Work on  the summerhouse at Langitangi (“The long peninsula”) in Iceland is progressing and at the moment windows and doors are being installed.  Partly submerged in the steep terrain the elongated horizontal figure of the building presents itself in the landscape as an accentuated topographic contour-line.  Inside, the summerhouse is laid out as a linear sequence of spaces, each with a contrasting framing of the picturesque nature outside.

Completion of the project is expected in summer 2012.

“Stöðin”, a roadside stop in the Icelandic countryside, will be a conjoined restaurant, drive-through, shop and gas station.  The building incorporates architectural elements from the American diner contrasted by the traditional Icelandic building method of in situ casting in concrete.

The semicircular space of the restaurant features an elongated bar-desk that transforms into seating arrangements along its’ curved wall and offers panoramic views of the scenic fjord Borgarfjörður.   The exposed concrete of the exterior bestows the diner with a more permanent presence than its’ American colleagues and the majority of road stops in Iceland.  “Stöðin” in Borgarnes will be owned and run by Skeljungur, the Icelandic arm of Shell – with whom we are at the moment working on other road-stops within the same concept along the Icelandic highway.  Interior design is done in collaboration with aok-design.

The results of Eurohigh design studio’s midterm review will be shown in the Oostserre (Tu Delft Faculty of Architecture) for the next three weeks.

During the first two months studio participants searched for aspects and potentials of the ultimate European skyscraper. This research phase resulted in a form-exhausting collection of 676 models in scale 1:1000, which are presented as a grid of 26 linear iterations. This extensive catalogue of possibilities will serve as the first step to a more precise parametrization of the process and a deepened design process on modeling 8 European skyscrapers in scale 1:100.

This second stage will be continued until January 20th, 2012 and later remain at the Oostserre as a second part of the exhibition until February xx.

The Eurohigh studio is led by Winy Maas, Alexander Sverdlov and Ania Molenda from The Why Factory in collaboration with KRADS  and support from Lego and Arup.

Sea Monsters is a collaborative conceptual project by Icelandic designer Katrín Ólina and KRADS.

The project addresses the active environmental problem of algal blooms in the Baltic Sea by fusing technology, science and art in an innovative way. Working with the idea of ancient mythology in a contemporary context, satellite photography is digitally translated to create an artistic vision of an alien creature appearing in public locations in the Baltic region.

Envisioning the way skyscrapers could be designed and translating the horizontal dimension of the city to a vertical one.  These are the focal points of the Eurohigh studio starting this week at THE WHY FACTORY in Delft, the Netherlands. The studio is a collaboration between T?F, WINY MAAS/MVRDV, ARUP, KRADS & LEGO. After hosting PLAYTIME at various architectural institutions for the past 2 years we are looking forward to this opportunity for applying and evolving methods extracted from our previous workshops in this inspiring constellation. One million Lego-bricks will constitute the building blocks for the developing and presentational phases, culminating in an exhibition in January 2012.

The city council of Herning, Denmark, has chosen our proposal for a new car show-room & service center to be the project erected on a site often nicknamed as Hernings “most attractive”.
The geometrically characteristic building will stand as an iconic figure by the main road at the city’s threshold, housing a 2000 m2 showroom and a 2400 m2 service center.
The rhombic volume of the building is divided into two halves by a diagonal cut; a dynamic and lucid showroom facing the main road contrasted by the stable mass of the service center behind.  The showroom is conceived as a continuous spiraling ramp from the sub-street level up to the roof – and is expressed in the showrooms tilting facades.
The diagonal cut between the showroom and the service center creates a visual connection between the shopping center north-west of the building and the green areas to the south-east.
The project is developed for the client Bjarne Nielsen in collaboration with CC Contractor, Finn Balle & B. Moesby Engineers.  Read more about the project on the city councils website.

We recently finished the outline proposal for UGBL Independent School in Ugelbølle, Denmark.  The school is expected to open its doors for 150 students in august 2012.

Laid out as a rotated quadratic grid of volumes and outdoor areas the overall scheme is tailored to allow the school to grow and expand over the coming years.

The first segment, 1700 m2, consists of open workspaces and flexible classrooms organized around a large double-height space where generous flights of steps double as the schools auditorium and meeting point.

The client, a private group of people in Skjern interested in saving their old swimming pool from demolition, Junckerhaven, a Danish specialist in Bio Pools and The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities (LOA) set forth the task to rejuvenate the worn down open air swimming pool in Skjern.  KRADS and KLAR facilitated the design process with the purpose of delivering an architectural vision for how a new kind of sustainable renovation strategy could be applied to open air swimming pools in general – using the specific pool in Skjern as an example.

The site is positioned in Skjern, a city on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark, and is a part of a larger Sports and Cultural Center.  The potentials for interesting interactions are today far from exploited.  The pool is situated next to a park which we have included in the project as a green and recreational area that can evolve over time – creating connections and interactions with the area’s additional sports and cultural activities.

The pool in Skjern will be self cleaning.  The use of the bio-tech cleaning system also results in no added chemicals in the water and reduced use of energy in terms of water flow.

The design challenge has been to renew the artificial outdoor pool from the sixties using a sustainable and naturally self cleaning technology and to rejuvenate the spirit and cultural activities related to the original swimming pool and park.  We see it as “tradition revisited”.

The project is planned to be realized and ready to open for the summer 2012

Links:
KLAR: http://www.klar-arkitekter.dk/
JUNCKERHAVEN: http://www.junckerhaven.dk/
LOA: http://www.loa-fonden.dk/