TECNO HOMES

House in Lumino - Davide Macullo Architects

2011-08-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

Located in the Swiss Alpine village of Lumino, just north of Bellinzona, this house stands as a monolithic element, quietly complementing and echoing its context.

The surrounding area is characterised by traditional stone built houses, many of which date back centuries and are marked by their use of this single construction material. The new house is intended as a relevant response to and contemporary interpretation of the vernacular; its exposed reinforced concrete form recalls the revered strength and resonates the presence of these old stone houses. Sitting on the edge of the old village, the house acts as a sort of bastion between the old core and the modern residential expansion.

In addition to the local scale references and material cues siphoned from the physical context, the concept and approach to the project was further influenced by the clients’ expressed desire for a minimalist aesthetic, both internally and externally.

As such, the quality of the spaces in the house would be defined explicitly by the architecture and not by objects placed within it. The idea of the ‘minimalist monolith’ was adopted as the conceptual generator of the project and became a principle applied to all elements of the both the functional and construction programme, from the foundations up to the smallest finishing details.

The geometry of the plan is generated by two shifted parallelepipeds and follows the fall of the site. The typology created by this staggered geometry underlies both the peculiarities of the landscape while also offering each of the levels a direct relationship with the surrounding gardens. The double system of vertical connections, one internal and one external, relates all the spaces of the house in a spiral movement and is in a constant play with its new inhabitants’ perception of time and scale. What is interesting about the house is the ability of the spaces to expand and extend into the landscape, allowing the external become part of the composition. While the individual spaces may be defined geometrically, each space flows into the next and continues to the external.

The principle of the house is to protect and guarantee an intimacy and privacy for its inhabitants but also, somewhat paradoxically, to represent an air of generosity and an opening up of to the world. The intention is to create places in which residents are open and connected to the wider community in a concrete way, beyond the filter of maddening virtual communication. This physical relationship with the community restores a healthy balance of mind and aptitude.

Excavations into the ground rock were kept to a minimum, with only the service spaces placed underground (-1.4m). Vehicle and pedestrian access is from street level (+0.0m). Half a level up from the entrance hall are two bedrooms, both with direct access onto a terrace(+1.4m). On the next floor (+2.8m) is the master suite, again with its own terrace and access to the garden below. Continuing up the house, we arrive into the dining and kitchen space which opens onto the central south facing loggia (+4.2m), with access to the terraces below. This central loggia, which affords panoramic views over the surrounding rooftops, may also be covered with a hydraulic roof when required. The living space on the top floor overlooks and has access down to the loggia below.

Along with gains from the inherent thermal values of concrete, the house’s sustainable credentials also benefit from a heat pump and photovoltaic cells placed on the roof.

Architects: Davide Macullo Architects
Location: Lumino, Switzerland
Project Architects: Davide Macullo, Marco Strozzi
Design collaborator: Michele Alberio
Works supervision: Ennio Maggetti
Structural engineer: Ingenere Andreotti & Partners
Building engineer: IFEC Consulenza SA
Client: Cristina e Curzio De Gottardi
Site area: 497 sqm
Building area: 133 sqm
Total floor area: 221 sqm
Project Year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Enrico Cano, Como

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Water House - Tórtora – Fernandez Arquitectos

2011-08-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

The Water House situated at Av.Costanera 2552, Montevideo – Uruguay, designed with modern concept by Pablo Tórtora & Fernandez Architects. The proposed architecture combines pure volumes and planes flown, generated from a pool of water that runs through and longitudinally divided housing, the latter being the main protagonist.

This house incorporating the presence of exposed concrete to horizontal planes, painted plaster for walls and wood as a secondary material.

Inside, from their access highlights the presence of water arranged by a walkway that acts as integrator needs or separator between the living room and double height living room.

Architect: Pablo Tórtora – Lucía Fernandez arquitectos
Location: Av.Costanera 2552, Barrio Jardines de Carrasco / Montevideo – Uruguay
Project Area: 400 m2
Project Year: 2008 – 2009
Photographs: José Pampin

VIA: TECNOHAUS

House in Sierra de Collado Mediano - Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

2011-07-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Project consists of a single family house located on a modest parcel with a strong slope and exceptional views of the mountains of the Sierra outside Madrid.

The house evolves from the slope of the terrain and positions itself on the lot carefully providing exterior spaces (or garden terraces si queries) between the built volume and the perimeter of the site.

By way of an exterior stair with a gentle pitch, the grounds are connected to a generous rooftop terrace. This space endows the house with magnificent views as well as providing a complementary exterior space for the interior rooms, allowing one to move freely from interior to exterior whether in the kitchen, the living room, enjoying the sun, etc.

As a result, there is a natural continuity between domestic activity and the site itself, emphasizing the understanding of the house as a true extension of the parcel, in its spaces and uses.

The built volumen increases gradually from the first encounter. The height at the access street is a single level, rising to two levels at the upper edge, due to the presence of the studio above the main bedroom. In this way, the house is integrated naturally with the strongly sloping terrain, while producing an entry at a more intimate scale. It also creates a rich ambiguity of perception from different points of view.

The finish building materials, white stucco walls and a black slate tile roof, are those traditionally used in the Sierra around Madrid. The slate is used in slabs as a curtain wall construction both on the roofs as well as on the walls visibly exposed to the exterior, as if it were a protective shell. The private interior patios are clad in the white stucco.

The solid construction of the house consists of reinforced concrete slabs with steel columns that are enclosed at the perimeter in a multilayered 35 cm ceramic wall which absorbs the structure, insulation and mechanical elements within a large cavity. The black slate slabs are supported on an aluminum substructure adding efficient and valuable ventilation.

To maximize the physical and visual connections between interior and exterior spaces, the house is conceived with a number of entrances and exits, creating a permeability which makes the most of the site.

Architects: Padilla Nicás Arquitectos – Francisco José Padilla & Juan Manuel Nicás
Location: Urbanización Serranía de la Paloma, Collado Mediano, Madrid, Spain
Collaborator: Isabel Colino
Structure: Alejandro Bernabéu & Jorge Bernabéu
Services: ACIX
Site Area: 500 sqm
Project Area: 170 sqm
Design Year: 2005-2006
Construction Year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Villa Bussum - GROUP A

2011-07-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

This private residence for a family, completed in June 2009, is situated in a lush, leafy neighbourhood in Bussum, a small town near Amsterdam. The neighbourhood is known for its 19th century villas, designed in a vast array of revivalist styles. The design for the villa by GROUP A is modern and sculptural and interacts in a natural way with its surroundings.

