© JongOh Kim

Architect : HyoMan Kim – IROJE KHM Architects
Location: Youngin, Gyeounggi-do, Korea
Design team : KyeongJin Jung, JiWon Ym, EunHae Park
Structure designer : MOA. SungYeong Oh
Contractor : JEHYO
Site area : 554 sqm
Bldg. area :  110.28 sqm
Gross floor area : 290.88 sqm
Photographer : JongOh Kim

Suburban residential site

This scenic site is a part of the residential area developed in the natural greenery area of the mountain gwanggyo and that is located at the entrance area to trail to mountain.

Merit = siteplan faced to evergreen mountain=Demerit=Facing not south but northwest=Lack of southern sunlight.

From agony about the direction to which major living space see, the plan of this house started.

site plan

© JongOh Kim

After all, the direction to the opposite mountain that will be preserved in the natural green space forever was selected.

But this charming selection that introduce the permanent natural landscape brought the problem, bad solar condition, that the major living space is faced to northwest sunlight.

And so, we must make the solution to absorb the southern and eastern sunlight into the inside of the house.

Solution the demerit -“Floating glass garden” absorbed southern sunlight

“Glass box of light” that will absorb the useful sunlight was introduced to inside space of the various level and these boxes which are planted with flower and fruit are functioned as “Floating glass garden”.

© JongOh Kim

Actually, we solved the problem and we own both the two conditions that are the introduction of landscape and ecological environment and naturally, we have been reached to the complex solution that all the rooms have their own garden.

Floating boxes with bamboo garden – Dynamic and vertical sequence of space

The dynamic, unrealistic interior space which are produced with several floating glass boxes over the major living space that is opened to the vertical height of 3 floors, will be the symbolic impression of this house.

© JongOh Kim

Small purple hill – Landscape architecture – Harmonizing with the surrounding context
We expect that this landscape architecture will coexist with the surrounding context for a long time, as if a small purple hill….

Z Towers / NRJA
This project by young Latvian architects NRJA (previously featured on AD) is currently under construction. The complex, in Riga, Latvia, includes 2 towers (29 and 30 stories each), connected by a floor bridge. It also includes a 4-stories podium. Completion is expected durin 1st quarter 2010 (read more…)

Dorobanti Tower, Bucharest / Zaha Hadid Architects
Dorobanti tower, a new project by Zaha Hadid Architects in Bucharest moves away from the works we have been seen lately, with a very expressive structure. The 200m tall iconic tower will be located in the heart of the capital city of Romania, at junction of Calea Dorobanti and St. Mihail Eminescu (read more…)

Sugar Cube / KPMB
This mixed-use development project introduces a new strategy for making contemporary architecture within Denver’s historic Lower Downtown Heritage District (LoDo). The design responds to the precise urban design guidelines for LoDo, while helping the local Review Board to expand its guidelines to include contemporary buildings (read more…)

Højblokka_PULS / MAPT + DARK
We looked for a reinterpretation of the urban block typology in combination with vertical multiplication and urban density. The site is situated next to Oslo Central Station and had been formerly occupied by the postal headquarters. Due to its proximity to a variety of infrastructural layers in a dense urban and commercial area (read more…)

Market Hall in Rotterdam / MVRDV
Dutch architects MVRDV strike another one with a new mixed use project in the new inner city heart for the Laurens Quarter, the pre-war centre of Rotterdam. The project, comissioned by Provast, includes an open air market, that due to new hygienic constraints of dutch laws has to be covered. It also includes 246 residences (read more…)

© David Wakely Photography

Location: Sebastopol, California, USA
Architect: Turnbull Griffin Haesloop – Eric Haesloop, FAIA and Mary Griffin, FAIA, Jerome Christensen, Juliet Hsu
Landscape Architect: Jennifer Brooke, Landscape Office, Ltd.
Engineer: Mike Forbes, Fratessa Forbes Wong
Interiors: John and Loreta Hornall
General Contractor: Ken Sawyer and Micah Sawyer, Sawyer Construction
Year: 2008
Photographer: David Wakely, David Wakely Photography

© David Wakely Photography

© David Wakely Photography

Designed for two graphic designers, this house bridges between two stands of redwood trees, with the northern window wall facing out to the expansive view. Decks located at either end of the house open onto paths that lead to the pool on one side and the studio/garage on the other.

© David Wakely Photography

© David Wakely Photography

The southern elevation screens the interior from the driveway and road above, but allows southern light in through the clerestory windows. As you enter, a dormer rises up over the dining area to frame the view. The main house is modest in size, only 1,700 square feet, but feels spacious due to an open floor plan.

Diagram

The clients’ wonderful art objects are housed in the long southern wall bookcase. The exterior is clad in cedar siding with a metal roof and the interior features a Douglas fir ceiling and decking, sheetrock walls and Ipe flooring.

