Tired of people coming up with lame excuses that they don’t know what to get you for Christmas because of your discerning tastes, or maybe you signed up for your office’s secret Santa and are stumped or perhaps you just need that perfect bespoke piece for that special architect in your life. Looked no further that architechnophilia’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide (the Architect’s Version).
All good things must come to an end. Following a robust six months, the demand for design services has simmered down. In November, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) slid from 51.6 in October to 49.8 (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). This the second month in a row that the ABI has […]
From the architect. The design for the new houses at No. 25-27 William St share a common platform, although these sites will form separate applications, they are conceived of as complimentary activities and are thus discussed together. The key ideas are expressed as follows.
1. The retention of the original “bach era” landscape.
The existing house at the beach at No 25 William St sits at the top of a lawn that is open to the Takapuna beachfront. This is now one of the few sections the opens so generously onto the public domain. This is seen as a positive gesture to the public space of the beach front and recalls an historic house type which is now rare in this region. This lawn or green space features a simple concrete path that extends to the beach from the house.
The intention is to retain and extend this green space and the axial path from the beach through to the William St address. This strategy involves opening the sites up to each other and linking them with a consistent landscape treatment.
There are two significant trees at each end of the combined site. These are to be retained as they are large scale plantings that will book mark the site. Similarly two traditional outbuildings are to remain at either end of the house on the front section.
2. Linking the buildings on the two sites.
An extended pathway from simple materials is to link the buildings on the two sites. The new buildings will be detailed to merge with the land form or , conversely, be strongly defined objects on the lawn and path. They are to be simply clad in robust, weathered hardwood panelling buildings with a concrete base. These materials are found from the existing “bach era” landscape as we’ll as the foreshore and neighbourhood.
The minor dwelling near William St at No.27 is to be clad in naturally weathering brass or copper metal panel it is intended to sit close to the retained large Puriri tree and form a detail on the site, a notional gate house or street elevation.
3. Respecting the local scale.
There are to be three discrete house forms. These have a combined plan area which is similar to the two existing dwellings to be removed.
The new from adjacent neighbours and occupies the approximately back third of it’s section. The House at No. 25 although significantly larger than the existing bach or cottage will be over 1200mm lower than the existing roof ridge. (At 8m wide it will be over 3m narrower when viewed from the beach than the existing house. It will however be 3m longer that the original house on the site. Relative to the neighbouring houses it is smaller in all dimensions from the neighbours either side.)
The house and minor dwelling at No. 27 are ancillary dwellings adjacent to the main house at No. 25. These are spaced at opposite diagonals on the site and appear as one room (5m) wide towers from the road. At their highest they are between 100-800mm higher than the existing house on the site but over a far smaller area.
The three houses will fit easily in the general pattern of the neighbourhood. They will rarely be seen all together and will appear as modestly scaled.
4. Packaging.
The new houses are notionally thought of as a small collection of containers or vessels. The content of these packages, set back behind robust claddings, are finely detailed and glazed.. The houses, or packages, have been placed and arranged so that the cladding conceals the content from the more public approaches and reveals the interiors as one accesses elevations that are interior to the site.
This subtle theme is developed further with the provision of folding and sliding able to be manipulated to suit the requirement of the inhabitants.
Trainees: Joana Ramalhete, Nina Lucena
Ingeneer: Pirajá
Metalic Structure: D´angeli serviços de engenharia Projeto de instalações: Simon Merheb
Installations: Simon Merheb
Lightning: Joana Marcier
Site Area: 1,123 sqm
Providers: Pisoarte, Vidrospel, Trelicon, Telhas Tuper
From the architect. A house made for the granddaughter of great architect Sergio Bernardes and a Colombian artist was a challenge. At first they wanted the house to have characteristics of Casa Lota made by his grandfather in 1950, from which we kept some materials such as the ceiling. The development of the project was very interactive.
The house divides the field into two lengths, the skylight (24mx .60 m) is a feature that accentuates that division. This implementation was the beginning of the project. The primary objective was to preserve the centenary trees.
The vision goes beyond the house, the walls are glass. The parallel solid walls don´t interrupt the vision.
The living room is in the center, the rooms at the ends. The center of the house is a terrace when open. Brazilian homes all have a terrace as the most important place of socializing, in this case it is already one.
The roof, designed in 1.5 m beyond the glass wall offers protection in the main facades.What brings intimacy to that glasshouse is the immersion in nature. The light imprint the passage of the day on the parallel walls.The structure of steel was built in 15 days. The cover is of zinc-aluminum tiles, sandwich, was placed in one day.
