© Joonhwan-Yoon

• Architects: ON Architecture
• Location: Ulsan, South Korea
• Architect In Charge: Woongsik-Jung
• Design Team: Hyukki-Kim, Hansol-Yoon
• Area: 281.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Joonhwan-Yoon

• Partner In Charge: Namsu-Kim
• Site Area: 1,956 sqm
• Building Area: 253 sqm

© Joonhwan-Yoon

From the architect. The project was to create a new living space in place of an existing old house where a couple has kept their country life. The main concern for the project was that introducing a unifying space of programs and nature while preserving the garden and site surroundings adorned by the couple over a long period of time. The new house is designed as a rural house which all elements such as living space, office and spacious log storage(indispensable for country house) permeate each other without losing their own independency.

© Joonhwan-Yoon

The site has a spectacular view to the east, yet it loses the sunlight relatively early due to the mountains in the south. Therefore, in response to these factors, the house is arranged to make a shape so that not only the whole space can be exposed to the sunlight as much as possible, but also the house can exploit a good view toward the east with a small pond near the village as well as the surrounding mountains. The Y shape helps to connect the house, the office and the storage and also secures a separated outdoor space for each space as it works as an intermediate space projecting toward two different directions.

Plan 1

Plan 2

The converging point of Y, the heart of the house is arranged after a delicate research on views to all directions from the point. It embraces the living area and provides an immersive spatial narrative which is rendered by a communication between the main floored room (Daecheongmaru) and the outside void garden.

© Joonhwan-Yoon

© Joonhwan-Yoon

The architect asks himself a question whenever he designs a house; ‘what do we need most to create an affluent life in terms of space?’, and he believes the simplest answer is Korean style space where native Koreans have belonged until now. After various experimentations on modernization of Korean space, the architect has found out that diverse communications with outdoor space is the key to lead an abundant life in country houses. Therefore, in this project, many outdoor gardens such as upper garden, entrance garden, void garden, service garden, sky garden, crocks garden are produced. And then a number of modernized Korean style floored areas such as Daecheongmaru, Numaru and Toenmaru are designed to promote communication between the inside and those outside gardens.

© Joonhwan-Yoon

Especially the Sarangbang located in the east work as a barrier against the direct sunlight in the morning and also as secondary view point separated from the Daecheongmaru and the living area. The diagonal glass wall line of living room helps the livingroom to embrace the Daecheongmaru as it draws the landscape of inner garden and void garden deeply in to the inside, and also it helps the livingroom to become a cool lounge area in summer as it increases the speed of wind flows across the Daecheongmaru. All of these various spaces of the house will lead the client to an abundant life.

© Joonhwan-Yoon

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© Rachel Kay

• Architects: Miró Rivera Architects
• Location: Austin, TX, United States
• Area: 8070.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2013
• Photographs: Rachel Kay

• Contractor: Dalgleish Construction Company
• Interior Decorator: Rachel Mast Design

© Rachel Kay

When the new owner of this 1980s house called for a complete renovation, the architects saw the opportunity to transform its dark, dated interiors while taking better advantage of the home’s spectacular location atop a promontory offering a 180-degree view of Lake Austin and the rolling hills beyond. 

© Rachel Kay

The existing driveway and garage, which had occupied a large area of prime real estate at the center of the property, were reconfigured in order to provide for a generous, landscaped courtyard accessed by a series of stepped terraces faced with Pennsylvania bluestone. What had previously been a vehicle- centric motor court was transformed into a pedestrian-oriented space that, by emphasizing natural elements like the property’s oak trees, establishes a clear sequence of entry into the house. 

© Rachel Kay

Plan

© Rachel Kay

To bring natural elements closer to the house, the existing pavement was removed and replaced with landscaped Korean grass and river rocks, suggesting a quality of peace and tranquility. An aluminum overhang above the front door not only protects visitors from the Texas sun, but also provides a varied texture that subtly accentuates the entry, drawing visitors into the home. 

