via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
The iPhone 7 is here. Announced at Apple’s September Launch event today, the new device and its sibling, the iPhone 7 plus, have arrived after months of rumors, leaks and anticipation. The phones are loaded with a bevy of new components, including a new pressure-sensitive home button and bluetooth headphones, marking another step in the journey toward our wireless future.
Of course, in spite of the hype that the new iPhone will inevitably get—as it always does—it’s not the only smartphone on the market. Many will point to the fact that its expected RAM capabilities (2GB for the iPhone 7 and 3GB for the 7 Plus) still lag behind some competitors (for comparison the Samsung Galaxy S7 has 3GB and the S7 Edge 4GB), while the upgraded 32GB storage and newly-found water-resistance are no more than catching up with Apple’s competition. Nonetheless, Apple’s iPhone 7 also features a number of features that could make it a phone perfectly suited to architects. Read on to find out exactly why.
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
1. Improved Camera
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
In many ways, smartphone cameras have already replaced traditional cameras for casual, everyday usage. But with the latest iPhone camera upgrade, the quality may now challenge that of your DSLR as well.
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
The 12 MP camera uses technology Appleacquired from LinX Imaging this past spring to produce crisper, brighter photos. Optical image stabilization and a finely tuned aperture window let in more light with shorter exposure times, resulting in pictures with reduced noise and higher clarity, even when taken in indoor or low-light environments.
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
For architects, this means you no longer need additional light sources when looking to snap a few shots of architectural details on a dim construction site, and the improved clarity means increased understanding of how parts come together as well.
2. Dual-Lens Camera System on the 7 Plus
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
For even more control over the photos you’re taking, the iPhone 7 Plus contains two camera lenses: one wide-angle lens and one telephoto lens, finally allowing users to zoom up to 2x without any loss of quality. And thanks to the improved picture clarity, digital zoom is now available up to 10x. Coupled with new real-time deep depth preview, which allows you to adjust the focal depth on screen, it is now possible to take quality photos, even from a distance.
Stuck behind a fence and can’t reach the building detail you want to photograph? Increased zoom will take you where you couldn’t quite get before. What could be even more exciting for architects is that this depth perception could potentially be implemented into a variety of apps where measuring space is important, from room-scanning apps to a variety of augmented-reality implementations.
3. HomeKit Home Automation
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
Included on iOS 10, a new Siri-enabled built-in app will allow your phone to seamlessly serve as the control center for your smart home products. By pairing the iPhone with other Internet of Things products, you will be able to control your work environment remotely; or even start a fresh pot of coffee to be waiting for you when you arrive each morning.
4. Real-Time Collaboration
Also part of iOS 10, iWork applications (keynote, etc.) will now allow multiple users to edit one file simultaneously (similarly to how google docs works). Presentations and documents can now be shared and edited, in real time, on all apple devices, so everyone can work together to prepare for that last-minute deadline.
5. Improved Capabilities of Applications
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
An improved processor will allow applications to approach 90% of the capabilities of the full software – so applications like Adobe Lightroom can be used onsite for editing photos at nearly their full potential.
6. Double the Memory Capacity
Phones are now available in sizes up to 256 GB, so downloading drawings sets or portfolios will no longer take your phone out of commission, and you can take and store a huge number of photos without worrying about having to delete any of your favorites.
BONUS: High-Gloss Jet Black Finish
via Apple Special Event Streaming. September 7, 2016.
We all are aware of architects’ love of black. Thanks to a new jet black glossy finish, the iPhone will serve as a perfect complement to any architect’s outfit.
The idea of river park was created in 2001 with the main objective to recover the banks of Rio Mapocho through the implementation of collapsible locks along 34k from east to west. The original intention is to generate various development poles along the route by referring to a navigable river.
Located in the western sector of Santiago, Padre Renato Poblete River Park, is seen as a sustainable urban public space intervention. The main objective is to value the banks of the Mapocho river and rehabilitate degraded industrial area that are now integrated across the water of the channel.
Plan
For a more situational approach of the project it is possible to explain the park through three essential points: from the contemporary, from overcoming prejudices, and finally, creating a new imaginary landscape.
