From the architect. The project of this house is located in a plot with an exagerated slope. For a proper use of all the plot it was decided to locate the house approximately in the middle of the available land, so the side towards Segaria Street in “Urbanización l’Aspre” picks up the main access, garage, swimming pool and basically the representative part of the house, while in the southern part of the house plot services program is resolved.
The section is projected so that the ground floor coincides with the living area and in the first floor it is located the night area of the house; the high ceiling on the entrance, upon which rests the study room, expands and distributes from the central nucleus the different parts of the program.
1st Floor Plan
The main piece, looking for framing the landscape of the sea, extends itself towards the facade in a pronounced cantilever which shows the slope of the plot and defines, by its shadows, the parking area. The night piece at the end of the plot contains the sleeping area situated in the east side of the piece in purpose to keep the privacy of the people who is living there, and the study room in the west side, from which they can acces to the lower floor cover.
The irregularity of the plants comes from the adaptation of two original prisms to attemp to preserve part of the existing vegetation, incorporating it to the project. This irregular shape favors views between different parts of the home that incorporate the landscape of the valley of Girona river, contextualizing the contrast with the enviroment. The way to design the house with beam-wall of reinforced concrete, and its malleability, ease of execution and rigidity, allows us to reach a 9,5m cantilever and helps to understand the volumes of the house in its most expressive way.
About the treatment of the exterior areas, it tries to maintain the image of the agricultural terraces, now disused, which mark out the area of the plot and make it descend by the northern slope of the mountain. For the location of the swimming pool and to form its “beach”, is widened on of these terraced fields until build the main outdoor stay of the house, an area that sequence the pedestrian and vehicular acces and it also enjoys the spectacular views of the living/dining room, due to the altitude.
Diagram
The main facades of the house are oriented to the valley and the west facade frames, on first floor, the views to the “Castellet”, an historical reference for the people in Orba; the rest facades are intended to, with a simple composition, satisfy the relations beetween the rooms and the enviroment, providing ventilation and natural lighting throughout the house.
The idea of architecture expressed in this project, not only diverge from the buildings of its enviroment regards to their constructive solution, but the architectural language is necessarily remote from the one which is generally used in all the urbanization.
It’s a modern project that fowards regarding organization, shape, structure, construction and language to the identification of the requirements of the customer in a unitary way.
Atelier PRO architects have been selected to create the interior design for the new Town Hall Quarter in Deventer. The Deventer municipality has opted for flexibility, sustainability, cooperation and interaction as the major basic principles for this interior.
The Town Hall Quarter is situated between the Grote Kerkhof, Polstraat, Burseplein and Assenstraat. The plan partly entails new build (about 19,500 m² Gross Floor Area (GFA)) and partly renovation, restoration and preservation of existing national monuments (about 4,500 m² GFA). The striking new build part, according to the design by Neutelings Riedijk architects, respectfully conforms to the existing historic buildings. The municipality aims to set a good example in the field of sustainable building and realized a building with a BREEAM-score excellent.
Plan
Democracy and public administration In Deventer, democracy and public administration have been connected to this wonderful site for centuries. The new building signifies a huge quality improvement, not only for the municipal organization, but also for the inner city quality of this location. With this Town Hall Quarter, the municipality unites its own organization at the Grote Kerkhof, and in addition creates a central meeting point. The public spaces are therefore equipped to make them suitable for exhibitions, debates and symposiums. The interior design plays a leading role in this concept.
Activity-based working places In this new office environment, the municipality has chosen for a flexible office arrangement in the interior. This working place concept that is related to activities, contributes to a new way of working in which innovative, participative and result-oriented working forms central stage. The staff members can work in a flexible way and without fixed places and times. In the atelier PRO architects’ design, orientation has been linked with interior specials which form recognizable meeting places. Following the historic buildings, the use of colours are a reflection of 17th century pigments which came to light after researching old paint layers, such as ultramarine blue, indigo, umber, madder and lead-tin yellow.
