Team: 1st year students (2016), Dieter Dietz, Daniel Zamarbide, Raffael Baur, Edouard Cabay, Laurent Chassot, Nicolas Durr, Margherita Del Grosso, Alexa den Hartog Stéphane Grandgirard, Patricia Guaita, Agathe Mignon, Andrea Pellacani, Laura Perez Lupi, Anne-Chantal Rufer, Wynd van der Woude with Thibaud Smith
HOUSE 1 is an architectural installation based on an experimental format for collaborative design and construction by ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace) – an international group of young architects and researchers, scientists, and doctoral candidates from the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), led by the Director Dieter Dietz.
Built initially as proto-structure (primary construction) during a 5-day workshop in April, HOUSE 1 is a 11m x 11m x 11m balloon-frame timber construct holding the ‘genetic code’ for future developments. The project involved over 200 students, who worked in groups under the close guidance of 12 studio directors and the wood engineer Rémy Meylan.
In succession, each team was asked to design and realize a ROOM (a space intended for HABITATION), or a TRANSITIONAL SPACE providing CONNECTIVITY (porch, stairs, doorway).
The boundaries that divide studio projects are blurry zones of negotiation over space, culture, and ideas. Accordingly, each project is strongly influenced by the others as it enters a multilayered discourse with its surroundings. The spatial experience of HOUSE 1 is therefore not that of a homogenous architecture; rather, it is an unfolding evolution of a space that invokes questions, contains possibilities, and is open for interpretation.
Elevation
Alexa den Hartog, one of the 12 studio directors responsible for making HOUSE 1 a feasible project, characterizes the proto-structure and its process of inhabitation as a “restricted physical and temporal – ever changing – landscape that only slowly solidified”. To quote Dieter Dietz, HOUSE 1 reveals its final form “not as something that is done from the top down but something we share.”
After four months of frenetic work and strong engagement, the project has been recently completed and is now open to visitors on the EPFL campus next to the Rolex Learning Center.
Concealed behind an 18th century Baroque façade in Strasbourg’s Place Kléber, the Café L’Aubette is a dazzlingly incongruous expression of the 1920s De Stijl movement. Designed by Theo van Doesburg, one of the movement’s founders and leading lights, the Aubette’s minimalist, geometric aesthetic was heavily influenced by the work of contemporary artists such as Piet Mondrian. In designing the café’s interiors, Van Doesburg sought to do more than simply place viewers before a painting; he wanted to envelop them in it.
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc
The De Stijl movement began in the Netherlands in 1917 by an association of painters, sculptors, decorative artists, and architects. Rejecting the ornamental and spatial dogma of the Beaux-Arts school that had dominated Western design in the 19th century, members of the movement instead advocated for the relative purity of abstraction. Cubism provided a significant inspiration for the movement, which came to be characterized by bold, orthogonal minimalism. The paintings of Mondrian, composed purely of rectangles and straight lines at right angles, gradually abandoned symbolic representations of reality in favor of their own abstract visual rhythm. This rectilinear style lent itself toward translation into three-dimensional form – a task that would be undertaken by one of Mondrian’s contemporaries, a painter and architect named Theo van Doesburg.[1]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc
Born in Utrecht, Netherlands in 1883, Van Doesburg (originally named Christian Emil Marie Küpper) was a self-educated artist and architect.[2] It was Van Doesburg who would, in 1917, begin publishing the journal entitled De Stijl, featuring contributions from many of the artists and designers who had influenced him during his career.[3] He is additionally known for his 1923 manifesto entitled “Tot een constructieve dichtkunst” (“Toward a constructive poetry”) in the Dadaist journal Mécano, in which he expressed beliefs in line with what would become Surrealism.[4] His own design work was focused on the use of color as a means of activating space. This, he believed, helped viewers to better appreciate abstract form. Van Doesburg often worked in collaboration with other artists, rejecting the egocentrism of individual artistry. It therefore followed that when he was tasked with designing several new interiors for the Café l’Aubette in central Strasbourg, he did so in tandem with artist Jean Arp and his wife, Sophie Täuber.[5]
Exterior of the Aubette as seen from the Place Kléber. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc
