different hierarchies which are depicted by different office sizes. Nonetheless we opted to organise this array towards the external perimeter (natural illumination) and connect every room with the rest of the office by a public continuous aisle, which was designed alongside a 45 metre lineal wood shelve. The built-in quality cabinet contains archives and consultation books, and is fully designed in Lenga, a highly regarded FSC timber from Patagonia. In order to avoid a locked-in feeling common from deep plan layouts, we opted for translucent layers towards the centre, and in every aisle there was an open end reaching the building facade which allows for a continuous relation with the exterior and the pass of the day and light.
The material palette was carefully overseen to avoid the multiple finishings portrayed by the technical units, therefore we limited the colours to the extensive use of Lenga in corridors, specific ceiling areas and some furniture, whereas we used a crispier finishing such as stainless steel and glass as a counterpoint in frames and partition walls.
In October 1997, the unforgettable swooping metal panels of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao made their debut, drawing the attention of art and architecture lovers around the world. Images of the building quickly circulated through the infant world wide web, turning the museum into an instant icon that permanently elevated and transformed the international perception of the city of Bilbao.
Cities all over the world saw the potential in creating their own “Bilbao Effect,” and soon, a slew of new eye-catching, sculptural buildings had be built. This phenomenon persisted through the 2000s, manifesting itself in works by Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and many others. But recently, notable figures both inside and outside architecture have began to distance themselves from the icon, notably in the design philosophies of OMA and alumni such as Jeanne Gang and Matthias Sauerbruch.
In a new opinion piece for the Guardian, photographer Stuart Franklin extends this sentiment not just to architecture, but to all images in general. Franklin explains the history of the “iconic image,” and explains the reasons why it may no longer exist.
CAVE redesigned the floorplan – both interior and exterior spaces – the finishings and tailormade design objects, essencial for the wel-lfunctioning of the villa.
Courtesy of CAVE
The spacial concept was to merge the interior with the exterior and transform the social area in one big space with diferent ambients and functions. The bedrooms are all distributed on the same facade to assure privacy and less exposure, while the social and exterior area are oriented south west where they find the best view and sun exposure.
Starting with two 12.5×2.5m containers, space was obviously limited and so it was important to provide well-lit, practical open spaces, thus all the spaces are white and the floor light grey.
Being a vacation house, time is an important theme to bring and create identity and life to the house, so all the exterior space is untreated wood that turns grey with time and makes the interior and exterior melt into one unique space whith similar colors and materials.
Sig Nordal 