© Mike Sinclair

Architects: Hufft Projects
Location: Springfield, MO, USA
Principal in Charge: Matthew Hufft
Design Team: Adam Crowley
General Contractor: Herman & Associates
Landscape Architect: Hirsch Landscape & Design
Area: 7,800 sqm
Completed: June 2009
Photographs: Mike Sinclair

© Mike Sinclair

The Curved House is a modern residence with distinctive lines.
The house’s material palette is an eclectic mix of brick, ipe, cedar, and Spanish tile. A signature masonry wall gently curves in two places signifying the primary entrance and reappears, again with a curve, to form the west wall of the pool cabana. The curving form of the terra cotta Spanish tile reflects, on a more detailed scale, the gesture of the curve. Both the fire pit and the pool’s design play upon the sinuous motif as well.

© Mike Sinclair

Interior details and finishes are highly refined. Intricate tile work, well crafted casework, and the complete integration of the constituent parts assure a rich experience for the residents. Hufft Projects and its sister company, Edwin Blue, are currently in the process of designing furnishings for the residence as well.

plan

As with all Hufft Projects The Curved House hosts a variety of sustainable strategies including an array of solar panels, a geothermal HVAC system, a radiant floor heating system, low-E glass throughout, abundant natural day lighting, and views to the surrounding landscape from most every room.

Walnut Creek Wetland Center - Courtesy of Frank Harmon Architect

A nationally recognized leader in modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate architecture, Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of the multi-award-winning architecture firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, will present a talk entitled “How Architects and Landscape Architects Can Work Together” during the North Carolina chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (NCASLA) 2012 Spring Conference. Harmon, will discuss the urban and rural landscape, how architecture fits into it, and how architects and landscape architects can combine efforts “to leave the landscape better than we found it”. His talk will take place Friday, June 15, from 3:15-4:15 p.m. More information on the event after the break.

“For the past two decades I’ve chosen to have a landscape architect working beside me when I begin a design,” Harmon said. “At Merchants Millpond in eastern North Carolina, for example, I canoed and camped with landscape architect David Swanson before we drew the first line for the new Environmental Education Center there. I teamed with landscape architect Gregg Bleam to design the recently completed AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in downtown Raleigh.”

As a result, Harmon’s projects successfully merge architecture and landscape and demonstrate the concept of regionally appropriate design. While many architects have embraced the principles of sustainable design over recent years, Frank Harmon has been designing environmentally responsible, modern buildings for nearly three decades. The AIA North Carolina Center for Architecture and Design is a flagship for sustainable urban design, where building and landscape are one interlocking, interdependent system.

“That particular throw of the dice determines everything that follows: orientation, aspect and prospect, day lighting, cross ventilation, hydrology, microclimate, and most importantly, a sense of place,” he said. “My belief that all good architecture begins with the land makes me value and appreciate landscape architects’ skills and understanding.”

For more information on the event, please visit here.

© Welsh & Major

Architects: Welsh & Major
Location: Sydney, Australia
Project Team: David Welsh, Christine Major, Min Dark
Structural & Civil Engineer: Simpson Design Associates
Total Building Size: 165 sqm
Photographs: Welsh & Major, Paul Bradshaw

© Paul Bradshaw

The new pavilion presents a chapter in the evolving story of how people continue to live in this place. The house we found when we were first commissioned was a familiar type: a 2-storey terrace, relatively intact at the front, with additions to the side and the rear. The rear of the property presented as a series of elements accumulated over time- kitchens, laundries terraces and stairs. Our approach was to selectively remove some of the elements, and add a few new ones along the way.

© Welsh & Major

The massing of the house was treated as an oversized still life: the composition of the elements creating an additional 6 square metres to the house we found. The average size house in Australia is now beyond 300 square metres and is still rising- this increase in pressure on our resources can’t be sustained indefinitely. Consequently, we feel it is important to offer flexible spaces rather than excessive additional space in responding to the needs of the inhabitants of our houses. Fortunately, our Clients agreed with us.

© Welsh & Major

What we don’t do in our projects is often just as important as the work we do. Wherever possible we try to avoid demolition of existing structures in order to reduce material flows as well as project cost. Internally the upper floor arrangement was left unaltered, whilst downstairs the front of the house was also left unaltered- the rear wing was the main area we concentrated upon. One of the main aims of the project was to connect the rear lawn with the living spaces of the house. In a relatively benign Sydney climate, a key part of the brief was to be able to open the house up to the outside.

