Hawthorn Residence

Hawthorn Residence by Canny

The initial client brief was to create a home that would allow independent living zones for the needs of the growing family. With three teenage boys the home allows ample breakout spaces for the children to be active and yet still enjoy the togetherness of combined family areas. The clients required a new home with a traditional façade to the compliment the streetscape, yet a more contemporary feel as one moved through to the rear of the home. The front rooms took on a traditional feel, whilst the rear presented more modern attributes.

The rear of the home showcases a distinctive curved pool house with expansive pool outlook. Dual outdoor entertaining areas with canopy skylights and recessed alfresco heaters allow for continuous enjoyment throughout all seasons. All of these elements were carefully integrated and designed with the landscape.

The highly detailed cellar is perhaps the standout feature of this residence. Complete with 2,000 unit wine storage, Vintec wine fridge, tasting bench, sink and luxe wooden joinery, the room carries an understated opulence and serves as a unique entertaining area for intimate dinner parties and tastings.

Source canny.com.au

Villa 3S

Villa 3S by LOVE architecture and urbanism, Austria, 2010.

Villa 3S is located on a picturesque property on the fringes of Graz Geidorf.  One of the fundamental ideas was to incorporate the relatively large property into the living space.  Therefore, the design blurred the boundaries between house and garden creating fluid transitions and an extended exterior living space.  The relatively strict land-use plan, which stipulated a saddle roof with a designated inclination, presented a further challenge. The roof form begins by folding on the southern terrace continues up and over the building structure and thereby forms an abstract saddle roof.  This folding spatially differentiates the individual areas providing excitement.  This also creates unique views from every angle of the home.

Architects: LOVE architecture and urbanism
Location: Graz Geidorf, Austria
Construction Calculation: Hartmth Petschnigg
Building Physics: Roland Müller
Project Area: 145 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Jasmin Schuller

The architects describe the house as, “Simple yet complex; clear but also playful; light and optimistic; small yet also big.  A place that is architecturally distinct, yet eminently livable; unconventional and unique, and still functional for everyday living.”

The interior of the house is centered around one main room for cooking, eating and living. When open, large sliding doors between the individual rooms connect a fluid, complete spatial structure. With the sliding doors closed, each room maintains its intimacy and distinctiveness and also extends to its own outdoor area or access. For example, the bathroom has its own opaque terrace with an outdoor shower, which can be converted to an interior room with the use of broad folding doors. Weather permitting, the bathroom space can be doubled in this way.

The building is a massive brick construction with concrete walls and a reinforced concrete roof. This roof also serves as a thermal storage mass to provide a pleasant indoor climate and is covered with wood outside. This shades the planking and visually blends the terrace and roof into a unified whole.

Villa P.

Villa P by LOVE architecture and urbanism, Austria, 2010.

Architects: LOVE architecture and urbanism
Location: Waltendorf Graz, Austria
Design Team: Sigrid Derler, Sabine Sternbach
Area: 180.7 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Jasmin Schuller

The site – a relatively steep hill – offers a stunning view over Graz. This panorama also provided the main guiding principle for the design. One additional goal was to provide direct access to the garden. Due to the very steep slope, this goal actually worked contrary to the aim of maximizing the panoramic view.

The upper level, which is oriented completely towards the fantastic view, contains all of the living space, while the lower level houses the doctor’s office and adjoining rooms. This layout provides a clear separation of living and working spaces, including separate entrances.

The upper level features two spacious terraces – one facing south and west, which provides an extension of the living room and the children’s rooms, and one facing north and east, which is an extension of the bedroom and bathroom and affords somewhat more privacy. A very broad external staircase with sitting steps connects the upper level and the garden, thereby joining the living space and the garden into an organic whole.

A pool is located in front of the building and connects to the carport. The pool and carport together provide a clear border between the property and the street, thereby increasing the privacy of the property.

Thus, a harmonious ensemble is created – a play of extrovert and introvert, of proximity and distance, which maximizes the strengths of the property, while simultaneously offering privacy.