By using slanting walls and roofs the abstract building volume plays by contrast with the neighbourhoods monumental, sometimes even frivolous 19th century villas. At the same time, the villa’s sculptural character ensures that it feels comfortably embedded in the landscape. Thus, the villa’s design enhances its integration with both context and community, yet outstanding by its singular language.

The villa’s building type evolved from a simple rectangular volume with a rotated pitched roof. Subsequently, segments were cut from this volume in order to create windows, terraces, balconies and entrances.
A cut-out corner facing the street in front of the house clearly indicates the main entrance, while on the eastern side of the villa, a secluded garden and a second entrance offer a more private side. A comfortable porch and a 15 meter wide panorama window face the garden at the back of the house, and double up as a transition between the villa and the garden.

Both gardens in front and at the back of the house are linked to each other by a sloping path. This descending path lowers itself underneath the cantilevering block, thereby providing garden access for the basement floor, and a comfortable covered parking spot. The client asked for a villa with a modern feel, a garden with a high degree of privacy and the possibility of sheltered parking. By designing a cantilevering villa, positioned between the street and the private zone of the plot, all three of these demands were addressed. The design includes the answers to the demands, and integrates them through simple operations into a sculpted, modern and clear volume.

Architect: GROUP A
Location: Bussum, Amsterdam
Client: Private
Contractor: Saam, Empe
Structures: K-Kostrukties, Rotterdam
Installations: Installatietechniek Coppens, Beverwijk
Site area: 1,450 sqm
Constructed area: 280 sqm
Year of enchargement: 2005
Construction Year: 2009
Photographs: Scagliola / Brakkee

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Water-Cooled House - Wallflower Architecture + Design

2011-06-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hidden away from the road, the site is surrounded by a verdant screen of mature trees from adjacent properties. Breezes blowing transversely across the site being another notable aspect of the location.

The owner had wanted a contemporary home that prioritized environmental coolness as a consistent attribute and to be able to enjoy the luscious tropical surroundings.

The concept developed for the home inverted planning and hierarchical norms common in local residential planning. To fully appreciate the mature and variegated natural environment and stretch the potential for visual depth and distance, the main living room and study were located in a pavilion on the second storey.

It was designed with minimal enclosing and supporting structure so as to maximize the elevated vistas. To unconsciously guide visitors to the living pavilion above, a minimal spiral staircase touches down within the entrance foyer. Hints of the tree-lined views are seen through the large circular void connecting the entrance foyer to the pavilion above.

A dark reflecting pond surrounds the pavilion which assists in refining the experience of serene isolation and privacy and frames. The occasional bird dipping into the pond, rippling the surface further ties the house to the natural surroundings. The purpose of the second storey pond is also designed to thermally insulate the dining, bedrooms and family spaces underneath from solar heat gain. In the same way, the water body above also helps to regulate temperature swings within the house.

n the first storey, the residential and service functions of the house are delineated by a long continuous light and air well that is paralleled below by a similarly long and continuous koi pond. The pathway running along-side the pond that leads to the bedrooms hides the substantial service areas which are beyond the pathway wall. As with the second storey pond, the air well and first storey koi pond is also designed to facilitate in micro-cooling the first storey rooms and spaces. The pathway is a conduit for prevailing breezes; the koi pond’s thirty metre length and two metre width exposes a sixty square metre surface area within the house to those breezes for evaporative cooling.

As a gesture to the prominent role that water plays within the residence, an oculus within the pond highlights the main entrance, the circle of sunlight cooled and animated by the constantly changing sinusoidal patterns of refracted rays through the water above.

Architect: Wallflower Architecture + Design
Location: Bukit Timah, Singapore
Design Team: Cecil Chee, Robin Tan & Sean Zheng
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Albert Lim

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6 Family House Staldern Regensberg - L3P Architekten

2011-06-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

The 6 Family House Staldern Regensberg ZH in Switzerland, is a housing project designed by Swiss architect L3P Architekten. It features the randomized glazing and openings on the facade with its unique panorama view.

"The architectural expression is essentially defined through the location of the property, with its unique panorama view, and the historical reference to the castle town."

L3P Architekten.

The architectural expression is essentially defined through the location of the property, with its unique panorama view, and the historical reference to the castle town. Each of the apartments located on the three floors of the two house sections differ in floor plan, height and proportion. The centre of every apartment is formed through the lounge room, adorned with high ceilings (3.4m) and ceiling to floor windows to the south side.

The interplay between the partly winding, narrow and castle-like private rooms and the open and light-flooded ‘public’ rooms, gives the separate apartments their quality and layout composure.

The consequent use of height offset in the separate apartments allows a layout in both attic apartments which is vertically orientated; the rooms are over each other and are staggered on the mezzanine to the lounge room.

The long, 2m high corner windows and the glazed loggias allow a unique panorama. The interaction with the proportions of the window surfaces, the over-long windows and super-elevated balconies in the centre of both houses fool the eye, the individual apartments are not comprehensible from the outside. The ‘castle’ character of the north façade, with ‘arrow-slit’ like windows, orientates itself on the historical fundamental structure of Regensberg.

Architect: L3P Architekten AG FH SIA
Location: Regensberg, Canton Zurich, Suiza
Completion: Octubre 2008
GFA: 960m2
Team: Frank Schaefer Arch.ETH, Boris Egli Arch.FH, Martin Reusser Arch.FH
Civil: Bona + Fischer AG, Winterthur
Builder: E. Schäfer Bau AG, Dielsdorf
Photographer: Vito Stallone

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Atelier Bardill - Valerio Olgiati

2011-05-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Atelierhouse Bardill replaces an old barn in the protected centre of the village Scharans. The building permission was granted by the local authorities only under the condition that the new building would have exactly the same volume as the old barn.

The client, Linard Bardill, who lives in a house a very short walking distance away from the site, needed only one single space, a room to work in. This working space occupies not even a third of the stipulated volume.

