Collaborators: Juan Carral, Zubzen Ortiz, David Vazquéz y Jesús Acosta
From the architect. Donceles Studios is a multipurpose building that defies the rules of current real estate development in Mexico, because instead of being an “exclusive” development it is an inclusive project. In this case, a building with 6 flexible units of 50m2, a commercial space on the ground floor and a terraced roof for common use, serves as a catalyst to attract new people to the area (students, young couples, singles, or older people) plus it can be used as an office or work studio.
The typology of 4 levels seems very reasonable to potentiate intra-urban lots, since it does not depend on an elevator, the structure and its foundation is simple, and can generate a high density, which remains friendly to pedestrians and respects the existing urban scale.
The ideological basis of the project is for it to be a building with walls outward and not inward, ie allowing its users and inhabitants a private space, which in turn fosters interpersonal relationships not only among project users but between them and the residents of the neighborhood. The project aims to revive the concepts of neighborhood, because it is a place that allows people to meet their individual basic needs, but also invites them to go out, to live together, socialize and interact.
Plan
For this project we determined as impact zone the Matamoros pedestrian walkway, which starts on the north facade of the property and runs through 20 neighboring houses up to an existing chapel, which was respected as a limit of the intervention zone. Once we identified the area to regenerate, we implemented a participatory community action plan, from the presentation of the project and intervention of the pedestrian corridor, to considering the neighbors’ opinion, handling complaints and holding neighborhood meetings.
Donceles Studios is a project conceived with the highest values of sustainability; encouraging reasonable consumption of natural resources and community relations, in a very particular context of urban working class, which breaks traditional rules in favor of its residents and neighbors. It is the result of using architecture as a tool applied to the highest standard of social responsibility: inclusion
Following a successful pilot launch in Boston and $1 million in venture backing, a startup company called Getaway has recently launched their service to New Yorkers. The company allows customers to rent out a collection of designer “tiny houses” placed in secluded rural settings north of the city; beginning at $99 per night, the service is hoping to offer respite for overstimulated city folk seeking to unplug and “find themselves.” The company was founded by business student Jon Staff and law student Pete Davis, both from Harvard University, out of discussions with other students about the issues with housing and the need for new ideas to house a new generation. From that came the idea of introducing the experience of Tiny House living to urbanites through weekend rentals.
Inspired by the notion of micro-housing and the powerful rhetoric of the Tiny House movement, initiatives like Getaway are part of a slew of architectural proposals that have emerged in recent years. Downsizing has been cited by its adopters as both a solution to the unaffordability of housing and a source of freedom from the insidious capitalist enslavement of “accumulating stuff.” Highly developed and urbanized cities such as New York seem to be leading the way for downsizing: just last year, Carmel Place, a special micro-housing project designed by nARCHITECTS, was finally completed in Manhattan to provide studio apartments much smaller than the city’s current minimum regulation of 400 square feet (37 square meters). Many, including Jesse Connuck, fail to see how micro-housing can be a solution to urban inequality, yet if we are to judge from the early success of startups like Getaway, micro-architecture holds widespread public appeal. Isn’t user satisfaction the ultimate goal of architecture? In that case, it’s important to investigate the ingenuity behind these undersized yet often overpriced spaces.
Changing Outlooks on Happiness, Living Spaces, and Experience
The designs of the Getaway cabins are certainly attractive. With straight lines, contemporary minimalist touches and warm wood accents, it is not difficult to understand why they would appeal to urbanites. Designed by students from Harvard GSD, the cabins are built with big windows and integrated furniture. They are also serviced with running water and other plumbing as well as solar power. The idea of an overnight stay seems like a fun experience and a casual novelty without too many risks. However, it is difficult to conceive these “cabins in the woods” as ground-breaking architectural innovations.
