© Ben Rahn/A-Frame

Architects: Hariri Pontarini Architects
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Project Area: 1,115 sqm
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Ben Rahn/A-Frame

Located within a large ravine system in a North Toronto neighbourhood, this private residence not only takes advantage of the surrounding expansive natural vistas, but also creates a close relationship with its immediate environment. Designed to accommodate the integration of life with nature, the external treatment of this house explores a carefully honed language of natural materials, while the slightly curved front façade is carefully sculpted, presenting a solid entity to the street. The house opens to the back, inviting nature to interact with the everyday living of its residents. Accented in earthy tones of French limestone, wood detailing, rift-cut oak and teak windows, this private home is juxtaposed with the natural greenery of the adjacent ravine. The property is, in essence, a two-acre room enclosed by a natural wall of fir trees. Settled within the centre of the site, the two storey house is designed to enhance the views to the two pyramidal oaks and catalpa tree in the front witha silver maple and Japanese maple at the back.

© Ben Rahn/A-Frame

The sculpted space of this private residence resonates an understanding of human comfort. Carefully carved windows penetrate the façade, allowing arrays of natural light within, while the finishes add a warm touch. Utilizing a consistent palette of limestone and walnut flooring, the interior provides a sophisticated setting for a family residence and flows easily from the front entrance to the third floor family room with views focused towards the heavily forested ravine. This residence employs two volumes with carefully choreographed openings, each addressing the public street while preserving domestic privacy. The rear of the house takes advantage of the picturesque ravine landscape by maximizing the flow of natural light into the space, and providing stunning landscape views.

© Ben Rahn/A-Frame

Green construction practices on site were encouraged through the use of local materials, by maximizing natural light, and by minimizing damage to the existing ecosystem and habitat. The construction team established a process for the reduction of waste, reuse of materials and control of generated emissions. Various construction systems were employed in the design of this residence, including a “poured in place” concrete foundation system and structural steel framing. This framing, which uses chimneys as lateral bracing elements, allows for expansive widths while permitting light flow throughout the house, to ensure a lasting comfort and an uplifting experience. The completed design underscores the client’s desire to create an enduring generational home.

© REUTERS/Aly Song

The Dutch submission to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is an exceptional one. This time around, it will not be the classic pavilion with long lines of visitors waiting outside and a presentation inside. The Netherlands is making its appearance at China’s world exposition along an entire street. The submission, entitled “Happy Street”, is the response by designer John Kormeling to the Chinese Expo theme “Better City, Better Life” and the sub-themes:

- Urban cultural diversity
- Urban economic growth and prosperity
- Innovation in science and technology in urban contexts
- Remodelling urban communities
- Interaction between urban and rural areas.

Find out more about Holland’s pavilion right here. More images and a video after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

© Leon Chew

Architects: Block Architecture
Location: London, England
Structural Engineer: Price & Myers
Services Engineer: Furness Green
Main Contractor: Matteblak Ltd
Client: Anna Forsling
Project Area: 67 sqm
Budget: £157,550.00
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Leon Chew

The original Klinik Hair Salon, completed in 1998, was one of our first projects, and although small, it was important in that it helped to define how the practice started to explore certain themes. We started to experiment with drawing references from different worlds - in this particular instance a medical and utilitarian world, in order to create a space that was strangely familiar yet ambiguous. By using a language borrowed from a different realm, we set out to invite a more playful interaction with the space and enhance the experience of visiting a hairdressers.

We used recognizable forms and materials that began to allow a sort of hybrid space to emerge: The waiting bench was a hybrid of Chaise Longue and Hospital Bed; White leather and tube Steel was consciously chosen, as was the nostalgic waiting room analogue clock.

floor plan

Although utilitarian, the intention was always that the result should be aesthetically pleasing and suggestive. In a way we created a fictional space that was made up of elements that refer to other worlds.