Courtesy of Cristian Boza Wilson
Courtesy of Cristian Boza Wilson
In the words of Joan Roig, architect and Spanish landscaper, “Contemporanizar”; to contemporary, or in other words to update the profession. Renato Poblete Park is essentially designed by a group of young architects who overcame inertia to continue the design of its next national landscape references, marking a distance. In this sense, it proposes a new design for the national context from what the theory of landscape has drawn back to the ground as thick or groundscape, which is basically understood that the manipulated surface is understood in its three physical dimensions.
The park is a certain improvement to urban bias. The first is the supposed impossibility of esclusar a torrent. Issue discussed for years for various “pseudo experts” who thought the only way esclusar was in reference to some European urban river. Second, a park area west of Santiago may not be of high standard, because it is low-income communities. Then the design and execution of the park was not from scarcity but from efficiency, rehabilitating a degraded industrial zone.
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Finally If there is anything that the proposed park to the city, is the ability to regain the look over the river from a bank. Strictly speaking the park behaves like a meandering river. Diverts your water and water vegetation. From the bicycle, or in its various walks edge you can see the basin of the Mapocho , its relationship with the Cerro Renca and the axis formed until the Cordillera . His ataludado containment wall that proximity allows coming society claiming to time in its many sporadic appropriations down the channeled river bed . Inward vertigo of being on and in contact with water from the river it is proposed.
Instar House is a minimalist three-storey wood & steel structure, which is located on the southern edge of Allenby, a neighbourhood on the border between North York and Toronto. While carefully responds to the needs and lifestyle of the clients, the house has moulted from the small foot-print of the two-and-a-half storey structure that had occupied the site since early 1950s and was infamously nicknamed as half-house.
The evolution of design was based on a clear distinction between the two main volumes which are both stretched east-west: a larger one in grey that contains all the served spaces; and a smaller replica in black that accommodates all the servant spaces. In order to maintain a sense of autonomy all the major glazed openings on the larger volume are connected and the exterior of this modest monolithic mass is rendered in seamless stucco.
The staircase / void which sits on the centre of the larger volume, not only allows for visual communication, also divides each floor level into two sections: on the main floor, a living room on the west and a kitchen with a dining banquette on the east; on the second floor, two bedrooms that are connected through a glass bridge which overlooks the kitchen and provides a shared study area for kids; the third floor has been dedicated to a generous master bedroom with the sleeping zone on one side and a roof top patio on the opposite side where clients can enjoy an outdoor hot-tub while looking towards a beautiful park.
The smaller volume facilitates all the utilities and services: a mechanical and laundry room in the basement; a powder room and the entry foyer on the main floor; a shared bathroom and a laundry chute on the second floor; and a master ensuite on the top.
Adding to the ever-changing public landscape of Times Square, German artist and architect J. Mayer H. has unveiled XXX TIMES SQUARE WITH LOVE, three bright-pink, X-shaped custom lounge chairs that allow visitors to lie back and take in the cacophony of lights and sounds for which Times Square is famous. Originally inspired by the “X-like” intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue, the name also serves as a cheeky reference to the adult theaters and sex shops that once lined the square before its revitalization in the 1990s.
Located on the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza between 43rd and 44th streets, each of the three X-shaped chairs is designed to accommodate four people, with each arm of the X becoming its own near-horizontal lounger from which people can take in a new perspective of the city.
Times Square, 1984.. Image Courtesy of Times Square Arts Alliance, Em Pak (Time Square Arts, Times Square Alliance): epak@timessquarenyc.org
For lucky visitors, the chairs provide a moment of leisure not usually associated with the fast-paced streets of Midtown Manhattan. Loungers are encouraged to share their experience on social media using the hashtag #TSqXXX.
“Lying down on XXX allows for a completely different perception of Times Square and its media presence,” said Juergen Mayer H. “The view goes vertical while you are broadcast via many of the public webcams of Times Square looking down on you. And besides your new perspective on the skyline, you might want to snap a selfie of yourself relaxing to share your XXX with friends and family.”
