From the architect. The project is located in the Colonia Roma, a historic neighbourhood in the central sector of Mexico City. La Roma developed in the 19th century as one of the first extensions of the city centre, with an orthogonal grid of large houses inhabited by the upper classes of the city. With the emergence of suburban life in the 50s, la Roma decreased its population throughout the second half of the 20th century, getting to its worst with earthquake of 1985.
Due to the location of la Roma in what once was Lake Texcoco, the subsoil is highly muddy, so seismic waves are amplified; thus, during the strong earthquake of 85, la Roma was one of the more affected areas of the city: many buildings collapsed, and many of those which resisted were abandoned by its inhabitants because of their structural damage or because of the fear that the buildings would not resist another earthquake.
The neighbourhood became deeply deteriorated, with high levels of insecurity and abandoned buildings, until its recent re-emergence as one of the most active areas of the city, filled with art galleries, small restaurants, cafés and young people occupying again its streets and public areas.
The project seeks to explore new possible configurations within the framework of the spatial distribution that allows the existing space. The intervention acts on the horizontal planes, divi- ding the space into two. An area of rooms with low ceilings, of small and cozy spaces and a spacious public area with double height. Two rooms, a studio relate to a unique space containing the living room, dining room and kitchen. A simplification of the spatial structure of the apartment is sought as a tool to allow a clear reading of the main space and their relationship with the city.
In Le Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture, he advocates the inclusion of flat roofs hosting roof gardens, providing valuable outdoor space for the inhabitants of the building in order to replace the ground lost to the construction of the building. But while this acknowledgement of outdoor space was important for people, Le Corbusier‘s sculptural concrete roof gardens were little consolation to the non-human flora and fauna that were displaced by his works.
Recent improvements in our understanding of ecosystems and the environment, as well as a better scientific understanding of the needs of plants, have changed this dramatically. In the past few decades, green roofs and living roofs have exploded in popularity, and now adorn every kind of building–from small private houses to the gigantic surface of Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
We’ve collected together some excellent examples of these living roofs, including the structural detailing that makes them possible. Read on for 13 spectacular green roofs that achieve environmental benefits including reduced stormwater runoff, and reductions in energy use and the heat island effect.
Besides the kitchen, the bathroom often takes top priority when building or renovating a home. However, choosing a look is not always easy, so here we have gathered 13 stunning bathrooms from previously published projects to provide inspiration in your own designs. Each is filled with inspiring ideas for your own project; from relaxing tubs to sleek showers, one of these bathrooms is sure to suit your style.
The first steps in the evolution of the physical space of the bathroom that we know of today occurred in Scotland, where the first rustic latrines were constructed, and in Pakistan, where systems of pipes of cooked mud embedded in brick constructions have been found. These innovations date back to 3000 BC, later evolving into the first vats, toilets and ceramic pipes of the Minoan nobility, then to the copper plumbing of the Egyptians (who used their baths to celebrate religious ceremonies), then to the Romans, who transformed personal hygiene into a social act with public baths, covered with tiles.
During the middle ages, a widespread lack of concern for hygiene arose, but plumbing systems resurfaced in the early seventeenth century – although some of this era’s most impressive constructions, such as the palace of Versailles, did not include bathrooms. The early industrial revolution in England also did not contribute much, since the rapidity of urbanization and industrialization caused an overcrowding that was very difficult to control. It was only in the 1830s that an outbreak of cholera in London forced the authorities to launch a campaign to incorporate sanitary facilities into homes, taking the first step towards the toilets with cisterns that we use today.
Today the bathroom as a space has gone beyond its purely hygienic function and has entered into an exclusive area of its own design. Now, regardless of whether you are a bath person or strictly a shower person, these 13 awe-inducing bathrooms take daily cleansing to a whole new level.
From the architect. Our clients, a young married couple, purchased a two and a half story historic home in Parkdale, Toronto. The house had previously been subdivided into three apartments that they wished to convert back into a single family dwelling to accommodate their future family. They wanted a friendly, open concept house that would allow them to entertain anything from dinner parties to sports viewing. The design strategy was to open up the common areas so that everyone could more easily be connected. A variety of nooks were created throughout the house which serve as both reading and hangout spaces.