© Welsh & Major

Re- setting the kitchen and associated living space on grade with the rear lawn expanded the effective living space of the house to include the outdoor spaces. A new internal bathroom was added, and an existing rear sitting room was altered to become a study. Finally, a vestibule area that linked the formal Dining room to the rear yard was re-configured to hold a daybed, which could be closed off to serve as short-term guest accommodation when required.

elevation 01

The rear of the house faces predominantly south. The new roof forms create a lantern form that allow northern and eastern sunlight to penetrate the house between March and October. The new floor slab is electronically heated using a system that reduces the time it takes to heat the slab, and consequently keep running costs low.

elevation 02

The house is an exercise in small, considered interventions that contribute to the built landscape in an environmentally responsible manner. Just as importantly, it is a flexible, comfortable family home that suits the needs of our Clients.

Best know as a musician, Moby is quickly gaining lots of attention for his “weird architecture blog” that is centered around his fascination with Los Angeles architecture. In this video published by 1883 Magazine, Moby discusses his thoughts on some his personal favorites, starting with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, which Moby depicts as an Incan spaceship from 100,000 years ago.

For more, check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 of The Indicator’s interview with Moby here on ArchDaily.

via 1883 magazine
Shot by: Logan MacDougall Pope
Edit by: Alice Powell, Richard Mullane – Living Projects

© FG+SG

Architects: Churtichaga & Quadra Salcedo Architects
Location: Matadero de Legazpi, Madrid, Spain
Client: Madrid City Council
Team: Principal Designer: Josemaria de Churtichaga, Project Design Team: Mauro Doncel Marchán, Natanael López Pérez, Building Design Team: Leticia López de Santiago
Area: 2,688 sqm
Completion: 2011
Cost: 4.104.843 €
Photographs: FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

© FG+SG

Memory, memories, even bad memory always twist and fly when we work on architectural past, … yes, make a story, choose the tone, cadence, rhythm, accents, a story that naturally coexist with collective memory of the old slaughterhouse of Madrid, with another early report of new application dedicated to the movies while curled up with the forgetfulness of their own recurrent obsessions…

© FG+SG

The magical backlight and contrast of the films, and the childhood fascination of basketry and technical human infinite geometries are the sensory triangle… the rest is to surround in spiral this atmosphere, this feeling, and define it constructively. The tectonic history of brickland, the powerful rhetoric of the old slaughterhouse is the background, and also figure at the scenes of the story, a story in which a continuous low background, a wooden monomaterial painted in dark gray defines the new program deployed on walls, floors and ceilings, allowing a clear separation between story and History. Against this dark carpet background, my own memory outputs a floating figures, some huge vibrant baskets that define the main spaces.

The Film Archive Area is covered by a permeable basket, huge, walkable, that filters light and works as a lamp, a huge figure of a modest orange hose knitted infinitely. The Baskets that define Film rooms are shades of black. In the main room the orange background illuminated make the basket float until the movie begins, the background disappears and only a vibrant black surface stays. In the small projection room, a basket-banked trough very black on black space fleet almost black wood, only when you open a window dazzles the eye. Because the eye and limits of perception are ultimately the real protagonists of this history of cinema.

© FG+SG

Silent Structure:
There is a constructive and structural battle, a battle to defend silent and hidden history. And to defend it is to disobey the pathology reports that distrust of the History of the factory building, do not understand that the factories of brick and masonry love to be charged… are happier and more cohesive… and that its logic is always a problem of stability and strength.

Relying on these unrepeatable walls of solid brick and lime mortar, the intervention has solved the great spam required by the program. The horizontal structure has been solved with reinforced concrete slabs, whose two-way working with the existing brick walls make a complete set of vertical load-bearing walls, distributing efforts through the generous cloth walls. The foundations of these walls was reinforced overloading batteries slightly inclined of micropiles penetrating under the vertical projection of stepped masonry foundations.

© FG+SG

Background and Baskets:
Upon resolution of the structure, a continuous carpet of grey painted pine flooring covers walls, floors and ceilings defining the new architecture of space. Against this dark wood background, the monomaterial woven baskets, frames made of bent steel tubing as the guarantors of geometry, and woven with conventional industrial irrigation hoses.

drawing 01

Facilities:
The spaces defined by the tectonics of the preexisting, the dark background of wood and the protagonists of the baskets figures required a deliberate silence on the introduction of the facilities. The enormous demand of fresh air that require the Plato and the Cinemas need a huge conducts that gets buried under ground most of these easements.

The areas without such large ventilation requirements, such as lobbies, offices and circulation areas are solved with underfloor heating / cooling systems. The lighting is deliberately disordered avoiding the perverse and sad homogeneity to which we are pushed by our regulations. Clusters of bulbs view dances in the walls… stripes of woven LEDs lighten the baskets and the space underneath.

A jury of internationally recognized design professionals and Seattle civic leaders has declared a winner among three semi-finalists in Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space. The winner is ABF, of Paris, France, for its design, In-Closure, which envisions an interactive wall around a forested landscape that is both flexible and dynamic, embracing social life in the city at multiple scales.