Peace of mind Moreover, atelier PRO has developed ‘The New Waiting’ concept and introduced this in the public hall. The comfort of the interior reveals itself in accordance with the waiting time, so that a waiting place can be chosen that suits the serenity level. Practical furniture for visitors who are in hurry, and a softer interior for quiet places where people have to stay longer. Thus the functional arrangement of the public hall is related to the various activities, for which perceptibility, clear organization and obvious waiting time indications are of major importance. Hence, the interior design supports the operational management and high level of service and hospitality of the municipality of Deventer.
Fingerprint Visual artist Loes ten Anscher developed aluminum window frames out of the fingerprints belonging to hundreds of Deventer inhabitants. Their thumb, finger or even their toe got an eternal place in the new building. In total 2300 Deventen citizens were invited to hand in their fingerprint. All fingerprint scans were turned into a fingerprint clay mold. In the foundry the clay molds turned into sand molds, that were filled with fluid aluminum. After the aluminum being cooled the window frame was finished.
The mixed program of housing and facilities was determined by high economic restrictions that obliged us to maximize the best part of the site: the spectacular views of Barcelona and the ocean beyond. Orientation and topography defined the initial design. Facilities resolve the topographic jump and become a platform from which the south-facing housing units rise in an L-shape.
Taking advantage of the Mediterranean climate, each unit is provided with a large terrace that organizes the program of the space. This terrace is understood as an empty space, an excavation of the white mass of the building volume. Its size exceeds the scale of the apartment inside and establishes direct dialogue with the rest of the building as well as the city. The units alternate floor to floor, thus forming across the façade a staggered chessboard pattern of white and black that cloaks the building in a distinctive texture.
These terraces condense the life inhabiting them. They expose the domestic activities of the users to the city beyond, like the central courtyard of the houses of the Algerian Kashba translated onto the vertical plane. Each user makes the space their own. The collection of actions and activities of the inhabitants remains integrated in the volume of the building through the interior position of the terrace. The architecture is saturated with daily life, and shows itself to the city as such. White covers everything, from the individual curtains to the façade as a whole, unifying the building like the snow on the distant horizon.
From the architect. Living in Mumbai, India it is impossible to ignore the informal settlements in the city, and if looked at closely there are many lessons to be learnt in frugality, adaptability, multi-tasking, resourcefulness and ingenuity. A visual language emerges that is of the found object, ad-hoc, eclectic, patched and collaged. An attempt has been made here to apply some of these lessons without romanticizing or fetishizing them. The project looks at the idea of recycling and collage in several ways, from the very physical – like materials, energy, etc. to the intangible – like history, space and memories. The front façade sets the tone for what lies within, with a “corner of windows” that recycles old windows and doors of demolished houses in the city. This becomes a major backdrop for the living room with a exposed concrete faceted ceiling above countered by the polished white marble with intricate brass inlay on the floor. Metal pipe leftovers pieced together like bamboo form a “pipe wall” integrating structural columns, rainwater downtake pipes and a sculpture of spouts that in the monsoon are a delight for all the senses.
Courtesy of S+PS Architects
Courtesy of S+PS Architects
In the central courtyard on one side scrap rusted metal plates are riveted together, Kitsch colored tile samples retain a planter in the middle and on the third side is a wall clad in cut-waste stone slivers lifted off the back of stone cutting yards and waste generated on site. Hundred-year-old columns from a dismantled house bring back memories, and nostalgia is nourished with a lightweight, steel and glass pavilion (with solar panels above) on the terrace level overlooking fabulous views down the hillside. This approach is reinforced again in the interior materials and elements. It plays up this contrast between the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary, the rough and the finished. One finds use of recycled materials like old textile blocks, Flooring out of old Burma teak rafters and purlins, colonial furniture, fabric waste (chindi) along with new ways of using traditional elements and materials like carved wooden mouldings, beveled mirrors, heritage cement tiles, etc.