The front of the house was largely left intact. Some minor repairs were done to the brickwork and new windows were installed that respect the historic character of the house. The interior was completely gutted and a new, underpinned basement was dug out. An extension, clad in black aluminum to contrast it from the existing house, was constructed in the back. Between this addition and the original house is a load-bearing brick wall which was stripped bare on the inside, white washed, and pierced to create passages between the new and the old.
The front entrance opens onto a large living-dining-room space and a kitchen beyond. A stair, lined with a large wooden bookcase, leads up to a double-height family room and a wood-clad structure housing two bedrooms and a bathroom. Above these rooms is a cozy loft accessible by ladder and which overlooks the double-height space below. Through an opening in the brick wall is the master bedroom suite overlooking the garden below.
We would like to take a second to focus on the wonderful, yet often overlooked, inner courtyard. The inner courtyard is essentially a “contained outside space” made up of transparent walls, and a well thought-out drainage system is a must. Other elements such as furnishings, decks, vegetation, stairs, water are then added, complicating the space created. The inner courtyard also plays a role in the building’s layout; in most cases it functions as the central point from which the other rooms and functions of the project are organized, giving them air and light when the façade openings are not enough.
Here is our selection of 13 stunning inner courtyards of houses and buildings that we have previously published on our site.
In the spirit of supporting our readers’ design work, the company Velux has shared a series of .DWG files with us of their different roofing windows models. The files can be downloaded directly from this article and include great amounts of detail and information.
Check the files below, separated into ‘Pitched Roofs’, ‘Flat Roofs’ and ‘Light Tube’.
From the architect. The new center, designed by OTTAVIO DI BLASI & Partners (Milan), has an area of 2,700 square meters. It represents a point of excellence of the Health Care Network of Piedmont hosting Prevention and Rehabilitation facilities managed by LILT (Italian league against Cancer)
SPAZIO LILT is a two-storey building conceived around a central distribution core articulating two juxtaposed curved wings. It is not just the container of LILT activities but it is also its mirror by embodying the image and values of the League.
Scheme
• An “open house” and a landmark for the entire city of Biella– The modern curved shape make it easily accessible for all the citizens and is a reference point for the whole community. In addition to LILT offices, it houses surgeries, the prevention center, the rehabilitation gym, a conference room and hosts a number of volunteers associations operating in the area.
• A friendly and efficient building – Easy access, immediacy guidance and the quality of services offered play a major role to the perception of warmth and efficiency that characterize LILT – SPAZIO LILT is a place where prevention and treatment coexist as two aspects of the same human reality.
• A place where the link between health and environment is fully expressed by the relationship between architecture, light and efficient and green environment. SPAZIO LILT is energy efficient and built with environmentally friendly and recyclable materials.
The unique features of the building are due to the glazed terracotta façade in red and white, the colors of LILT. The large terracotta louvers shield the building from direct sunlight and provide privacy to clinics. The choice of terracotta has to do with the durability and the self-clean ability of the surfaces.
In this project, the emotional value and the technical features of the louvers façade are an unicum in which the brightness of the surfaces is most fitting with the bright and positive atmosphere that inspires the entire building.
The open floor plan and the curved shape of the facades of the building and amplify the dynamism that characterize it in an original way.
Product Description.The custom Glazed terracotta façade give the unique features of the building. Glazed terracotta profiles are about 150/160 cm long.- They are assembled on an aluminum frame holding louvers of two different sizes ( 21 cm end 8 cm) . An aluminum tube inside the hollow profile of every terracotta louver secures the structure. Glazed terracotta provides bright looking and self-cleaning features. The ventilated façade ensure privacy and shelter sunrays. The empty space between the terracotta skin and the building façade host maintenance walkway.
As the common phrase attests, “history is written by the victors.” We therefore know that the story of the West is that of Europe and the United States, while the other actors in world history are minimized or invisible: it happened to the Chinese and Japanese during World War II, to the Ottoman Empire in sixteenth-century Europe, and to racial majorities in the common reading of Latin American independence. The same thing happens in architecture.