The ABF team consists of Etienne Feher, architect; Paul Azzopardi, urban engineer; and Noé Basch, climate engineer. Continue reading after the break for more details.

About In-Closure, the six-member jury said: “50 years ago, the spirit of Seattle Center was about the future. A common assumption was that the future, and all advancement, is positive. Today, we challenge that assumption. The only guarantee of the future is change. In-Closure addressed the state of constant change by proposing a replicable and organic system that can grow and evolve, that doesn’t equate innovation with solely technology, and recognizes that ecological resilience at its heart comes from the community itself.”

In-Closure / ABF via Urban Interventions Design Competition

In addition, the jury found exceptional merit in several aspects of the ABF proposal:

• The proposed design demonstrated an understanding that the future of sustainable public spaces, and cities, depends on a sustainable social ecology of human interactions, as much if not more than technology-based solutions.
• The design works at a human scale that is critical to successful public spaces and the future of Seattle Center, envisioning how users will effectively create their own public spaces within a larger campus framework.
• The jury saw In-Closure as highly adaptive, developing over time and to changes in site and program, positively influencing public space and the broader ecology of the entire city.

The jury decision follows semi-finalist presentations over the weekend to both the public and jury and concludes a year-long process that sought compelling design ideas for how to conceive a fresh vision of the future of public space, via a nine-acre site at the heart of Seattle Center. The competition received 107 proposals from 24 countries. From this entrant pool, the jury chose three semi-finalists and granted seven commendations at the end of phase-one in early March. The semi-finalists were invited to Seattle at the beginning of April for a learning visit, and they returned with their final proposals last week. The winner was selected for most effectively responding to the five major themes of the competition.

Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams in speaking at the public presentation said: “the competition honors long-term civic leader Howard S. Wright. Urban Intervention aligns with the legacy he left. We hope the ideas that emerge from it will spur larger conversations about the potential for creating vital community spaces that truly will serve future generations.”

Other semi-finalists are: KoningEizenberg Architecture + ARUP (Los Angeles, CA) for their design, Park. The design organizes the disparate elements of the Seattle Center site and program into a sustainable and coherent landscape. It offers a mastery of the immediate and physical and programmatic challenges facing Seattle Center; and PRAUD (Boston, MA ) for their design, Seattle Jelly Bean. The design is highly imaginative – and suggests a new kind of icon for the 21st century, an atmospheric and interactive cloud that is tethered both literally and figuratively to the site below.

Urban Intervention, a partnership between Seattle Center and AIA Seattle, was funded by a grant from the Grousemount Foundation for The Next Fifty. The public may view an exhibit of the semi- finalist and commendation award winners and other inspiring entries. The exhibit will run through June 30 in the lobby of the Intiman Playhouse. For information on the Competition, exhibit and Next 50, visit their website here.

The Jury:

• August de los Reyes, designer, writer, and educator (Palo Alto, CA)
• Gene Duvernoy, president of Forterra, formerly Cascade Land Conservancy (Seattle, WA)
• Tom Leader, principal of award winning landscape architecture firm Tom Leader Studio (Berkeley, CA)
• Mia Lehrer, founder of landscape architecture firm Mia Lehrer+Associates (Los Angeles, CA)
• Rick Lowe, celebrated public artist (Houston, TX)
• Patricia Patkau, founding partner in the firm of Patkau Architects (Vancouver, B.C., Canada)

Via The Next Fifty

© Alison Andersen

Architects: bioi – Jordan Allen, Ryan Trefz
Location: Warburg, Alberta, Canada
Completed: 2012
Client: N. Bannerman / L. Jehn
Project Area: 748 sq.ft. (69.5 sq.m.)
Engineers: Rob Marriott [Structure], VerdaTech [Services]
Visualizations: Matúš Nedecký
Photographs: Alison Andersen, Bioi 

© Alison Andersen

Seeking to architecturally balance the functional, the handsome, the efficient, and the economical is not an easy task; but this was the brief provided for the Warburg house. The question posed by the client was simple: can we provide a simple, contemporary, and energy efficient home for less than $100,000?

On a wooded Canadian farmstead, the new house replaces a dwelling that was no longer able to fulfill its function due to build quality and the strains of a working farm. The architectural concept was simple: open, flexible, and efficient.

© Alison Andersen

As an extrusion of an iconic “house-shaped” form, the new house floats 200mm off of the ground. Positioned along a large clearing to the south of the farmyard, the new house opens itself to the southern sun and completes the enclosure of a small meadow to the east.

With an architectural logic of simple elegance, pain-staking efforts were made to preserve the purity of the house’s iconic form. Supported by two steel frames, the simple form creates a singular interior volume. The exterior skin is draped in black corrugated steel sheets long enough to extend the full length of the house. Both the east and west end-walls are punched into the form to create an announcement of entry and provide a small weather break for the entry doors on either side. The opposed entrances offer morning and evening natural light as well as passive cooling in the summer months.