Diagram
A language emerges that is both new but strangely familiar at the same time and that makes us rethink notions of beauty that we take for granted around us. To make this mélange more “acceptable”, it is encased in a “garb of modernity” (Nehru). This concrete frame – in a rough aggregate finish outside and in a smooth form finish inside – wraps and connects all the spaces from back to front and across all three levels.
Courtesy of S+PS Architects
Section
Courtesy of S+PS Architects
To build on top of a hill is always exciting, until the architects discovered here that they were surrounded by neighbours on all sides. This led early on in the design process to look inwards and build around the quintessential Indian courtyard, albeit slightly modified. The court is actually raised a floor above the ground level and hidden below is a large rainwater harvesting tank wrapped with rock that was removed from the hillside during excavation. It is the core around which this large four-generation family is organized and comes together.
Buildings and cityscapes – or the lack thereof – change the way we hear significantly. Acousticians and acoustic engineers are often hired to solve problems with sound leakage, but few people consider the difference between a shout across a city block and the same shout down a closed hallway. In this video, the differences in sound quality in various environments are compared, as the “Wikisinger” performs the same song in 15 places.
Cycling between places like a cathedral, a field in front of oil naves, a concrete tunnel, an abandoned attic and a silence chamber, the acoustic differences between each space are made clear as the song reverberates or lands flatly against the walls surrounding it. Splicing and augmenting the different sounds of each place, the singer creates a kind of orchestra of architecture, inviting listeners to take a second to hear the buildings around them.
Promoter: The State of Puebla, Governor Rafael Moreno Valle Rosas
Concessioner: Constructores del Museo Barroco S.A. de C.V.
Contractor: Grupo Hermes
Museography: Miguel Ángel Fernández Villar
International Link: Guillermo Eguiarte Bendimez
Coordination And Design Development: Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects and Estudio Arquitectura S.A. de C.V.
Team Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects : Toyo Ito, Yoko Izumi, Takeo Higashi, Shuichi Kobari, Makoto Fukuda, Nils Becker, Takayuki Ohara Martínez, Kota Tamaki, Yuta Martínez Ono, Adrià Clapés i Nicolau, Carlos González Acedo, Mariana Ramírez Escoto, Luis Alberto Hidalgo Miranda
Team Estudio Arquitectura S A De C V : Federico Bautista Alonso, Alejandro Bribiesca Ortega, Miriam Carrada Legaria, Armando Mauleón Bonilla, Daniel Rosas Ortiz, Erika Carral González, Gardi Albrecht Junghanns
The plot of five hectares is located approximately seven kilometres from the city centre of Puebla, at the intersection of the “Boulevard de Atlixcayotl” and the “Avenida de las Torres”. Currently access to the site is either by car, by a public transport bus system or by a bike path circuit connecting the Museum with other parks and public spaces in the city. Parking is organized on 2 levels on the eastern side of the Museum and has about 440 boxes, parking for 4 buses, 42 motorcycles and 50 bicycles.
To frame the main facade of the museum a large square has been designed which receives the incoming visitors. It includes a passenger drop-off point for buses and cars, benches, information banners, a large stepping bench for giving explanations to visiting groups, and an entrance canopy which welcomes and protects the visitors waiting to enter the museum. This facade will also receive night time projections of images related to current exhibitions, which also illuminate the museum and make it stand out from a distance.
Site Plan
The building, 19.52 m maximum height, is elevated 2 m from original ground. Thus it is easily recognizable from the two main roads, acting as a beacon. The MIB has two levels above ground. The total floor area is approximately 18,149 m2, of which 9,855 m² correspond to the lower floor (ground floor), 7,316 m² to the upper floor and 978 m2 to the mezzanine level. The structure consists of concrete walls and slabs that have been developed in collaboration with the Mexican company DANSTEK which specialises in precast concrete. The structure composed of precast walls and slabs were also developed jointly with DANSTEK. The walls are precast on the exterior and cast in-situ on the interior. The precast part, consisting of two panels of 65 mm white concrete joined as a sandwich panel, also acts as lost formwork whilst simultaneously controlling the final finish; the inside, cast on site with grey concrete, merge the pieces together with the reinforcement, producing a monolithic wall.