Leisure House

Leisure House, in Mill Valley, California

14 Official Proteccion Housing

14 Official Proteccion Housing in Ibiza by Castell-Pons Arquitectes

Red Apple Apartment Building

Red Apple Apartment Building by Aedes Studio

Architects: Aedes Studio
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of Aedes Studio

The surrounding neighborhood consists mostly of apartment blocks that date back from the 70’s. The buildings are large with enough space in-between and plenty of greenery. Because the whole area is built in relatively short period of time and not very long ago, it lacks the typical historic layers of the city center. Here the connection to nature is direct enough, the access to all city-conveniences – fast enough and easy, what makes the area nice to dwell. In spite of that it still lacks history, (memories of) the past and atmosphere.

The atmosphere in the city is a result of two very important factors. On one hand the connection to nature, which as already said, is granted. On the other hand – the feeling of the past, the traces of the people that have been here before us; the feeling of human community not only here and now, but also back in time. The feeling of the past alone is achieved mostly by the buildings.

Aedes Studio set the uneasy task to design a new “old building”; a contemporary building with past – a building that contains opposites. Aedes Studio wanted to enrich the neighborhood with an atmosphere from another time, to create something that makes them a flâneur (Baudelaire’s character – stroller in Paris) in the city. Aedes Studio approached this project as if they had to revitalize an old, abandoned part of the city (which is the case for harbor and past-industrial areas in many European cities). When such neighborhoods wake up for new life, they possess the charm of the past as well as all contemporary conveniences. Aedes Studio imagined as starting point an abandoned factory building, which after renovation becomes a luxury and desired place for habitation. (In Sofia such potential is held by the significant old “Sugar factory”.) But since Aedes Studio didn’t have a factory to begin with, we had to create it. This is how their “living factory” arose, characterized by many opposing ideas related to the terms “old” and “new”.

Source: archdaily.com

Onyx Building

Onyx Building by Diez + Muller Architectos

Architects: Diez + Muller Arquitectos
Location: Quito-Ecuador
Project Architect: Diez + Muller Arquitectos
Design: Gonzalo Diez P, Felipe Muller B
Collaboration: Alvaro Borrero, Ana Chiluisa, Paola Picciallo, Daniel Sáenz, Andrés Salazar
Construction: Consorcio Gerenpro – Ecuacanelos
Year: 2012
Photographs: Sebastian Crespo

On a 1400 m2 lot in the heart of the north area of the city of Quito, the commission required a building for medium-density housing. The L-shaped lot has a steep slope, as the ground is depressed an entire floor between the top and the bottom. The slope is evident along the entire front of the lot. There are two important trees on the sidewalk worth keeping.

The design arises from two main ideas: First, to divide the building into two blocks laid out in an L-shape, following the morphology of the ground in planimetric and topographic terms. This indicates that the block on the upper area of the lot will be laid out an entire floor over the annexed block, thus establishing a hierarchy between interior and exterior spaces, and giving more exclusivity to the densification of the buildings. Second, to create a stepped square that serves to connect the two housing blocks, but at the same time give the project a semi-public space which visually connects the square and the street, complemented by outdoor furniture, landscaping and the existent vegetation of the street.

Source: archdaily.com

Wood carving workshop

Wood carving workshop by Bergmeister Wolf Architekten.
(Source: europaconcorsi.com)

The Guangzhou Opera House

The Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid Architects.

It is located in the center of the ‘factory of the world’, the capital of Guangdong Province (Canton) on the north bank of the Pearl River. The opera house was opened in 2010. The complex consists of several large softly shaped polyhedra, reminiscent of large boulders. The architect speaks of ‘pebbles in the river’.It is a complex structure made of steel and concrete, combined with in glass and sheet metal. With its expressive character and its spectacular architecture, the building emphasizes the city’s drive to claim global media attention. Located in the center of a business district, public spaces are placed between the different buildings. The enormous concert hall and a multifunctional hall are accessed via generous ramps and stairs.

