Sean Mundy est un jeune photographe basé à Montréal qui, de par ses mises en scènes et natures mortes mystiques, vous plongera dans un monde surréaliste empli d’inquiétudes et de noirceurs. À découvrir dans la suite.
This oxidised-steel extension to an end-of-terrace Victorian house in east London peeks over the top of the adjacent brick boundary wall, which is interrupted by a matching steel gate (+ slideshow).
The extension was designed by local architecture firm HÛT to occupy an underused alley at the side of a property in London Fields – an area within the borough of Hackney.
The clients – a growing family – wanted to expand the existing kitchen at the rear of the house and improve its connection with the garden, as well as to increase the amount of natural light that reaches existing rooms.
“The extension provides valuable additional dining space as the existing house did not have a separate dining area,” HÛT associate director Rachael Davidson told Dezeen.
“The kitchen was very cramped and the new space contains a larger kitchen and breakfast bar for the owner, who is a keen chef.”
The structure extends above the height of the boundary wall so daylight can enter the interior through a raised window that is just high enough to conceal the interior from passersby.
Weathering steel cladding gives the exterior a rusty aesthetic that contrasts with the textured surface of the brickwork. This combination of materials has also been chosen for other recently completed London properties, including a converted stable with gable walls and a geometric addition to a brick house.
“The clients requested an unusual material that will also age well and offers a fairly economical solution in combination with the timber-framed structure,” Davidson said.
She claims that the local council was happy with the modern-material treatment once it was satisfied the rainwater runoff wouldn’t stain the pavement outside.
The same material is applied to the reveals of new windows, inserted into the elevation of the main house to bring more daylight into the existing drawing room.
It is also used for a door featuring heavy-duty hinges that leads to a new outdoor patio.
A key functional requirement of HÛT’s extension was to improve the flow between the house’s living spaces and the kitchen, which were previously separated.
An opening from the study that steps down to the floor of the new dining area provides this connection, as well as direct access to a large glazed door that opens onto the patio.
Hinged skylights in the ceiling of the dining space allow natural ventilation. They also frame views of the sky and trees outside, helping to make the room feel bright and airy.
A stainless-steel topped breakfast bar added to the kitchen increases the usable worktop space and provides a spot for the owners’ two daughters to sit.
Timber flooring extends up the sides of the island to conceal cupboards housing kitchen equipment.
Existing cupboard units were replaced and new tiling installed, while the formerly external brick wall was repaired and repointed to suit its new interior context.
The architects also introduced a small wet room next to the kitchen, containing an additional shower. Moisture-resistant fibreboard coated with a lacquer spray was added to the internal surface of the original panelled door, while the floor was slanted slightly to enable water to drain away.
Photography is by Matt Chisnall.
The post HÛT uses pre-rusted steel for extension to Victorian brick house in London appeared first on Dezeen.
British designer Kris Lamba has folded a 20-metre-long piece of carbon fibre into a chair that facilitates different sitting positions (+ slideshow).
The RV1 Carbon Chair has large indents in its form on the top and bottom, making it possible to switch between the two alternative seating positions by flipping the design over.
The chair is made from carbon fibre and resin, and is available with a white or tinted black high-gloss natural-carbon finish.
Related story: Thomas Feichtner sculpts chair from carbon-fibre sheets
Its form was inspired by a visit to a wind tunnel, where the designer watched a jet being tested.
“I tried to visualise a chair that flowed harmoniously into the background environment,” Lamba told Dezeen. “This led to the continuous shape.”
A desire for the chair to be barely visible from a side profile led to the material choice of carbon fibre, due to its high strength-to-weight ratio.
“It also allowed ergonomic flex while maintaining structural integrity,” added the designer. “Stress points were calculated digitally and allow the chair to flex lightly depending on the seating position chosen.”
Lamba claims that the chair is the “world’s first one-piece multi-position chair,” explaining that it is made using “a pioneering infusion process developed specifically for the purpose”.
The process starts with wrapping carbon fibre around a positive mould of the chair and inserting into an airtight bag so it can be placed into a vacuum.
Resin is drawn into the form through a network of pipes and a honeycomb surface layer. The whole thing is then heat-cured and released from the mould.
“One of the main challenges of the continuous shape is that only male moulds can be used, thus rendering traditional resin-infusion methods useless,” said the designer. The piece is sanded and trimmed before the outer colour is applied.