The exposed concrete has a bush-hammered texture, making it easy to rectify any defects to the finishes on site. The walls function as structural load-bearing walls with a total thickness of 36 cm. (Including the 2 precast concrete elements). The slab is a 70 cm deep lightweight composite with recycled hollow polyethylene (PET) spheres and semi-prefabricated precast slabs for easy and fast assembly.
As part of the structural strategy, the museum is a single rigid volume, giving the building earthquake resistant qualities. The foundation transmits vertical loads on the ground filler compacted soils. The foundation was built as a strip footing with an adjusted depth according to the requirements of outdoor spaces.
Exhibition spaces are mainly located on the lower floor. Upon entering the building one will reach the main hall, from which you can immediately access the museum exhibition areas, the auditorium as well as the upper level. The ticket office, cloakroom, museum shop and information centre are also located in the main hall. In this area one can also enjoy several large benches designed by Kazuko Fujie Atelier which were developed in collaboration with local textile artisans in Hueyapan, Puebla. This space communicates with the exhibition hall, from which you can access both the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibition includes a visit to eight exhibition halls, each with a different theme that provides a broad view of the various appearances of the Baroque. This includes the main subjects of art, architecture, theatre, music, literature and the influences of Baroque on everyday life. The eight rooms plus an outdoor terrace with selective views over the adjacent lake and park, surround a large courtyard of 1800 m2, where visitors can take a rest freely during their visits. In this extensive patio, dominating the space we can find a large fountain designed as a swirling water motif. In the Baroque, moving water is a recurring theme; in the MIB it is a metaphor for the ‘generation’ of the museum.
3D model
The temporary exhibition is in three 400 m2 adjacent rooms, which can be used as individual halls, flexibly merged into a large hall of 1,200 m2 or configured into a medium sized 800 m2hall with one small 400 m2 hall. On this same floor there is an auditorium with 312 seats, allowing it to be used independently for other cultural uses or serving the adjacent exhibition areas at different times. The ceiling height of these rooms is 6.5 m.
Rooms related to research, education and dissemination of Baroque art are located on the upper floor. Visitors can observe the restoration process of Baroque works of art, seek reference inoriginal documents in the specialized library, playfully learnabout the Baroque in the educational link (both children and adults), and enjoy the baroque flavours in the restaurant with a terrace overlooking the park. Also on this floor is the “International Baroque Saloon”, where international experts on this period will gather for symposiums. This space can also be used in connection with the auditorium below, depending on the nature and size of the event.
The museum offices are located on the upper floor at a priviledged location overlooking the park, allowing the curatorial staff to be at a creative work environment for fresh and innovative exhibitions.
Section
Section
All internal and ‘back of house’ functions are organised on the eastern side of the building. Loading and unloading, the transit storage and the quarantine room are located on the lower floor; on the upper floor we find the collections storage, restoration workshop, museography storage and other workshops. These two levels are connected by a service elevator with the dimensions of 7 x 4 m and 4 m height and a capacity of 12 Tons.
All rooms that hold works of art have strict temperature and humidity control, separated from the public areas, to preserve the art work at its optimal conditions. This control can be adapted individually to each room providing maximum flexibility.
The Museum was carefully designed to meet international standards and special requirements documented in the “Facility Report”, in order to guarantee safety to the works on loan from other institutions or museums. Moreover, the museum wishes to explore innovative and interactive means to exhibit art works from a past era using new technology.
The MIB will be a cultural meeting centre, not only for Mexico but embodies international ambitions. People from around the world will gather here and exchange their thoughts and reflections. This cultural institution will become a timeless point of attraction to the world and represents pride and joy for the people of Puebla.