Instead, Getaway is a very smart business move which capitalizes on the needs and emotional impulse of a generation. This is Getaway’s value to the architectural community, as it allows us to understand the desires of the upcoming generation in regards to living spaces and environments. In an introductory video to the Getaway concept, the company’s CEO John Staff opens with a strong and relatable message: “The housing we have doesn’t work very well for the millennial generation; the form is wrong, the function is wrong, the social aspect is wrong, [and] the geography is wrong.” Yet for the rest of the video, the details of what exactly is wrong with these aspects of housing remains undisclosed. It is difficult to accept a “Tiny House” as the solution when the problem is unknown. There is every reason to be unhappy and dissatisfied with one’s lifestyle—to be stressed, overworked, overstimulated, in debt, and burnt out. This is the truism which has been spun around by Getaway to fit the narrative of the Tiny House Movement as the magic pill. However, to charge a pretty penny for this “solution” goes directly against the movement’s anti-capitalist principles.
Positioning Tiny House Living as a luxury service is a fetishization of the movement’s more humble origins. While this certainly encourages a larger demographic towards living a more “holistic” lifestyle, the misrepresentation can lead to more problematic outcomes. The glamorization of Tiny House Living can lead others to forget about its downsides. Like any lifestyle, there is required maintenance which may not be enjoyable. The simple check-in and check-out system of Getaway does not educate the guest as part of its “experience”: the details of towing costs, finding suitable land, hooking up to plumbing, and waste management are brushed under the rug. The glamorization might also enable a kind of “gentrification” (albeit one dissociated from the localized nature usually seen in gentrification) to occur within the Tiny House movement. The cost-effective nature of Tiny House living is a radical alternative for the economically strapped and those displaced by rising housing costs. But the kind of media publicity that Getaway creates for the Tiny House Movement could once again displace the people most in need as they are outcompeted by young thrill-seekers just seeking to live a more “authentic life.”
Courtesy of Instagram @laurenswells
The success of Getaway’s service reflects the changing attitudes about privilege, wealth and materialism in the 21st century. Nowadays, it seems that the most common way to articulate one’s privilege is precisely to reject it—or rather to reject the traditional view of privilege for other worldly pursuits. Toronto Life Magazine paints a vivid (though undeniably exaggerated) portrait of how millennials are trying to live their lives. Unlike the previous generation, the millennial’s dream is to collect experiences: travel the world, spend time with friends, drink good wine and eat good food. To realize these dreams, many millennials are not naïve, as the previous generation would like to call them.
As the Toronto Life article above puts it, this is the generation that is unhappy with the affluence afforded to them and is seeking a different experience, but nonetheless an experience of affluence; to chase their desired lifestyles, millennials are prepared to sacrifice. In the article, the 30 year old pharmacist chooses to live rent-free by staying in his childhood bedroom at his parents’ house, but in return he gets to travel the world and blow his income on extravagant night outs. For others (with less forgiving parents), this sacrifice could be in the form of living small in a tiny home. When millennials are caught living in seemingly precarious living conditions, in some instances these are deliberate choices in order to prioritize what they believe is more important in living an authentic life. This is the perspective that Getaway hopes to appeal to. As Staff describes, their service is “an opportunity for people to find out what’s really important and what makes them happy” which, he says, “has a lot more to do with how you spend your time and a lot less to do with the stuff you own.” This is marketing done right by a Harvard business student.
An Architecture of Authentic Deliberate Experience
Understanding the social outlook of today’s generation can lead to a new understanding of architecture. Specifically, a new understanding of housing’s role in the lives of this generation could lead to new forms of architecture altogether.
Architecturally speaking, it is the tailor-made quality of the houses which contributes to Getaway’s success. When space is limited, the design of this space becomes more focused around human use just to make the structure habitable at all. However, this deliberate-ness certainly strikes a chord with a target market seeking to live true to their own purposes and desires. Staff comments that “tiny isn’t really that tiny when you’re in a small high-quality space [because] you can focus on living your life and connecting with the people you care about,” and we need to focus on the latter part of that statement. The public is yearning for higher quality, and one way to approach that is through deliberate-ness: creating a space which is optimized and not augmented. As Getaway’s different designs show us, it also isn’t about providing everything but rather prioritizing a set of desires. Getaway’s Lorraine House is designed for group excursions; the Ovida is meant to be a writer’s retreat and the Clara is designed for doing nothing at all.
