From the architect. A portion of the ground floor in an industrial building was renovated into a co-working space that consisted of small office rooms, individuals’ dedicated desks, and a series of shared spaces including a meeting room, a drink bar, and lounges. As the given space had a high ceiling, we partially made it into two stories while considering the reach of natural light to the deep area. The floating lounge or “cloud seats” was one of unique design features that made the best use of the ceiling height and created a dynamic scene in the space.
The afternoon sun light softly comes into the lounge through a lace curtain, creating a relaxing environment.
We purposefully used some outdoor construction materials for interior space. For example, lightweight concrete blocks were laid to the full ceiling height with patterns in order to create feature walls at important shared spaces; red bricks were paved for both exterior and interior spaces blurring the boundary and dealing with the level difference in between; and concrete columns standing in the middle of the site were shaved off and their original rough surfaces were exposed. These design decisions were certainly made to create a kind of taste, but it also reflected our design philosophy to resist the transient reality of commodified office environment. We used outdoor construction materials and their tectonic expression, and tried to create a stable identity to this project and anchor it to this specific location.
The space provided various types of working environment for the members to choose from: such as, an enclosed room, a duplex, with a private garden, and a desk at an open floor.
The “cloud seats” is a relaxing lounge next to the drink bar. It was formed by steel members and covered by OSB boards, and raised to the upper floor level by a number of supporting steel columns. Through the design process, we tried to make this object visually detached from the space and float in the air. Firstly, we gave a unique form to the object, a zigzag passage with six finger-like seats attached irregularly. Its form refused to merge into the dominant interior perspective framed by the modernism factory building. Secondly, the edges of OSB boards were cut in sharp angle and joined perfectly without showing material thickness. The tectonic reality and construction process were purposefully hid, which visually detached the object from the site context. Thirdly, the columns were irregularly placed and painted in four different colors. They were dissociated from each other, and thus the whole object visually lost structural coherence. It was meant to reinforce the idea of floating. Fourthly, The bottom of the floating object was finished by mirror-effect material. Its reflection hid the structural reality and the floating object was dissolved in the air. All these designs made the “cloud seats” float in the air and detached from the working section, and created a relaxing environment.
The use of such design elements as water, greenery, concrete, and red brick brought an outdoor walking experience into the interior working environment.
From the architect. It is a small house project. There are Japanese homes around the site with a certain density and there is a row of cherry blossoms on the side of the site. The client wanted to live while watching the cherry blossoms.But it isn’t able to avoid a private problem to grant the request in this land near a road.So we proposed a simple answer.I made them reverse the construction of the floor.
The stairs in this housing are characteristic. A void like a crevasse is separating inside and outside gently. The stairs where soft light on the north side falls play abstract beauty.
The construction of the 2nd floor is simple. Each several offices which line up parallel to cherry blossoms. We answered a request of the client who would like to live while always feeling a cherry blossoms.The simple composition and the beautiful figure are derived consequently, and construction has been completed.
We thought about a house like living with cherry blossoms while paying attention to the surrounding houses.
The roof, material, proportion are designed to follow the surrounding context and participate in the city-scape.On the other hand, symmetrical façades are slightly away from the surrounding context. A design that combines autonomy and heteronomous awakens the surrounding poetic level.
From the architect. As you approach the Dickinson Public Safety Center from the south, a sweeping earthen-toned wall emerges from the gentle rolling hillside. The building is nestled in a wide-open landscape on the edge of a growing community. As daylight fades, the dark façade gives way to two luminous boxes, a symbol of the two departments housed within that serve to protect the citizens of Dickinson, North Dakota.
The concept for the Dickinson Public Safety Center was inspired by both the local Native American history and Dickinson’s nickname, ‘The Western Edge’. A conceptual ‘edge’ element evolved into a large, curved wall – a nod to the Mandan ‘on a slant’ villages that had been thoughtfully protected from nearby water by tall, rounded fences. The topography of the site and the undulating curves of the stream signified this connection, and the curve became central to the building’s design.
In contrast to the opacity of the arced wall, glassy orthogonal elements convey the importance of the interior programmatic functions. The transparent apparatus bays penetrate through the corten-clad surface, allowing fire operations to be highly visible and showcased to onlookers. Further to the east, the wall opens up to reveal the glazed lobby area and create a dynamic public entry. The lobby is pulled back from the curved wall, inviting visitors to walk through the partition and be welcomed into the facility’s public component. At the entry to the west and the courtyard, sections of the curved wall are turned perpendicular to create dramatic openings for staff using secure portions of the facility.
This combined fire and police facility includes 42,501 SF of individual entity and shared-use space, including space available for public use. Dickinson Public Safety Center’s construction is unique in that it thoughtfully combines traditional construction with a pre-engineered metal building. The materials used for the building were chosen in order to accomplish the city’s desire for an ‘iconic’ building that fit the surrounding landscape and enhanced the local context. The weathered steel exterior was chosen for its gritty, yet beautiful, patina as it ages through the years. This public safety facility was designed to be both beautiful and efficient, and to serve the city of Dickinson far into the future.
BDP and Wolfgang Buttress’ pavilion, The Hive, has been awarded the 2016 Landscape Institute Award for Best Design for a Temporary Landscape as part of their 2016 awards program.
Judges for the award noted the project’s ability to interact with its site, remarking that they were ‘impressed by the quality and simplicity of the design and execution, in particular the way in which the design works with a sensitive landscape to provide a beautiful and functional temporary setting for the installation, and a longer-term facility for events and education.”