International architecture competition organizers Bee Breeders have announced the three winners and honourable mentions of their competition to design a Charlie Hebdo Portable Pavilion. Intended to be a travelling exhibition of the work of the French Magazine “Charlie Hebdo,” participants were asked to “support and promote” principles of free speech in their design. Responding to the terror attacks against Charlie Hebdo and the ensuing global discourse on free speech, the competition sought to deconstruct the “conventional assumptions of free speech,” and look specifically at “what makes speech free and how much of it comes at a cost.”
Entries were judged for the way they challenged these assumptions in terms of space, material and form. Preference was given to projects that had clear concepts, circulation, sequence and narrative, in addition to public engagement and a “reconciliation between the abstract and theoretical with the physical and real.” Consideration was also given to the way projects contributed to a discourse – rather than expressing an opposition – concerning the growing grey areas between “ideological, political, and cultural binaries.”
3rd Prize Winners
3rd Prize Rendered View. Image via Bee Breeders
Luca Longagnani, Alexine Sammut, Marta Fernandez Guardado | Germany
Using a “universalizing architecture of silence”, the 3rd prize winner transcends the ideologies present in other entries, breaking down “binaries between cultures, economic systems and political regimes”. A circular wall with a single entrance separates site from within, and two off-center circular walls create a progression of interiors. A mirrored exterior, and plain, matte interior with no prefigured function create a “territory of discussion, contemplation, and reflection.”
The second prize winner utilizes two distinct geometries – a sphere and a plane – to express its ideas. A massive balloon floats above the site, holding a steel roof afloat. The suspended ceiling creates a platform for engagement or individual contemplation. The balloon and roof – the sphere and plane – create an “analogous contrast”, engaging the metaphysical and metaphoric with its play of lightness and heaviness. Its universal form and monumental qualities pay homage to an “enlightened ideal, and the sacrifices of those who have pursued it”.
1st Prize Winners
1st Prize Exterior View. Image via Bee Breeders
Aurélie Monet Kasisi, Anouk Dandrieu | Switzerland
Through its “selection, organization, and representation of autonomous archtypes,” the first prize winner creates a sense of “no-place (Utopia)”, allowing it to exist free of political bias. This results in a platform for liberated speech. Easels, organized in a “striated but ordered field condition” create space for expression, and are carved out to create “nodes of concentrated activity.” Although the field as a whole remains open, the easels individually act as walls, enclosing individuals while relating them to a whole. In both its design and representation, the project embodies free speech and the “spirit of expression Charlie Hebdo fosters.”
Find more details, including interviews with the winners and the honourable mention proposals, here.
Sondoveni Community Center. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
Plan Selva (Jungle Plan) — a project to build modular schools in Amazonian villages — was selected as the focal point of the Peruvian pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. In light of this, we take a look at the work of two other organizations that have been carrying out major projects in the country’s largest natural region: ConstruyeIdentidad, which creates innovative projects using traditional materials and techniques and an exchange of ideas between students, professionals and the community; and Semillas, an organization that designs educational spaces used as areas of communication between indigenous communities, promoting the development of these relationships and exchanges through participatory processes.
CONSTRUYEIDENTIDAD in Sondoveni: Revisiting Traditional Construction Techniques
ConstruyeIdentidad emerged due to a lack of interest in traditional techniques and the homogenization of style in Peruvian architecture. The project aims to create an appreciation of local materials through a participatory and interdisciplinary workshop that promotes research, dissemination and innovation. To achieve this, they start from the premise of understanding that the participants are not only the users of these buildings, but also professionals related to construction, academics, and students as well as the general population.
From 2013 to 2014, ConstruyeIdentidad decided to explore the architecture of the central jungle. In Satipo, Junin, they worked alongside the Ashaninka community of Alto Sondoveni, using wood and palm leaves as building materials. They constructed three buildings (a community center, a shelter, and a secondary school), and proposed new alternatives for construction, utilizing local skills and available materials, while also improving wood construction technology.