There are two distinct aspects of Tiny House living which must be understood separately: the physical and the experiential. Not only does each aspect appeal to different groups, but they also lead to different outcomes. The physical sense of “smallness” in tiny houses is what makes the option cost-effective. This is particularly attractive to those at the lower end of the economic spectrum. However, this is the same aspect which is problematized by critics, who fear that the diminutive sizes could lead to lowering the standards of living in our cities. Then, there is the experiential aspect of “smallness” which endears a completely different demographic to the lifestyle: the young, educated and mobile middle-class. Tiny Houses appeal to this demographic’s predominant view on “living globally” in a social, political, and environmental sense.
Conventional architecture needs to tap into the experiential aspect of tiny houses much more than the physical. Dissociating one from the other could prevent the fetishization and resulting gentrification of the tiny house movement, while at the same time sharing the virtues found in tiny living with a larger population. So how can we emulate the experiential aspects of tiny houses without requiring physical smallness? Here are a few suggestions:
A weekend jaunt at a Getaway house with friends conjures up a sense of co-living: having to scoot over for a friend, eating beside someone lounging, or being able to do two separate things within the same space and having the pleasure of conversation while you are doing them. Getaway facilitates this social exchange by packing an efficient yet thoughtful program within the cabin, resulting in a multi-level configuration that remains aesthetically pleasing.
The lack of possessions in small space living gives the inhabitant the freedom to mobilize themselves as quickly as possible in pursuit of new opportunities. The challenge for traditional architecture is to get at this same level of self-sufficiency, without increasing baggage. We’ve seen a response to this challenge in the form of Roam Co-Living, so there is definitely space for innovation.
Finally, the diminutive scale of tiny houses within their context creates a sense of hyper-awareness within the individual towards their environment. How can we imbue this same sense of “belonging within an ecosystem” in traditional architecture, especially in a time when we live in stacked boxes, often not even knowing the names of those with whom we share our walls?
All of these are elements of architecture that have already been explored and developed—and yet they are increasingly lacking in today’s conventional architecture: the “normal” and “non-designer” spaces that 90% of the urban population lives in.
It is important to understand that a tiny house is not a good space because it is small, but rather most tiny houses are good space that just so happen to be small. Somehow, it seems that the physical lack of space is what allows us to re-focus our intentions on creating well-designed high-quality space. After all, the very idea of a “good space” continues to be debated centuries after architecture began recognizing the notion of space itself, meaning to say that we have yet to fully grasp its potential. Tiny architecture seems to be a tool for us to unconsciously make the “fluke” of producing high-quality spaces repeatable. The lesson to take home is not that we should all move to tiny houses, but that we should take after the “deliberate” nature of small spaces and try to emulate this quality in more conventional built form.
Radical and reactionary phenomena like the Tiny House Movement deserve consideration as they reflect on our larger practices and attitudes which go unnoticed and unquestioned. Worries such as unsustainable housing costs are legitimate, and initiatives such as Getaway are not entirely misguided. For example, John Staff also asks: “How can we convert our housing stock into something that is more usable for this generation and that’s responsible for the environment?” They are certainly asking the right questions, for which solutions need to be developed by encouraging continued discussion. Concepts such as Getaway are to be given credit for deepening this conversation—whether that is the inner conversation in the minds of its would-be guests, or the larger conversation within the architectural community.
Located in a residential quarter of low housing density less than 10 minutes drive from the center of Bahia Blanca, the house was designed according to the needs of customer use, who he requested: a family area, guest area, mainly for their children who do not reside permanently, and an area for private use. To achieve a smooth functioning project organization provides in these 3 areas can be used to each other independently.
Having as limit the dimensional characteristics of the site, the project is organized from a single structural module that is repeated in a rhythmic sequence forming the different spaces. That regular geometry base, consisting of steel columns, concrete wall and aluminum frames, synthesizes constructively and with few details all the work.