© Rachel Kay

Inside, what was once a fragmented collection of spaces was reorganized according to a clear hierarchy. The most significant alteration was the relocation of the fireplace. Before, upon entering the house, visitors were immediately greeted by an unobstructed view of the panoramic backdrop to the living room. Now, the relocated fireplace conceals this view, separating the space, allowing the view to be gradually revealed as one transitions into the openness of the living and dining area. 

© Rachel Kay

This central great room acts as a hinge point between the east wing housing the dining room, kitchen, breakfast area, wine cellar, and children’s rooms; and the west wing containing the master suite, home office, and exercise room. Zebrawood cabinets, Brazilian cherry floors, and the distinctive, textured fireplace clad in stainless steel mesh accent the interior’s subdued material palette. 

© Rachel Kay

In contrast to the existing interiors, which felt dark and claustrophobic despite the presence of floor-to- ceiling windows throughout the residence, the renovated interior spaces focus outward, maximizing the connection to the surrounding landscape. An existing stone terrace along the home’s rear perimeter was reconfigured to create a transitional space between interior and exterior. A sweeping aluminum trellis unifies this zone, providing shade and capturing breezes outdoors while framing views from the interior. By concealing the relentless geometry of the deck’s angled roof, the trellis creates a softer edge that draws the eye outwards to the surrounding landscape. Meanwhile, an expanded ipe deck with built-in seating steps down to a zero-edge pool serviced by a small outdoor bar, all set against the seemingly limitless backdrop of the hill country beyond. 

© Rachel Kay

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This video, presented by the BBC, takes a look at the work of Zaha Hadid as inspired by her favorite artist: the Russian Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich. Featuring interviews with the dame herself, the narrative looks all the way back to Hadid’s origins, including her time at the Architectural Association School in London. It was there that she designed “Malevich’s Tektonik,” a hotel along the Thames River based upon the works of Malevich. Hadid believed that this work radically drove the architectural outlook she would employ for the remainder of her career:

“I was very fascinated by abstraction and how it really could lead to abstracting plans, moving away from certain dogmas about what architecture is. That project really liberated me, freed me from all these rules.”

Check out the video, currently on display as part of the Zaha Hadid retrospective at the Venice Biennale, for more on how Hadid drew inspiration from the Russian artist.

Spotlight: Zaha Hadid
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© Jeremias Gonzalez

• Architects: Atelier 56S
• Location: Paris, France
• Area: 102.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Jeremias Gonzalez

© Jeremias Gonzalez

An ancient parking lot was divided into different apartments in the heart of Paris. To transform this raw surface into apartments, the project management wanted the structure to keep its industrial aspect.

Plan

The main challenge was to take advantage of the unique light source: South-oriented and situated in one of the apartment’s angles. The idea was to compact the night area to benefit from a higher flexibility in the living space. Peripheral wood furniture, serving as library, kitchen, desk and storage, was made to create space and visual continuity in the whole apartment. A mobile wall can occasionally be used to host friends.

© Jeremias Gonzalez

© Jeremias Gonzalez

The concrete beams and ceiling remain to keep the spirit of the place, while lessening the resonance thanks to a wooden slats-made false ceiling.

© Jeremias Gonzalez

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A feature Instagram users have spent years longing for is finally here: Zoom. Just released today, the update to the iOS app finally will allow you to pinch to zoom in on photos and videos, just like you can in most photo viewing apps (no more screenshotting necessary!). This means you can now get a closer look at the architectural details of your favorite buildings on Instagram, from doorways to moldings to joints. Though be warned, just because you can make it bigger doesn’t mean it will necessarily be clearer – Instagram still will only support images 1080 pixels wide.

See it in action after the break.

A video posted by Instagram (@instagram) on Aug 31, 2016 at 8:00am PDT

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For now, zoom is only supported on iPhones, but Instagram is expected to roll out the feature for Android phones in the coming weeks.

News via the Verge.