The Aubette was built in 1767 by the architect François Blondel. Commissioned by the French government to construct a building that would reflect the latest style of the time, Blondel created a Baroque structure with a straight façade along the entire northern edge of the Place Kléber. The building’s original use as a military facility gave it the name Aubette, as orders were issued at aube, or dawn. A café was opened in the building in 1845, and in 1867, the Aubette became home to Strasbourg’s School of Music. In 1911, the city government called together 46 architects to redesign both the Aubette and the entirety of the Place Kléber; however, the outbreak of the First World War forestalled the project, which was abandoned by the 1920s.[6]
Axonometric diagram of the Café-Brasserie. ImageTheo van Doesburg
Van Doesburg’s involvement with the Aubette began in September of 1926. Convinced by his clients to set up an office on the Place Kléber itself, he began drawing up plans that would correspond with the new functions of the space. Included in the required program were a café, tea room, two bars, telephone booths, billiard rooms, two banquet halls with an adjoining foyer, kitchens, various offices, and staff quarters.[7] Although Van Doesburg, Arp, and Täuber ostensibly worked as a team, their actual design process was surprisingly disjointed; rooms were designed by different artists with little in the way of organized collaboration, allowing their personal styles to shape the individual spaces of the building.[8]
Procedural painting for the Ciné-Dancing Hall. ImageTheo van Doesburg
While the Arps’ work reflected their former involvement in the Dada movement, Van Doesburg instead saw the opportunity to implement his own theories of Elementarism.[9] Much like Mondrian, he designed in a purely rectilinear, orthogonal manner; the walls were covered in large grids of brightly colored rectangles. However, Van Doesburg did not rigorously bind himself to the principles of De Stijl when it did not suit him; he would break them in the interest of creating more expressive, dynamic spaces.[10]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc
This approach is perhaps best reflected in what he called the “Ciné-Dancing” hall – a space designed to function as both a film theater and a ballroom or cabaret. Here, the characteristic De Stijl rectangles are tilted at a 45-degree angle to the ground, creating a visual tension with the orientation of the doors, windows, and seating cubicles they envelop.[11] Van Doesburg also employed relief to add emphasis and interest to the walls and ceilings; where color would not satisfactorily activate a surface, the slight extrusion of the rectangular panel would compensate.[12] Van Doesburg may have played a large part in codifying the tenets of De Stijl, but in all aspects of his design—from choosing finish materials to creating a new typeface for signage—he worked as much in response to the particular environment of the Aubette as he did within the very guidelines he had helped to create.[13]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc
The radical interiors of the Café l’Aubette, while now lauded as a masterpiece of De Stijl architecture, were not met with great acclaim by the café’s patrons.[14] After less than a decade, the interior style was altered once again; it was not until the 1960s that restoration of Van Doesburg’s design was even considered. The ciné-dancing hall was restored between 1985 and 1994 based on period photographs and architectural drawings; the rest of the interior followed later, with the emphasis being on conservation of the original materials wherever possible. Meticulous care was taken to reproduce exactly the colors chosen by Van Doesburg and the Arps, and by 2006, the Aubette was restored to its 1920s appearance.[15] Now designated a historic landmark, the Café l’Aubette remains a monument to the marriage of graphic design and architecture facilitated by De Stijl’s principles of bold geometry.
References [1] Curtis, William J. R. Modern Architecture since 1900. London: Phaidon, 1996. p151-153. [2] Poulin, Richard. Graphic Design Architecture a 20th Century History: A Guide to Type, Image, Symbol, and Visual Storytelling in the Modern World. Beverly: Rockport Publishers, 2012. p79. [3] Raizman, David Seth. History of Modern Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004. P184-187. [4] “Mécano.” DADA and Modernist Magazines. Accessed July 16, 2016. [access]. [5] Raizman, p184-187. [6] Jaffé, Hans Ludwig C. De Stijl. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1971. p232. [7] Jaffé, p233-324. [8] Raizman, p187. [9] Raizman, p187. [10] Poulin, p79. [11] Raizman, p187. [12] Poulin, p79. [13] Jaffé, p235-237. [14] Poulin, p79. [15] “Restoration.” Musées De La Ville De Strasbourg. Accessed July 06, 2016. [access].
From the architect. The Municipality of Helsingborg has witnessed a sharp increase in traffic to and from the city. Looking forward to 2020, it is estimated that daily visitors will increase from the current figure of 22,000 to 32,000. This is a pressure that Knutpunkten – which was designed by Ivar Krepp in 1984–1991 – could not handle in its current state, which is why the decision was made to create a new exit and approach at the root of the track’s southern extension. Furthermore, the southern entrances were in a worse condition than the northern ones, which affected the flow of pedestrian traffic. Knutpunkten is currently undergoing a transformation and renovation, yet another task that fell on us.