Other one-piece chairs that offer a single seating position include Jasper Morrison’s 1999 injection-moulded polypropylene Air-Chair for Magis; Ronen Kadushin’s Hack Chair made of a single sheet of metal; and Patrick Jouin’s Solid C2 – the first item of furniture to be 3D-printed in one piece.
Related content: see more carbon-fibre design
According to Lamba, the RV1 features both a “social, ergonomic and upright” position and a “reclined, relaxed” position suited to longer seating periods.
“I was visualising a contemporary environment, which would require multiple seating positions yet would need to maintain a very simple aesthetic,” said the designer, who has also created a limited-edition stainless steel version of the chair.
Carbon fibre has been used to create a number of chairs, including a circular coloured seat and a design composed of thin interlinked strands. Marcel Wanders has also created an ultra-lightweight carbon fibre chair formed around party balloons.
The post Kris Lamba’s RV1 Carbon Chair is made from a single carbon-fibre sheet appeared first on Dezeen.
Courtney Barnett: Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party
Summing up the weekend vibe (or maybe even adult life) is Courtney Barnett’s “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party,” and the Melbourne singer-songwriter shared the……
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L’artiste Gigi Rodgers a passé deux heures à se peindre le corps et les vêtements avec de l’acrylique et de la peinture spécialisée afin de donner l’illusion d’être une illustration murale. En se plaçant devant un mur par exemple, le résultat est frappant, l’artiste fait partie intégrante de la ville et devient une véritable oeuvre street-art humaine. Photos signées Paul Chin, Jr. Plus d’infos sur son blog.
Turkish creative consultancy Designnobis has devised a temporary shelter that could be easily transported and quickly assembled to house those displaced by natural disasters (+ slideshow).
Hakan Gürsu of Designnobis created the Tentative shelter after noticing the lack of available temporary housing following earthquakes in his native Turkey. He was also spurred by the statistic that natural disasters displaced 22 million people in 2013 – three times more than war.
“After natural disasters many people become homeless, it is very crucial to provide sturdy temporary shelters that can handle complex structures and these shelters are needed quickly,” said the designer.
Related story: Prototype shelter for Nepal earthquake victims could be built by unskilled workers in three days
Tentative’s moulded-fibreglass roof and floor are held in place and off the ground by an aluminium frame. They are connected by a weather-resistant quilted fabric with thermally insulated perlite – a form of obsidian used for insulation – between the layers, which forms the walls.
Fibreglass doors, which fold up from the floor, provide more security that traditional tent doors.
“To fully expand Tentative, all we need to do is to open the covers used as a roof and floor, raise aluminium structural parts and the doors to provide stability and stretch the fabric between the roof and the floor,” said Gürsu. “This innovative and instant installation provides rapid accommodation after a disaster strikes.”
The whole construction collapses down into the roof and floor, which come together to form a 30-centimetre-high shell for transportation, enabling 24 units to fit onto a single semi-trailer truck.
The roof is designed to bring natural light and ventilation into the space, as well as to collect rainwater, which can provide safe drinking water.
Related content: see more design for disaster relief
The floor includes recyclable thermal-insulating composite decks, and heat loss is further prevented with legs that keep base above ground level.
The structure measures four metres long, two metres wide, and two and half metres high when erect. It is designed to provide space for two adults and two children to eat and sleep, affording a small family some privacy and an individual living space.
The field of disaster relief is becoming increasingly examined by designers and architects. In March, Ikea announced it would be producing 10,000 of the flat-pack temporary shelters designed in 2013 for refugees made homeless by conflict and natural disasters.
Shigeru Ban unveiled designs last month for modular housing structures to accommodate those made homeless by the two earthquakes that struck Nepal earlier this year. Brooklyn firm Garrison Architects’ prototype for post-disaster housing was described as “a step forward in the way that cities respond to natural disasters” like hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
The Tentative shelter won the Silver Award in the Social Design category of the A’ Design Award 2014-2015 and has been nominated for the 2015 Design Index.
Images courtesy of Designnobis.
The post Designnobis proposes pop-up disaster relief shelter for earthquake-affected families appeared first on Dezeen.