CCTV was a playful intervention which added a voyeuristic dimension to the whole experience. Cameras positioned above each chair allowed a view of the cutting process on the monitor, setting up a situation where one became distanced from the experience through the mechanism of the camera. They also permitted a view that one is never usually able to see which is the back of the head throughout the process, so the cameras empowered the viewer, (and extended the possibilities for monitoring what was taking place).

© Leon Chew

This process allowed a latent narrative to develop which helped us to design and create the space. This does not necessarily demand a literal reading, but rather it is an invitation for playful interaction between the space and it’s users.

The design approach for the second Klinik Salon was a continuation and extension of the original ideas. Here we wanted to further explore the idea of a filmic space, as if inviting clients to step momentarily into a different world. It was a specific requirement of the brief from the client that this second salon was to continue the same themes aesthetically, but in a refreshed manner.

© Leon Chew

This project had particular site constraints which we responded to by extending the interior space, connecting the front shop area with a rear store room via a new side extension. The extension formed not only a connection, but created additional internal space which made the project viable. This approach created a very long and narrow plan, which we countered by the introduction of white gloss wall panels, which line the length of the salon, creating a reflective surface which visually extends the width of the space.

Although a decision was taken early on that everything below the datum of the wall panels would be white, we played with different textures and pattern within this. So the reflective walls are countered by matt leather upholstery, and the utilitarian tiles introduce a grid in dark grey grout, which visually extends the space in the long direction.

© Leon Chew

Another challenge we faced was getting natural light into the centre of a very long space with a narrow shop front and very narrow rear exit. The new extension allowed us to design in a large skylight, which not only floods the centre of the space with natural light, but is placed to allow a view of the sky from the backwashes.

The shopfront was designed to form a framed view of the interior of the shop, with thick black structural tape bonding the glass to what appears to be a thin and elegant white powder coated steel frame. This detailing allows only the 5mm thickness of the steel angle frames to be visible around the glass.

Here is a dual purpose coffee table that incorporates an aquarium for all of you tropical fish that will certainly be a focal point of the room and conversation. The “Aquarium Coffee Table” has acrylic sides that provide clear viewing of the interior, while the removable tabletop of 1/4″-thick beveled tempered glass is large and sturdy enough for the typical daily coffee table action. The tank rests on a heavy-duty black acrylic base with lights in the base that illuminate the tank from beneath the bed of blue glass gravel. Comes with two-stage submersible filter pump and decorative plants. Aquarium Coffee Table 25-ga. With 36″ sq. tabletop. Tank 15 1/2″ H x 24″ L x 24″ W. $599.95 Aquarium End Table also available 15-ga 24″ sq. tabletop. Tank 20″ H x 15 1/2″ sq $449 Get It Here

Post from Aquarium Coffee / End Tables from Hammacher Schlemmer

Architects: studioMAS architects + urban designers
Location: Forest Town, Johannesburg, South Africa
Landscape Architect: Sonja Swanepoel, from African Environmental Design
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Mario Todeschini & studioMAS

Courtyards on Oxford, consists of six landscaped courtyards, five slender long houses and a communal garden just minutes away from the Johannesburg inner city and one step off a major highway. The project tackles housing delivery issues in South Africa by combining live and work units in one property, responding to a juxtaposition of urban and suburban space in Johannesburg. The concept addresses how cities function on a large scale by using densification and mixed use as viable options. It draws inspiration from indigenous precedents of courtyard living while still maintaining its contemporary identity. The design has been inspired by Ndebele housing typologies of the eastern Highveld, which employ buildings and connecting walls to define spaces. The courtyards are formed by the façades of adjacent buildings and turn into outdoor rooms.