“The new entrance is in a way a natural result of the long platforms underground. An important aspect of the project is to reinforce Knutpunkten’s connection with the southern part of the city, with the campus and the future H+ area. The new traffic flows, more activity and vibrancy in the area will hopefully contribute to reduced segregation in the town”, says the architect in charge Patrik Ekenhill.
In 2013, the Municipality of Helsingborg arranged a competition for architects relating to the new entrance, a pre-qualification with tenders. Tengbom Helsingborg won the tender in collaboration with Tyréns, an urban planning consultancy company. We were general consultants during the entire project phase, with all other consultants working under us.
We regard the area as a transition point between various ways of travel and movement in the city, but also as a transition between different parts and rooms of the city. It will be a dramatic change from today’s dominating and yet anonymous multi-storey car park to an attractive component in the cityscape that contributes to increased activity and pulse.
In other words, the new entrance transformed an anonymous backside of the station into another front entrance. This has also contributed to increased traffic safety, as pedestrians walking to the campus area previously had to cross the bus terminal, which has been avoided with the new flow of traffic. A new pedestrian crossing over Järnvägsgatan, which leads onto Bollebrogatan, also adds to a more direct link to the local Stadsparken park and the south district of the city. A further aim is to promote cycling in the city. A total of 450 bicycle spaces have been created between the entrance steps and freely on an open platform. There are also other facilities such as a pump, a repair station and lockers.
In addition to solving many of the problems the city was experiencing, the entrance has become the landmark that we proposed and were hoping for.
Floor Plan
“Our architectural main idea of a collective roof is based on a concept of creating a sequence between the top and the bottom. The characteristic roof has a neutral and square plan shape, which is carefully modified in each section. The combination of a vaulted bottom and a curved top in the direction of the tracks creates associations with both motion and the softly undulating topography of the City Park”, says Patrik Ekenhill.
The sculptural timber roof is on two slate-clad wall plates that seem to grow up from the track area. Simple glass panels have been used as extra protection against the elements. Even the lighting design has been influential to the project, where the primary light source for the roof of the bike rack is indirect and hidden. Two existing emergency stairways were torn down and the shafts transformed into circular drop of daylight onto the platforms, with benches at ground level.
Section
A metaphor for travelling
Just like the act of travelling, the new entrance is very much about transitions, both physically and architecturally, as well as metaphorically. Physically, it’s about understanding the flow of traffic and people. Architecturally, we are talking about open encounters – heavy meets light and geometry meeting organic forms. Metaphorically, you might say that the South entrance is a symbol for the transition to a new travel area, ready for the future.
“This is fantastic architecture on a small scale. We are incredibly proud that a relatively small project can make such a great impression”, says Patrik Ekenhill.
From the architect. How on earth does one come up with the idea of pouring a huge amount of concrete into an Emmental farmhouse? Certainly, one could find several practical reasons (statics, thermal storage mass or the like…).
For us, the house needed something rough and immediate, something that could build up its own world in the former barn and hayloft.
Ground Floor Plan
1st Floor Plan
2nd Floor Plan
A concrete object now cuts through all three floors and supports the old roof. In addition to its structural qualities, it holds all the bathrooms and kitchen accommodations, as well as cabinets and storage space. Large windows open up the view into the impressive attic.
From the architect. HAO Design strives to achieve an optimal balance between space and lighting, which is why we chose to employ design methods that address the various limitations of the building. First, the partition walls of the mezzanine were removed, so that the 1.5-story floor height became the visual divide of the entire interior space. The upper floor was transformed into an open library, so that light that is introduced by taking away the partitions can stream into the ground-level living room. The large window framing the dining area affords maximum lighting, while the rescaled and leveled window ledge naturally evolved into seating for the dining table.
The team’s second challenge was the staircase. The original stairway, which occupied the entrance of the house, was relocated to the back where the kitchen used to be. Translucent materials were utilized to replace the roofing above the kitchen so that light can penetrate and guide the direction of the stairway. This also acts as a transition between the open space of the ground floor and the privacy of the second floor. Upstairs, the light connects the master bedroom to the open bathroom. Window designs identical to the first floor accentuate the natural flow of both light and air. Even though the house is divided into several rooms, the deep sense of connectedness between the various spaces and their different functions created by the well-placed stairway enables household dwellers to move freely around the entire structure. Elevations and depressions in the flooring not only create convenient tables and seating but also differentiate between rooms with varying functions and elements. When light illuminates the interior of the house, shadows accentuate flow of movement, creating a space in which dwellers seated at various heights across the floor may engage in intimate, animated communication.
