© Nelson Garrido

• Architects: AZO. Sequeira Arquitectos Associados
• Location: Guimaraes, Portugal
• Authors: Mário Sequeira, Alfredo Machado
• Team: Nuno Veiga
• Area: 650.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2010
• Photographs: Nelson Garrido

• Structural Engineer: Engª Carlos Alves

© Nelson Garrido

From the architect. We would need about 650 square meters to fill the requests of this six people family. The house would have to be spread over three floors in order to adjust to the 10 meters in height difference between the extremes of the longitudinal field.

© Nelson Garrido

The landscape was nice. Would make sense to put the social and private areas exploring the large panoramic views through the city of Guimarães and the natural light from the beautiful sunset in the west mountains.

Sketch

Sketch

On the ground floor is the larger enjoyable area of plot, where we can find the living and dining rooms, the kitchen and the pool deck, always with the possibility of merge the interior space with outer space by moving the slinding doors.

© Nelson Garrido

Section

© Nelson Garrido

On the middle floor is the sleeping rooms and the highest floor works likes the main access to the house. Here is the office and an outdoor balcony that enjoys the best view of the whole building.

© Nelson Garrido

The dark gray color applied to the building volumes fall it in the surroundings and the interior courtyards transforms its mass in contemplative zones.

© Nelson Garrido

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© Spiret&Prévert

• Architects: Atelier d'architecture Pierre Hebbelinck – Pierre de Wit
• Location: Mons, Belgium
• Area: 2800.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Spiret&Prévert

• Engineering: GREISCH
• Special Technics: BE Pierre Berger
• Scenography: Spiret&Prévert
• Signaletic: Spiret&Prévert
• Multimedia: Christian Barani
• Historian: José Gotovitch, Emmanuel Debruyne
• Programmation: Aubry&Guiguet Programmation

© Spiret&Prévert

From the architect. The edifice of the Machine-à-Eau enjoys a key position in the civilian, architectural and urbanism history of the city of Mons. The listed building remains at the heart of an ambitious, complex project, since both contemporary extensions complete the historic building on both sides, encompassing it is a whole bearing the sense of its new function.

© Spiret&Prévert

The project responds to two urbanism components: one is founded on the evolution of the city (revolution of the behaviour of a movement in the nineteenth century). This notion of hinge will make the building into the articulation of the project. The second designates the immediate environment of the Machine-à-Eau, which is made up of an indefinite sum of spaces that deserved to be rehabilitated.

© Spiret&Prévert

The project resolves these various decompositions by reestablishing a contiguous front on the angle of the Boulevard Dolez, etching the new templates in the typological continuation by leaving their own identities to ancient buildings and enhancing them. The existing light, open aspect and cantilever symbolise the effort and difficult equilibrium of peace under which we find a memorial space.

© Spiret&Prévert

Floor Plan

© Spiret&Prévert

The museum intent follows the chronology of Mons’ civilian and military history. The natural light of the Machine-à-Eau symbolises periods of freedom whilst the annexes shed a light on the more introspective character.

© Spiret&Prévert

The matters are light, memory and History. The materials used are steel, brick and glass.

© Spiret&Prévert

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© colectivoMEL

• Architects: colectivoMEL
• Location: Guiné-Bissáu
• Construction: Barrote
• Authors : Hugo Dourado, Ana Baptista
• Area: 200.0 m2
• Year Of Project: 2016
• Photographies: colectivoMEL

• Employer: Fé e Cooperação (NGO)
• Funded By: Instituto Camões, União Europeia

© colectivoMEL

The Environment

We thought of this project watching the environment, the sun, the marks of the rain, the wind and the children. In Guiné-Bissau our concepts are abstract.
There the architecture is made up of two parts, inner space and outer space with transitional space codes.

© colectivoMEL

The interior is intimate shelter!
It’s a place for protection, dark, windowless and small. It’s mass and matter.
The exterior is the stage of all happenings! Outside bodies are washed, hair is cut food is prepared and eaten, one remains expectant watching the action that unfolds in exterior of the houses, people play, talk, grow up, marry.

© colectivoMEL

These two spaces, indoor and outdoor are limited by the coverage that is the maximum expression of vernacular architecture.The cover protects the interior from rain, the exterior of the heat and marks building in Nature.