Plan of Job Site
They came to Sondoveni thanks to Creciendo, an NGO that has been doing educational work with communities in the Rio Negro District for years. The team made multiple research trips to get all of the necessary information, including understanding the community’s building systems, culture, and other features that would allow for coherent proposals for the location. In addition, the link with the community must be established gradually, in order to gain their trust and engage them more and more in the participatory processes of design and construction.
Sondoveni Community Center. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
First Building: Community Center
The first project in the community was small in scale, but addressed an important need: communal meetings. The main design idea was to create a space with various opening facades, allowing for flexible use and accommodating all of the families that are part of these meetings. A simple structure was constructed based on six columns and trusses, giving more volume to the space. The use of metal profiles for the structure became an on location innovation, since the only connections were between pieces of wood. It was important to use local materials like palm leaves for part of the roof and panels that serve as furniture.
Sondoveni Community Center. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
Second Construction: Refuge
The second collaborative construction in Sondoveni was an extension of an existing shelter and the implementation of dry toilet units that included a couple of showers. The main goal of the design was to create a project that was permeable with its environment, facilitating and encouraging its use, while at the same time attracting the townspeople. It was important to achieve a connection between the new and old spaces, so they constructed a passage between the two buildings with the new bathrooms at the end. This new refuge was designed not only as a place to stay, but also with the capacity to hold various meetings or events, creating a multiuse space.
Sondoveni Refuge. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
The refuge was created to be a catalog of materials for the community. This was achieved thanks to the knowledge of the Ashaninka women, who contributed to the design of the facade and the development of different textures through the use of local materials like suger cane and palm leaves. Additionally, the villagers created almost the entire ceiling using traditional techniques of roofing and weaving.
Sondoveni Refuge. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
Third Construction: School – Atsipatari
The final project developed in the community of Alto Sondoveni was “Atsipatari” (meaning together in Ashaninka). It was a collaboration with a group of students from the University of Stuttgart, with the support of the educational NGO Creciendo. The structure includes two high school classrooms, a library, a dining room, a kitchen and a group of dry toilets with showers and sinks. The layout was arranged into two slightly offset parallel pavilions connected by two bridges that form a central courtyard.
School- Atsipatari Sondoveni. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
These pavilions are partially built, with the aim of adding two classrooms at each end in the future. Due to the circumstances at the time of construction, it was decided to use a modular system based on prefabricated wooden frames. The use of this construction system was innovative for the community, as it represented a new way of using the materials. The roof structure was based on traditional native construction techniques, so that it could be carried out by the community in future expansion projects. In addition to wood, other local materials were included in the design such as the bark of a hollow tree called camona, sugar cane, and leaves of different types of palms to close any openings as well as for panels on the walls.
School- Atsipatari Sondoveni. Image Courtesy of ConstruyeIdentidad
The result of these years of work has been the exchange of information between community members and professionals and students, seeking to strengthen a relationship that had been neglected. In addition, the recognition of construction techniques and everyday materials in architectural schools, and their use in these constructions has not only captured the interest of community, but also reaffirmed their identity, turning once again to their vernacular architecture.
SEMILLAS: Educational Facilities as Community Gathering Spaces
Founded in 2014, the organization Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible (Seeds for Sustainable Development) focuses on the development of educational spaces that go beyond their teaching function and also act as a meeting place for the communities that make up the Peruvian high jungle. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this organization not only creates participatory processes that result in architectural projects, but also generates action plans for monitoring construction and community development.
The design and construction of a school in Chuquibambilla was the first project that brought together architects Marta Maccaglia, Paulo Afonso, and Ignacio & Borja Bosch in the setting of the Peruvian jungle. In addition to a lack of roadways and basic services, the team faced a strong social problem because of conflicts between the communities and the government’s neglect in the area. Therefore, they designed a space for communication and development of the community through a participatory process that lessened the local people’s initial mistrust of the proposal.
The layout is divided into three modules arranged around a central courtyard, the epicenter of the project. The design, in addition to classrooms, includes administration and teacher areas, a multipurpose classroom (library, workshops, etc.), a computer room, a dormitory and large spaces, both covered and open, suitable for educational and recreational activities.