Each courtyard is designed differently, but all have a strong theme of nature taking over the architecture, which is why creepers and trees feature so prominently. A unit’s privacy is not compromised by the activities taking place alongside, because they are mediated by distinctly private and secure courtyards. Therefore the busy urban realities beyond these courtyards are not directly experienced. The buildings have been designed as double storey units of 5m by 30m. Exposed steel bracing on the façades provide distinct edges to contrast with the rough Tyrolean finish used and to mark the position of iconic rainwater spouts (which discharge rainwater into catchment planters). Plaster and paint are used sparingly to decrease maintenance. The interiors each have their own distinct character, employing contemporary finishes such as cantilevered countertops and discreet African mahogany cupboards within double volumes. The project re-examines the urban living, by using perimeter buildings that utilised every square meter of land.

A museum in Portugal, Nestlé offices in Chile, a restaurant in USA, medical housing in Sudan, and updates on the Shanghai Pavilions! What a week we’ve had. Don’t miss our selection of the best of the week, after the break.

Museum of Art and Archaeology of the Côa Valley / Camilo Rebelo
The Palaeolithic art in the Coa Valley is perhaps man’s first land art manifestation. The Museum is conceived as an installation in the landscape. The monolithic triangular form is a direct result of the valley’s confluences. Its materiality evokes the local stone yards and reflects two different natures: the concrete’s matter, and the local stone’s texture and colour (read more…)

© Cristián Barahona

Nestlé Social Block / GH+A Guillermo Hevia
The new building, part of Nestlés social block at the Granero factory (VI Región – Chile), uses a variety of bioclimatic strageties, within a company policy of rational use of energy resources and economics in the 21th century. These strategies favorize the usage of natural resources, pasive vetilation systems, air-condition and cleaning for inside spaces, natural controlled illumination, effective cost savings in the use of hydrological resources (read more…)

© Paul Rivera

Pio Pio Restaurant / Sebastian Marsical Studio
The discovery of a finely crafted wooden box set into an existing building on 10th Ave. immediately defines the initial intentions of this design: mystery, discovery, and contradiction. The visitor enters this rustic wooden box and is removed from the noisy Manhattan streets. An exquisite marble host-table floats within the space enclosed in reclaimed wood. However, this is only a glimpse of what exists beyond (read more…)

© REUTERS/China Daily

Shanghai 2010: Almost ready?
There’s still a little bit more than a month till the opening of Shanghai’s World Expo 2010, scheduled for May 1st. Many construction workers are still working to finish the pavilions that will receive up to 800,000 visitors every day, expecting a total of 70 million visitors till October 31, when the Expo will close its doors. So are the pavilions ready? (read more…)

© Raul Pantaleo

Medical Housing Compound / Studio Tam associati
Looking at the amount of discarded containers laying around the building site of the Salam Centre we had this simple idea: to use them again in order to realize the required international staff housing compound. The Compound placed besides the Hospital, in the surroundings of the Nile river, is realized around a great courtyard full of wonderful mango trees. It consists of 95 20ft-containers for housing and 7 40ft-containers for the cafeteria (read more…)

Property development group Euroboden is building a unique apartment house at Johannisstraße in Mitte, Berlin’s downtown district. J. MAYER H. Architects’ design for the building, which will soon neighbor both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, reinterprets the classic Berliner Wohnhaus with its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard.

More images and description after the break.

A suspended lamella facade not only provides privacy but also draws historical reference to the elaborately decorated facades from the Wilhelminian period. Plans for the ground floor facing the street also include a number of commercial spaces. The generously sized apartments will face south-west, opening themselves to a view of the calm, carefully designed courtyard garden. Spacious, breezy transitions to the outside create an open residential experience in the middle of the city that, thanks to the variable heights of the different building levels, also offers an interesting succession of rooms.

The units’ varying floorplans and layouts indicate a number of housing options; condominiums are organized into townhouses with private gardens, classic apartments or penthouses with a spectacular view of the old Friedrichstadt. The integrated design concept, which incorporates everything from façade to stairwells, elevators to apartment interiors, promises a unique spatial and living experience with an eye to high design.