The rest of it constitutes a courtyard that is monumentalized by a huge round opening to the sky.This is where the house expresses greatness and clearness in contrast to the arbitrary geometry of its external appearance and to the small-scale environment of the village.

Architect: Valerio Olgiati
Location: Scharans, Switzerland

Collaborators: Nathan Ghiringhelli (project manager office Olgiati), Nikolai Müller, Mario Beeli

Client: Linard Bardill, musician + poet

Construction Supervisor: Linard Bardill

Structural Engineer: Patrick Gartmann, partner of Conzett, Bronzini, Gartmann AG, Chur

Project Area: 285 sqm

Project Year: 2006-2007

Photographs: Courtesy of Valerio Olgiati

VIA: TECNOHAUS

The PLUS House - Mount Fuji Architects Studio

2011-05-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

One axis of the cross stretches toward the Pacific Ocean on south, and the other, the forest of Japanese oak and some white birch on west. The rooms in the lower structure and terrace on it enjoy broad vista of the sea and blue sky. And gentle shade of natural forest embraces the space in the upper one.

I didn’t want to just form the undulating landscape dotted with great trees as normal, nor design an elaborate architecture bowing down to the complex topography.

What sprang to my mind is a blueprint for an architecture which is perfectly autonomous itself, at the same time seems to emerge as an underlying shape that the natural environment has been hiding. It’s abstraction of nature, to say.

The architecture was realized by crossing two rectangular parallelepipeds at very right angles. The lower one contains private rooms and bathroom, and sticks half of the body out to existing narrow level ground. The upper one incorporates salon and kitchen, and lies astride the lower one and the mountain ridge. It almost seems like an off-centered cross pinned carefully on natural terrain.

Water-polished white marble (cami #120) was chosen as interior finishing material. It glows softly like Greece sculptures to blend blue light from the south and green light from the west gradationally, thus creates delicate continuous landscape of light which suggests the character and usage of the space.

Exterior is also finished with white marble. The surface get smoother as it approaches to the southern/western end till it takes mirror gloss (cami #1000) at the ends. The southern end of white cross melts into the blue of sky and sea, and the eastern end to the green of forest.

Carved out of nature, it never stops being a part of nature itself, however highly abstracted. Never relativizes the nature with its foreignness, nor generate contradiction to settle for being “artificial nature” by giving up being abstract and mimicking the nature.

The abstraction inspired by Mother Nature defines the nature itself, and still, stays natural.

That’s what I wanted from this abstraction and architecture.

Architects: Mount Fuji Architects Studio

Location: Shizuoka, Japan
Site area: 988.58 sqm
Building area: 232.77 sqm
Total floor area: 380.44 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Ken’ichi Suzuki

House M3KG

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Rodríguez Harvey House - Nicolás Loi

2011-05-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

The house is located in Tunquén, a costal area in the central region of Chile, in a 5.000 sq.m. site overlooking the sea. The acces of the site is located in the lower part, so you enter with your back to the sea. The house is located in the upper part, in order to get the best views towards the ocean.

The area is a semi-dry region, with native trees and a strong and cold wind from the south-east. The orientation of the site is south, so the main views towards the landscape are to the south (This is the south hemisphere, so the sun comes always from the north). The sunlight comes from the north, the upper part of the site, opposite to the main views of the site.

This geographic situation determines the design, because the house must be open or transparent to the south to get the views, but it must also be open to the north light coming from the “rear” part of the house.

In order to achieve this, the design is based in three parts:

1. A reticular structure of wood columns and beams as the base for the scheme, which contains the exterior spaces of the house (entrance and terraces).

2. Three volumes inside this grid containing the main areas of the house (living space and bedrooms). By being greater un height, this three spaces gain light from the “rear”part of the site.

3. Three service volumes (kitchen and bathrooms) linked with each of the three main spaces of the house.

This scheme also solves the client needs: he wanted an integrated living-dinning-kitchen space, an exterior terrace protected from the wind, a main bedroom and a second one separated for acoustic and privacy needs.

This configuration of the main three volumes generates three intermediate semi-interior-exterior spaces: terrace, access and separation space between the two bedrooms.
The terrace is protected from the wind by wooden blinds, by a big laminated glass, and by an existing tree. The protection against the strong summer sun is achieved by inclined beams that only allow winter sunrays to pass.

The living area volume has a complete double height in order to get the sun light, and also protects laterally the terrace from the south-east wind. The dining and kitchen area are located one step above the living area, avoiding its furnishings from blocking the views.

The gests bedroom takes advantage of its greater height by placing a small attic containing a bed for the children. The interior corridor of the house also gets the north light through the space that separates the two bedrooms.

The house is built completely in pine wood, with a dark exterior varnish.

In adition, a gests cabin was built completely separated from the main house, connected by a pedestrian path.

Architect: Nicolas Loi – Loi Arquitectos

Location: Tunquén, V Región, Chile
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Project Area: 139 sqm
Design Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2008-2009

Photographs: Marcos Mendizabal

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Los Molles House - Oltmann Ahlers W. + Oltmann Ahlers G. + dRN Arquitectos

2011-05-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Not having a direct view of the ocean allowed us to place this weekend house facing a less expected landscape.

The open panorama of the Pacific Ocean has been replaced by an enclosed orientation towards a group of trees and the coastal hills of the east. These preexisting conditions characterized the site as a contained backyard, which appeared to be an ideal situation to take distance from the life of the beach.

The requirements of the brief were defined by the “minimum” needs of a large family, indicating that if the program was built in one single volume there would be little open space; something undesirable due to the qualities of the site.

The plot is divided in five parallel strips, occupying the site in its full length. The distance with the neighbors is given by the local norm, which requires having 2 strips of gardens, one towards the north and the other towards the south. The interior programs of the house are organized in two bars, divided by a third strip of garden of four meters of width. This scheme of garden-house-garden-house-garden alternates interior and exterior spaces, which are placed in different levels of the topography so that the roof of one volume can be use as a terrace by the volume above.

This simple fragmentation of site and program, and the definition of different levels, produces equivalence between inside and outside spaces; parallel interior and exterior connections: encouraging a more casual life in the outdoors.