The current boom of the Global South is based not only on new work, but rather on the recognition of an invisible architecture which was apparently not worthy of publication in the journals of the 1990s. The world stage has changed, with the emergence of a humanity that is decentralized yet local; globalized, yet heterogeneous; accelerated, yet unbalanced. There are no longer red and blue countries, but a wide variety of colors, exploding like a Pollock painting.
This serves as a preamble to consider the outstanding projects of 2016 according to the British critic Oliver Wainwright, whose map of the world appears to extend from New York in the West to Oslo in the East, with the exception of Birzeit in Palestine. The Global South represents more than 40% of the global economy and already includes most of the world’s megacities, yet has no architecture worthy of recognition? We wanted to highlight the following projects in order to expand the western-centric world view, enabling us to truly comprehend the extent of architectural innovation on a global scale.
In the capital, a new market draws inspiration from the vernacular, traditional Mercato, the largest open-air market in Africa. Eschewing the glass-clad box typology of contemporary shopping centers (which are not efficient, but project an air of “development”), the building functions as an environmentally-appropriate public edifice, with the perforations in its prefabricated concrete skin harkening back to the traditional Ethiopian fractal patterns used to moderate the entry of light. The generous interior volume encourages natural ventilation and the rooftop features photovoltaic umbrellas to combat deficiencies in the energy supply.
To the east of the province of Córdoba—in a place that doesn’t even have basic utilities—architect Nicolás Campodónico melds nature and brick into a chapel that borders an estate and opens up to an ample field. Facing the sunset, natural light bathes the chapel in warmth, serenity and symbolism. In a year when brick was lauded for its versatility, popularity and availability at the Venice Biennale, the Capilla San Bernardo brings together a precise alignment of individual bricks around an invisible, six-meter diameter sphere. The resulting structure is not only exquisite, but also echoes the shape and form of traditional Argentinian coal ovens.
Still recovering from its stigma as the drug-trafficking battleground of the 80s and 90s, Medellín is now a city transformed, and public investment in architecture has played an essential role in this renaissance. The EDU (Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano de Medellín) has been an exemplar in the initiative to bring high quality public spaces to the city, including projects like the Unidades de Vida Articulada (UVA). The UVAs are inserted into low-income, dense neighborhoods and are primarily reformulated or refurbished existing spaces that provide opportunities for cultural programming, performances and sports. EDU is a powerful example for other states and governing bodies to follow; the potential and impact of investing in architecture and urbanism can make cities better, more equitable places.
The Leixões cruise terminal is not only a beautiful physical interpretation of the flows it distributes, but also a great response to its site—at the center of the the connection of Souto de Moura’s conversion of the South Matosinhos coastal promenade and Álvaro Siza’s historic Piscinas de Marés. The building is expected to welcome over 130,000 passengers per year and it currently shares spaces with the Marine Science and Technology Park of Oporto University. Local artisans created hexagonal ceramics inspired by the Portuguese “calçada” to imbue a modern building with meaning and utility.
Le Duc Ha’s workshop sits on the edge of the Thu Bon river, which it shares with communities which work in the production of Terracotta and silk. Structured as a three-dimensional bamboo grid, the studio gives the artist the flexibility to work, have tea, rest, and store his finished works, without endangering the property should the river flood. Beyond reveling in the material qualities of bamboo and clay brick, the project is a beautiful volumetric exercise in which a permeated facade reveals little of the interior while maintaining the privacy of the artist, and allowing adequate ventilation and connection to the outdoors.
In Sierra Leone, projects like this one must deal with societal fissures, educational issues and public health crises. Orkidstudio asked, “What role can architecture play in the aftermath of such a crisis?” Avoiding a paternalistic approach and collectivizing the construction of a better future, this architecture in particular mends the wounds of a broken country. In this primary school, architecture activates and mobilizes the parts of society that will surely contribute to a solid transformation of this African nation.
China’s rapid urbanization stimulated the planning and construction of gargantuan cultural hubs as a symbol of economic development and a catalyst for tourism. The projects are often characterized by a grand formal gesture that allows it to perform on its own, detached from its contents, in an attempt to capitalize on the elusive “Bilbao effect.”