“Mayer H. delivered for us a striking and original street furniture design that not only references Times Square’s X-rated history, but also offers users a very different way of looking at and sharing a place that, on average, is posted on Instagram no fewer than 17,000 times a day,” said Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance. “In pedestrian plazas that can be overwhelming at times, XXX offers a clever and calming way to experience them that is new, while referencing the old.”
One of the main challenges in adding new spaces to a pre-existing building is in the dialogue that is generated between the original construction and the new proposal. The different possibilities are infinite and it is the architect who will make the final statement through their choice of design language; they must decide to either emulate the existing architecture, reinterpret it, or to propose a whole new language.
The Fine Arts Museum by Barozzi Veiga is a project that works autonomously, integrating with it’s site in order to generate a dialogue within the public space, while using both ornamentation on the facade and the interior plan composition to establish a common language between the two distinct parts of the museum.
August’s Project of the Month uses this dialogue to produce an equilibrium between the existing and the new construction, reinterpreting the original language and adapting it with detail and delicacy to the urban area which provides it’s context.
Urban Cohesion The main operation of the proposal is the inversion of the program, burying the gallery and the exhibition spaces so that the impact on the street level is minimized, and providing new public spaces by eliminating the boundaries of the site and opening to the public. This alters the Villa to become an open complex, with a dialogue of social and public character between the historic building and it’s neighbors.
Interior Relationship While the exterior operation separates the two volumes in order to liberate the ground floor, the interior strategy works in the opposite way, occupying the entire space so that both parts, the new and the original, are maintained as two elements within the same language, structure, and composition, separated only by the axis of vertical circulation. While the new proposal is an autonomous building, it understands it’s role as an extension by reinterpreting the interior system. The symmetrical structure consists of a central space surrounded by a series of partitions that work in the same way as in the Villa Planta, generating a coherent relationship between both programs and helping to understand the visitor’s path through the building as a whole.
Palladian Ornamentation Along with the programmatic composition, the project also finds temporality through the uniform and simple repetition of a detail in the facade. This ornamental pattern references the original historic architecture, looking for a low-impact relationship between the new and the existing urban context – a dialogue that reinforces the idea of unity without repeating or copying original elements. The way in which the facades are composed and the way in which the ornaments characterize the exterior of the volume reinforces the expressiveness of the building, but at the same time also strengthens its autonomy from the Villa.
“The new Fine Arts Museum is a step further in the continuum established with the Villa and the surrounding garden, and with the dialogue that the whole complex establishes in the city. At the same time, the new extension seeks to express itself as a building with meaning by itself. A building capable of displaying a clear belonging to a place, to a city, but at the same time being able to belong to all places.”
The perforated house interior appeared in a completely rebuilt one-storey villa of the 1980s. The owners, who had been living there for a couple of years with their two sons, already planned a change of the inconvenient layout of rooms.
Plan
Plan
The house was surrounded by vast arboreous garden and had a great location, which finally affected the investors’ decision – instead of constructing a bigger building in a new place, they decided to follow the laborious path of total reconstruction of the existing house. This choice meant that the interior together with installations could be totally rebuilt while the exterior could be left intact.
The design assumed leaving fragments of existing walls; the rest was demolished. The fireplace as the heart of the house remained in its old location, but it was opened from two sides. In Spacelab’s design, a rather nonfunctional living part was changed into a spacious living-room connected with the dining-room and the kitchen. Due to permeation of these areas, the architects cared very much about the kitchen melting into the living-room. A TV set was also not meant to disrupt the subdued character of the living-room, so it was built-in. It was also at that moment that the idea arose to create a graphic perforation in some selected furniture. The perforated theme was repeated in the kitchen and front panels of the wardrobe in the entrance hall. Doors with hidden casing, built-in furniture the same colour of the walls, hidden audio systems – all this was meant to melt into the interior, yielding priority to perforated ornaments. We might say that geometrical patterns took the place of paintings on the walls. Perforation looks different depending on the time of the day and lighting. At night, when the lights in the living room are out and lamps in the rooms at the back are turned on, these perforated walls look like giant lanterns.