The 25 Instagram Feeds to Follow Now
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25 Instagram Feeds to Follow Now (Part II)
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25 Architecture Instagram Feeds to Follow Now (Part III)
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© Photomark

• Architects: SANTOS BOLIVAR
• Location: Villa de Juárez, B.C., México
• Designer: José Antonio de los Santos Bolívar
• Collaborators: Giancarlo Reyes Olguín, Gustavo Torres Paramo, Roberto Amaya Alvarado
• Area: 1200 ft2
• Year Of Project: 2014
• Photographies: Photomark

• Structural Calculation: Servicios profesionales de ingeniería
• Art And Exhibitions: Héctor Herrera

© Photomark

Located in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, the most important enological zone in the country. This experimental Project base on the idea of a origami paper transfer to metal.

© Photomark

Floor Plan

© Photomark

This is a building of craftmanship caracter, dynamic and adventourous. It reflects the identity of the craft beer that is offered in this place with the name of Media Perra.

The context where is located the project is surrounded by mountains and silhouettes that these mountains Project. One of the ideas was to generate these silhouettes and build the main structure only with folds that will form walls and roofs, and create a volumetn of Media Perra. 

© Photomark

We analized the solar path  and shades to create different abstract planes and lighting details inside and outside the tasting room.

© Photomark

The sustainable concepts that we use often in our firm in all the projects are very important. The outside layer of the building consist in two layers of rust metal with a layer of straw in the middle, and the walls are made of adobe block, a trademark of the Kumiai natives living near by.

The building is oriented to take advantage of natural resources in result having a natural ventilation because is located in a very dry area with extreme weather conditions. 

© Photomark

© Photomark

The shape of the roof help accumulate water, and natural lighting is made of recycle bottles with water, and doors and furniture are made of recycle metal, product of the facade.

Diagram

Even that the project is only 1200 ft2 the interiors are designed to directly connect between spaces, creating large and dynamic áreas. Media Perra is seeking an experience of identity and dialog between frequent visitors.

© Photomark

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It’s the year 2036 in Generic City, a gloomy place where once mighty skyscrapers are lucky to be in decrepit condition, if they haven’t already been swallowed by the ever-increasing number of sinkholes appearing throughout the city. But the city is not lifeless: a constant hum echoes about the city, a well-choreographed churning motion in pursuit of one central activity. In this city, the world’s most precious commodity—not gold, not diamonds, not even black gold but just simple, fresh water is under the total control of a mega-corporation named Turquoise. The people are ruled by an oppressive autocracy and life is divided between the haves and have-nots. Life revolves around access to water.

Is this the opening paragraph of the latest dystopian novel? No, but it might be Joshua Dawson’s interpretation of our troubling future. With CÁUSTICO, an ode to the growing tradition of “speculative design fiction” pioneered by countercultural avant-gardists of the 1960s (think Archigram, Superstudio and Archizoom) Dawson exaggerates the implications of current social phenomena for the purposes of rhetoric. While the truthfulness of his vision is a little on the improbable side, the work is an eye-opening narrative on the increasing scarcity of fresh water. At the same time, Dawson’s dystopic vision opens a conversation about the relationship of the architect with utopianism, while his representational techniques brings up the question of what exactly the work of the architect entails.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

The project’s 5-minute video clip begins with a moody sequence that looks like the usual B-roll for an apocalyptic film, but in contrast to this surrealist vision, Dawson aims to address the very real and very tangible problem of water scarcity. In support of this, his clip is populated with curated audio from actual news reports on water privatization, climate change and groundwater mining. As Dawson explains:

Water is the Blue Gold of the 21st century. Due to increasing urbanization, the continued rise of the population, shifting climates and industrial pollution, fresh water is becoming humanity’s most precious resource. Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can and are driven to commodify what many feel is a basic human right.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

