Courtesy of Archiplein

Architect: Atelier Archiplein
Location: Rochebaudin, France
Client: Mauricette Tracol
Project Area: 220 sqm
Budget: 300,000 euros
Project year: 2008
Photographs: Courtesy of Archiplein

The goal, here, is to sublimate qualities and the feelings already present on the spot. The large gate is the basic element which generates the entire project: its symmetrical is deferred on the northern frontage generating a crossing tube of light. The limit between outside and interior disappears, operating the fusion of nature and built.

façade schemes

Courtesy of Archiplein

The space of the ground thus illuminated contrast with the higher level which rather seeks the introversion and the shade to him. Two worlds cohabit, consequently how to consider their connection? It is the deformation of the higher floor which, conceptually, comes to find the ground and operates this transition.

From Mowing to Growing is not meant to transform each lawn into a garden, but to open us up to the possibilities of self-sustenance, organic growth, and perpetual change. In particular, they seek specific technical, urbanistic, and architectural strategies not simply for the food production required to feed the cities and suburbs, but the possibilities of diet, agriculture, and retrofitted facilities that could achieve that level within the constraints of the local climate.

Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds. For more information click here. Seen at Death By Architecture.

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.

More images after the break.

As seen on Contemporist.  All photography by Adolf Bereuter.

© .27 Architects

Architects: .27 Architects
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
Directors in Charge: Stelina Tsifti, Panagiotis Chatzitsakyris
Project Area: 100 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: .27 architects

This project refers to the renovation of an existing apartment and the custom design of all the new furniture in order to meet the specific needs of the owners.

Due to practical and financial limitations it was not possible to remove, remodel or reconstruct any interior walls of the existing apartment. Therefore, the design proposal focuses on the use of furniture as actual building components that aim at transforming both the formal and the functional character of the space.

floor plan

The living area provided ground for spatial experimentation: Instead of selecting various furniture pieces for the different functional needs, a unified spatial construction was designed to respond to diverse needs in a uniform way. This construction has the form of a new wooden floor positioned 40 cm above the existing marble floor of the apartment. Through the creation of a series of recesses and extrusions, this new level allows different functions to take place above it (sitting, circulation, library), while at the same time is capable of covering secondary functional elements underneath it (lighting, speakers, video projector, storage). The basic goal of the design was to create a living floor that could be used in diverse and unpredictable ways.

© .27 Architects

The dining area is positioned next to the living area. In response to the uniform wooden floor, the dining chairs are interlocking with the dining table in order to form a single wooden box.

The design of the bedroom evolved from two separate programmatic needs: The owners wanted to install extra closets and they also wanted a four poster bed. The result is a wooden plane that spans the width of the room and functions as both the tester of the bed and the enclosure of a closet.

© Eduardo Hirose

Architects: JSª: Javier Sánchez, Irvine Torres, Juan Reyes, Héctor Hernández and Francisco de la Concha
Location: Bay Beach, Lima, Peru
Renders: Gerardo Fonseca
Models: Edith Razo, Isabel Medina and Anayetzi Ruiz
Structural Engineering JSª: Fernando Valdivia and Sergio Barrios
Installation Engineering: JPR Proyectos
Construction Development: Buckle y Konno
Wood: Peru Lumber, Ing. Jorge Tintorer
Average surface area of apartments: 185 sqm
Total construction area: 995 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Eduardo Hirose

Facing a peruvian beach, 30 miles from Lima, El 22 is arranged with 4 beach apartments suitable for families. It’s rectangular terrain has 389 m2 of area and spectacular views to the marine landscape. Showing respect to the complex’s regulations, the project dares to expose at 2.00mts of height from the “malecón”, with such space that includes pool, waiting area, patio, kitchen and services. The design concept deals with articulating the apartments as independent and over imposed volumes, generating a diverse composition between interior and exterior spaces. Each one of the livable spaces seeks to reinforce the action of looking at the landscape, resulting an appealing design in relation to the privileged views, as well as a subtle and articulated composition that responds to the “malecón”.

section

© Eduardo Hirose

The project accomplished 4 apartments of approximately 185 m2, with an arrangement of spaces articulated by a great central patio. This façade is revolved by an operable surface of wood that permits multiple appearances of the space and the common space beholds the preference to the most attractive view of the bay.

© Eduardo Hirose

The structural solution shows wide open spaces free of any elements, creating big clearances that are being reinforced by operable enclosures and allowing a diffused relation between interior-exterior. It is a project with great layout development that is strategically solved, with the total exploitation of spaces and their relation with the landscape.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Real Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #12 on YouTube (video after the break).

Click here to view the embedded video.

© GalPeleg Architects

Architects: GalPeleg Architects / Adi Gal + Amir Peleg
Location: Sde-Yitzhak, Israel
Collaborator: Orit Gariani-Rozental
Total floor area: 240 sqm
Project year: 2008-2009
Photographs: GalPeleg Architects

The house is situated on a six acre agricultural plot in Sde Yizhak, a village in the coastal plain of Israel. The landscape of the area is fairly flat and anonymous with no special focal points. Planning in a vast, seemingly endless landscape, a rare situation in the densely populated center of Israel. Our design focused on the relationship between the house and the landscape, defining its space, while at the same time blurring the borders between the house and its surroundings.

site plan

© GalPeleg Architects

The house is placed on an imaginary axis running from the village to a focal point we created on the horizon. The main living spaces – living room, family room and kitchen are concentrated around the core of the house, an open patio facing the landscape. This patio connects these spaces and forms an outdoor living room, typical in Mediterranean architecture. We decided to place the master bedroom a second floor, creating a metaphoric attic connected to the house by an indoor and outdoor staircase with a terrace overlooking the patio.