The shape of the housing is a direct result of the constructive logic that the project has, from its law. The definition of the object as a formal totality given from the positioning of such constructive modules that colonize the site and organize various outdoor areas. These empty spaces or courtyards that house shape generates, have a specific use (social courtyard, patio reading, patio transition with the city, etc.) that interact with interiors that define.
To achieve thermal efficiency, reinforced concrete walls were executed in two phases: first, the outer face of a structural nature, then the inside prefabricated modules on site prepositioning of all barriers and insulation necessary to ensure indoor comfort mounted. For glazed windows exposed to the summer sun, trees and shrubs were placed with the function of regulating the direct natural light.
2525 / Zaha Hadid Architects + David Mutal Arquitectos. Image Courtesy of Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
Earlier this week we covered the announcement of the winners of the expansion of the Lima Art Museum (MALI). The following 13 projects received honorable mention as according to the jury they “were essential during the deliberation process, for their originality, daring or because they helped shape the discussion.”
CHAN – CHAN / Linazasoro & Sánchez Arquitectura + Juan Manuel Gutiérrez Gonzáles + Luis Martin Piccini Acuña. Image Courtesy of Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
CHAN – CHAN / Linazasoro & Sánchez Arquitectura + Juan Manuel Gutiérrez Gonzáles + Luis Martin Piccini Acuña. Image Courtesy of Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
CHAN – CHAN / Linazasoro & Sánchez Arquitectura + Juan Manuel Gutiérrez Gonzáles + Luis Martin Piccini Acuña. Image Courtesy of Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)
THE MANY LIGHTS OF PERÚ / Philippe Rahm Architectes
AGA Architects have designed a new mixed-use development which is currently under construction in the Hong Xing district of Changsha, China. The project is set to become the first prototype of a combined leisure park and shopping mall in the country. A mix of retail, office, residential and hotel space is interspersed with “joyful” elements such as a sky walking corridor, 360-degree restaurant and a sky pool which overlooks the complex. Integrated landscape and a focus on sustainability transform the center into what the architects call a “green park mall.”
Courtesy of AGA
The masterplan is built up on a 300,000 square meterssite, which is split across one large block (A) and a smaller adjacent block (B). The internal courtyard spans both blocks and carves away at the volumes at ground level to create alleyways through the precinct. These “lifestyle streets” keep the ground floor of the precinct highly active, and feature green elements throughout.
Courtesy of AGA
Fronting the street of Block A is a six-story retail building hosting large LED screens which will present art and advertisements. Balancing on the edge of this facade is a large sculptural piece, an organically shaped disc supported by a central column. The brightly colored underside of the disc creates an energetic entrance to the shopping park.
Courtesy of AGA
Three towers enable the necessary density for the scheme; an office tower, a high end residential tower and a 5-star hotel tower. A supermarket at the first basement level acts as the anchor store for the precinct, and high-end retail is distributed throughout the complex. The architects expect for the superstructure to be complete mid-2017, and the mall to be open to the public in 2018.
Design Team, : Jimmy Xie, Ryan Iiu, Tim McCann, Vivi Feng, Walon Chen, Sabrina Xie, Wish Xu, Kevin Li, Richard Iiu, Hongbo Gao, Geng Zhang, Ping Zhu, Lian Xiao, Tian Qui
Landscape Architects: Design TM Ltd
Executive Architects: Hunan Provincial Architecture Design Institute
Construction Company: China Construction Second Engineering Bureau Ltd
Located in the heart of Oslo, Stranden 1 represents as a new corporate standard within building renovation and stands as a re-branding flagship for the new Aker Brygge Masterplan, a revitalization design-strategy which is now under completion.
Four major upgrades were coordinated to address the spatial deficiencies of the existing building, deleting programmatic inadequacies and significantly improving environmental performance.
1-Commercial Street: The two double-height public entrances on ground level mark the beginning of a new covered street, “the diagonal”, a commercial passage that cuts clean through the first 3 existing buildings of Aker Brygge. This shopping path connects the main Aker Brygge square with the city hall plaza and performs as a pedestrian shortcut between the residential areas on the west and the city center.