© Alison Andersen

The western façade is a more public stage for the activities of a day-to-day farm life offering vantage points to the extent of the farmyard and is accompanied by a century old log cabin, relocated from within the site as exterior storage. To the east a smaller and more intimate deck protrudes into a small meadow, allowing for a quiet retreat from the demands of the farm. An abstracted pattern relating to regional tree growth is applied to the cedar decking, which continues vertically up the end walls, contrasting the dark exterior form.

diagram

The interior volume is simple and minimally detailed. The space is differentiated by two elements: the structural steel frames, and a birch-clad “object”. The object houses all of the functional elements of the house including the kitchen, mechanical equipment, a full bathroom with laundry, and storage for the private area to the east. Windows and skylights are precisely positioned to take full advantage of the natural light from the southern exposure, and are detailed with extruded wooden frames that accentuate their placement and views.

© Alison Andersen

The polished concrete floor contains radiant in-floor heating, while the thick white outer walls are heavily insulated to provide a blanket of protection from the elements. The mechanical system was designed and executed to be of the highest efficiency. This, paired with the higher quality construction processes garnered the house the highest EnerGuide rating possible for a home that is not net-zero. The only way for the home to be more efficient than it is, is to have it generate its own energy.

floor plan

Both as an individual prototype and as an assemblage of systems, the Warburg house sets a precedent for bioi as well as for Canadian architecture by investigating the role a simple architecture can take. Through an exploration of emergent technologies and innovative construction methodologies, a fundamental step towards a more affordable, efficient, and functional system of residential architecture has been realized.

© Bauhouseneo

Architects: Tetsuo Kobori Architects + PLANUS
Location: Ibaraki, Japan
Structure: Arup
Completion: August 2010
Photographs: Bauhouseneo

© Bauhouseneo

“Creation of an open space with suspended glass curtains”
A limited time 20-year PFI project located on the grounds of the Tsukuba University Hospital. With its main function being a clinical laboratory, it also combines spaces for student education and research to create a new communication space in the university.

© Bauhouseneo

• Freedom
In the clinical laboratory is an information gallery that is open to the public and can be viewed by everyone. There is a space that provides an area where students and researchers can freely interact.

© Bauhouseneo

• Originality
The glass constructed curtain wall is precisely suspended in air almost as if it were a piece of furniture. Taking into consideration the fact that this will be taken apart, the aluminum sandwiched panels are all the same size.

© Bauhouseneo

• Beauty
The see-through mesh filter and the anti-IR glass reflect onto the curtain wall suspended from the top, giving the west facing side a functional beauty.

© FG+SG

Architects: Pedro Domingos Arquitectos
Location: Santa Barbara-de-Nexe, Faro, Portugal
Project Team: Celia Faria, Humberto Dias, Sonia Carvalheiro
Completion: 2011
Engineering: Luis Santos Palma, JAC, João Teixeira da Silva
Built Área: 200 sqm (house) + 900 sqm (landscape)
Cost: 250,000 Euros
Photographs: FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

© FG+SG

The transformative substance of this project consists of a parcel of land (950m2), that is integrated into the agricultural system of Barrocal and a small house in ruins (80m2). The ruin of traditional genesis, displays the characteristics of the vernacular architecture of the Algarve.

© FG+SG

The strategy consists on clarifying the limits of the central space of property – a void enclosed by the ruin and the “hedges” and the upland trees. The clearing delimited of this emptiness is made with the recuperation of the existing ruin defining the western boundary, with the construction of a new wing set back from the existing group, establishing the northern boundary and the setting of a water tank at the south end of the plot.

The pre-existing house consisting of three interconnected cells contains the rooms and their bathrooms. The north wing is built into the ground and articulates the topography with two built patios of similar proportions, one is a northern extension of the kitchen and the other a western extension of the living room.

axonometric

The main entrance of the house is made through the space that lies between the pre-existing house and new wing – a space of transition and fracture between the two wings. The water tank is built similarly to the abundant irrigation tanks of this region. A water container of pure form emerges from the ground.

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Earlier this month, Roche held a foundation stone-laying ceremony for their new office building that is currently being constructed in Basel, Switzerland. Designed by the Basel-based architecture practice of Herzog & de Meuron, the 178-meter-tall tapering structure will be formed by superimposed floor slabs that narrow as the high rise ascends. Its simple shape and predominantly white color scheme will anchor itself within the urban setting of Basel and become one of the few high rises scattered throughout the city’s skyline.

Continue after the break for more images and information.