During the winter the number of inhabitants diminishes, the temperatures are lower and the house adopts a more introverted lifestyle. Splitting the program allows to close the lower levels used by the guests on the summer, and keep open only the second floor.

The house, acquiring the rhythms of a weekend refuge, absorbs the seasonal variations on the intensity of the program, which define a silent winter –inside- and an agitated summer –outside-.

The two levels of the house are built establishing a contrast between a solid podium and a light roof structure. The podium; a concrete platform which attaches the house to the irregular topography, while the roof; built in steel and wood generates a lighter structure that frames specific aspects of the landscape.

Architects: Oltmann Ahlers W. + Oltmann Ahlers G. + dRN Arquitectos

Collaborators: Eduardo Vivanco, Felipe Camus

Structural Engineer: Santiago Arias

Location: Cachagua, V Región, Chile

Site Area: 1000sqm

Project Area: 260 sqm

Project Year: 2008

Photographs: Nicolás Saieh, Felipe Camus

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Twin Houses - Felipe Gonzalez-Pacheco

2011-05-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Project is the result of the dream of two families. The architect´s family and his sister´s family. Each one composed by four members, father, mother and two small child.

The houses were designed for the families to grow independently or together. For the cousins to meet at the patio, for the families to get the indispensable intimacy of a house and at the same time share the space and time with the others.

The site, a pair of lots at a corner in the neighborhood Santana, at the start of the mountains at the north east in Bogotá, a bit higher than the beautiful Sabana, with wonderful views all around.
There the architect designed two family houses very much alike. A pair of twin houses in a very special place of a city with a privileged climate, dry, sunny and always around 15 grades, where the light changes the color of vegetation every hour.

Two concrete containers, each one bent in to an L shape depend on each other to live individually. Each house complements its neighbor to configure the central patio and to have intimacy at the same time.

The shape of plain containers made out of ocre concrete are the shell of the houses that open or close the space to configure the relations with the outside. The concrete walls bend and fold to show the plasticity of the material and to let the light play. Apparent wood to the outside makes the contrast. On the second floor a last bent container makes the space for the owner’s studio, isolated from the rest.

The house lives inside from the outside. The concrete containers make the patios in a sequence descending on the terrain, the inside and the outside fuse and have the same spatial value.

The concrete shell contains all dry wall or wood walls and the houses are like a piece of luggage, hard on the outside and soft in the inside to let the changes in the family transform the space inside.

Architects: Felipe Gonzalez-Pacheco (MGP Arquitectura y Urbanismo)

Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Collaborators: Alvaro Bohorquez, Camilo Correa, Gabriel Campusano, M. Juliana Sorzano
Client: Laura Gonzalez-Pacheco y Felipe Gonzalez Pacheco
Contractor: Tierra S.A.
Project Area: 1,136 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Andrés Valbuena, Jorge Gamboa, Rodrigo Dávila, MGP Arquitectura y Urbanismo

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Otter Cove Residence - Sagan Piechota Architecture

2011-05-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Private cliffside residence just south of Carmel, California with unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean. 10,000 sq ft curvilinear design composed of contrasting fields of glass, stone, steel and wood with interior and exterior landscaped ‘courtyards’.

Upper Level: Four en-suite bedrooms, powder room, three-car garage. Open plan kitchen, dining and living rooms feature two fireplaces – expansive light exposure from both East and West directions.
Lower Level: Offices, en-suite bedroom, screening room, gym, game room, bar & lounge.

The large area of the house was disguised by splitting the house into two wings, recessing the house into the site and locating nearly half of the space partially underground. The plan-split created a courtyard, the eastern wing providing privacy from Highway One and the western wing buffering the ocean wind. Secondary spaces are located on the lower floor and borrow light from above through three staircases. These spaces provide respite from the panoramic drama on the upper floor.

Walls are located only where absolutely necessary for privacy or structure and treated as monolithic elements. Stone cladding predominates, rooting the house in the site and visually connecting with the rocky cove.

Architects: Sagan Piechota Architecture
Location: Carmel, CA, USA
Principal in Charge: Daniel Piechota
Project Team: Jaeson Greer, Ben Frombgen
Collaborators: Mike Eggers, Tim Whitehill, Audrey Hitchcock, Jeremy Tsai
Interior Designer: Jorie Clark
Structural Engineer: Alex Rood, Fulcrum Engineering
Landscape: Christian Lemon
General Contractor: McLeod Construction
Project Year: 2005-2008
Photographs: Joe Fletcher

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Villa TT - WE Architecture

2011-05-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

The young Danish architectural firm, WE Architecture, designed this TT-Villa located in one of the most attractive island in asia – Phuket, Thailand. The house is composed of 3 linear forms which are well integrated into the landscape.

We have chosen to split the program of the house into three categories. These are divided on three floors with the most public functions on top, close to where you enter the building. Semi private functions in the middle and the most private functions at the lower level.

WE Architecture

THE LUXURY OF THE SURROUNDINGS

Designing in perfect surroundings asks for a building which gives optimal experiences of the environment. This is the case with TT-villa which is situated on a west facing hillside near the sea, among vigorous vegetation which spans from tall palm trees and rhododendron to orchids and lotus flowers. The luxury of the surroundings is the corner stone of this project. We have tried to create a building where both interior and exterior has equal contact to nature and sea. An inhabitable oasis in the midst of the wild, with the commodities of modern living.

STEP 1-2-3

The building site is situated on a steep rocky terrain, between the road on the upper part of the hill and the beach 100 meters below. As a stair, sometimes hovering above nature, and sometimes carved into the rock, the building steps down the hill providing interior and exterior access between the arrival on the top of the building and the beach below. Along these paths the layout of the house provides terraces connected to the different functions of the building. Nature can grow unobstructed between the building volumes. The dramatic spans and sharp geometry of the building creates a counterbalance to the embracing nature.

ORGANIZATION

TERRACES
By offsetting the three floors from each other we create additional terraces.

VIEW 360
Rotating the floors opens up the house towards the sea and maximizes the area of terraces.

LIFE BETWEEN NATURE
Instead of having a backside as in a traditional cliff side villa the building is now placed with views both towards the sea and the green rocky slope. The vegetation grows between the different floors of the building blurring the notion of what is inside and outside.

