NeoStudio Architekci shared their completed design for a residence in Garby near Poznan, Poland. Located on a sunken site, the building rests on a steep southern slope. With the client’s desire for a double height, two-level living room, the home takes its form around that central room. The back of the home has been fitted to the existing slope and makes the form read as ”soaking into the surroundings” as an attempt to make the form dissolve into nature. The house also includes the standard amenities for a family of four, such as a kitchen, dining area and bedrooms.
Iseppi-Kurath‘swinning competition for a highway service area intends to act as a “window towards the region”. Located next to the exit Thusis-Nord at the highway A13 in Grisons, Switzerland, this service area boasts an expressive roof that “combines the architectural prelude of the building and brings together the entrance and exit of it.”
More about the service area and more images after the break.
Land used by the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Pennsylvania is now being transformed into a dynamic arts, culture and education campus known as SteelStacks. Anchoring the 4.5 acres campus will be Spillman Farmer Architects’ ArtsQuest Center, a four-storey glass and steel structure with 68,000 sq ft of distinctive venues to showcase the arts.
The eighth issue of PRAXIS focuses on the idea of program, reflecting on the different opportunities it presents for architects. The projects featured question the received architectural understanding of program, and elaborate different strategies for organizing and accommodating matter and information as program. Beginning with an essay by editors Amanda Reeser Lawrence and Ashley Schafer, the notion of program serving as a mere list of specific users and requirements is questioned. “The more we tried to clarify what program is and how it operates in contemporary discourse, the more elusive its definition became… Beyond this simple denotation of program lies a complex, ambiguous and ultimately paradoxical set of ideas,” explained the editors.
DI Bernardo Bader Architects have designed the Metzgerstüble bar and café in the Austrian town of Mellau. The cafe is situated between one of the small town’s main roads and the water. Made of wooden strips that vary in size to break the monotony of an entirely wood furnished structure, the cafe has a punched in window facing the water, while the front entry is more open. When viewed from the water, it becomes more apparent that the wooden box is perched on top of a wall of large stones. The juxtaposition of the soft wood with the stones makes for a pleasant contrast. All furnishings, (even the lighting fixtures) are simplified to form a non-overpowering space which welcomes the residents of Mellau.
The duo of Ryszard Rychlicki and Agnieszka Nowak, of H3AR, was awarded a special mention for their proposal in the 2010 eVolo skyscraper competition (see the winners on our previous article). The eVolo competition attracts innovative designers and receives hundreds of eccentric proposals. For this project, designed by 4th year student, the skyscraper is comprised of a system of gutters to catch as much rainfall as possible. The water captured and processed by the building may be used for flushing toilets, feeding washing machines, watering plants, cleaning floors and other domestic applications.
HWKNhas completed their schematic design phase for their recent project, Aging in Africa, which will move toward construction in the beginning of next year. The project, a retirement community for Catholic priests, (who are excluded from the traditional, family based, model of elder care in Cote D’Ivoire), will be the first age-valued community on the African continent. This simplistic approach to housing will create an environment which is well-suited for the users-where the elderly will be safe and comfortable, and continue to maintain a meaningful and healthy lifestyle.
Our friends from CHA:COL shared with us their urban strategy, PARENTHESIS, with us. When the New School of Planning and Architecture decide to relocate an institution, CHA:COL imagined this new school as an interconnected whole where the plan connects disparate structures with the natural environment. Set in India, the country already has a rich history of education that synthesizes the exterior with the interior, so CHA:COL’s strategy enforces this pedagogical mentality.
Peter Pichler Architects, a young team based in Bolzano, Italy, have worked with well known names such as Zaha Hadid and OMA, and now, their studio’s first building will be realized in a few months. The client, the German photographer Cellina von Mannstein, will now reside in the northern part of Italy, surrounded by the Alps. With the intention to keep the two dominate trees on the site and to capture one of the them within the volume of the building, a “green atrium” was created between the built volumes that cuts the building in two parts.
More images and more about the residence after the break.
Comte Vollenweider Architects shared their winning design for the extension of Cannes airport with us. The airport’s elegant construction focused on the functional side of improving the services offers concerning business aircraft, for both welcoming the crews and performances concerning plane’s maintenance. The structure is an open volume, allowing the space to be maximized, which offers complete freedom to the planes and their to maneuver.