Floor Plan

Concept
We took the lesson from “djemberens”, a cover that houses a “djumbai”. That cover houses the action, of a child painting the tree that sees projected on the curved wall of a child who discovers two distinct sounds when walking the steps with different materials. of four children who discover their reflection in the mirror and they laugh. of other children running through the narrow walls that resemble a maze and do not see another one that hides in a small niche of two dozen children aware listen to “The Silence of the Agua” from J. Saramago in the room open to the cashew trees. Mass and matter at service of children, stimulating them. A Garden space where birds fly and sing, and so do children.

© colectivoMEL

The project is developed according to the North / South axis in its larger facades, considered the most favourable orientation in order to control insolation. The spaces largely open and covered help ventilation and prevent overheating. The large sloped roof protects the structure during the rainy season. The kindergarten buildings integrate with school pre-existing buildings, and promote the control of exterior spaces, forming the ground for the school environment. The project respects Nature integrating wherever possible the pre-existing trees and enjoying their shading as part of the project.

© colectivoMEL

The choice of materials was based on the observation of the various local construction systems, resource efficiency, durability and use of the local empirical knowledge. The constructive options solve and prevent problems such as overheating or flooding, termite invasion and degradation caused by the use and the strong climatic characteristics. We used a mixed structure of iron and wood profiles, which limits the space and support a thatched cover.

© colectivoMEL

The kindergarten is prepared at its base to house 100 children divided into two shifts, 50 children per shift and follows the defined dimensions of 1,5m2 per child dimension to which we added 1m2 of covered outdoor space. Each room is designed for a maximum of 25 children, and in those cases where it is necessary to accommodate 150 children, the space grows, forming another room.

© colectivoMEL

The whole project is designed in order to involve the community from the first moment of conception to materialisation of the proposal, with the objective to promote ownership and identification of users with the equipment that we propose.

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© Takumi Ota

• Architects: Hiroki Tominaga-Atelier
• Location: Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
• Architects In Charge: Hiroki Tominaga, Yae Fujima
• Area: 112.66 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Takumi Ota

© Takumi Ota

From the architect. This is the second house at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Because of deep forest, we can’t see the shape of mountain, but the south side of the site is a part of Mt. Fuji.

The Client wants to make Loft space, so we decided Shed roof which is opened to Mt.Fuji.

© Takumi Ota

On the other hand, if we chose the shed roof, heavy snow falls to the north side of the house in winter, and north entrance will be buried in snow.

Section Detail

So we started redesigning the roof from regarding the Shed roof as one plate which drops snow and rain. We fixed the slant of the roof, but fold it In a longitudinal direction, to redesign how to drop snow and rain.

© Takumi Ota

Approach terrace penetrates into the house volume and it divides this house to two volumes.

© Takumi Ota

The shed roof is folded in the mountain fold over this entrance approach, so snow and rain fall beside this approach. When we fold it in the valley fold, we can gather the snow beside the parking space. On the rainy day, we can see the rain fall from the valley of the roof from the picture window.

1st Floor Plan

In the lounge space surrounding wood stove, we can find the Valley of ceiling in the big room. It divides one room gently, then we started to consider how to use the space.

© Takumi Ota

As response to the roof design, the slop and step is installed into the house, it is like another landscape for the clients who loves the outdoor life for example trekking or mountain bike.

© Takumi Ota

© Takumi Ota

Loft space connects two volume of the house, and also act as the daylighting space and ventilation wind tunnel which keeps room condition comfortable in the passive way.

© Takumi Ota

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© Kim jong oh

• Architects: ISON Architects
• Location: Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Desing Team: Jean Son, Minji Kim
• Area: 369.91 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Kim jong oh

• Construction: STUGA

© Kim jong oh

This house is for a residence and a studio of the percussion musician. Four plots are arrayed facing one another alongside two streets and in two houses on each plot parents and grandmother of the musician are already reside. Two plots are still empty and on two empty plots, houses would be planned. 

© Kim jong oh

We started from the placement of this house as a part of the masterplan based in the idea that one individual house on each and every plot. Eventually four houses for 3 generation were arranged around a courtyard in the center. Each house were consist of a low pitched roof on the first floor gathering toward the courtyard and a mass -placed on the upper floor of the low pitched roof – at the corner side toward the street.  