SUN TERRACES
Surrounded by vegetation on all sides on all sides the sun terraces are posed as a piece of domesticated nature on the inaccessible slope.

The upper terrace becomes a “mirador” that greets you welcome at your arrival to the house. An ideal place for enjoying a sunset.
The central terrace, closely connected to the kitchen is laid out with exterior bar, barbecue and dining facilities.
The lower terrace ( in connection with the living room) features a pool and space for sunbathing.

TERRACE IN THE SHADE

As an addition to the outdoor spaces the interior of the house can work as covered terraces. The rooms have panoramic sliding windows and can open up letting in the breeze from the sea.

CLOSED
While closed the blindings provide both shade and intimacy without obstructing the magnificent views surrounding the house. The house becomes a shaded hideout from where you can sit among the vigorous vegetation overlooking the sea.

SEMI-OPEN
Folding up the blindings provides framed views while still having spaces in the hidden. The blinding system ensures protection from the sun.

OPEN
Opening up the blinding system completely, gives you picturesque views still not allowing the sun to enter the house. Opening the sliding windows converts your living, dining or bedroom into covered terraces.

INTERIOR CIRCULATION

The house is vertically connected by spiralling stairs where the building volumes meet. The circulation is a continuous movement connecting the top of the building where you arrive with the beach below.

EXTERIOR CIRCULATION

As in the interior, the exterior circulation connects the top of the hill with the sea in the bottom. The path serves as a connector between the terraces on the roofs of the building.

Design: WE Architecture

Assignment: private assignment
Type: Private villa
Client: Classified
Size:450 m2
Place: Phuket, Thailand
Year: 2009
Collaborators: Uwe Wuterich
Team: Marc Jay, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Hochung Kim

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Martinica House - Mas y Fernandez Arquitectos

2011-05-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

Located in the commune of Vitacura Martinique, Chile, the house is a second remodeling an existing home on one level.

Mas y Fernandez Arquitectos maintain the first floor and common areas of the house, adding a second floor for bedrooms and bathrooms.

The original floor of the house is organized around a courtyard, which allowed the generation of the stair there, lit naturally. The second floor is divided into two volumes contemporaries, which bind through this again empty.

The resulting space between the volume manages to generate two private terraces, one for the master bath and one for the bedroom of the eldest son. The inverted truss system of the original house these new volumes allowed to stay on them, taking advantage of this space between slabs to be laid for new installations.

The material chosen for this work is on metal structure and aerated concrete. Plastered and painted white on the inside perimeters and metal partitions covered in plasterboard.

The side walls on the second floor have a coating of treated wood, which seeks to resemble the blinds first floor, and make this intervention a dialogue between old and new.

Thus achieved a very bright house with spectacular views of its surroundings. Mixing colors is achieved by very simple and ideal contrast of light and shadow.

Location: Martinica 5970, Santiago, Chile

Architects: Mas y Fernandez Arquitectos / Andres Mas E., J. Cristóbal Fernandez Ch. Arquitecto Project Team: Nicolas Cabargas, Paola Egoaguirre

Contractor: Raimundo Correa

Structural Engineers: Benjamin Estay G.

Landscape: Carolina Vergara

Project Year: 2008

Photographs: Marcos Mendizabal

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Campana House - Alejandro Dumay + Francisco Vergara

2011-04-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

The house is located in a rural central valley of Chile, in an area of 10,000 sqm. with a striking visual presence of the Coast mountain and the Cerro La Campana.

The assignment is to solve a housing that allows a strong link between indoor and outdoor spaces, including compounds that integrate the entire family and friends as much as possible, and a special concern for energy efficiency project.

The proposal to divide the public program audience (living, dining and kitchen) of the bedrooms, with a covered patio incorporating articulator access, circulation outside and barbecue.

East of the volume is located four bedrooms with capacity for 10 people in total, linked by a corridor outside, leaving the senior campuses (living, living room and master bedroom) with orientation towards the mountain range. In these areas extending the height of the space progressively from 2.4 mts. up to 3.5 meters., allowing a full view of the mountains and the surrounding environment.

Is defined to work with materials that provide a cleaner process in its preparation, such as wood, concrete and clay. In turn, they are considered passive thermal solutions, such as Trombe walls to the north, cross circulation of air, and shaded and double glazing and solar panels to heat water and photovoltaic panels future.

Architects: Alejandro Dumay Claro, Francisco Vergara Arthur

Location: Ocoa, V Región, Chile
Contractor: Guillermo Delgado
Site Area: 10,000 sqm
Project Area: 185 sqm / 75 sqm terrace = 222 sqm
Design Year: 2008
Construction Year: 2009
Photographs: Mauricio Fuentes

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Chicken Point Cabin - Olson Kundig Architects

2011-04-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

The idea for the cabin was to create a lakeside shelter in the woodsa little box with a big window that opens to the surrounding landscape. The cabins big window-wall (30 feet by 20 feet) opens the entire living space to the forest and lake.

At 2,600 square-feet, the cabin is big enough to handle the family functions it was designed for, yet intimate enough to preserve its charm. The cabin sleeps ten.

The design concept is composed of essentially three parts: a concrete-block box, a plywood insert and a 4-foot diameter steel fireplace (the bong). Materials are low maintenanceconcrete block, steel, concrete floors and plywoodin keeping with the notion of a cabin, and left unfinished to age naturally and acquire a patina that fits in with the idyllic setting. Open, interior spaces are intended to be a seamless extension to the outdoors. The concrete floor inside extends outside and become a terrace with a built-in hot tub.

A 19-foot-tall steel entry door is exaggerated in height to easily accommodate long skis. Once inside, the concrete block volume is punctuated by relatively few distractions: a steel fireplace, a bridge that spans the main space and the master sleeping alcove that floats above the kitchen area. The six-ton window-wall pivots on an off-center axis, its speed regulated by a fly-ball governor (the gizmo).