© David Wakely Photography

© Daniel Nicolas

Architect: Tjep
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Client: Private
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Daniel Nicolas

After the success of restaurant Praq, one of our favorite clients commissioned a new restaurant to be located in the Rotterdam harbor, right between the boats and the cranes. Fabbrica struck us as the most convenient name for this new Italian restaurant. Fabbrica meaning factory in Italian, we envisioned the canteen of a very special factory: a very romantic factory where pleasure is produced for guests. Like in the canteen of a factory you will find long tables and benches at Fabbrica, but than colored in Italian ice-cream shop style colors: pink and pistachio green. The oven is placed in a huge tank, covered with italian mosaic. A large wall composed of crane elements is used to store wood to fire the oven.

axo

© Daniel Nicolas

Every detail combines industrial sturdiness with soft colors or decorative elements. We chose not to intervene with the authentic industrial character of this nineteenth century warehouse so we left all the structures in original state. The walls for example are left intact, in several places large glass panels were placed in front of them covered with Italian wallpaper patterns. The result is that the patterns seem to float in front of the wall in a complex game of reflections. Lovers get to sit in a train structure that floats in the center of the space. The logo of Fabbrica is based on a font in which the point on the i resembles the beautiful shape of a hand made pizza, but one can also see a full moon, as it enlightens Fabbrica at night.

© 3XN

Danish architects 3XN has won an Architectural Competition to transform the former freight train halls in Aarhus, Denmark into a new and dynamic cultural center. The new cultural hub for scenography, visual arts and literature will soon be constructed within a historical framework in Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.

The new cultural center is meant to be an inspiring setting that stimulates production of the arts and facilitates the interaction amongst the various artistic metiers, business and education.

3XNs proposal adds elements of nature, with green spaces injecting a natural raw quality which plays up to the historic nature of the existing halls which were used for rail freight in the past. More images and description after the break.

The jury’s decision on the winning proposal was based on the project being a ’facilitating link, historical, functional and comprising an architectural spatiality’.

The building is expected to be a flexible space with optimal usage of more than 9,000 m2. The project is comprised of the renovation of the existing freight halls along with a new building with rooms and large scale auditoria. The roof of the building will appear as an extension of the green space – and indeed will take the form of a green ‘carpet’ over the new building. There are a number of other green initiatives that will be brought to the project – primarily with a view to reducing the building’s electricity needs for ventilation, pumps and lighting.

© 3XN

The Cultural Production Center is expected to be completed in 2012 and is a collaboration between the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark and the Realdania Foundation.

The winning team is comprised of 3XN Architects, Hans Ulrik Jensen A/S, Exners Studio, Nord Arkitekter and Søren Jensen Engineers.

© 3XN

Architect: Beton / Marta Rowińska & Lech Rowiński
Location: Tarnów, Poland
Building Team: Local Semi-Professional Builders
Investor: Well-known Polish Writer
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Beton

It is a small, wooden church built on a high bank of Vistula River, in a small village of Tarnów, by a private investor (which is quite uncommon in Poland). The church serves as a place of meditation and prayer for the local community. It is constructed entirely of wood, with no windows except for one glass wall, which serves as a background for the altar. Inside, you can find your peace by looking through the wall at the river and the distant horizon. The steep, wooden roof transforms unnoticeable into the side walls – the whole covering is made of the same material – small asp chops laid in a pattern).

exploded axo

Everything tries to find its balance between being simple, delicate and really strong. Building the church had also a “side” purpose: to bring the local community together. It was built by not very skilled workers, so the technology had to be really simple. Concrete slab as a foundation, timber structure as the main “spine” of the building and the wooden cladding. There is almost no detail, no fancy elements. This is also a kind of experiment – how to create a certain quality of space with the use of rudimentary technical simplicity. The investor, who is a quite well-known Polish writer, decided to save this small bit of the Vistula bank from becoming an another wild beach with a cheap bar on the side. A church is something people still respect, so presenting it to them in such an unexpected scenery, draws their minds to new, unexpected thoughts…

© Jean-Pierre Duplan

Architects: TANK Architectes / Olivier Camus & Lydéric Veauvy
Location: Roubaix, 59, France
Architect in Charge: Lucie Vandenbunder
Client: M. Rouar
Site area:1,972 sqm
Constructed area:4,900 sqm
Budget:$3,409,800 Euro
Project year:2008
Photographs: Jean-Pierre Duplan photograph

The project deals about the rehabilitation of an old flour-mill and an industrial building in lofts along the canal of Roubaix. The structure was in very bad shape, and is now open to let the natural light enlighten the flats.

volumetric diagram 01

volumetric diagram 02

volumetric diagram 03

The project isn’t a single renovation but also questions the notion of accomodation and offers to each flat, an outside space, a loggia, a balcony or a terrace. The extension dropped on the roof creates terraces and offers outstanding views towards the town and the canal. The technical methods to restore the concrete structure lead to a work on the brutality of material.