© Kim jong oh

The pitched roof on the first floor is rising toward the street side and it is automatically connected to the mass on the second floor. On that mass, private rooms are placed and under the pitched roof, there are studios and living room. Studios for practicing and recording were given an open characteristic by placing them next to the inner courtyard and street since there might be frequent visitor access. We placed the living room between the studios and the private rooms to act as a loose connection.

Plan

The structure and interior of the house is mainly wooden, since the sound was the most important factor while considering the proper structure. Two elements are creating a relationship between the performance place and the courtyard, one is a long and low –height is 2.2m- opening toward the courtyard, and the other one is a sufficient –depth is 1.8m- awning continues along the front facade. In addition we set a wooden folding door –it serves for a visual depth- on the inner side of the long and low opening for controlling the sound reflection of glass. We set a skylight at the meeting point of the pitched roof and the upper mass for the effective penetration of the natural light to deep space. And also, the cube formed mass and pitched roof were separated.     

© Kim jong oh

The cube formed mass on the second floor was consisted of rooms and terrace with a high density which is a clear contrast of spacious 1^st floor. And orange-colored dry bit was applied on the exterior of this mass considering the most frequently used material in the neighborhood, the brick.  

Plan

The fence as a boundary between the street and site is emphasizing vertical line by 10mm thick iron flat bar with 100mm interval which are aliened in diverse height reacting sometimes to the mass of the house and sometimes to the courtyard for solving opening and privacy at the same time. 

© Kim jong oh

Experiencing the unique sequence of space from street, courtyard, studio, living room on the first floor, terrace on the upper floor and finally to the dramatically opened roof top might provide rich architectural images not only to the residents but also to the visitors –mostly musicians-

© Kim jong oh

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© Ethan Rohloff Photography

• Designers: Turf Design Studio, Environmental Partnership, Alluvium, Turpin+Crawford, Dragonfly and Partridge
• Location: Sydney Park Rd, Sydney NSW, Australia
• Area: 16000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Ethan Rohloff Photography, Simon Wood, Adam Hunter, Turf Design Studio + Environmental Partnership, Courtesy of The City of Sidney

© Ethan Rohloff Photography

Much has been achieved over the past two decades to transform the Sydney Park site from its former post-industrial history and waste disposal, into 44 hectares of parkland and a vital asset for the growing communities of Sydney’s southern suburbs.

Plan

This project forms the City of Sydney’s largest environmental project to date, built in partnership with the Australian Government through the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan. It is an integral component of Sustainable Sydney 2030; targeting 10% of water demand to be met through local water capture and re-use in the park. The City also seized the once in a lifetime opportunity to use what was essentially an infrastructure project to breathe new life into the park – as a vibrant recreation and environmental asset for Sydney.

© Ethan Rohloff Photography

The City engaged a design team led by landscape architects Turf Design Studio & Environmental Partnership who orchestrated an intense and multi-disciplinary collaboration intersecting design, art, science and ecology – in a ‘roundtable’ of creatives shared between water experts Alluvium, artists Turpin + Crawford Studio, ecologists Dragonfly Environmental, engineers Partridge and the City’s own Landscape Architects.

Section

Details

Details

The result is an interwoven series of community infrastructures and ‘made’ systems – water re-use, recreation, biodiversity and habitat all integrated within the physical fabric of Sydney Park.

© Simon Wood

Sydney Park now offers an enhanced recreational experience to the Sydney community, going beyond the picturesque; creating instead a revitalised, multi-faceted waterscape that celebrates the connection between people and place.

© Adam Hunter

After an intensive process of ‘easing in’, the water re-use project is now fully operational and intrinsically linked with its park setting. The bioretention wetlands not only capture and clean the equivalent measure of 340 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth per annum, but successfully improve local water quality, habitat and reduces potable water consumption in the area. The park’s fauna and flora is thriving, with new habitats created and existing ones protected and enhanced throughout the park.

© Simon Wood

The function and processes of water harvesting and cleansing is enhanced through its visible ebbs and flows through the landscape. New pathways intersect the wetlands, allowing park users to explore and discover ‘moments’ in the landscape that can be at times playful, dramatic and peaceful, but at all times connected to the water narrative of capture, movement, and cleansing.