In this project, architects Marta Maccaglia and Paulo Afonso took on the challenge of creatively overcoming an unexpected situation: the building, initially designed for 30 students, had increased to 100 users by the time it was set to be built. The proposal was based on flexible architecture that could take advantage of local materials as well as modern construction systems, achieving a space in harmony with the environment and the needs of the native community Nomatsiguenga.
Multifunctional Classroom Mazaronkiari. Image Courtesy of Marta Maccaglia, Paulo Afonso, Piers Blake
The space has functional flexibility allowing it to be used as a classroom, an auditorium, a dining area and an event hall for parties or for other community gatherings. The side walls are formed by an alternation of louvered panels and multi colored mobile panels. The latter, with the ability to move at a 90° angle, become tables, allowing the users to create different work environments in the same space at different times.
This project began with a research study within the communities involved, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses, dreams and illusions. Education was of the utmost importance, an instrument for collective growth and in the community of Santa Elena villagers expressed a willingness to recreate their future and move on from the past, beginning with the school.
The space consists of two floors. In the main section, a two-story covered patio divides the school into two sections with separate entrances at the ends and in the center. The classrooms and student lavatories are in the northern part of the building. The south side contains the entrance hall, labs, library / multi-functional classroom and administrative offices. The louvered facades in the east and west walls favor an indirect lighting system while keeping the space ventilated and protecting the halls from rain.
The work of these organizations stands out not only for the quality of their architectural production, but also because of the role they play in the development of the involved communities’ social and economic dynamics. Their projects are directed by the horizontal participation of users and designers, and become a reality through experiences that promote an improvement in the lifestyle of their inhabitants.
From the architect. Although the owners already had a house in nearby Lomas Blancas, they were looking for a place where they could build something more private and away from the public’s eye. After a while searching they found, near the locality of Cachagua, a sloped piece of land located in the midst of a eucalyptus forest. It possessed the perfect qualities to attain such intimacy.
In this regard, after getting to know the place and request, the first intention was to separate the house’s different areas in a way that allowed us to maintain the intimacy of each space and to reduce the impact on the surrounding forest, locating the volumes in those places less occupied by the trees. Starting with this idea, a central volume was drawn, alongside two other diagonal volumes that prevent the view from directing to other properties. This way, the house looks simultaneously upon itself and the forest, integrating organically into the landscape, and maintaining a dialogue, through its own geometry, with its surroundings.
The three volumes are separated by glass galleries that overlook exterior gardens; this way the different spaces can function both independently, as well as in interconnection. Each volume possesses its own character and autonomy. At the center we located a common space with an integrated living room, dining room, and kitchen, on one of the wings four bedrooms with two bathrooms and a sheltered terrace, and, on the other wing, the main bedroom with its own bathroom.
The entire house is facing north. Great floor-to-ceiling windows and slanted roofs seek the light, creating intimate and luminous interior spaces that open and focus on the natural environment. For this same reason, the decision was made to locate the deck and pool on the backside of the house, allowing the interior spaces to always face a natural landscape without an architectural intervention.
Sections
The exterior materiality is composed of a black and opaque micro-undulated steel sheet that enables the house to be hidden within the forest and grants it a more hermetic and industrial look. For the inside, warm materials with a subtly white-washed wood were used, creating cozy spaces. The pallet is, generally speaking, achromatic, with some primary colored elements; the exterior contour, on the other hand, is black in order to trace the house’s geometrical silhouette.
To promote the launch of their new Game of Thrones notebooks, Moleskine has released a video that recreates a portion of the series’ title sequence using only paper architecture models. Made by Milan-based animation studio Dadomani, the stop motion video uses over 7,600 paper cutouts.
The video shows the fortress in King’s Landing, starting with a view of the surrounding houses before panning to the castle where its cogs and gears begin to spin. Slowly the castle folds into itself, becoming a page in the Moleskine notebook.
See how the stop motion was made in the video below.
Sig Nordal 