Kitchen chairs refer to this motive – geometric quilt is impressed on their seats. Interestingly, the chairs and the table, although they look like the designer’s harmonious matching, are the designs of various firms: Mannequin chairs are products of the Polish company Iker, while the table is a product of the Skandinavian team Muuto.
The most characteristic piece of furniture chosen for this interior is the black armchair RM58 standing in the entrance hall. Designed by Roman Modzelewski, and despite being an icon of Polish design of the 50s, it was not produced in serial production. In 2012 the company Vzór got interested in the reactivation of the historic design of the RM58, and so it found its way into shops. The lamp near the armchair and lamps over the table are Caravaggio Lightyears’ design. In the heart of the house a comfortable Comforty sofa was placed, accompanied by a classic of design – the Gubi lamp. These interior design elements were found in the Ipnotic Store.
Apart from the living part, the bedroom areas were also changed. The rooms of children and parents, formerly adjacent, were relocated in various parts of the house. The kids’ rooms are situated around a separate hallway, which gives all the family members even more privacy. Although the parents’ bathroom is small, it was covered by a mirror wall, optically increasing space. Even the heater hanging on the wall does not disturb the reflection of the interior, as it also has a mirror coating.
The changed house harmonizes well with the philosophy of contemporary hasty family life. The space we live in should give us both an option of temporary seclusion and relaxation on our own terms, as well as an option of intensive life among people in a common comfortable area. This house, after its redevelopment, reflects these ideas.
As one practice among Japan‘s emerging crop of talented architects, Takaharu and Yui Tezuka of Tezuka Architects can boast some highly successful projects; perhaps most notably among their collection of houses, medical buildings, and community buildings is the Fuji Kindergarten. Completed in 2007, the unusual open-air design was so successful that it earned Takaharu Tezukaa spot on stage at TEDxKyoto. In this interview from his series “Japan’s New Masters,” Ebrahim Abdoh speaks to Yui and Takaharu about their formative experiences in the United States and United Kingdom, their design approach, and the unique challenges that come with working in Japan.
Ebrahim Abdoh: What was your earliest memory of wanting to be an architect?
Yui Tezuka: My father was an architect, which didn’t give me much choice. He was working for quite a famous architect. He designed the house in which I was born and grew up in. I loved that house. Instead of playing with plastic doll-houses, my father would often bring back his models with which I played instead… carefully of course. He had a huge collection of architecture textbooks, and there were always magazines like “Domus” lying around. I really enjoyed looking through the pictures and deciding which houses and rooms I liked, and which ones I didn’t like. So before even knowing the word “architect” or knowing what the job entailed, I was already constructing my identity by developing my tastes. There is no one memory, but rather my entire childhood.
Takaharu Tezuka: My father was an architect for a big Japanese company. Like my wife, I too was surrounded by drawings and models. My plan was always to follow in my father’s footsteps, but I found myself drifting away from the 2D world of his drawing board and looking more into architecture books and magazines and building a repertoire of names, terminology and styles. By the time it came to apply to university, architecture already felt like second nature, and I applied to the faculty almost unconsciously. My undergrad was little more than a cakewalk, and my professor told me to go abroad to challenge myself.
TT: Harvard GSD, Princeton, NYC, and University of Pennsylvania. Harvard didn’t like me, but the others accepted me, and I chose U-Penn. I also got a scholarship.
EA: So after you got back to Japan from the States, what happened?
TT: Well the first thing I did was marry Yui.
YT: By the time Takaharu returned, I had already graduated from the Musashi Institute of Technology. He was offered a Job at Richard Rogers in London. Of course I followed him and went to study at UCL Bartlett.
TT: Not friends; he is my master. He is a great master, not a friend, but still we keep in touch. Only a few weeks ago we all had dinner together in Singapore.
EA: What were the most important things you learnt at each stage of your education?