(Source: ignant.de)

In April 2002 an international architectural competition attracted Coop Himmelb(l)au, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid - each producing detailed designs. In November 2002, Zaha Hadid's "double pebble" was announced the winner and the groundbreaking ceremony was held early in 2005.

The theatre has become the biggest performing centre in southern China and is one of the three biggest theatres in the nation alongside Beijing'sNational Grand Theatre and Shanghai's Shanghai Grand Theatre. May 2010 saw American filmmaker Shahar Stroh direct the premiere production of the opera house: Puccini's opera Turandot^[1] which had in previous years been a controversial opera in China.^[4]

The project cost 1.38 billion yuan (approx. US$200 million).

The structure was designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid; its freestanding concrete auditorium set within an audacious exposed granite and glass-clad steel frame took over five years to build, and was praised upon opening by architectural critic Jonathan Glancey in The Guardian, who called it "at once highly theatrical and insistently subtle." The dramatic structure was the source of inspiration behind fashion designer Vivienne Tam's fall '10 collection.

Source: wikipedia.org

05.05-BAD

05.05-BAD by Lagula Arquitectes

Besançon Art Center and Cité de la Musique

Besançon Art Center and Cité de la Musique by Kengo Kuma and Associates.

Multidisciplinary cultural centre on the riverside of the Doubs to host an auditorium, a contemporary art museum (FRAC – Contemporary Art Regional Funds) and a Conservatoire.

(Source: europaconcorsi.com)

The Water Cube

The National Aquatics Center, a major venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, also called the Water Cube, was completed on the morning of January 28, 2009.

The Beijing National Aquatics Center (simplified Chinese: 北京国家游泳中心; traditional Chinese: 北京國家游泳中心), also officially known as the National Aquatics Center, and colloquially known as the Water Cube (Chinese: 水立方), is an aquatics center that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Despite its nickname, the building is not an actual cube, but a cuboid (a rectangular box). Ground was broken on December 24, 2003, and the Center was completed and handed over for use on January 28, 2008. Swimmers at the Water Cube broke 25 world records during the 2008 Olympics.

After the Olympics, the building underwent a 200 million Yuan revamp to turn half of its interior into a water park. The building officially reopened on August 8, 2010.

In July 2003, the Water Cube design was chosen from 10 proposals in an international architectural competition for the aquatic center project. The Water Cube was specially designed and built by a consortium made up of PTW Architects (an Australian architecture firm), Arupinternational engineering group, CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation), and CCDI (China Construction Design International) of Shanghai. The Water Cube's design was initiated by a team effort: the Chinese partners felt a square was more symbolic to Chinese culture and its relationship to the Bird's Nest stadium, while the Sydney based partners came up with the idea of covering the 'cube' with bubbles, symbolising water. Contextually the cube symbolises earth whilst the circle (represented by the stadium) represents heaven. Hence symbolically the water cube references Chinese symbolic architecture.

Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness. The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.

The outer wall is based on the Weaire–Phelan structure, a structure devised from the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather. In the true Weaire-Phelan structure the edge of each cell is curved in order to maintain 109.5 degree angles at each vertex (satisfying Plateau's rules), but of course as a structural support system each beam was required to be straight so as to better resist axial compression. The complex Weaire–Phelan pattern was developed by slicing through bubbles in soap foam, resulting in more irregular, organic patterns than foam bubble structures proposed earlier by the scientist Kelvin. Using the Weaire–Phelan geometry, the Water Cube's exterior cladding is made of 4,000 ETFE bubbles, some as large as 9.14 metres (30.0 ft) across, with seven different sizes for the roof and 15 for the walls.

The structure had a capacity of 17,000 during the games that is being reduced to 7,000. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square meters and will cover a total of 32,000 square metres (7.9 acres). Although called the Water Cube, the aquatic center is really a rectangular box (cuboid) 178 metres (584 ft) square and 31 metres (102 ft) high.

It cost £75 million (10.2 billion yuan). The facade of the water cube became so popular that there is now a one-to-one copy near the ferry terminal in Macau – the Casino Oceanus by Paul Steelman.

Source: wikipedia.org