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

“The new office high-rise will provide workspace for people in research, development, production and marketing”, explained Roche CEO Severin Schwan. “Dialogue is the basis of all innovation. We are convinced that locating departments close to each other is crucial in ensuring that they work together successfully. That’s why we’ll be bringing most of the 2000-plus employees who currently work in offices all over the city back to our main Basel site.”

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Roche Building 1 will house around 2,000 workstations, numerous meeting rooms, a staff restaurant and a 500-seat auditorium. Shell construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2014 and full occupancy is planned for 2015. The approximant cost of the building is 550 million Swiss francs.

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

© F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Maria Smith and Je Ahn are the award-winning duo behind exciting young architecture practice Studio Weave. The Longest Bench, their project in Littlehampton, was shortlisted for the Condé Nast Traveller’s Innovation & Design Award and won the Civic Trust Award and Special Award for Community Impact and Engagement. Smith and Ahn take Crane.tv on a tour of one of their latest projects, St Pancras Church Garden, where they tell us about how writing stories form part of their design process and what’s next for the young team.

© Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

Architects: brg3s architects
Location: Tennessee, USA
Architect of Record: TRO Jung|Brannen
Consultants: AECOM – interiors, James Toles and Associates – structural, JPA – Landscape architects, Bryson Hardy of E.W. MOON, Inc. – civil engineering
General Contractor: Zellner Construction Services
Building Area: 68,425 sf (under roof); 32,400 (enclosed)
Date of Completion: December 2010
Photographs: Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

© Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

Designed to be environmentally sustainable, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) South Intermodal Facility is situated at the corner of Airways Boulevard and Brooks Road in Memphis, Tennessee. This 30,000 square foot building is a satellite center, built to decentralize the existing routing pattern to a hub and spoke concept. The facility is seeking LEED Silver certification.

© Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

PROGRAM
The building’s main function serves as a shared waiting room with access to a food service counter, vending machines, a video game area, and large public restrooms. The building also includes 36 canopy-covered bus berths, 70 parking spaces, a ticket and package handling area, driver operations area, and administrative offices, and leasable spaces for vendors.

The facility also includes a new home for Greyhound Lines Inc. which provides national interstate bus service. The west side of the building has a 30 foot deep roof overhang covering nine Greyhound bus spaces for passenger arrival and departure. This canopy has a continuous skylight roof monitor to bring natural light to the walkway next to the building. Other tenants include a small police station and a retail lease space on the south end of the building. In addition, the site design allows for the possibility of a future light rail transit stop connecting downtown to the airport.

© Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

DESIGN
This facility is a statement on transportation. Combining ground transportation, light-rail with access to the Memphis/Shelby County International Airport, the client wanted a building that reflected the imagery of 21st Century transportation. The building appears to be “in-flight” with it wings, clad in aluminum panels, soaring toward the sky.

One wing is enclosed housing the administrative and retail offices for Greyhound and the local regional transit system. The other wing is open-air providing covered access to passengers waiting to board buses and future light-rail cars. The interior public spaces incorporate a large suspended commissioned art work which is an abstract celebration of all forms of transportation.

Washington National Monument and the United States Capitol Building © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Partially cloudy with a high in the mid-seventies, this was weather we couldn’t say no to on the Sunday after the 2012 National Convention. Therefore we took advantage of the Washington D.C. Capital Bikeshare and set off on a self-guided tour of the National Mall. Although the National Mall was packed with graduates and tourists, we managed to weave in and out of pedestrian traffic quick enough to visit many of the historic buildings and memorials before heading off to Eero Saarinen’s beautiful Dulles International Airport. What a perfect way to wrap up an eventful week in the nation’s capital.

United States Capitol Building © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

United States Capitol Building © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Washington National Monument © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Reflecting Pool (closed for reconstruction) © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Vietnam Veterans Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Vietnam Veterans Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Lincoln Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Lincoln Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

The White House © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

U.S. Institute of Peace © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Old Post Office Tower © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Miscellaneous buildings in Washington DC © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

U.S. Supreme Court © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

The Thomas Jefferson Building (Library of Congress) © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

National Museum of the American Indian © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden featuring Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Thomas Jefferson Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Thomas Jefferson Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

Thomas Jefferson Memorial © Karissa Rosenfield / ArchDaily

© Marco Zanta

Architects: BoA Studio Architetti – Martina Cafaro, Carlo Zavan
Location: Treviso, Italy
Concept: 1st Phase mzc+ (Mario Marchetti, Fabio Zampiero, Giuseppe Cangialosi) 2nd Phase: Amaca Architetti Associati (Carlo Zavan, Monica Bosio, Martina Cafaro, Marco Ferrari)
Executive Design and Supervision: Amaca architetti Associati (Carlo Zavan, Monica Bosio, Martina Cafaro, Marco Ferrari), BoA Studio Architetti: Martina Cafaro e Carlo Zavan
Project Team: Carlo Zavan, Martina Cafaro, Serena Guadagnini, Elena Cecchetto
Photographs: Marco Zanta

© Marco Zanta

The building is located a few meters from Treviso XVI century walls, within a small industrial area now disused, where Sile river leaves the historical city together with the old water way called Restera. The loft is placed at the last storey of the tower, part of a former button firm of the 20-30ies, one of the first cast-concrete structures in Treviso, connected to main part of the building through an iron and glass walkway.