TT: In Japan, I learned logic. At U-penn, I took Alex Wall’s studio. Before then I didn’t know the meaning of “concept.” Before, I used to strap on a concept to my project usually after the design, which is completely wrong of course. But since his studio, I learnt that concept was necessary to make good architecture. He used to say that “design was nothing more than outcome.” Mohsen Mostafavi, who is now the dean of Harvard GSD, used to teach at Penn when I was there. His class taught me that you should use logic to form your concept, and always somehow link it to society. The combination of Mohsen’s classes and Alex Wall’s design studio changed my life completely.
YT: If I’m honest, university was not that life-changing for me. The most important things about architecture I learnt at work, mainly at Richard Rogers.
YT: Sort of… While I was at the Bartlett, every day after classes, I went to Richard Rogers’ office to help out part-time. The office space there is beautiful and looks out directly onto the Thames, so we can enjoy the views. Back then, he had this policy where workers could bring close friends or girlfriends and boyfriends to help out on models and at the same time keep us company. It really felt like one big family.
EA: What would you say are the most valuable lessons you learnt whilst working for Lord Rogers?
TT: Many people who see his work wrongly assume he is a “high-tech” designer. But if there were two things which he spoke of almost always it was “life” and “people.” He was and still is a great humanist. He had very considered ideas about how life should be, and how people should live. I think a lot of my own philosophy of life, not just architecture, comes from him and his vision of the world. Yui is right; it really did feel like a big family over there. No other firm is like that.
EA: Many years on, and with many projects under your belt, do you feel that you can claim your own architectural philosophy and beliefs as your own, or are you finding that you can attribute a lot of them to your masters? Did your own architectural identity survive these powerful educators and influencers?
TT: I would say yes. However I’m not sure “survive” is the right word. Before Penn, I had very little in terms of an “identity,” architecturally. Instead of teaching explicit rules on design, the professors at Penn taught us how to think about architecture. As for Rogers, it’s a little more complicated. Of course he is to me the greatest influence but not in the way you might think. As I said before the two things he really taught me were “life” and “people.” Like him, these are the main parameters I consider in every design project, however the paths we take to enrich both, are different.
YT: That is easy. His mother’s house in Wimbledon. The first time I saw it, I fell in love. I was so moved, that I began to cry. It was so beautiful. It was in that moment that I realized that the most important lesson: that the design concept should always be able to be felt as soon as you enter inside, without any explanation. That is the tell-tale sign of great architecture.
EA: So when your UK visa ran out, and you had to return to Japan, how old were you? Did you already plan to start your firm upon your return? If so, how did you go about finding work?
TT: Actually the decision to start our own firm was a bit out of our hands. You see, the expiration of my work visa coincided with a call from my father, who mentioned to me that my uncle wanted to speak to me about offering us a project design a hospital in Japan… with a budget of $10,000,000. My father actually told my uncle that I was too young and inexperienced and not ready for a project of that scale, so he introduced him to the Kajima Corporation. Needless to say, I was furious. A few days later I flew back to Japan, and the first thing I did was tell my father to call my uncle back and tell him that I was ready. But my father said no again. Anyway, that didn’t stop me. After seeing the brief, we prepared all our drawings and a complete and comprehensive design proposal which I later presented one-on-one to my uncle. He liked it very much but unfortunately he also liked the other firm’s proposal. Anyway, a couple months later I got a call from my uncle saying that the other firm’s estimate came in at $16,000,000. He then asked me if I could do it for 10, to which I said “no problem.”
EA: Were you ready though? Were you in any way happy to leave your job in London?
TT: I had to be ready, I had no choice. As for Rogers, he could have helped me extend my visa, but when I told him I had a project and was seriously considering starting my own business he told me to go. There is one rule at Richard Rogers, and that is if a staff member wants to leave to start his or her own firm, you let that person go and wish them the best. He did say however that if I went bankrupt or if for some reason things didn’t work out, that there’d always be a job for me at his firm. Four years later he came to visit us in Japan, and the first thing he asked was “Are you bankrupt yet?” I laughed, and answered “Not yet.”
EA: What are your ambitions for the near future and also in the longer term?