Location: Kemang, Mangga Besar, Tamansari, Kota Jakarta Barat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Indonesia
Architect In Charge: Realrich Sjarief
Project Year: 2014
Photographs: Courtesy of Ahkamal Hakim, Eric Dinardi
Project Manager: Edhie Rahardja
Supervisor: Singgih Suryanto
Project Team : Bambang Priyono, Suryanaga, Maria Vania, Mukhammad Ilham, Anton Suryanto.
Structural Engineer: Cipta Sukses – Anwar Susanto
M+E Engineer:: Karim
General Contractor: DOT Workshop
Site Manager: Endhang Syamsudin
Client: Akanaka Residence – Mr. Yuwono
Courtesy of Ahkamal Hakim
“I want a residence where is comfortable, natural, and energy efficient,” said Mr. Yuwono to Realrich Sjarief when he stated the brief of Akanaka. Akanaka is located on 800 sqm lands, consists 19 serviced bedrooms, in 2 levels building with an open-air corridor. It is in Kemang, South Jakarta, a precinct where is well known as the art district.
Courtesy of Ahkamal Hakim
From the facade, Akanaka’s 4.5 meters cantilevered canopy blocks the east-west sun while giving a tropical device for heavy rainfall. The orangish terracotta facade module 300 mm x 300 mm made by craftsmen at Pamulang gives a private, solid void, an expression which is functional and beauty. The balustrade is made from steel painted with brownish colour with gaps to allow cross air ventilation coming inside the building. The floor is concrete, one at the outdoor is grass block and the one inside the building is 1200 mm x 1200 mm cast concrete with glass grout.
Floor Plan
The linear and communal courtyards are introduced at the centre of the building as a communal space, sculpture garden providing air stacking effect, and natural sunlight coming to the communal space. The size of the rooms varies from 16 sqm, 24 sqm, to 35 sqm which each of the room provide cross air circulations, functional interior design, and dual aspect window providing sunlight to the room.
Courtesy of Ahkamal Hakim
Inside the building, there is much feeling of wood and concrete. The teak wood was engineered by cut into 3mm thin slices, glued on top of plywood to increase lightness, cost, and availability of teakwood. The engineered teak wood panel in module 200 x 1200 mm is hung by stainless steel pin, this construction technique allows the system to be prefabricated, dismantled, maintained whenever it is necessary. Akanaka is one of the examples of how the passive design executed in simple method opening side for air and sunlight to the building.
The house is located in the suburbs of Matsuyama, a northwestern city of Shikoku, a region famous for ohenro, or the Shikoku pilgrimage. The structure is very long and narrow, extending north to south.
It is the home of a gregarious and energetic elderly mother and her daughter who values the practice of cooking meals slowly and intentionally, along with two cautious cats.
As a space in which the mother may fully enjoy her hobby of shigin (performing Japanese or Chinese poems) with her friends, a Japanese style room, complete with a bench, was placed on the side that faces the road. Its ceiling and walls are finished with a Japanese style sakan plastering that uses diatomite, and common reed is used to cover the ochi-tenjō (part of a ceiling that is built lower than the rest, under which the host would sit to show humility). The result is a modern look.
Plan
Section
Within the building is a doma* salon that can be used for socializing with friends and neighbors. It is an open space with an exposed roof truss. The floor is covered with teppei-seki (pyroxene andesite) stones, the in-between spaces of which are filled with river gravel having exposed texture.
A small, diagonally added room is a space for the daughter to engage in her hobby of Japanese calligraphy. It is a cozy room with a ceiling that is only 1.8 meters high and a view of the yard—an ideal place for quietly immersing oneself to the art of calligraphy.
The family space, on the other hand, is compactly organized on the northern half of the house. Much thought was put into ensuring privacy for each human and cat, while keeping the traffic required for daily activities as short as possible.
Here, mutually caring family members can coexist in their own respective spaces without being too close or too separate. The inner courtyard placed at the center of the building connects the adjourning rooms while going through constant changes of appearance, time, and light. With the seasons’ changes, breezes that come through, and the sound of running water, it brings enrichment to the everyday.
Every aspect of the house was designed to create an effortless and graceful space.
From the architect. The land available for the new building is located in the foothills of the Mt. Dongmang in a small village called Gabaeri in Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do. This place is quiet and its scenery is really beautiful and, moreover, possesses a charm of its own since it has a sea view. The building owners are a couple who currently live in Tongyeong but operate a fish farm here. They were planning to build a house to live with elderly mother and their daughter and met an architect on the recommendation of their daughter to start to build a little special house.