© Ethan Rohloff Photography

Highlighting these processes was an important part of the project, as they emphasise the intrinsic relationship between water, people, topography, flora and fauna. Public art is interwoven; Turpin + Crawford Studio’s ‘Water Falls’ celebrates clean water release while also working with TDEP’s cascades to aerate water in the last link in the bioremediation treatment train. Turpin + Crawford Studio also devised the water ‘exhaust fans’ that celebrate the transfer of water from bioremediation ‘paddies’ to the lagoons; playing on the spirit of water and its interactions with the landscape.

© Ethan Rohloff Photography

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Filmed at the Vertou Cultural Center, designed by Atelier Fernandez & Serres, this video by filmmaker Lucas Bacle challenges the traditional conventions of cinematography, employing architectural drawings to provide context for the actions of the film’s protagonist. The cultural center itself becomes a central character to the short film, as Bacle layers video on top of orthographics to provide the context of the main character’s actions.

Watch as the main character roams around the travertine façade and stark white interior surfaces of the building, winner of the 2016 Équerre D’Argent Prize for French Architecture. The film culminates with a twist ending that may just bring a smile to your face.

English subtitles can be found by clicking the “CC” button in the player window.

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© Jason Robinson Photography

• Architects: SmithGroupJJR
• Location: Rochester, MI, United States
• Design Principal: Paul Urbanek
• Principal In Charge: Chris Purdy
• Area: 134200.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Jason Robinson Photography

• Project Manager: John Sobetski
• Project Architect: Andrew Arnesen
• Design Team: Chris Vanneste, Laura Roberts, Michael Nowicki, Kevin Gurgel, George Karidis, Sarah Wickenheiser, Georgia Zochowski, Carlos Lopes, David Hoffman, Constantine Lekas, Bruce Comstock, Jon Romig, Ann Clark, Dan Nerida, Kim Morgan, Monica Pace, Alex Russeau, Lori James, Mark Goyette, Dan Mather, Hillary Hanzel, Luke Renwick, Rob Teifer, Justin Fiema, Amanda Gorning

© Jason Robinson Photography

Oakland University’s new facility for the School of Engineering and Computer Sciences (SECS) provides advanced technologies for academic engineering studies, while sustainable mechanical and electrical systems serve as a hands on learning tools for the students. 

© Jason Robinson Photography

This new facility features a trigeneration system that uses natural gas to generate a portion of the building’s electric power; the recovered heat from the electrical generation provides heating and cooling, as well as hot water and emergency power. This is uniquely combined with a chilled-beam system and heat pump to create a first-of-its-kind system, which is further enhanced by 21.6 kW of photovoltaics on the roof, to significantly reduce annual energy costs and the University’s carbon footprint.  

Section

To enhance the building’s educational role, SECS faculty and students can conduct research through an energy dashboard. They have the ability to access data from the trigeneration and chilled beam systems, monitor energy usage and propose improvements to the operation sequence. The facility also boasts a high bay capstone lab, cleanroom, full service machine shop, and rooftop energy lab where students conduct experiments on solar and wind generation. The lobby acts as student demonstration space and corridor windows offer clear views into the project labs, putting science on display. 

© Jason Robinson Photography

Diagram

© Jason Robinson Photography

The building was specifically designed with hands-on, team-based learning spaces to support a variety of interdisciplinary projects and an assortment of collaborative spaces that students can easily reconfigure to support group projects.  Students, faculty and staff have noted how the building feels like home with a great deal of activity, ideal places to study and vitality all hours of the day.         

© Jason Robinson Photography

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The top 10 buildings in Scotland of the past 100 years have been named as part of the traveling Scotstyle exhibition. Voters selected the list from an exhibition of 100 Scottish buildings, currently on display at the Scottish Parliament during the Festival of Politics, and will now vote to determine which building will be bestowed the title of “Building of the Century.”

“This brilliant list testifies to the extraordinary quality of Scotland’s buildings. The fact that so many are relatively recent demonstrates that our national architecture is in very good health. We have much to celebrate,” said Neil Baxter, RIAS Secretary and co-editor of Scotstyle.

Continue reading for the complete list.