TT: My long term ambition has always been to design an airport. I was actually trained as an airport designer at Richard Rogers, so I know everything there is to know about airports. As for short-term ambitions… I don’t have the time to think about what I want or would like to do; I am way too busy as it is. I guess finishing all the projects I have going on at the moment.
Sora no Mori clinic (2014). Image Courtesy of Tezuka Architects
EA: You have done many educational buildings and community centers. Did you ever get the chance to design any more hospitals after your first commission? Is it something that interests you?
TT: We did two more hospitals. The last one was the Sora no Mori clinic. It is a fertility clinic for women. Usually these sorts of clinic are found in conventional hospitals. And when you just stick women with these sorts of problems into these air conditioned box rooms in bad buildings, the success rate is never very high. Our clinic is on the island of Okinawa. Okinawa lost most of its forests during WWII when the Americans bombed it. This project is also to promote the revitalization of the forest. We liked the idea of a fertility clinic for both women and the land.
EA: In what ways is your clinic different than others?
TT: There is one very high tech treatment facility surrounded by clusters of pavilions all on ground level and all linked together by lush external courtyards. There are no corridors; you get from one place to the next by walking outside under the canopies. There is a real sense of openness. We also used a lot of timber internally and externally which is extremely rare in a medical facility. This gives our clinic a wholesome and domestic feel which really adds to the women’s wellbeing. Sure enough the pregnancy success rate at our clinic is much higher than the average; such is the power of good design.
TT: I have so many. One would be the Fuji Kindergarten. It’s an oval shaped school. And what was discovered after the project was complete was that the autistic students who attended the school showed little to know symptoms of their condition. Afterwards it was found that confined environments aggravated the symptoms. The Child Chemo house in Kobe is another. The radiation treatment that they have to endure destroys their immune system and they have to be quarantined for 6 months. Half a year away from your parents puts enormous stress on the entire family so we had the idea of surrounding the clinic with little houses that link both together so that families can stay together throughout this period. At the end the plan looked like a little village. This project took eight years, and now that’s it built, it clear to see that once again the survival rate at this children’s oncology clinic is much higher.
EA: So the projects that you are most proud of are the ones that expand the definition of architecture into a sort of cure?
TT: Yes. But these projects are not only cures. Most importantly they helped set new standards. This means that our projects will inspire countless others ones which means far more people will benefit from the innovations we made on just a few projects.
EA: Are there any projects that you are not so proud of?
TT: Yes. One. It’s quite ironic actually. Funnily enough, our biggest design mistake was the house we designed for ourselves. We built it for us and the child we were hoping to have. However after almost 10 years of trying, we gave up and my parents moved in with us instead. Shortly after they moved in, our baby was on the way. Now we live with our son in one bedroom and with the grand-parents downstairs. It is so horribly cramped, you cannot imagine.
EA: Japan is a country that, over the years, has endured a lot of hardship, from natural disasters, to war, terrorism, and economic crises. In spite of all this, it remains the third largest economy with less than 1/10th of China’s population. Words like “gambari” (perseverance) have become part of day-to-day conversation and integral to Japanese culture and philosophy. In your opinion, have hardship and resilience influenced style and architecture in any way?
TT: I would say so, yes. And here’s why. In a mild environment, like in the West, people are fooled into thinking they can control the environment. In Europe architects are very concerned about “comfort” and “ideals.” In Japan, whether it is an earthquake, volcano, typhoon, or tsunami, we are constantly being humbled by Mother Nature. When disaster strikes, your architecture will not save you. We are very aware of the unavoidable, and of our helplessness. And it is only then, with that realization that you learn to truly design with nature, and embrace all of it, from the beautiful to the fatal. I always say “we do not melt in the rain.”
EA: There are some Japanese Modernist principles like “ma” and “oku” which have become very popular. Are there any principles, words or driving concepts that you refer to or use in your designs?
TT: We are not architects who design according to a specific manifesto. There are no rules here. As Japanese architects, our ability to design, how and what we design is all in our genes. My grandfather’s house is in Saga. My family has been there for 350 years, although the house is only a little over a 100 years old. But how we live in that house is so natural. It is better than any modern house I have seen and precedes all the theories, all the famous names and all their work. That house holds so much wisdom.