© Marco Zanta

Once demolished the old wall partitions, concrete structures emerge in their strength with 45° shaped beams, six rooflights, the five-meter open space marked by two big pilars and a unique 270° view over the city and the river. The design proposal splits in two the old industrial space.

© Marco Zanta

The sleeping area mezzanine builds up a volume totally autonomous compared to structural grid in order to retain its own readability, a building within the building, the internal elevation being marked by openings and facings.

roof plan

Linear and helical stairways going up to the decking roof emphatize the two columns verticality. A full-height greenhouse articulates the wide open space into living and dining area. Two new openings within thin floor slab also emphatize roof transparency effect, where the glazed volume is, at a time, vegetal wall and natural vent system.

Courtesy of EXHIBITOR Magazine

With Expo 2012 debuting this month in Yeosu, South Korea, EXHIBITOR Magazine is now seeking entries for its Expo 2012 Awards competition. The contest will be judged by a star-studded panel of multidisciplinary design, marketing, and communications experts who will ultimately choose which entries represent the best the World Expo has to offer. Entries must be pavilions, exhibits, presentations, or elements of pavilions and exhibits appearing at Expo 2012 in Yeosu. The early bird deadline for entry is June 8, 2012, and the final deadline is June 18. More information on the competition after the break.

For more than 25 years, U.S.-based EXHIBITOR magazine has brought you the world’s most prestigious exhibit-design competition, honoring the crème de la crème of trade show exhibits. Just two short years ago, EXHIBITOR hosted its Expo 2010 Awards competition, honoring the most impressive work from the 2010 World’s Expo in Shanghai, China.

“This competition is an extremely exciting opportunity for firms specializing in design, interactive technology, fabrication, architecture, live presentations, exhibits, pavilions, and more to gain worldwide recognition for the work they’ve done on the Expo 2012 stage,” says Travis Stanton, editor of EXHIBITOR magazine. “Furthermore, it’s an opportunity for us to spotlight some of the most amazing examples of how design, technology, presentation, and storytelling come together to effectively communicate compelling messages. Those examples will hopefully inform and inspire today’s exhibit and event marketers and designers — along with the next generation of face-to-face marketing professionals. Because whether you’re creating an immense international pavilion or a small 10-by-10-foot exhibit, it’s often about making an impression, and the work on display in Yeosu does that in truly monumental and memorable ways.”

Categories include Best Pavilion, Best Exterior Design, Best Exhibit, Best Use of Technology, Best Activity/Interactive, Best Presentation, Best Interpretation of Theme, Best Eco-Friendly Design, and Elements and Details. All entries in the Best Pavilion category will be eligible for the People’s Choice Award, which will be selected by visitors to EXHIBITOR’s exclusive Expo 2012 microsite via online vote (voting will begin in July).

Winners will receive editorial coverage in EXHIBITOR magazine’s November 2012 issue and on EXHIBITOR’s Expo 2012 microsite, a custom-designed trophy, and a listing in an Exhibitor News Network press release. For more information, please visit here.

© Andrea Martiradonna

Architects: Park Associati - Filippo Pagliani, Michele Rossi
Location: Via Piave, Azzate (Varese), Italy
Client: FIM Group SpA, Varese
Design team: Danilo Annoscia, Andrea Dalpasso, Marinella Ferrari, Marco Neri, Pietro Pezzani, Paolo Uboldi
Completion: 2011
Site Area: 8,935 sqm
Photographs: Andrea Martiradonna, Leo Torri

© Leo Torri

The site for this scheme lies in an open landscape that is visible from a local countryside environmental route and has a strong relationship with a hilly wooded area behind it. The new Azzate housing development on via Piave has been carefully studied in terms of form and volume to create the best possible views, using geometries and perspective axes that enable it to be successfully integrated into its green surroundings.

© Andrea Martiradonna

In terms of composition, the approach chosen combines traditional elements such as the double-pitched roof with an irregular pattern of openings on the facades. The two main blocks, with asymmetric pitched roofs in sheet aluminium, are on two storeys (the second houses duplex units only), differentiated by the colours and cladding materials used for the lower ground storey, as well as by the use of different street elevations, dictated by the differing orientation and optimal control of solar factors.

© Andrea Martiradonna

The block to the north has a street elevation with an irregular rhythm that is characterised by the presence of balconies and large projecting windows.