Our friends from Abitare shared this cool noodle shop designed by ISSHO Architectswith us. Located in central Tokyo, the ‘soba’ noodle shop has Machiya-style wooden louvers, invoking a traditional Japanese townhouse. The varying depth of each louver creates a textured sensation across the facade. Regionally different patterns of light spill through the façade from the interior, allowing a gradual change of character at dawn, especially as viewed from the main street. The facade aesthetic is modified on the interior’s ceiling as white curved panels contrast the concrete and wood dinning areas to soften the space. A minimalistic residential apartment for the owner sits above the noodle shop.
Visiondivisionnever fails to share interesting projects with us, whether it be their zoo/waterfall or their latest – a chapel for Tio, an evil devil that owns a mountain in Bolivia. As unusual as it may sound, miners in Bolivia are faced with awful working conditions inside a mountain, and claim that Tio is responsible for claiming the 8 million lives that have been lost within the mountain. The project is a shrine to Tio, and will serve as a place the miners can leave gifts for the devil so he does not harm the men working in the mountain.
More about the shrine and more images after the break.
In just a short period of time since the earthquake hit Haiti, designers have been proposing possible housing solutions for the country. We will share a variety of these housing schemes with you throughout the week, with the hope that they will encourage more people to get involved to help not only Haiti, but also Chile. The first proposal is designed by Andres Duany, a Miami architect. Duany, with the help of sociologists and anthropologists, has designed four different versions of a temporary structure to relieve the urgent need for housing in Haiti. The differences in the homes respond to the varying ways Haitians live, so that each home is tailored to their specific needs.
Here’s a kind of project we don’t frequently see a lot of…a public bathroom facility. Shuichiro Yoshida, a Tokyo based architect, designed lavatories housed on less than 9m2 of ground space in Chikusei City. The site is a historic storage building, (one of the few still standing after the WWII), and a volunteer group obtained the ownership of the building to use as their activity base for “discovering the region-specific historical and cultural heritages.” Yoshia was asked to add lavatories for visitors and staff (as there are none within the building). Faced with such a small area of land to provide facilities for both men and women, the bathrooms are, in fact, an elegant addition to the main building. Due to the small footprint, the bathrooms maintain an open feeling because they are open to a high ceiling with exposed timber supports. The lavatories are seen as a way to not only preserve the region-specific landscape but also to create new landscape for the future. The exterior is clad in elastic plasterer finish while the interior walls are finished in a white material known as “Shikkui” which has humid conditioning and fire prevention.
Nicolas Tye Architects‘ newest studio neighbors the practice’s barn-conversion residential project. For their newest office space, the 2,200 sqf barn has been transformed into an elegant studio that rests comfortably against the rolling hillside of Bedfordshire. Taking a mere 10 months to finish, the studio houses Nicolas Tye’s employees. Serving as a manifesto of the studio’s beliefs, the building respects its contextual surroundings while demonstrating a contemporary identity.
More about the studio and more images after the break.
We have featured several designs for the Taipei Performing Arts Center (such as the winning proposal by OMA previously featured on AD), and our latest project is from Kokkugia, a New York and London based architecture firm. Kokkugia’s form, which is based on the location’s unique geography, is a compelling composition that attempts to create “a dynamic venue and a public space of spectacle.” The slight slope of the site in emphasized in the form, as visitors enter from under the building. The interior aims to create the best possible acoustics. The roof is a network of semi-autonomous agents that reorganize to adjust so that the roof maintains some of its original geometry and other parts shift freely.
Studio Shift’s newest retail center runs along the riverside in Miyi, and its position allows it to capitalize on the naturally cleansed waters of the South Lake area. The center creates a significant public space with a direct connection to the water so the complex becomes a destination for relaxation and water-based recreation due to the favorable climate. Retail is arranged such that equipment for various watercrafts, which can be launched directly from the rental facility, line the channel while restaurants and a cafe sit along the pier.
Olgga Architects‘ Athletic Center in the Basroch neighborhood of Grande Synthe, France is currently under construction. This new recreational infrastructure, which will host rugby, soccer, and cycling and archery clubs, also responds to a strict criteria of sustainability with the inclusion of solar panels for over 40% of hot water heating, 10800sf of photovoltaic membranes on the roof to address peak electricity demands ,a retaining pond and water treatment locale for internal consumption and Utilization of post-consumer and recyclable materials for façades.