EA: So if this “wisdom” is part of your genes, does someone like me, who isn’t Japanese, have any chance to acquire that knowledge?
TT: No. And you shouldn’t try. You are something else. In you lies something or maybe even many things that we Japanese will never be able to fully understand. Part of Japan’s success in architecture, is that we do not try to be international; it is far better to be unique. We try to be true to ourselves and our past; we are not seeking to please everyone. And nor should you.
Architect Project Team: Peter Rose, Matthew Snyder, Erkin Ozay, Jon Chace, Grace Escano, Duong Bui, VW Fowlkes, Stani Iordanova, Shu Lai Talun, Nathan Fash
Climate Engineer: Transsolar Klima Engineering
Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
From the architect. Nestled into the native shrubs of the Martha’s Vineyard coastline, East House’s site-cast concrete façade welcomes tendrils of coastal vines while providing a robust barrier to New England’s coastal weather. The ten-inch-thick concrete walls are cast in the form of a collection of concrete boxes, relieved with sustainably harvested Spanish Cedar window frames, and oriented to achieve both subtle and dramatic responses to the landscape.
Diagram
During design, a commissioned study revealed a rate of coastal bluff erosion that made both client and architect extremely uncomfortable with the siting of the residence. The solution was to cast the floors – formerly wood-framed – in concrete, making each box a three or four-sided structural unit that could be individually lifted and moved to a location far from the bluff, should erosion occur. The 4,000 square foot house is thus divided into concrete boxes – individually liftable with all interior finishes in place, and interstitial corridors – light wood framed zones that can be easily removed and rebuilt if the building is moved.
Each box has a rugged concrete exterior and is finished with interior stone floors. The interior walls are clad in Douglas Fir and Alaskan Cedar, which are soft to touch, but extremely durable in the rough coastal weather. Circulation travels along the interior figure of the boxes through interstitial spaces both rough-framed and finished in wood, and is choreographed to an ever-more-revealing experience of the site. Strategic through-views to surrounding greenery direct visitors from the entrance to a library and living area.
Embedded in the natural landscape, East House is nearly invisible from points further up the slope. The concrete shell is cantilevered over the landscape, allowing for expanses of glass along five walls. Operable windows pull back, and the gap between the concrete units amplifies the sound of the ocean, bringing it along with sea breezes through the entire house. A planted roof caps each box individually, mitigating run-off while further visually integrating the building with the lush landscape. Rainwater is collected in the interstitial roofs, directed to a single Mahogany flue, and cast into a below-ground
The site of La Duranne is exceptional.The construction process always leads to a modification. The question of the natural, architectural urban landscape allows to relate the construction to its development in the time.
The question of the structure is here an important point. A logic close to landscape, to the light and to the structure. It allows to draw a link between the existing and changing landscape with also a notion of effectiveness. The structure will provide to the multi-purpose hall the ability to deliver the different goods. In this way, the particularity of this program is the multi-purpose option. A special attention will be taken to the structure studies : efficiency, cost-efficient and multo-purposal.
We prefer the liberation of bearing points to allow the users to develop themselves. The question of development will be a key element during the approach.The pre fabrication services are promoted : interesting cost-efficient. This technic improves a clean building site. The speed of realization is also an important point which creates a minimum incidence on its environment.
For over ten years the municipality of Krumbach pursued a very committed construction program, which essentially concerned the structural development of the village center. The rectory is seen as a preliminary ‘milestone’ in this process. In its function as a cultural and multipurpose building, the rectory plays an important role in Krumbach’s public life, reinforced by its spatial presence in the in the village square. Inside the building, a parish hall (small village hall), the parish office with rectory as well as a library and the rehearsal room for the music club and choir. The diverse range of uses provides additional vitalization and attractiveness for Krumbach’s village center.
The Rectory is a socially sustainable building, demonstrating a well-considered intervention led by a small community’s effort to provide a form of infrastructure to its citizens that best supports and promotes a lively village life.
Sig Nordal 