Architect: Olson Kundig Architects

Project Team: Tom Kundig, FAIA, design principal; Steven Rainville, project architect; Debbie Kennedy, interior designer

Consultants: Turner Exhibits (gizmo fabricator and engineer); Monte Clark Engineering (structural engineering); Moser, Inc. (design/build mechanical system)

Craftspeople: All New Glass (big window); Star Steel (steel structure, bong); Steve Clark (table fabricator, cabinets, beds)
Contractor: MC Construction

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Brinken Terrace - 70°N arkitektur

2011-04-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

In Norway, 70°N arkitektur has designed the Brinken Terrace situated on top of the Tromsø island facing west with its beautiful view. The project is composed of two apartment buildings with 48 large apartments, and the different approach in the flats’ design in the blocks gives variation in the window placements and facade expression.

Brinken Terrace has a prominent location on the top of the Tromsø Island with views towards all directions. The area is sun exposed at all hours and have direct access to the green area that stretches along the Tromsø island. In the completed outdoor areas many of the existing trees and other vegetation are being preserved, in addition, there has been planted more vegetation as birch trees, rose and berry bushes etc.

The area between and around the buildings is composed by varied playing and outdoor recreation areas for the residents. It has for instance a small field for playing ball, various playgrounds and a sunbath/barbecue area. There is also a football field with artificial turf in the neighborhood which also is part of the project.

The project was completed in 2009. The total area of the project is approx. 8100 m2 which includes the underground parking. The two blocks are in principle similar, with increasing height from two floors to the west towards the existing residential housing in Brinkveien street, and up to five floors to the east and north, towards the students apartment blocks at Prestvannet.

In the planning phase, the future residents cooperated with the architect on the design of the apartments, this led to customized and unique apartments. Overall, the project has 48 flats of varying size from 36 to 196 m2. The different approach in the flats’ design in the blocks gives variation in the window placements and facade expression. Both blocks have open and bright entrances halls, two staircases, two elevators, and underground parking with storage rooms. The blocks are linked together by the common parking and outdoor areas.

All apartments have secluded private terraces or balconies. From the second storey and up the balconies are drawn into the building to provide as good microclimate as possible, which is important in the arctic climate. The apartments in the front have large west-facing roof terraces.

The height of the ceiling in all apartments is 2.7 m, and the large windows frames the spectacular views of the mountains of Kvaløya island to the west, Malangen mountains to the south and Tromsdalstind mountain to the east. Most apartments have views in two directions, while the largest apartments have a 360° panoramic view. The top apartment in the southern block fills the entire floor, and has also, as the other apartments, a wonderful view from the bedroom and bathroom.

The construction system is steel columns in the facade and concrete decks, with internal load-bearing concrete walls. The facades are 200mm wide boards of impregnated pine and in the balcony niches gray laminate plates are used.

Architect: 70°N arkitektur

Project: Brinken Terrace Location: Tromsø Island, Norway Type: Terraced housing GFA: 8,000 m2 Builder: Econord AS Photographer: Ivan Brodey

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Deer Grotto House - Visiondivision

2011-04-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

For their latest commission, Visiodivision addressed the extension of an 18th century cottage with their typical offbeat approach (check out their other projects previously featured on AD).

Abiding by the clients’ request for the house to blend in with the environment, particularly from the one side where the client’s conservative mother “has her cottage and watchful eyes”, the extension becomes a unobtrusive living space that is part of the earth, making it appear “almost invisible”.

Utilizing the sloping condition of the site, the architects were able to excavate the hill and construct a concrete vault in its void. The vault is then punctuated in strategic locations to allow light to illuminate the living spaces. The rest of the vault is covered with soil, leaving no obvious indications of the architects’ presence.

Deer statues placed on top of the building cover the holes and become the light shafts; they also act as a reference point for the content of the house.

The new extension is connected to the original home with an internal stair that divides the extension into a social zone and a quieter one. The social zone, which consists of a small kitchen and a living room, is clothed in a glass façade (the only visible façade of the entire extension) and faces the river. The quieter zone is comprised of the sleeping areas and bathroom where the over lights display the change of light quality throughout the day.

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Mirante do Horto House - Flavio Castro

2011-04-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

The design of the residence came from a basic premise: maximum use of land for a huge program. Thus, the strategy was to locate specific areas and vertical circulation In a way that the rest of spaces enjoy extreme flexibility and a Wide visual range, profiting the structure and volume.

The space created inside, in fact, is what remains after adding three small “boxes”. Dialectic interdependence between home theater, kitchen and stairway is established in the residence and demarcates a territory, as seen illustrated in the sketch next to this text.

A shadow The service, adjacent to the garage, is four feet below street level. Above is the container with the other functions of the house. A shadow separates them.

The shadow on the outer part translates into light in the inner space. The range allows the lighting and ventilation of the environments below and gives an extreme light visual to the massive upper volume.

The structure is the protagonist in the conception. Accesses through this gap were distributed as independent elements of the geometry of the house. Container on bars A container rests on two “bars” and stands out in access and uses of their immediate surroundings. The prismatic volume contains the program of the residence on two floors plus a roof garden.

The container openings are extremely flexible in the front and back facades, while quite tenuous on the side walls. This is a consequence of the immediate surroundings because the common practice of the neighbors is constructing on the border of their private grounds. Because of this, the program is located in the perimeter side providing a more flexible interior space and visual communication in height.

This transition provided by two metal beams allows the floor of the garage to spread to the maximum boundary of the site. Maximum occupancy without affecting ventilation and lighting guaranteed exactly by that range.

Vertical connection Connecting the house from top to bottom, the right wall next to the staircase inside the house offers vertical connections to the exchange of fluids between the four height levels, while providing space for a different event in each. On the garage floor, superior and top terrace, it generates the studio, office and support respectively, while in the main floor a large aquarium turns that wall in a prism.

Drilled plans The house was designed by a succession of free horizontal slabs with strategic holes. In these 8×11 meters plans, these holes allow vertical circulation and the entry of zenith light. Natural light enters next to the water tank, passes through the upper floor and reach the social floor.

Roof garden Besides being a viewpoint to the city, the roof garden contributes to the sustainability of the residence because it helps cooling the area immediately below, the dorms.

Sculptural elements emerge from this observation platform disrupting the order. The smooth curve and mass volume of the water tank and the pointed triangle that covers the access contrasts in chromaticism and formality.