A3+ Architects recently finished an urban renovation project in Marsala, Italy for an international competition.  The project is situated in Porta Nuova, where the historical center of the city is connected to the sea by an urban road and an archeological park.

More images and more about the project after the break.

A3+ Architects designed a series of “green blocks” (light steel structures covered by green ivy plants) that connect the new part of the square with the old town.  Inspired by the shape of the existing urban blocks, these green structures provide a gathering area beneath the entanglement of veins that crawl over the whole form. Perforations in the green blocks allow users to see a different green texture that covers the rest of the building.  These voids also allow light to fill the interiors.

“We think  it’s a mimetic architecture, of which is never the same, fostered by constant  change according to seasons,” explained the architects. “The pillars are tilted, just like forest trees. The green is used as a link between the old town and the new project, thanks to the presence of an archaeological park,” they added.

The second part of the project is a promenade located along the city’s waterfront.  Two large urban swimming pools offer users a relaxing area to swim that is in close proximity to the sea.

A3+ Architects

Dario Cottone

Marzia Casamento

Alessandro Fonte

Design Consultant Carolin Clauss

And in order to have a complete list, he has asked for the help of ArchDaily’s readers to find “diamonds in the rough” in NY, and I´m pretty sure you can do it:

Projects in the book will fall into two broad categories:

1. Those completed between 2000-2010
2. Those planned for completion after 2010

I’m interested in both, but primarily the first, as they will make up the bulk of the book. Those in the second category, which I will include in an “On the Horizon” appendix, should be actual projects that have a good chance of realization, not hypothetical or speculative ones never to go beyond renderings. Given that my research to date has yielded a lot more buildings than can fit in the book, it is not necessary to send me obvious choices, like 40 Bond by Herzog & de Meuron, IAC HQ by Frank Gehry, the Cooper Union Academic Building by Morphosis, or any other NYC building on the Archi-Tourist, for that matter. I’m looking for “under the radar” buildings, quality architecture that has not clogged the airways of the architectural media. That said, here is my criteria for what is included in the book.

- John Hill

So leave your suggestions on the comments to see if you can spot those unique buildings!

© William Zbaren

Architects: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Associate architect: VOA Architects
Client: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Commissioning agent: U.S. Equities Development
Interior designer: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Engineers: Tylk, Gustafson, Reckers, Wilson, Andrews (Structural), Environmental Systems Design (MEP/Fire Protection/Life Safety)
Landscape consultant: Daniel Weinbach & Partners
Environmental consultant: Atelier Ten
Lighting: ISP Design Inc., Schuler & Shook (Atrium Lighting)
Acoustical: Kirkegaard Associates
General contractor: W.E. O’Neil
Project Area: 13,471 sqm
Budget: US $40,000,000
Project year: 2007
Photographs: William Zbaren

The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies selected Krueck & Sexton to design a signature architectural statement about the nature of Jewish culture, light and learning.

Spertus, set in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District designed by architects such as Burnham and Sullivan, resembles an exquisitely cut diamond placed into the great wall of stone that rises like a cliff across Grant Park. Its faceted and folded glass façade is an expression of light, both metaphorical and actual, which is fundamental to Jewish religious and intellectual traditions. Spertus’ logo spells let there be light, which represents the educational and spiritual enlightenment that is achieved through learning. Present day materials and technologies are chosen and rigorously deployed and detailed in order to support the desired building expression, and reveal the inner dynamic and energy of the many programs within. The unabashedly sculptural and transparent expression of the institution is of our time, while engaging in a dialogue across time with masterpieces that put Chicago on the architectural map.

section

© William Zbaren

The new building functions as a vertical campus, containing museum galleries, a library and archives, a 400-seat multi-use auditorium, a degree granting college, café and gift shop, and administrative offices. The inner dynamic and diversity of Spertus is achieved by a soaring ground floor lobby and a meandering atrium at the top of the building. This spatial solution physically and symbolically connects the institution’s varied functions, creating a series of grandly scaled rooms that borrow light, space, and vitality from each other.

© William Zbaren

Through a variety of measures, including high performance lighting, demand based ventilation, and heat recovery, the building achieves a 29% reduction in energy consumption, resulting in over 300 tons of avoided CO2 per year. Water-saving fixtures are used throughout. The quality of the building’s indoor air is ensured by the use of healthy materials, high-efficiency air filtration, and special humidity controls, providing for the well-being of staff, students, and visitors, as well as the long-term preservation of the Institute’s archival treasures.