Even though China has more than 20,000 mosques around its vast territory and Islam is the third most popular religion in the country (uniting 10 of the 55 recognized ethnic minorities), the Da Chang Muslim Cultural Center is an exception. In Dachang, a Muslim enclave close to Beijing, this project reinterprets the spatial structure of the mosque, typically seen in arches, domes and Islamic symbols with new materials and an even grander scale. As a center for cultural activities, the architecture aids in bringing a physical space to a practice that has strong roots in western China as it approaches the megacities of the coasts.
Investment in Olympic infrastructure often yields better returns for private financiers than for cities. Greece, and in particular Athens, ended up abandoning much of the sports infrastructure they constructed for the 2004 Olympic Games. However, twelve years later, Renzo Piano’s project reused an old parking lot on the site of a former Olympic racetrack, bringing together the National Library and the National Opera in a single volume. Conceptually defined by its raised ground plane, Piano’s single gesture creates a new green lung in the city and reconnects the urban fabric of the port of Kallithea with the sea. The project also generates enough solar energy to be self-sufficient in terms of electricity. At a time when cultural projects are often seen as a chance to create self-absorbed, questionably appropriate icons, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre is a welcome addition.
Latin American architecture has recently garnered attention for projects that re-evaluate public space in the city. A similar situation precedes many design challenges: the resources available are public and limited; the spaces created must be multifunctional to meet multiple needs; the sites are leftover spaces; and the community must care for and manage the new public space, or else it will die. Along those lines, Fernanda Canales proposed a civic and cultural module created from concrete. Its size was based upon another module: the standard dimensions of a parking space (2.5 x 5 meters), thus fitting into residual spaces in residential areas of the Latin American city. Answering multiple programmatic needs, its form is designed to optimize the internal spaces while its thermal solution also offers four configurations to cover a series of different activities. This ensures its use throughout much of the day, while at night the structure functions as a lantern, improving the safety of the surrounding environment while also assuring its own.
In the embrace of the Pacific Ocean and at the mouth of the Maule River, Constitución was one of the cities most affected by the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile in 2010. As a result of the ensuing public-private urban transformation plan, one of the projects built in front of the city’s heart, the Plaza de Armas, was Sebastián Irarrázaval’s Constitución Public Library. Three reticulated cubes of laminated pine order the project into three thematic areas; three showcases; three invitations to enter and three spaces for those who wish to pause while walking down the street. In a city sustained by the timber industry, the architects opted to use high quality local carpenters and the abundant wood to build a project that makes the construction process and structural loads are intentionally evident.
From the architect. The residential villa B&R, located by the sea and designed for a Belgian family, has been developed in conjunction with the well laid-out surroundings, and follows the terrain of various heights, balanced by constructed retaining walls of 0.8 to 3 m high.
Some retaining walls are underground parts of the villa, some are parts of the garage beneath the garden area, or parts of walls of the open kitchen in the garden, thus creating an impression of architecture and environment integration.
The design and U-shape of the villa with a total surface area of 500 m2 has resulted from the fusion of the plot, its beautiful vistas and positioning on the one hand, which is why the end sections are of different lengths and angles, and slightly bend around the central terrace, designed to provide shade, and from its micro-location on the other hand, which resulted in such variations in the dimensions of the end sections, thus making the villa, thanks to its own size, fit nicely into the urban matrix.
Ground Floor Plan
The villa has two storeys: ground floor and first floor, and split-level design.
A sundeck extends towards the sea, accommodating the swimming pool with the dimensions 4.6×11 m and an open kitchen, while the glass walls of the villa provide for the integration of outdoor and indoor stay.
Other facades are of a more closed character to ensure the indoor intimacy of the villa. They protect it from the street and the driveway, opposite which residents go to the beach. With only one angle opening, and the light getting in through skylights, they also render the villa protected from any views on the rear side.