The geography of the region, below the mountain and subject to flooding, were the reasons for the suspension of the floor at 80cm.
The Project is clearly a reference to Farnworsth´s house by Mies Van der Rohe with its calm presence in a site that should have remained untouched.
British architects Allies and Morrison have submitted their planning applications for the 22-acre mixed-use development for London’s Canary Wharf. Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron has designed a 56-story tower that will account for some of the 3,100 residential units planned for the project. London-based Stanton-Williams is responsible for the other two apartment buildings to be […]
Collaborators: Marcos Plazuelo López, Jesus Bozzo Fdez. de Tirso, Rosa Palacios Garrido, Rufino M. Quesada Molina, Peter Taner, Juan L. Bellod, Tomas Ruiz de Terry, Sandra Polonio, Miguel Arrocha, Cristina Cuadro, Inmaculada García, Francisco Soler, María Romero, Laura Organvidez, Tibisay Cañas, Catalina Fernández.
From the architect. The configuration and extension of the town of El Ejido was done practically in the second half of the 20th century. The sharp increase in population has necessitated the provision of a new courthouse to concentrate all the powers of administration of justice. The site chosen to locate the complex is in an expansion area occupied by a low-storey building, low-rise housing and commercial vessels. The plot is situated in an enclave formed by the merging of two streets, with Avenue Oasis forming an important route connecting the town with the coast. Given these circumstances, the first premise of the project was to give the building an imposing volume available in the area and that would give the whole building its institutional character which requires a courthouse.
The plot is in the form of an isosceles triangle with two sides that give the base paths and streets its dividing line. The work was carried out with two blocks of varying heights parallel to the dividing wall. Separate from this, was a little street-level access ramp to the underground and connected plant floor, basement and second floor. This arrangement freed up a frontal square area that served as an open-air atrium. The square is dominated by its space and the building’s great height, rather than any single feature, and is situated on the dividing lower block in order to suit the surrounding buildings.
The building is intended to convey the two conditions inherent in the administration of justice. On the one hand the strength and firmness shown by the strength of the buildings geometry and structural material. Then on the other hand, transparency, enshrined in the constitution of the porous boundary walls and partitions that allow friendly and complex nuanced relationship building in an urban environment. In fact, the construction of the main facade is reminiscent of poles placed on shelves.
The program meets the requirements of building uses and circulation of the various users of the complex. Access is from the front square. At this level the main hall and the services of bigger audiences, the wedding hall, civil registration, general office, police court and clinical forensics are all accessible. The last two have direct access from the street. The main hall is connected with the most important space of the building. The waiting room has views of the first floor through a staircase, which is empty, and a gallery overlooking the square.
The waiting room has a height of 20 metres and has a set of vertical vacuums inside. This is protected by a lattice of concrete and glass, which also opens up into the offices in the courthouse, located in the five upper floors. The larger block then assumes the duties of citizen services, courtrooms and offices of courts and prosecutors. The small block houses archives, the police court, medical examiner and new judicial office. The integral part of this idea of transparency and neutrality uses materials made of glass and other materials with white and metallic tones. What is left are only warm feeling finished materials which are used in representative areas such as the wedding hall and courtrooms.
Architects: Holst Architecture
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Team: R&H Construction, Brightworks
Area: 76,000 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Stephen Miller
From the architect. When renowned design consulting firm Ziba Design sought a new headquarters office in downtown Portland, Oregon, the challenge was to create a place that fostered cross-pollination in a company defined by its multidisciplinary culture.
For the long, narrow site, Holst Architecture designed 55,000 square feet of office space that maximizes daylighting by incorporating a two-story glass curtain wall on the north facade and a light well on the south facade. An internal “street,” stretching the length of the north-facing curtain wall, is punctuated by a series of open and closed workspaces that provide ample opportunity for intermingling among employees.
Open spaces are organized into “tribes,” ideal for collaboration, while the closed spaces include conference rooms, project rooms, and an auditorium. Additional amenities consist of lounges for international clients, bike storage, a multimedia and materials library, and a full-service kitchen that opens onto a roof deck with stunning views of Portland.
The office’s ground floor features an interactive gallery space for rotating exhibits, while the double-height main lobby is flanked by display cases intended to showcase Ziba’s award-winning products. On the ground floor, 15,000 square feet of prime retail space is available for Ziba to lease out, and a public entrance opens to the auditorium, frequently used for lectures and forums.