Worldwater.org reports that historical armed conflict over freshwater resources extends as far back as 3000 BC in Ancient Sumer, which highlights just how crucial and important fresh water is. A well or spring within your city’s borders decided whether one would survive or perish in a siege. In the global market of the 21st century, drinking bottled water has become a widely accessible but somewhat wasteful commodity—you can freely enjoy Perrier from France, San Pellegrino from Italy, or Fiji Water from its namesake. However, this ceaseless extraction does come with a price to pay. A number of large metropolitan areas have experienced drought-like conditions in recent years. Quite spectacularly, as California faces its fifth consecutive year of drought, mega conglomerate Nestlé continues to extract as much as 36 million gallons of freshwater from its national parks, all to the tune of a $524 yearly permit.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

Dawson predicts that this continued extraction will produce the new landscape of the future—cavernous sinkholes, and subsidence which will cause buildings to lean like the tower of Pisa. These new contexts give birth to the architectural typologies of the future: water tanks, siphons, wells, and subterranean mansions along with a new pattern of economic zoning that is articulated through verticality. With water so central to Dawson’s envisioned future, its private owner, a mega-corporation named Turquoise, becomes the governing power in the area and controls all of development. With Dawson’s Indian background in mind, it’s not difficult to perceive that the city of Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi where governmental planning is replaced by corporations with carte blanche, may have served as an inspiration for this view of urbanism.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

Dawson himself mentions that CÁUSTICO was inspired by Liam Young’s Corporate Dystopian Cities, which is also another way of saying that the renderings are not likely to become reality. Speculative works such as these reformulate the common narrative of the modern architect as a utopian visionary, instead presenting an outrageously negative future as a service to mankind—a warning to society, and a call take more control of the built world. While none of the visualized architectural representations will ever be constructed, they contribute towards an improved built environment by inciting discussion. The fascinating contradiction of dystopian narratives is how they highlight the ceaseless opportunistic spirit of man to conquer any environment, with architecture and construction as a primary tool. Consider the advanced infrastructure found in your favorite dystopic novel which served as the lifeline of a struggling group of rebels, or the rickety shelter that was the only beacon of hope in a character’s desolate world. Heroic narratives rarely evade architectural discourse.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

But is this architecture? Many might be tempted to say no, citing the project’s embrace of speculative fiction rather than concrete reality, where the real domain of architecture lies. But is that how restrictive we’d like to think architecture to be? What’s interesting about Dawson’s presentation is the lack of an architectural entourage to populate the renderings. Under normal circumstances, these human figures with carefree expressions contribute to the presentation of an architectural vision. With scenes like visibly happy children running in a plaza they show how life is improved by this design, convincing the audience that the architect is doing their job—they’re making lives better. This is why representation is not only an integral and necessary tool but also the actual product of architecture—a concept that Beatriz Colomina has been known for supporting. The speculative architect is still an architect.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

Instead of this entourage, Dawson has provided a series of dialogues with fictional residents of the city, and they are effective. Instead of visual cues to paint a story of how a building affects the user, there is vivid storytelling to achieve the same end. The technique remains comfortably within the architectural toolbox: non-architecture is that which has no affect on humans and that certainly isn’t the case for Dawson’s design. In spite of its downright impossibility, what makes this project significant is how it impacts upon human life, and creates a conversation between built form, society and our individual lives.

Courtesy of Joshua Dawson

We understand the architecture profession as that which is primarily concerned with innovations that will improve society and life of man—this is the heroic tangent that architecture has followed since the days of the 20th century avant gardes and the formation of CIAM. In this case, should it be required that architects produce tangible and concrete innovations (buildings) in pursuit of this endeavor? Josh Dawson’s work seems to be the antithesis to that. Many fear that architecture is losing its relevance, but projects such as Dawsons suggest that in fact architecture is simply expanding its reach.