© Andrea Martiradonna

The block to the south has an elevation composed mainly of west-facing balconies, with moving sunscreen panels for controlling the light entering inside the building. The lower storey is made up of three parts; the central area, between the two residential blocks, houses a number of commercial activities that look onto a piazza that is raised up with respect to street level and characterised by the presence of a water feature, a reference to the nearby spring, while the two side wings have parking areas for the houses that are completely screened by panels of timber planks.

© Andrea Martiradonna

The number of materials used has been limited to a choice of three main ones: render for the surface of the walls, aluminium for the roofs, screening elements along the balconies and systems for screening the windows and larch for cladding the lower level. Larch planks have been used for form a screen to the stairwells, thereby controlling the light and ensuring privacy for these communal areas with respect to the street.

© Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners was awarded first prize for their museum design in collaboration with Adrien Gardere for Narbonne in southern France.  The museum’s central collection includes more than 1,000 ancient stone relief funerary blocks excavated from a nearby archaeological site, as Narbonne’s historical past as a vital Roman port has left an impressive legacy of buildings and ancient relics.  Within the new design, Foster + Partners has created a wall to insert the stones that will act as a natural barrier to separate the public galleries from the more private restoration spaces.  The building will also reinforce the strong landscape connection between water and gardens due to the site’s adjacency to the Canal du Midi.

More about the museum design after the break.

The stone wall will serve as a great focal point for the galleries, allowing visitors to enjoy this amazing archaeological discovery in a setting that can be easily reconfigured and used as an active tool for learning.

© Foster + Partners

In addition to the stone wall, the building incorporates galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, a multimedia education center and library, as well as administration, restoration and storage facilities.   All spaces are organized beneath a concrete roof canopy, which provides thermal mass and contributes to a comprehensive environmental strategy. The canopy is elevated above a clerestory, punctuated with light wells and extends to shade a wide public plaza around the museum.

“We have been inspired by the setting, by Narbonne’s climate and by the city’s fascinating collection of Roman artefacts. The gardens will strengthen the connection with the canal and surroundings, and at their heart will be a simple, energy efficient museum building. All of the internal and even some external walls can be rearranged – its flexibility mirrors the live excavation site, a shelter to accommodate the exploration within,” explained Spencer de Grey, Senior Partner and Head of Design at Foster + Partners.

© Hugo Carvalho Araújo

Architects: Atelier Carvalho Araújo – José Manuel Carvalho Araújo
Location: Vale do Ave, Portugal
Design Team: Joel Moniz, Filipe Russel, Hugo Melo
Completion: 2010
Photographs: Hugo Carvalho Araújo

© Hugo Carvalho Araújo

A couple of doctors gather friends and colleagues to meetings and thematic workshops. Without adequate space in the current house, they requested a small multifunctional building for an adjacent parcel. On the edge of town, in the slope of the valley, lie the two terrains at different heights. In one terrain, overlooking the other, there is a detached house in the center.

© Hugo Carvalho Araújo

The other has a beautiful informal garden, with large trees and a lake that anticipates the feeling of the river lower down. It was essential to maintain this view over the garden. It was difficult to choose the location for the new studio. The garden seemed untouchable, with a few sunny areas. Since the terrains have different heights, the retaining wall that separates them had an unclear drawing.

© Hugo Carvalho Araújo

The new building comes from the idea of the redefinition of this threshold, as a construction uniting the two terrains. We intended to prolong the top platform through an existing coverage / garden, stabilizing the amplitude of this view. The coverage stands out from the retaining wall and splits into two, leaving two uneven coverages, so that the room of the house does not lose sight over the lake.

elevation

From the garden the coverages stand out. The buildings recede to stay under the shade. In one side there is a small room with a dining support, in the other side four rooms linked by doors, which can function as small bedrooms or work studios.

Courtesy of Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee

With an arrival sequence that starts at curbside with a new canopy system providing both shelter and a new architectural image for the building, the renovations for Terminal 1 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport have been carefully considered and addressed. Designed by Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee, their main challenge was the transformation of the existing building in support of the passenger travel experience. As the canopy extends the length of the building and transforms itself at the crosswalk linking the commercial curb canopy, both arrival and departure experienced are emphasized. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Courtesy of Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee

Buildings that receive high use over an extended period of time, inevitably reach a point when re-branding needs to be considered. Such is the case with Terminal 1 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU). The building has served as an airport terminal since 1981. The last upgrade to the facility was in 1991. The opening in 2010 of the new Terminal 2, has established a standard of airport terminal design at RDU.