“The submission engages with the idea of ‘temporary’ in an interesting way. It uses the temporary opportunity of the installation to engage thoughtfully with the purpose, and short and long-term needs of the site,” the judges’ statement continued.
Originally designed for the Milan Expo 2015, The Hive has since been relocated to Kew Gardens in central London for two years as part of a larger event space. Designed to provide visitors with a glimpse into the lives of working bees, the pavilion is constructed of 169,300 individual aluminum components equipped with hundreds of LED lights. As the meadow surrounding the structure develops, various plant species will begin to flower, bringing with them the sights and sounds of real bees and creating a layered, multi-sensory experience.
Each year, the Landscape Institute presents landscape professionals with awards honoring “the most innovative projects to have shaped, restored and protected the natural and built environment.” Awards are given in 16 categories.
You can check out the full list of this year’s winners, here.
News via the Landscape Institute.
Gallery: Wolfgang Buttress’ Relocated Expo Pavilion, The Hive, Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu
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Wolfgang Buttress’ Celebrated UK Pavilion, “The Hive” Moves to Kew Gardens
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UK Pavilion – Milan Expo 2015 / Wolfgang Buttress
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From the architect. When the project started, this 105-year old house on a narrow 25’ wide lot had been an unheated and neglected shelter for an elderly occupant. It was overrun with rats and was almost tipping over sideways. The new owners met D’Arcy Jones on the street at a real estate open-house, when he was considering buying it as a new of office for his practice. The cost to restore the house seemed too high, so D’Arcy declined to make an offer on the property. A few days later the new owners tracked him down via the web, and asked if his office could modernize the house. The architects rolled up their sleeves, ate their words, and got to work.
The basement floor was lowered, becoming a new living, dining, kitchen and entry area. A new heated concrete slab was poured, to offset the chill of having the main living spaces of the house built on the ground. By exposing the existing floor joists, the main level is a raw and simple space, carved from under this narrow house. Bedrooms, bathrooms, storage and utility spaces are on the second and attic level. Rotted exterior walls were replaced only where required, with a new 2-storey tall raked window on the front and back replacing the walls that had the most decay.
All new interior cabinets, handrails and fittings are white, to create a timeless backdrop in contrast with the rusticity of the existing house. The existing exterior stucco was patched and repaired, then painted black. Like a film that switches between colour and black / white footage, the minimal exterior of this renovation exaggerates the colours of textures of this working class East Vancouver neighbourhood. The silhouette and massing of the existing house was completely retained, keeping the architectural history of the existing house alive.
The sunken wells at the front and back were planted with new native plants, species uniquely suited to the shade of a massive maple tree in the city boulevard. Sinking the rear terrace to be flush with the new lower level’s floor height created a private refuge that will become a green cocoon as the landscape matures.
Product Description. New Douglas Fir plywood floors were installed on the second and attic levels, to match the wood of the existing house’s old Douglas Fir floor joists. Through material continuity, the distinction between 1911 and 2016 is intentionally blurred.
The world’s first solar panel road has officially opened in a small village in Normandy, France.
Built in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche, the 1 kilometer route, dubbed the “Wattway,” is covered in 2,800 square meters of photovoltaic panels. It is designed to be used by up to 2,000 motorists per day, while providing an average of 767 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per day, enough energy to power all of the street lighting in the 3,400-resident village.
“Solar road” opens in French village – a first for the technology.https://t.co/gcViejgBCE http://pic.twitter.com/WXdTBnqep8
— Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) December 23, 2016
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To protect from wear, the panels have been coated in a resin containing five layers of silicon.
The road’s construction is part of a push by French ecology officials to install 1,000 kilometers of solar roads throughout the country within the next 5 years. Constructed at a cost of €5 million (about $5.2 million), directors view the project not as a finished product but as the next step in the development of the technology.
“We are still on an experimental phase. Building a trial site of this scale is a real opportunity for our innovation,” said Wattway Director Jean-Charles Broizat in a statement. “This trial site has enabled us to improve our photovoltaic panel installing process as well as their manufacturing, in order to keep on optimizing our innovation.”
The road will now begin a 2-year testing period, in which the feasibility of adapting the technology will be measured.
News via The Guardian. H/T Inhabitat.
“OD” is the first blow dry bar in Yerevan, Armenia, created by a group of young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs. The primary goal was to create a new model of a beauty salon and to outline the lifestyle through the interior, to create an atmosphere that the customer is not used to.
The OD Blow Dry Bar lies in a 1930’s neoclassical building, in the very center of Yerevan, near Republic Square. Previously this space hosted a luxury boutique and it faced radical changes since we started the design process. Everything possible was demolished besides the natural travertine floor which had a big impact on the final design. The old ceiling had two covers: the original one from the 30’s and the second one – from the last renovation. All the layers were demolished to expose the original concrete ceiling construction with its vintage texture and tone. As a result we’ve got an extra 1.5m height.
The shape of the floor plan allowed us to divide the space into two parts. The first – entrance zone with the bar/reception, three mirrors and a little lounge zone, the second zone hosts two mirrors, shampoo backwash and a small area for the storage in the back of the interior.
“Od” means air in Armenian, that is why the sky blue was chosen as a main color for the interior which gently contrasts with the brutality of concrete elements in the interior. The stylist’s desks and the coffee table are custom made of concrete and plywood. All the five mirrors have different shapes to give a dynamic and personalized feeling to the interior.
Sig Nordal 