Architects: Architects Collective
Location: Tadten, Austria
Project Team: Andreas Frauscher, Patrick Herold, Richard Klinger, Kurt Sattler
Client: Erich Sattler Winery
Contractor: Gartner Schienerbau GmbH
Site Area: 300 sqm
Constructed Area: 450 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Courtesy of Architects Collective

The Erich Sattler Winery is located in the village of Tadten, a typical village in the Austrian wine region of Burgenland along the border to Hungary. The property is 12 x 120 m with two existing buildings and a new construction in between. Towards the centre of the village is an existing L-shaped residential building with a courtyard and public access for pedestrians. At the other end of the property in the direction of the vineyards is an existing manufacturing and storage facility with service entrance. In the middle of the property is a new building that is limited by two fire walls and that is used on the ground floor as a barrel room, while the first floor houses a tasting room with kitchen, offices and guest rooms. The interior of the first floor has an east and a west terrace with two long glass facades that allow for flowing inside/outside spaces. The roof terrace above overlooks the village and offer a 360 ° view of the surrounding vineyards, the nearby lakes and the foothills of the Alps.

floor plans

The ground floor plan of the new building consists of a rectangle and the first floor of a parallelogram, which is oriented east and west. These two basic forms are connected by a series of spatial diagonals and merged into a flowing overall form, creating a number of diverse spaces, views and topographies which are relating to the sun, the patio, and the surrounding environment. The remaining areas of the parallelogram leave the east and west terraces which are used for events and wine presentations. The interior space can be used as a single large space or individual rooms through a large sliding wall and four large doors. In the middle of this space is a free standing pentagon-shaped construction with wooden panels that includes bath rooms and kitchen. The building itself construction consists of concrete and masonry, and wood construction for ceilings and walls. All terraces have wooden floors and the façade of the building is painted dark grey outside and white inside. The orientation of the glass facades, the integrated cantilevered canopies, the possibility to cross ventilation every room and the good insulation allow for a pleasant climate all year round.

© jay.tong via Flickr

Curbed SF previosuly reported on the shortlist for the 225,000sqf expansion of the SFMOMA. The unconfirmed shortlist of the 8 practices include David Adjaye, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Snøhetta, and Renzo Piano. The other 2 remained unknown, but they stated that there are no local firms included.

Our friends at the Architect’s Newspaper propose a list of local practices that should have been invited: Aidlin Darling, Anne Fougeron (works previously featured at AD), IwamotoScott (projects previously featured at AD), Ogrydziak/Prillinger and Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works. I strongly agree with their list, and would like to add Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects, with a vast experience in San Francisco, who recently completed the Tampa Museum of Art

Photo via jay.tong, Flickr.

When is was a kid, the futuristic alternative world featured in Tron blew my mind.

So, I was very excited to hear about Trong Legacy, a remake of the film. With details such as Jeff Bridges coming back (he starred in the 1982 version) and a soundtrack by Daft Punk (who also star as “MP3″s on the movie), I knew this sequel would be up to the level set by the original.

And thanks to  Cliff Kuang’s article at Fast Company “Why Tron Legacy Will be Awesome: the Director’s an Architect”, I noticed that the guy behind this awesome movie is an architect graduated from Columbia: Joseph Kosinski. And the fact about his school is not casual, as he states on the video:

I decided that architecture would be the kind of ultimate combination of the creative interests I had and the technical interests I had, so… Columbia was one of the first institutions that was giving architecture students the tools that automotive designers and visual effects facilities down in Los Angeles were using in feature films…

And Jeff Bridges explains further:

It’s interesting different filmmakers where they come from and what they bring to the film and [Kosinski's] an architect and so the film has a very, you know, heightened design feel to it. And he hired this wonderful production designer, Darren Gilford. And he is out of car design so it adds another thing. It’s not somebody, you know, who is an interior decorator.

I have the feeling that the movie won’t disappoint Tron fans, and will be something worth watching from an architecture point of view.

Read Cliff Kuang’s article at Fast Company.