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© Nelson Kon

• Architects: SPBR Arquitetos , Baserga Mozzetti Architetti
• Location: Lugano, Switzerland
• Architect In Charge: Angelo Bucci
• Area: 2661.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2013
• Photographs: Nelson Kon

• Team: Tatiana Ozzetti, Ciro Miguel, Eric Ennser, Giovanni Meirelles de Faria, João Paulo Meirelles de Faria, Juliana Braga, Nilton Suenaga, Fernanda Cavallaro, Joaquin Corvalan, Victor Próspero) Baserga Mozzetti Architetti (Nicola Baserga, Christian Mozzetti, Marilena Quadranti, Thea Delorenzi
• Structure: Ingegneri Pedrazzini Guidotti (Andrea Pedrazzini, Eugenio Pedrazzini, Roberto Guidotti, Karin Lehmann e Ladislao Ricci)
• Facade: Feroplan Engineering (Marc Bischoff)
• Building Physics : Physarch (Mirko Galli)
• Mep: Studio Tecnico Ferreti (Idalgo Ferreti); Crivelli; Aircond; ACR Energiebohr
• Eletric Installations: Elettronorma (Daniele Ruess, Daniele Baruffaldi), Etavis (Mauro Marzini)
• Fire Protection: Studio Tecnico Geo Viviani
• Waterproofing: Visetti Isolazioni
• Lighting: Reka (Ricardo Heder); Tulux
• Builder: Pedrazzini Construzioni (Luigi Pedrazzini e Alan Del Giorgio)

© Nelson Kon

Introduction / acknowledgments
The accurate study previously done by Nicola Baserga and Christian Mozzetti, more than providing basic information about land use regulations in Lugano, gave us a reliable direction to our design concept. They provided us a good foundation for our proposal and due to their previous work, the project was already advanced before it even started. 

© Nelson Kon

© Nelson Kon

Geometry
The irregular polygon which defines the site has seven sides and holds about 1,000 m². The setbacks imprint an inner polygon (with a curve in one corner) that corresponds to a 330 m² area in which it was possible to build 3 m above ground level. However, inside that inner figure we could only have 230 m² per floor, considering the maximum height allowed (six floors) and the building program. The geometry of the slabs has two centers, as two cores of activities. On first three floors, it corresponds to one small apartment each, and for the three upper floors, it corresponds to two different programs in one large apartment. 

Structure
The design of the structure follows those two cores. Each core is supported by a “T” concrete wall that supports vertical and horizontal loads. The “T” wall is associated to two columns for vertical loads. Both cores are structurally combined which their “T”s perpendicularly displayed in order to support horizontal efforts in both directions. A lonely extra thin column, placed on the extreme north, frees the slab geometry to configure areas where it wouldn’t be possible.

© Nelson Kon

Such disposition of vertical elements waives the slabs of having beams. Therefore the slab plane has no clearly readable direction as usually happens with a structure with beams. As a result, once inside the building, the rigorous geometry of walls and columns cannot be easily understood. As if, once built, the building gives away its essence to be broken into parts, back to the surrounding geometry and the landscape.

© Nelson Kon

Facades
Each façade is either an opaque plane, made with wood panels, or a transparent one, made with glazing panels. The opaque plane always meets a transparent one. As a result, from inside, the view has always an escape to the outside. On the other hand, from outside, the building volume seems like not having solids, just by planes.    

© Nelson Kon

Ground level
The ground level is an open passage. Specifically for those who have the building as a destination, the ground level shares two different programs: housing and office.

© Nelson Kon

The office space is placed slightly sunk in the middle of the garden. As a result its height is shorter than that we typically associate to an inhabited construction and one cannot immediately realize its function. Besides, it was carefully placed aside the path and protected by the two structural reinforced concrete wall. As such, it merges two contrasting features: on the one hand it is quite discrete; on the other hand it brings some vitality to a peripheral corner of the site.
At this level, the housing program is just announced by a small abstract prism, the elevator hall, whose size and feature were carefully calibrated not predominate in that space.

© Nelson Kon

Plan

© Nelson Kon

Neither house nor office, the predominance on the ground level is an open space. Although surrounded by gardens, the ground here is completely constructed.. 