When I first visited the site, the construction has been preceded by a local civil engineering contractor while piling up boulder stone randomly and dividing the land as well. It leaves much to be desired since the land was formed uniformly and it ignores the flow of landform and difference of elevation, too. As the land is ripe with potential in the relationship with nature, so I decided to take advantage of it.
For the client, the sea means home, ground for living and life. So above all, the greatest focus was set on their relationship with the sea. ‘Younghaeawon(迎海雅院)’ which represent a house greeting sea was made into structure open to the sea in order to be a shelter to keep in tune with the sea. As a one-storied house, reed field in the rear of house and Mt. Dongmang beyon were used as a background.
Since the satisfaction of users is most important in a house where people live every day, they So I focused on organizing space composition which is satiable for their lifestyle. In addition, I also considered new proposal that can enrich the spatial experience. By placing a entrance between a living room and a kitchen, I made the transition area. And by installing a large door pockets, and so it can be used as a living room as a large room. In the middle of the corridor, I proposed a family room as a buffer space of the indoor and outdoor. As limestone is used as a finishing material of the outer wall toward the inner wall, it was differentiated from the living room.
In the case of exposed concrete, it is far unused material in this fishing village. However, I used combination of familiar materials e.g. stone and wood in order to look familiar. It requires much efforts for me to pay attention in detail to express each property of matter. Through many discussions and cooperation with contractors, it was realized one by one gradually.
Recently, a variety of construction-related information can be obtained easily. Thus, there’s an increase demand for a house: house in which resident can enjoy modern edge and new experience, and residential house suitable for individuality of resident and stable and clean house. In addition, client’s level has increased to distinguish a fine house. Although ‘Younghaeawon(迎海雅院)’ is a house located in a small fishing village, it proves that the house made with new material and format that architect tried with the full understanding and support of building owner and also, it looks very beautiful and goes well with nature. Moreover, it increase the satisfaction of users in order that they can feel that fine building makes their life happier.
The municipality of Amsterdam has selected Team V Architectuur with Lingotto, Nicole Maarsen and ARUP to design HAUT, a 73 meter (240 foot) residential tower located along the Amstel River that will become the Netherlands’ tallest timber framed building and, depending on construction schedules, is a contender for the title of tallest wooden tower in the world. With construction expected to begin in the second half of 2017, HAUT is another example of the growing timber architecture trend hitting tall building design.
Courtesy of Team V Architectuur
The project’s name, short for ‘Haute Couture,’ comes from the tailor-made design of the 55 apartment units. The 21-story building will offer buyers a number of choices in apartment size, number of floors, layout, positioning of double height spaces, and outdoor loggias and balconies. The interior surfaces are clad in wood, reflecting the tower’s unique construction, while an irregular composition of cantilevered balconies provides visual interest on the facade. Large windows in the units offer views of the river and surrounding neighborhood.
The building’s triangular plinth houses a public urban winter garden where residents can participate in a community garden program or simply relax and mingle, as well as cycle storage space and an underground car park. The garden will be open to the public, inviting in pedestrians from the adjoining Somerlust Park.
Courtesy of Team V Architectuur
HAUT’s timber construction was chosen in part for its sustainable nature: over three million kilos of carbon dioxide will be stored in the cross laminated pieces. Additional environmental features include energy-generating facades and a wastewater purification system, employed in efforts of reaching a BREEAM Outstanding rating, the highest possible sustainability grade.
The tower is a part of the development plan for the new residential neighborhood of Amstelkwartier, which will contain nearly 4,000 residential units along with shopping and small business areas.
This apartment from the 60´s is located in Barrio Norte, one of the most densely populated zones of Buenos Aires City, was responding to particular criteria of a high-rise housing in a socio-economic context that has moved its center of gravity. The distribution of spaces, according to the prevailing social protocols, offered a segmented to be redefined plan.The intervention focuses on two overlapping actions: integration and qualification.
In a first step fragmentary spaces whose characteristics proved obsolete to the needs of contemporary use, they are unified: entrance hall, kitchen, bedroom, distributor and living gave way to a new open space to be qualified.
A furniture device is constituted as a programmatic interface between intimate and public areas of the house condensing, technical lines, saving space and equipment.
Diagram
In its final disposition, the furniture device exchanges watertight thick walls for soft surfaces, drivable and translucent, providing mutability and the capacity of management for uses, natural lighting and ventilation to an amplified space.
Sig Nordal 