27 de agosto de 2010.
© Aspen Architectural Photography
Architects: Studio B Architects
Location: Aspen, Colorado, USA
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Aspen Architectural Photography
The Scholl Residence expands on the ‘Case Study’ series of the 1950’s. The steep site possessed challenges with drainage, topography, a small footprint, restrictive easements and was required to address very limiting neighborhood design review standards. Contextually, the area was developed in the 1960’s and surrounding residents were quite resistant to the architectural direction. Although the neighborhood is one of transition, this was the greatest challenge in realizing the project.
The clients dwell between Miami and Aspen and are avid collectors of videography and photography. They requested a solution and an architecture that would exhibit their expanding and revolving collection. The exterior is composed of custom zinc panels, sand-blasted concrete, aluminum window/door glazing system and tempered glass railings. The interiors consist of darkened oak flooring, cantilevered pickled oak stairs and floors, European engineered cabinetry, Carerra marble, porcelain tile shower enclosures and integral plaster walls and ceilings. The architecture is reduced to its essence and is calculated and sober in its detailing. Resolution of plan and elevation were reduced to the lowest denominator and honesty of a process.
The lower level is completely below grade and houses the formal gallery space, large wine cellar and provides two guest suites with an attached massage room. The entry level offers the client’s office, a guest bedroom, laundry/mudroom area and the garage. The upper level contains the living, dining, kitchen, master suite and opens to the balcony and private garden with access to a roof terrace via a cantilevered steel stair. A small dumbwaiter shuttles wine from cellar to rooftop.
http://www.archdaily.com/74826/scholl-residence-studio-b-architects/#more-74826
16 de agosto de 2010.
© Enrico Cano, Como
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
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.
http://www.archdaily.com/73037/house-in-lumino-davide-macullo-architects/
12 de agosto de 2010.
Courtesy of Santiago Calatrava, LLC
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has unveiled his preliminary designs for the Denver International Airport’s (DIA) south terminal redevelopment program. The concept for the redevelopment will not only enhance the airport’s connectivity and functionality, but is also expected to create more than 6,600 jobs.
The project is one of the largest in the country. It includes the construction of a signature rail bridge, a terminal train station, a 500-room hotel and conference center and a multi-function civic plaza complete with retail and concessions. The rail station, plaza and hotel will form a highly integrated and dynamic complex, located directly south of the Jeppeson Terminal.
‘My goal in designing a train station adjacent to such an iconic structure as the Jeppeson Terminal has been to complement it with a design of independent identity and equal quality. ‘it is my sincere hope that the vision expressed in this proposal not only respects and complements the existing architecture, but enables Denver International Airport to continue to serve as a landmark for centuries to come.’, said Calatrava.
Inside the airport, courtesy of Santiago Calatrava, LLC
As Denver International Airport continues to expand its role as an economic engine for the city and county of Denver and the state of Colorado, it will transform into a micro-city, with increased revenue potential. The new hotel and conference center are key components of this new development, along with a civic plaza that provides restaurants and commercial retail, as well as space for special programs including exhibitions, art fairs and other special events.
http://www.archdaily.com/73110/denver-international-airport-south-terminal-santiago-calatrava/
06 de agosto de 2010.
© Koichi Torimura
Architects: EASTERN Design Office
Location: Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan
Client: American Club International Co, ltd
Structural Engineering: Hojo Structure Research Institute
Constructor: Fukasaka Co., Ltd
Site area: 711.46 sqm
Total floor area: 361.84 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Koichi Torimura
This building is a design room for a Japanese sneaker brand as well as a residential house. The site is in Takarazuka-city of Hyogo Prfecture. It is located in an exclusive residential district that commands an entire view of the Osaka Plain. The architecture is built on the slope of a hill with an elevation of 330 meters. The level difference of the site is 8 meters.
Taking advantage of the slope, one of the characteristics of this site, an architecture which suits the desires of two persons is built.
A. To be warmed up. A lower floor, a house, invisible in a mountain.
The site has an 8 meter difference in height. 8 meters is higher than a two-story building. The lower floor is in the ground of the slanted site. It is invisible from the upper road.
There is a bedrock layer 1.5 meters beneath the ground surface. It is so hard that even a shovel car could not crush it. Dig to the bedrock and the foundation is supported by this bedrock.
Build two mounds using the soil dug. Insert a residence between these two mounds.
Built on “a new topography-mountain”, all parts of the building are close to the earth. The mountains are designed to emphasize the slope.
An exclusive residential area on a hill features a good commanding view as its sales point. Development of this kind of community is planned in a similar way with no individuality. We consider this phenomenon as “a loss of topography”. We have dreamed of a mountain whose slope was scraped away. The lost mountain is designed into this architecture.
Architecture is not built on a site where the slope is flattened. By contrary the angle of the slope is increased, which results in two mounds. Between these two mounds a living space is built, and the upper story floating on these two mounds is a design room.
Observe the Gulf of Osaka, high-rise buildings, Kobe port, Kansai Airport, Itami Airport, and shadowy blue mountains.
The land originally slanted at an angle of 18 degrees. Mounds are built there to let the slope undulate.
These mountain waves are topography where no previous topography existed. The upper floor was designed to float on these mountain waves.
We have designed the form which passes over the waves. Is it a dream of a long-distance ship going over high waves or is it a dragon?
© Koichi Torimura
The dream of this architecture is like a voyage setting out.
An 18 meter-long terrace. The sea and a range of mountains 60 kilometers away can be observed. When standing on this terrace, rows of other houses in this area are out of sight. This is the way we have arranged this architecture and its openings.
You can get a sense that your body is slightly floating. It is our intention to give the sense of being on a deck of ships, but not in the house. The design room on the upper floor of this architecture is a ship.
The plan is designed in L-shape. The edge protruding greatly from the slope is an opening that swallows the outside. Straight eaves run amidst the curvilinear forms of the topography. The eaves project in a powerful manner not to be beaten by the inherent force of the topography. They are thin, thick, short, long and carved.
To be protected by the house, yet at the same time have the feeling of flying away. Making two extremes into one. This is realized in the architecture in the corresponding forms of the upper and lower floors.
It is a cave and also a nautical form.
It is flying away, yet it is anchored.
It is drifting, yet it is homely.
It is sky, and it is Earth. It is far, yet it is near.
1.5 meters beneath the ground surface is hard bedrock. The foundation is raised on this bedrock. For this, the excavated earth was used and the red curving line was designed to achieve this. In other words, by heaping up the excavated soil, a new undulating mountainous topography is built. The lower floor is built under the mountain.
The form which runs over the mountains is the upper floor. The corresponding upper and lower floors are made into one form.
http://www.archdaily.com/68593/mountains-opening-house-eastern-design-office/#more-68593