Architect: Flavio Castro Location: Mirante do Horto Condominium, Horto Florestal, São Paulo, Brazil Construction: Flavio Castro, José Claudio Magalhaes Project Year: 2009 Construction Date: 2010 Land area: 226 sqm Built area: 300 sqm Photos: Nelson Kon

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Beach Refuge - Pablo Errázuriz

2011-04-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

The refugee is located 260km at the north of Santiago. The challenge was to design a space with a reduced budget to spend short vacations. It had also to be safe and easy to maintain.

The program consists of 3 elements:

- Container; a recovered container, cladded with corten steel plates with wooden boards painted white for the interiors, which include a bathroom and a kitchen.

The exterior has a wooden deck terrace with a steel structure on top of it with the same dimensions as the container (6×2.4m) that holds a PVC sheet for wall and ceiling when required.

- Tent yard; a small area marked by low stone walls with river sand, connected trough gravel footsteps.

- Water tower; acting as a warehouse and “engine room” on the first level, a bedroom on the 2nd level and a water tank on the 3rd level.

Architect: Pablo Errázuriz
Location: Huentelauquén, Chile
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Project Area: 24 sqm
Design Year: 2008
Construction Year: 2009
Photographs: Pablo Errázuriz

VIA: TECNOHAUS

A forest for a Moon Dazzler - Benjamin Garcia Saxe

2011-04-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

She wakes up when the moon is going down. The loud noise of the crickets reminds her that she is surrounded by the forest.

The warmth of the rising sun filters through the leaves and warms the rough wood floors. She knows its time to make bread. The chirping has changes to bird singing. The stove heats the air and the smell seeps through every crack into the forest.

My mom goes outside to take a shower under the water tank and suddenly a sporadic rain mingles with her drops. She runs into the house and dries up with the heat of the stove.

I wake up and realize that its morning. The sun is up and there is fresh bread on the table. I can see that my mom is planting an aloe vera plant in the dirt floor of her living room. She somehow knows the perfect place for it to grow.

The sunrays begin to hit the tin roof. She opens all doors, all screens, all windows and the wind picks all of her Hindu drapes. I can also see the recently washed blankets waving on a rope that is strung from the two big trees that give shade to the house. The wind picks up the leaves and brings them into the house. My mom is always cleaning but nothing is ever clean.

There is not much to do, but she manages to keep herself busy between Tarot cards, left hand political readings, pot, and a seldom phone call. She moves about the house trying to find a place with a better signal. She has found such a place between the front door and the tree. She has placed a rock there, where she can sit to talk for hours.

My mom wants to take me to the beach, but I can see that she is worried about leaving the house alone. She hides some of her most valuable possessions: books, pictures, and the pot. She places a tree branch in front of the entrance, leaves the radio on, and the door wide open. She then screams “Bye, we’ll see you later” as if there was someone still in the house. To me it seems as if she is saying goodbye to her house, and the house mumbles through the forest as we walk farther and farther away from the radio.

We walk through the forest into the dirt road that reaches the beach-break. My mom goes for a swim in the ocean and after a while sits right next to me to watch the sunset. She is dazzled with the sight even though she has seen it hundreds of times. She explains that we should head back in order to catch the last glimpse of sunrays that will lead the way back to the house. We begin to hear the radio getting louder and louder as we get closer to the house. She checks all her natural alarms that tell her if anyone has been around the house; from the tree-branch in front of the door to the hanging ceramic fishes that she has placed hanging from the surrounding trees. The sunlight is dimming and soon the forest will be illuminated by the bright moon. She is afraid that darkness will bring an intruder to disturb us. The candles provide a flickering light while she plays the guitar. She prepares a quick meal which is hard to eat because of the lack of light. The moonlight enters the house, and I know that soon she will go to sleep. She has placed her bed in a corner of the house where there is a direct view of the moon while she goes to sleep. She washes her face and wraps her body in soaking towels that lower her body temperature throughout the night. I can see that the moon-sight dazzles her every time and the sound of the crickets put her to sleep. Every once in a while she wakes up in distress by the chirping noise of her natural alarms; from the carefully placed gravel around the house, to the dry branches that surround her bed. The only thing that gives her comfort is the illuminating sight of the moon moving through the trees.

Architect: Benjamin Garcia Saxe

Location: Playa Avellanas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Type: Residential
Budget: 40,000 USD
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Benjamin Garcia Saxe

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Valdemorillo House Extension - Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

2011-04-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

The project is an extension of a single family home located next to the Valmayor reservoir with a small pavilion and terrace oriented towards the water.

The integration of the new building with the existing comes as a result of the sloping roofs, while the laminated wood structural frames distinguish it as different. This ‘light’ construction seeks to make a transition between the original house and the surrounding landscape.

The project is hardly visible from the entry walkway, except for the gables that project slightly, finally becoming apparent from the interior of the parcel.

The structure consists of prefabricated laminate wood frames. They were assembled on site and painted white to blend with the exisiting house. The assembly at each joint employs a steel plate sandwiching the web of each frame and bolted from the exterior.

Location: Urbanización El Paraíso, Valdemorillo, Madrid, España

Architects: Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

Design Year: 2004-2005

Construction Year: 2006-2008

Project Area: 180 m2

Collaborator: Isabel Colino

Structure: Alejandro Bernabéu y Jorge Bernabéu

Photographs: Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

VIA: TECNOHAUS

Pier House - Gabriel Grinspum + Mariana Simas

2011-04-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

The “pier house” was built to house a sailboat during the week and its owners during the weekends. The alternate usage was suggested by the clients, a young couple from São Paulo.

The proposal was to divide the house in two volumes. The first one is a solid box covered with whitewash, and its “muxarabi” windows filter the light and allow permanent ventilation. It is the result of the region’s typical construction method, a legacy from colonial times.

The second one was constructed with metal tile and pre-fabricated wood structure. This building has profited from the construction’s industrialization in order to dispense the building site and thus avoid the environmental impact.

The house situation in the site has been defined by two premises: the need for proximity to water in order to the boat to enter and preserve the dense vegetation of rainforest. The site is in the Saco do Mamanguá, RJ, a tropical fjord accessible only by boat without power, the very archetype of lost paradise. In this context, the house is pier together the idea of the “noble savage” with modern “eulogy of the machine”.