2-Atrium: The existing central space is transformed from a narrow light shaft to a brand new public space. A meeting point that is re-configured to become wider in all directions, allowing for proper distribution of zenithal light into the offices and commercial areas through an ETFE skylight. Its sculptural geometry becomes the portal to Aker Brygge and a prominent arena for corporate art, the installation “Sundial for Spatial Echoes”, by artist Thomás Saraceno, is mounted permanently at the heart of the building.
Plan
3-Facade: Designed as a modular-system for fast assemblage on site, this floor to ceiling clear-glass skin provides abundant natural light into the working spaces, generous views from the inside and substantial increase on energy efficiency and noise protection.
4-Penthouse: All HVAC equipment originally installed on the top floor is re-located to the basement, liberating in full the most attractive and profitable area of the building. The new penthouse on the 8th floor provides breathtaking views of the Oslo bay.
From the architect. Lambeth Marsh House had been left unoccupied for over 10 years and is a two storey listed house situated within the Roupell Street Conservation area in central London. The conservation area designation was first developed by John Palmer Roupell in the 1820’s. Roupell, a gold refiner, lived with his family at 16 Meymott Street, which was at that time known as ‘Cross Street’. Roupell developed the land for artisan workers – in the form of modest, brick built, two storey terraced houses fronting conventional streets.
Our concept and challenge was to breathe new life into all floors whilst respecting the heritage of this listed building and restoring some of the lost historic detailing.
The run down fabric of the existing building required extensive refurbishment with a sensitive approach. Restoring the panelled replaces, wood panelling to walls, architraves and skirting to their original condition celebrates the history of this building.
The addition of a contemporary rear and side extension compliments these features and updates the building. A large open plan living space creates a new light airy space whilst a new glass roof extension feeds light into the plan of the building.
Throughout the traditional settings modern furniture updates the traditional spaces. Many antique chairs were refurbished and re-upholstered and minimalist light fittings compliment the sympathetic interior. Materiality was very important to help produce a sensitive contemporary design, whilst assisting our conservationist approach.
From the architect. Allies and Morrison was commissioned to develop design proposals for the reconstruction of the historic Eid ground in Doha located on a prominent site across from the Al Koot Fort, immediately south of the new National Archive building and adjacent to the Jassim Bin Mohammed heritage house to the west.
Courtesy of Fatma Al Sehlawi
The ground is a roughly rectilinear plot of approximately 4000sqm. Part of the Msheireb Downtown Doha Masterplan, the project was occasioned by the construction beneath the site of one of the developments central cooling plants. The new structure incorporates vents and escape stairs from the below ground infrastructure. The above ground construction includes not only the prayer ground itself, and the associated Qibla wall, but screening walls, sun screens and amenities such as public conveniences and drinking fountains.
Courtesy of Allies and Morrison
Allies and Morrison’s design concept is based on the resolution of site geometries and the pure geometries and specific orientation of the sacred ground. The sacred space of the Eid ground is a perfectly level platform set slightly above the sloping ground plane, and a pure rectangle set within the irregular rectangle of the site. The interstitial spaces between the site boundary and prayer ground plan house the infrastructure requirements as well as the prayer ground amenities. Retractable shading devices will provide protection for the northern and southern parts of the Eid ground.
The idea for moving landscape germinated from stumbling upon a stone, Bidasar Forest, that possesses an impression, as if, of tropical arid landscape fossilized within itself. Its polished surfaces against the native verdure of the Ahmedabad region made for the perfect setting, blurring the lines between reality and illusion.
The nations booming economy in the last decade has made individual houses accessible to a larger section of society. Coupled with the demand for an independence that protects individuality, the age old tradition of joint family living has disintegrated into small nuclear families. Despite this change of cultural attitude in the present Indian context, a large number of families, bound by family business and obliged by traditional ingrained values, still choose to live together. Whilst this allows them to benefit from shared responsibility across generations, it often leads to the creation of autonomous suites within a house that isolates families even under the same roof. The challenge therefore lies in simultaneously integrating the requirements of these opposing lifestyles – making it equally imperative to provide opportunities for communal collision, while providing privacy.