© GalPeleg Architects

The building mass is deconstructed from a solid mass in the front into a punctured plane that folds round the northern edge of the house giving the house a different dimension from the one perceived during the approach. This plane draws a guideline of the house, creating a covered space mediating between the house and its surroundings and framing views of the agricultural landscape and the sky.

© Bruno Helbling

Czech photographer Bruno Helbling shared with us this concrete house designed by marte.marte Architekten Feldkirch, Austria. You can check the text description, more photographs and drawings after the break.

Approaching the house, it seems monolithic, almost hermetic. Two incisions divide the building, which sits prominently on a relatively level hill, guide guests to a small entrance niche and offer a view of the introverted courtyard to the north. The hard shell opens up towards the valley and the south side, and the extensive glazing reveals the scenery and mountain panorama. The terrace faces the pond and small integrated stream, which blend in with their natural surroundings, lends the courtyard a sense of an open air living room and connects the entrance floor to the grounds via a ramp.

ground floor plan

The main functional areas are arranged in flowing spatial transitions from the garage to the master bedroom, and from the studio style kitchen to the living/dining room. Due to the diagonals and axes, the visual relationships amaze and suggest size and expanse. On the lower level, the rooms are compact and more defined. Children’s rooms, a study, a utility room, a bathroom, a sauna and a music room round off the range of rooms.

© Bruno Helbling

Materialisation and detail reveal elegant restraint. The smooth exposed concrete surfaces find their counterpart in the interior in the tactile and optical softness of the white pine floors, built-in furniture and walls. The character of the house turns out to be bright, inviting and almost homey. Windows and doors in white aluminium bring robustness into play and add to the powerful appearance of the concrete.

© Bruno Helbling

The structure with its notches and recesses sits on the hill like a meteor that has just landed. The adjacent litter meadow embraces the natural bathing pond and brings the cultivated green zone right up to the house. An unpretentious bathhouse built on the foundation of a small barn is an additional atmospheric and useful link to the surrounding agricultural land.

© James Ostrand

During this week, we’ve been featuring some amazing projects you may have missed. Here’s our selection of the top five. Check them all after the break.

Tampa Museum of Art / Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
Museums began in ancient times as Temples, dedicated to the muses, where the privileged went to be amused, to witness beauty, and to learn. After the Renaissance museums went public with palatial structures where the idea of the gallery arose, a space to display paintings and sculpture. Later, museums became centers of education, researching, collecting, and actively provoking thought and the exchange of ideas (read more…)

FriendHouse Hotel / Ryntovt
Ecohotel “Friend House” is located on 3 hectares plot in forest resort zone aside of Orel river bank, 30 km far from Dnepropertrovsk. It is a single-floor group of buildings with open yards, parking, terraces, garden and park zones (covered area 1750 square meters). During process of siting, an ineologycal analysis of the region was used, taking into account Earth energy -information field conception. It is space, reflected in details, surrounded by wildlife (read more…)

© Ramiro Ramirez

Monterrey Housing / ELEMENTAL
Santa Catarina is a city of 230,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Nuevo León, in the northwest of Mexico. This project is Elemental’s first outside of Chile. The Government of Nuevo León, México, commissioned us to design a group of 70 homes on a site of .6 hectars in a middle class neighborhood in Santa Catarina. The required density suggested the application of the typology we developed for Iquique (read more…)

© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

CN Castle / Comoco
The project’s brief requested the conservation and valorization of Castelo Novo’s Castle and surroundings. Moreover, it suggested also the creation of a space where people and visitors could enjoy it as a place of permanence. To answer these demands, the design solution created a “body” without a rigid boundary, organic, working independently of the existing structures but using them as a support (read more…)

© Ulrich Schwarz

Barn 2.0 / UTArchitects
A farm estate was converted into a training centre for carpenters and restorers run by the Restoration Center Berlin. The estate, located in the southern part of Berlin, was founded as a plantation in the 18th century. During the 19th century the farmhouse was built on the foundation of a former building, being extended two times afterwards (read more…)

Serpentine Gallery / Olafur Eliasson

Feelings are Facts will showcase the first collaboration between the Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson, and leading Chinese architect, Ma Yansong (check MAD Architects projects on ArchDaily). Eliasson and Ma will create for UCCA a unique experience through architecture, fog and light. Eliasson is known for his exploration of the human perception, and he often works with light, shadows, color, water, wind, or fog to create a specific environment in order to move us to think about our experience of our surroundings – perceptions we usually take to be self-evident.

Ma’s architecture stands at the forefront of new experimentation in building structures, refashioning form in bold pursuits of perfection. Their collaboration is specifically designed for UCCA’s big hall inviting the Chinese audience to enter an endless space of fog, with color emanating from fluorescent tubes of red, green and blue. By moving through the space, the colors blend, and so the viewers will endlessly create their own color spectrums.

The exhibition will be open on 4th April 2010 and last until 6th June 2010.