Like a sailboat, poetic symbol of harmony between nature and human condition and, currently, subject of an ultra-sophisticated and green design, the pier house is the house of the “natural man” that makes use of sustainable benefits of technological advance.

Architects: Gabriel Grinspum + Mariana Simas

Location: Paraty, RJ, Brasil Project Team: Gabriel Grinspum, Mariana Simas Trainee: Isabel Sperry

General Contractor: Luciênio Costa

Site Area: 4,000 sqm

Constructed Area: 60 sqm

Project Year: 2007-2009

Photographs: Pedro Vannucchi

VIA: TECNOHAUS

VOL House - Estudio BaBo

2011-03-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

The objective of the Project was the restoration and extension of a single family townhouse, in the area of Palermo within the city of Buenos Aires, from the beginning of the 20th century. The challenge was to update the house to the 21st century way of living.

The house is located in a street passage, one of the few urban sub-systems of this kind which managed to remain almost unchanged. The street is shaped by a row of townhouses each one with a similar arrangement; an inner back patio dividing its single plan in three distinctive spatial units. Over the years some of these houses have been added an extra floor, and their terraces grew up to accommodate new functions such as extra bedrooms, laundry rooms or playrooms.

In the beginning, all of the existing houses shared the same stylistic qualities proper to their period, but as time went by their façades changed to create the eclectic scenery we can enjoy today. Fortunately these changes respected the original overall composition and lines, proportions and mass, maintaining its domestic character and its almost suburban quality.

The original building, as interesting as it was, had no real historical value, but, because of all the combined factors detailed above, we decided not to demolish it. We defined the task as an update of the house to accommodate contemporary life, within the existing typology, maintaining the original single elements worth keeping and adding an extension to accommodate the rest of the program.

The program is spread in two plans and a half-floor plan. The ground floor plan retained the three spatial units around the patio, but reconfigures their uses to match the new way of living. The entrance leads to the central space of the house, containing the patio, and dividing the house in an almost symmetrical arrangement, powered by the twin curved doors leading to the living room and the playroom. These doors are kept as an evocative gesture, although the function of one of them is no longer needed. The main space unit, along the side, contains the public areas of the dwelling, living room, dining room and kitchen. They conform a single space but remain recognizable by the difference in treatment of their ceilings; the original complex Beaux-Arts ceiling of the living room is restored, a much cleaner, but still classic ceiling is added to the dining area, and finally a contemporary negative joint is introduced in the kitchen, creating a progressive transition throughout this space.

This is enhanced by positioning the kitchen’s elements parallel to the direction of the room integrating it to the dining area. The space unit on the other side contains; a small bedroom and bathroom, the re-located staircase, in direct relation to the central hall, and the playroom, which is placed towards the street. All of the wooden floors are kept and restored, and the tiles in the central hall are removed and replaced, due to aging and cracks. All of the existing, good quality doors are also kept and re-located along the dwelling.

The half-floor plan, now reached by the new interior stair, accommodates another bedroom with its own new bathroom. And as we move up to the first floor, we find ourselves in the completely new extension, built to enhance its connection to the exterior by means of two large glass surfaces, one towards the patio and terrace, and another viewing the street. This new extension contains the main bedroom, with its master bathroom overlooking the passage, and the family studio in connection to the terrace.

The newly constructed extension is understood as a whole new volume, positioned to enjoy natural light, while carved so as to avoid the strike of direct sunlight. These carvings generate both, a roofed terrace overlooking the patio and a continuous eave towards the street. The new volume concentrates all of the formal features in the intervention and creates a dialogue with the existing building. Its intention is to act as the top of the classical façade without loosing its contemporary identity.

The chosen materials where dictated by the existing palette, heart pine floors, cedar and black painted steel for the windows and doors and white plaster finishes for the walls. This repetition allows a sensitive integration throughout the whole building.

The objective of the intervention is to accommodate the program of a contemporary way of living in a pre-existing built frame, and the generation of a quiet dialogue between new and old.

Architects: Estudio BaBO

Project Team: Marit Stabell, Francisco Kocourek, Francesc Planas Penadés

Contractor: Hugo Borda Construcciones

Location: Palermo, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Project Area: 185m2

Original House Year: 1914
Project Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: Estudio BaBo

VIA: TECNOHAUS

360 House - Subarquitectura

2011-03-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

A unique opportunity for us is in reality a problema that’s been posed thousands of times: to construct a house with a public programme of social relation, associated with the prívate life of a numerous family on a sloping plot of land with privileged views of the mountains outside Madrid. It has no one solution, there are many, they’re even catalogued in books about houses of a slope.

We try not to think of domestic spaces. On the contrary, we take as a point of reference works of engineering, motorway intersections, changes of direction. We proceed from generic solutions to the problem of descending, solutions that conceal great plasticity. We seek the poetic in all that seems to have been considered from the merely pragmatic point of view.

The result is the literal construction of a use diagram. In this instance, form does not follow function, but is instead function itself. Cyclical movement, routine and surprise turn into a way of living.

Its formal complexity offers the possibility of reaching all points of the house through two different routes, which multiply the possibilities of use and enjoyment. It has the form of a loop, 360º, like the shapes skaters make, like of gymnasts, as artistic as they are precise.

An extreme shape, the house is curved, generating the greatest quantity of linear meters towards the good views. It is shored up in the landscape and turns back on itself, completing the revolution.

The degree of intimacy increases as the distance to the ends increases. At the midpoint, a mediatheque, isolated and completely dark, 100 % technology, 0 % landscape.

With a single gesture two ways of moving are generated: going down and looking outwards. The long house, a sinuous movement, a descent by ramp and ample turning radii tangential to the setbacks of the plot of land generate a panoramic vision. The short house, the quick way in a straight line, stairs of direct descent and a deep view towards the landscape.

A building that is black outside, absorbent, of slate, a material specific to the location, imposed as an aesthetic specification of the area. White inside, reflective, generic, neutral, and luminous. Life incorporates colour, outside with the vegetation and inside with the people.

Architects: Subarquitectura

Location: Galapagar, Madrid, España

Project Year: 2010
Photographs: David Frutos

VIA: TECNOHAUS