Situated on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the house is meant to accommodate one of the city’s most prolific real-estate developers and his wife, along with his two sons’ families and extended visiting members. The client also shares the grounds with his two other brothers’ houses and their joint families in a large 20000 m2 plot.
The plan of the house is interpreted as a linear pavilion, ensuring that every space in the house is lined with glass on the facing sides – the first enclosure. The rest of the structure is in 200mm thin walls in concrete, eliminating the need for any beams and columns and making for cleanest interior volumes. Additionally, this saves constructed dead space by about 3% and for the 18,000 total covered area, this equals to 540 sq.ft or the size of an average sized room.
This pavilion is oriented around the margin of the site as three wings. The flanks holds the house’s private spaces with suites for each of the sons’ families, while the central one hosts the living space for all communal activities. The residual corner voids by the turning of the blocks, are snugly protected by tall circular walls to form smaller sheltered spaces – while one cradles the houses’ utility space, the other acts as a court distant from the joint families gaze. These also carry the staircases and lift, rendering outer spaces clear of all encumbrances for the Bidasar drama to unfold. The composition as a whole footprint defines a large multi family courtyard at the heart of the site.
The second enclosure is a layer of massive 15’ high, 9’ wide and 1’6”mm thick Bidaser stone walls along the entire perimeter – an impregnable shell. Akin to the amethysts hard exterior cracking open to reveal its crystalline heart, at the push of a button, this imposingly heavy stone wall cracks open, as it becomes an array of panels spinning gently about their centres or sliding away to reveal a transparent cocooned interior. Can be employed at will whenever desired and dissolved when not.
Plan / Elevation
This layer of stone panels help create a buffer between the inside and the outside, protecting the inner layer shell of concrete and glass from intense sun light and 45o heat, thereby reducing the total heat gain on the air-conditioning. Moreover, this space doubles up as passages, verandahs, entrance vestibule and circulation space, and also as protection from rain, eliminating the need for air-conditioning in 8000sq.ft out of a total of 18000 habitable space. This saving is substituted with enhanced living and direct contact with nature in what we term as value architecture.
Savings from the air-conditioning and sealing the house, is then channelled into making inhouse custom designed motorized pivots and giant sliding systems. Architecturally and structurally both, this entire layer is kept completely detached from the inside structure, almost as a heat buffer, and is only supported on hidden structures within in the sliding and pivoting systems, making for the awe in having thick concrete slabs floating on moving stones.
Lights are machined out of alabaster stone providing for the most natural ambience. Most furniture is bought out from various design houses in Italy and a sole bar table is one custom designed by the Architects. It is a 3 dimensional mobius strip in stainless steel, locally fabricated, that can be subject of discussion and intellectual discourse after a couple of drinks. Lights and water under the moving walls light the water to make the heavy stones appear floating on water.
Toilets too open on opposite ends and the water closet, the shower and the basin, all three are positioned on 3 side of the duct, the fourth side left for easy service access and ventilation to the duct from outside.To carry on with the material & weight amazement further the thick concrete basin counter is cantilevered from the floor to ceiling mirror. In line with the same philosophy of the easy maintenance and serviceblity AC units have been kept on the roof with just holes cut in slab for blower. This approach of integrating the services and interiors in construction itself doesn’t only make it easy to service; it also saved a lot of time off construction. The entire building was ready in 18 months time from start to furnish.
Resonating with the harshest aspects of nature, in motion, these walls intermingle with the glass inside and the wild landscape outside, the third enclosure, to sometimes allow a glimse of the outdoors, sometimes reflect it and sometimes reflecting themselves. It is in this layering of space and screen, the houses’ entire envelope becomes an interface to mediate between the artifice of the inside and verdant site outside.
The houses environs look deep inside their interior, as the house merges into an illusion of landscape constantly moving that we sometimes catch ourselves reflecting amongst, reflecting on the nature both within us and outside of us. The epitome of their experience is to be found at the entrance passage of the house, where all of these reflections find the surface of water to make the landscape a truly moving one.
Sig Nordal 