From the main entrance there is direct access to the kitchen with a pantry and to the toilet. The central, two-storey space opens right from the entrance, with galleries, stairs and the dining area that is adjoining the kitchen and the terrace with a pergola, thus opening the space for an all-day stay, as well as to the living room, which is recessed relative to the entrance and dining area.
Upstairs, in the most prominent part of the villa, overlooking the sea and the swimming pool, there is a master bedroom with a glass ensuite bathroom and a corner glass walk-in closet. There is also a guest bedroom, which overlooks the backyard, as well as two children’s bedrooms with bathrooms and a common terrace facing the sea and a workspace with access to the backyard.
Section
The design concept is based on the premise that each room offers a unique experience, while at the same time the spaces create an integrated whole merging with the environment, ensuring a vacation stay in a natural seaside and Mediterranean ambience. The surrounding autochtonous vegetation further contribute to such an atmosphere.
The villa’s architecture is presented as a playful white block opened by large glass walls with magnificent vistas and contact with the environment.
First Floor Plan
Product Description. – In this project clients’ desire was to have contemporary Croatian furniture design so among other pieces in the house central place takes dining table, the TT table from ELEMENT, designed by Numen/For Use. Table is made of solid oak. Slavonian oak, “Quercus robur slovanica”, a subspecies of pedunculate (common) oak named after Slovania, a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia. All the finishing is executed in high-quality natural oils, preserving and enhancing the characteristics of the wood. http://ift.tt/2itSjPG
From the architect. The new Moscow office of telecommunications company Orange Business Services is located on two floors of “Mercury” tower of business center “Moscow city”. The total area of the interior is 5,300 sq. m.
The interior project was implemented by Pridex Group Company, which combined the functions of General designer and General contractor performing the architectural and engineering design, as well as the complex of engineering works. The interior design was developed by T+T Architects bureau.
Axonometric
Two reference points: customer’s logo, the orange square, and accent elements in the form of circles became the basis for the architectural concept.
The principle of an open workspace is popular all over the world. However, here the customer has built a distinct functional process in which the tasks go through a kind of “assembly line” of departments and specialists. The final placement of the departments follows this scheme.
The office space is divided into working areas and points of informal communication evenly spread over the entire space of the floors. At these points architects set the accents based on the form of circle in a particular embodiment. Workspaces are made contrastly – in the orthogonal forms and monochrome materials. Part of the informal communication points were integrated in the center of some departments showing the inextricable workflow and the process of discussion.
Materials with high acoustic comfort were used for the productive work of 500 employees. Solutions with mobile partitions in meeting rooms made the space for negotiations flexible and scalable.
“The new office for Orange Company has become for us a serious challenge. Complicated architecture of the building and a number of customer conditions demanded high professionalism of the team. Due to the selected solutions and coordinated work, we managed to implement such an ambitious project in the shortest possible time”, – says Sergey Kudryavtsev, managing partner of Pridex Group Company.
“Great attention was paid to the corporate standards. “Orange” provided us with the detailed brand book with a lot of restrictions and recommendations. During the implementation we managed to create a unique solution without breaking the basic corporate strategy”, – says Polina Voevodina, the main architect of the project, the T+T Architects Bureau.
“We thank the Pridex Company for the fast and high quality implementation of this complex project. Everything is done in accordance with the requirements of the Orange brand style. New office came out comfortable and functional, and most importantly – helped to raise the productivity of our employees interaction. It will definitely impact on improving the quality of service to our clients”, – commented Olga Nekrasova, Director of commercial real estate and facilities management at Orange Business Services.
Product Description: As far as the main point of the concept was minimalistic and neat interior, one of the principal materials was the white color itself. However, we paid high attention to the public spaces: circular reinforced concrete staircase, lounge area near it, coffee points and kitchen, informal meeting areas, reception.
Oppositely to the white and really simple open space areas, there are accent walls with micro-cement decorative coating (Baldini) or bright orange-color ceiling detail (Tikkurilla paintings). There are also some cozy suspended lamps (“Hood”, Atelje Lyktan) with red felt shades, which determine unique areas. Using different colors from Desso Airmaster carpet collection allowed us to distinguish different functional zones by determing the floor color.
Sig Nordal 