Architects are increasingly proposing new architectural uses for shipping containers, such as replacing slum housing with skyscrapers formed from the stacked metal boxes and forming staircases by balancing them at an angle. We’ve collected together the best shipping-container projects, both realised and proposed, from the pages of Dezeen and pinned them to a new Pinterest board.
Follow Dezeen on Pinterest | See more shipping-container architecture
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L’artiste Sarah Williams regroupe dans une série intitulée Nightscapes des superbes peintures figeant les illuminations à la nuit tombée. Très détaillées, ses créations ont un aspect parfois photographique. Mettant souvent les petites maisons en scènes à la période de Noël, les façades illuminées sont fidèlement représentées. Elle détaille également les panneaux, commerces ou fêtes foraines éclairés durant la nuit.
A timber sunshade folds in on itself to form a balcony for this nautical-inspired house overlooking the Mediterranean sea near Saint-Tropez, designed by London architecture office Jak Studio (+ slideshow).
The property is located on a sloping hilltop site in the village of Les Issambres, 22 kilometres from Saint-Tropez.
It was designed by Jak Studio to provide a holiday home for a British family, and features a glazed rear facade to maximise sea views.
“By far, the owner’s biggest desire was to celebrate the postcard view of the sea,” architect Kenan Klico told Dezeen.
“The house has been designed so that almost every area benefits from the outlook towards the bay of Saint-Tropez.”
The rear facade of Villa Brash, which takes its name from the owner’s surname, has an oak brise-soleil that folds in on itself to form a balcony for the bedrooms, similar to a viewing deck on a ship.
“A nautical theme emerged during the design process, inspired by the nostalgia of vintage cruise ships,” said Klico.
“We also used oak for the sunshade because it will weather naturally to a grey colour over time, adding a softer element of unpredictability to the facade.”
Oak slats also wrap around windows at the western side of the house to shield the living space inside from afternoon sun.
The architects also added textured ceramic tiles, reminiscent of rough dry-stone walls in the area, while U-shaped terracotta roof tiles used for the house and garage were reclaimed from the local area.
“The aim was to create a beautiful, tranquil retreat with a contemporary style, which also fits in with the more rustic Mediterranean style of surrounding houses,” said Klico.
The two-storey house has its entrance and three bedrooms on the upper level, along with an open-plan kitchen, dining room and living space, plus a fourth bedroom on the lower level.
The layout was designed to lead visitors to the view gradually as they arrive through a series of half levels.
The blank facade at the top opens up to a five-metre-tall expanse of glazing at the rear once inside, immediately showing off the view upon entering.
Stairs then lead down to the living space on the lower level, and then the kitchen and poolside terrace a half level lower, and finally to the garden at the bottom of the sloping site.
“Sequencing was key for this house,” said Klico. “After the initial surprise of the view, the gradual descent directs people to slowly discover all aspects of this house and its location.”
A similar technique of contrasting blank entrances with dramatic views also features in other recently completed seaside homes, including a Californian house overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and a Chilean house that sprawls in three directions to catch the best views.
To make the indoor and outdoor space feel more connected, the architects used the same materials in the double-height living space as they used outside, including oak to line the walls and stone-effect ceramic tiles for the flooring.
“The biggest challenge in terms of design and execution was to create a fine balance between the interior and exterior space,” Klico explained. “Crossing between the two had to feel seamless.”
The oak-lined walls were also added to reinforce the home’s nautical theme, which is continued upstairs where bedrooms have been conceived as cabins, with each opening up to the balcony.
The bedrooms are accessed by a corridor with a rooflight running along its length to bring more light into the northern side of the house.
“The rooflight was designed to act like a ‘building clock’ to help the owners tell the time throughout the day, and can also be used to provide cross-ventilation through the house,” said Klico.
An infinity pool at the back of the house offers eye-level views of the horizon while swimming.
“Nature was the driver behind the design of this villa,” said Klico. “The play on light throughout the day, and how it connects with its setting, are the true embellishments here.”
Photography is by Nick Kane.
The post Timber sunshade becomes a viewing deck for retreat near Saint-Tropez by Jak Studio appeared first on Dezeen.
Le photographe japonais Hidenobu Suzuki nous offre une immersion au coeur de son pays natal. Il fige les paysages colorés du pays du soleil levant. Des couleurs du Mont Fuji au soleil couchant aux cascades en pleine nature, en passant par des villages reculés, toutes les facettes du Japon se retrouvent dans ses clichés.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