© Nelson Kon

Underground level
There are two floors underground: the parking garage and the storage. The parking garage covers the entire available area, about 650 m2, and it is shallow enough to allow us to keep an historical retaining wall, and its function, at Pico street. This floor is full naturally lit and ventilated, and the access is provided by a gentle ramp, even for walking standards. It results that the ambience at this space is perceived as placed on the surface and not as a typical undergrounded one. The storage, 250 m2, has an inner perimeter inscribed in the previous floor. The setback from the boundaries avoids the use of both double high retaining walls and excavation on the border.

© Nelson Kon

Low energy 
All façade panels were designed following parameters defined by our consultant in order to achieve the best energetic performance. The wood panel outside is ventilated and assembled on a frame which holds successive layers of thermal insulation, vapor barrier and an inside drywall panel. The glazing has triple glass panels on aluminum frame. The south and west glass facades are shaded by a retractable aluminum louver.

© Nelson Kon

Controlled ventilation
Thermal losses are drastically reduced due to a mechanical system of controlled ventilation, independent in each apartment.

© Nelson Kon

Geothermal system
One more strategy adopted to reduce drastically energy consumption for heating and cooling is the geothermal system. Four geothermal probes go down 225 m into vertical loops.  

Diagram

All these issues aim a low energy building and allow to achieve the Swiss standard for energy consumption, the Minergie.   

© Nelson Kon

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OMA's Taipei Performing Arts Center Facade Unveiled. Image © OMA by Chris Stowers

The scaffolding obscuring the facade of OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Center has begun to come down, exposing the aluminum exteriors of the spherical Proscenium Playhouse and the Multiform Theatre for the first time. Upon completion, the experimental building will feature a looped public pathway, flexible auditoriums and unique stage environments. Construction on the building is now moving full speed ahead, with an expected opening date in June 2017.

Continue on for more images of the in-progress building.

OMA's Taipei Performing Arts Center Facade Unveiled. Image © OMA by Chris Stowers

The Taipei Performing Arts Center will house three theaters in total: the 1,500-seat Grand Theatre, the 800-seat Multiform Theatre designed with a flexible layout for experimental performances and the spherical 800-seat Proscenium Playhouse, which serves as perhaps the most iconic element of the facade. The three theaters will be joined together by a transparent central cube containing shared backstage and technical facilities that will allow the theaters to be used independently or in tandem, expanding the potential for experimental theater pieces.

OMA's Taipei Performing Arts Center Facade Unveiled. Image © OMA by Chris Stowers

OMA won the design competition for Taipei Performing Arts Center in January 2009, with construction beginning in 2012.

Read ArchDaily’s interview with OMA partner-in-charge David Gianotten here and follow the links below for past coverage of the building.

OMA wins competition for the Taipei Performing Arts Centre
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OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Center breaks ground
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OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) Tops Out
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© Nelson Garrido

• Architects: AZO. Sequeira Arquitectos Associados
• Location: Braga, Portugal
• Area: 515.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2011
• Photographs: Nelson Garrido

• Authors: Mário Sequeira, Alfredo Machado
• Team: Nuno Veiga

© Nelson Garrido

From the architect. Located in the periphery of the city of Braga, this lot has 815 m2. It is placed in a hillside and it is in the privileged visual alignment for the city. With a total of 3 floors, the housing was thought of form to adapt it the declivity of the land, allowing a good functioning and joint of all spaces, preventing a construction with too much impact, keeping with involving a balanced relation allowing the creation of a useful exterior space. 

© Nelson Garrido

Section

© Nelson Garrido

The intermediate floor is composed for the social zone, constituted of the kitchen, main room and room of games. These spaces become related with the exterior zone where if it finds the swimming pool and the garden. The superior floor is destined to the private area of the building and groups in three suites and an office. In the inferior floor it is placed garage. The totality of the volume is composed for the white color, and the contrast of the glass with the black metal of the doors and windows.

© Nelson Garrido

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