Courtesy of Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee

The landside building elevation will be totally re-clad and re-envisioned. The existing metal panels and poorly composed curtain wall, will be removed and replaced with an ordered composition of metal panels, translucent fiberglass panels, and glass curtain wall. The use of transparent and translucent materials will create an open light filled interior space. The landside of the building has been envisioned as a single large volume from one end to the other, with a security mezzanine inserted into this volume. The landside of the terminal which houses ticketing, security, and baggage claim, will receive all new finishes, lighting, furnishings, and signage.

Courtesy of Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee

The airside façade will be completely re-built in order to provide open views and daylight to the interior. A combination of metal panels and curtain wall will be used. Sunlight levels will be controlled by a combination of sunscreens and roller shades. The airside spaces, including toilets, concession spaces, the concourse, and holdrooms, will receive all new finishes, lighting, furnishings and signage. In addition, the building will receive new stairs, escalators, and four new passenger elevators.

Architects: Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee
Location: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, United States
Project Team: Jeffrey Lee, Clymer Cease, Donna Francis, Irvin Pearce, David Francis, Don Kranbuehl, Marni Rushing, Michael Wagner, Beth Mitchell
Client: Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority
Size: 165,000 sf

© Justin Alexander

Architects: Luigi Rosselli Architects
Location: Sydney, Australia
Project Architect: Palleschi
Interior Designer: Alexandra Donohoe
Landscape Architect: Terragram
Builder: Moulds Constructions
Joiner: Corelli Joinery
Structural & Hydraulic Engineer: Rooney and Bye Pty Ltd
Photographs: Justin Alexander, Richard Glover

© Justin Alexander

It’s said that 6 degrees separate each human on earth from another. The Gordons Bay House asks how 6 degrees of separation might negotiate a web of complex associations in order to produce an architecture that performs for a wide group of people, while seamlessly integrating the built form with its context. Set on the hillside overlooking the bay, the design consists of three levels, each level alternatively offset from the boundary by six degrees. The alternating orientation of each floor provides a response to different constraints imposed by the site.

© Justin Alexander

The garage floor is skewed to provide easy access from the adjacent lane, while maximising the landscaped area at the front of the dwelling. The ground floor alternately angles northwest towards the view of the bay and the Clovelly headland. This also preserves and enhances views from the public lane on the southern side of the building. The first floor scissors again to produce a series of roof terraces and cantilevered overhangs that correspondingly expose and cover the spaces above and below.

© Richard Glover

This order ensures that the project does not step on neighbour’s toes, without compromising the quality of the house. Alternating levels all pivot around a dramatic double height gallery stairwell that accommodates the client’s extensive collection of artwork and draws light and air through the centre of the dwelling. Built to last, the house uses off-form concrete slabs and edge beams allowing the structure to cantilever gracefully. Windows and custom designed wall cladding are similarly treated with ellipsoid aluminium louvres that provide protection from the aggressive seaside environment. This palette of materials, as well as the use of new and salvaged timbers, and sandstone all elegantly speak of its setting.

© Justin Alexander

The architecture is embraced and enhanced by landscaping designed by Terragram. Set atop the large exsting sandstone retaining wall on the street, a generous lawn is surrounded by edible plants and trees. Olives, espaliered citrus, vegetables and herbs help stock the kitchen, and the scraps return to the chickens that roam the garden from their bespoke chook house. The public lane to the south has been dramatically improved with endemic flowering ground covers and bushes.

© Richard Glover

The operation of the house is supplemented by a 4.2 kW photovoltaic array, large rainwater tanks, solar hot water and pool heating. This house is air conditioning free, the result of a contractual arrangement between architect and client to achieve a design that did not require it. Generous eaves, a considered application of thermal mass and natural ventilation operate to minimise the dwellings ongoing environmental impact.

© Justin Alexander

The apparently simple layering of concrete slabs and aluminium louvres is enriched by irregularities provided by the changing geometry of the levels, the distinctive front door, a steel stair and irregular stonework. These irregularities become the human face of the architecture. It is said that 6 degrees of association separates every human on earth from another. The Gordons Bay House asks how 6 degrees of separation might negotiate a web of complex associations in order to produce an architecture that works for a wide group of people.

1st floor plan

Set on the hillside overlooking Gordons Bay, the design consists of three levels, each level alternatively offset from the boundary by six degrees. These devices allow the project to avoid stepping on neighbour’s toes, without compromising the quality of the dwelling. The alternating levels all pivot around a dramatic double height gallery stairwell that accommodates the client’s extensive collection of artwork and draws light and air through the centre of the dwelling.

ground floor plan

The architecture is embraced and enhanced by landscaping designed by Terragram. A generous lawn is surrounded by edible plants, trees, vegetables and herbs, and the public lane to the south has been enhanced with endemic flowering plants. Built to last, the house uses off-form concrete slabs and edge beams allowing the structure to cantilever gracefully. This palette of materials, as well as the use of aluminium louvers, new and salvaged timbers, and sandstone all elegantly speaks of its seaside setting.