1930 – St Conan’s Kirk, Lochawe, Argyll

St Conan’s Kirk, Lochawe, Argyll. Image © Crown Copyright: Historic Environment Scotland. Licensor canmore.org.uk

1930 – India Tyre and Rubber Factory, Inchinnan

India Tyre and Rubber Factory, Inchinnan. Image © Keith Hunter

1938 – Rothesay Pavilion, Rothesay, Isle of Bute

Rothesay Pavilion, Rothesay, Isle of Bute. Image © Crown Copyright: Historic Environment Scotland. Licensor canmore.org.uk

1950 – Hermit’s Castle, Achmelvich, Loch Inver, Sutherland

Hermit’s Castle, Achmelvich, Loch Inver, Sutherland. Image © Barnabas Calder

1982 – Dundee Repertory Theatre, Dundee

Dundee Repertory Theatre, Dundee. Image © Nicoll Russell Studios

1987 – Princes Square, Glasgow

Princes Square, Glasgow. Image © Jean O’Reilly

1998 – National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Image © Keith Hunter

1999 – Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee

Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee. Image © Keith Hunter

2004 – The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh / Enric Miralles

The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh. Image © Keith Hunter

2007 – Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney / Reiach and Hall Architects

Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney. Image © Crown Copyright: Historic Environment Scotland. Licensor canmore.org.uk

The Scotstyle exhibition tells the story of the 100 semifinalist buildings, and is currently traveling throughout the country. It will serve as a headline event at this year’s Festival of Architecture and a key part of the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design.

The announcement was made in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament by Deputy Presiding Officer Linda Fabiani MSP, with panellists Neil Baxter, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS); Ruaridh C. Moir architect, writer and lecturer; Fiona Sinclair, architect, author, historian; and Andrew Wright, past president of RIAS. Voting for “Building of the Century” will re-open August 21st.

News via RIAS.

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© Janet Kimber

• Architects: Nova Tayona Architects
• Location: South Shore, NS B0K, Canada
• Architect In Charge: Nova Tayona Architects
• Area: 195.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Janet Kimber

• Team: Nova Tayona, Rachel Law, Michelle Martinez
• General Contractor: Trunnells and Tenons Construction
• Structural Engineer: Andrea Doncaster
• Custom Millwork: The Wooden Menagerie
• Diagrams / Drawings: Andrew Falls, Tara Castator, Ram Espino

© Janet Kimber

From the architect. Within a protected cove along the South Shore of Nova Scotia, at the end of a stretch of sand, a river empties out into the sea. Time and tides have created a one kilometre forested sandbar on which this beach house sits.

© Janet Kimber

Approaching the site is a parallel journey between a low-lying salt marsh to the north-west and the forested sandbar to the south-east. Along that journey, the beach is never in view, and so, the project is ironic as beach houses go. Despite the dramatic location on an expanse of shoreline, the clients were drawn to the internal, cozy character of the site. Scraggly, curmudgeonly tamarack and spruce trees covered in Old Man’s Beard are very particular to some areas of Nova Scotia and thrive in the 10 cm of shallow soil here. The trees shelter the site from the openness of the beach and defend against erosion of the sandbank. A mandate of protecting the sandbank, and the clients’ appreciation of hearing the ocean, but not seeing it were starting points for siting strategy. They did not want their new house to be on display from the beach.The most one sees of the water are moments of shimmering light filtered through the treeline at the site’s southern edge. The sound of waves pull one along a worn footpath through the tree line, towards a break in the vegetation that finally reveals the coast and ocean horizon. From these initial impressions, the house tucks itself against the forest, is hidden from the shore, and beach walkers plus the resident endangered piping plovers are none the wiser.

Floor Plan

Skinned in black-stained eastern white cedar, the house recedes against the forest backdrop, and contradicts its bright interior. The design takes advantage of passive solar orientation, and catching light. At 10’ (3m) deep, the 48’ (15m) wide cantilevered roof overhang provides the perfect amount of shade in the summer, and allows the low winter sun to warm the concrete floors in the cold season. Not only does the asymmetrical gabled roof provide shelter and shade, it also leverages coastal storms, harvesting rainwater that is funnelled into three 1750 gallon (6600 litre) cisterns. The storage tanks are the sole source of potable water for the house.

© Janet Kimber

To protect against storm surges, the house is elevated by a grid of helical piles bearing 6 meters down into the sand. Above the piles, the lightweight wood-frame structure houses a straight-forward, one-level plan. Bedrooms and private areas have low-ceilings and an intimate closeness with the trees and north-west light. The tall, main living area has a wide view to the south, towards a small clearing of beach grass and the tree-line separating the house and the shore.

© Janet Kimber

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