Hasta La Ideas

Brazilian architecture studio TRIA Arquitectura has overhauled a 27-square-metre apartment in São Paolo, with the aim of making the space more adaptable to its tenants.

The project was carried out for a client who wanted maximum flexibility built into the scheme, so that the tiny apartment could be moved around to suit the needs of its tenants.

In order to create a space that felt like a home, rather than a hotel room, TRIA Arquitectura founder Sarah Bonanno said she and her team wanted to create distinct spaces for each particular living function.

The flat was also extended to incorporate an additional seven square-metres, while a perforated concrete brick wall was built to create a sleeping niche for the bed.

“Studios usually have minimal privacy – sometimes you walk in through the main door and see the bed, as if you’re in a hotel room – and we wanted to change that and create defined environments,” Bonanno told Dezeen.

The bathroom, which is located behind the bed area, was previously only separated with a glass partition.

The duo added a shutter as a simple and inexpensive intervention to provide greater privacy without blocking the light.

To maximise the feeling of space, an inbuilt Formica wood structure was designed to serve multiple functions and connect the different areas.

It starts in the sleeping area as the base of the bed, then passes through the living area as a sofa; before ending in the kitchen – where it provides table seating and drawer space.

“We chose to use the standard Formica wood as it harmonises with other shades of coatings and furniture,” said Cardoso de Almeida. “In small spaces, it is vital that you don’t increase the feeling of confinement.”

Most of the furniture was custom-made due to the small dimensions of the property. The architects chose colours that would enhance the feeling of space, which they used in combination with earthy tones to create a cosier environment.

Sarah Bonanno, co-founder of TRIA Arquitectura, described the challenge of designing within severely limited space as increasingly typical in São Paolo.

“São Paulo, with a population of 12 million people, faces the same space issues as most of the big cities in the world, so many people prefer to live in smaller places that are well located,” she said

Other examples of renovations in the area include an apartment by Alan Chu that features partitions and furniture made from ceramic ventilation bricks and a 1960s flat updated by Vitra Arquitecta with exposed structural concrete pillars.

Photography is by Alessandro Guimarães.

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You could turn a simple 4ftX3ft piece of wall into a complete closet with the Luminaire Piano Coat Rack! Designed to look like a piece of wood hanging on the wall, the Piano Cot Rack can be transformed into a series of hooks to hang your clothes, coats, bags, hats, umbrellas, and everything else. A single Piano Coat Rack can come with up to 48 hooks, giving you enough space to pretty much hang items for an entire house party worth of guests. Once done, just close the hooks and the Piano Coat Rack goes back to being a nice wooden sculptural element in your decor!

The Piano Coat Rack comes in small and large sizes, and can be made in beech, oak, or walnut to suit your size as well as aesthetic needs!

Designer: Patrick Seha for Luminaire

Dutch firm UNStudio has unveiled plans for a “user-oriented” extension to its Kutaisi International Airport terminal in Georgia, featuring a rooftop plaza. 

The Ben van Berkel-led firm completed the terminal building in 2013. Just four years later, the Amsterdam-based studio was asked to design a large extension, to cater to the airport’s rapidly growing number of passengers.

Passengers using the low-cost-airline airport increased from 12,915 per year in 2012 to more than 300,000 in 2016. It is expected to reach a capacity of close to 1,000,000 passengers by 2020.

“UNStudio’s goal for the large extension of the Kutaisi International Airport terminal is primarily to maintain a user-oriented experience where the health and comfort of every single passenger is serviced through the correct application of architecture and spatial design,” said the firm.

“Facing the task of upgrading the capacity of the terminal, it was decided to follow a unique and forward-thinking approach that ensures the visual connection of the airport drop-off areas of both departure and apron.”

UNStudio worked with airport consultant IATA to define five distinct functional islands for the design: departure hall, security area, central passenger hall, back of house offices and arrival hall.

The existing airport terminal – distinguished by its umbrella-like web of wooden beams that extend down from the ceiling into a glass-lined external courtyard – will become the departure hall.

A new arrivals hall will be located at the other end of the new terminal, helping to maximise the area for underground luggage handling and customs services.

Like the existing terminal, the extension will be fronted by full-height glazing, creating a light-filled interior with views of the Caucasus Mountains.

The new central passenger hall will echo the departure hall’s umbrella-like ceiling structure. A timber staircase will gradually bring passengers up to a higher level, where they will find food and beverage outlets.

This space will extend out onto the building’s roof, creating a huge elevated plaza.

Wrapped by stepped seating, this space will act as a green recreational hub and a waiting area for early arrivals, visitors and their families. It will split the length of the terminal and, like the distinctive red corner of the original terminal building, will create another moment of orientation.

The aim is for the new terminal to also function as an events space, while the outdoor plaza could be used for advertisement purposes.

“By enhancing the transparency and openness of the departure, central and arrival halls, it became possible to provide a pleasant and comfortable travel experience,” said UNStudio.

“Using the correct human scale, flow, spatial language and materialisation for these areas forms the basis of providing comfort for every visitor.”

Kutaisi International Airport was one of several major new buildings completed in Georgia between 2011 and 2013, including a public services building by Italy-based Studio Fuksas and a civic centre and police station by German studio J Mayer H.

At the time, Jürgen Mayer H said the country was using architecture to rebrand itself and “show that there’s a change going on”.

According to UNStudio, the country is now experiencing a huge influx in tourists.

“Georgia is rapidly becoming one of the new tourist hotspots in the region and Kutaisi has become the gate to access the country,” said the firm.

As well as the terminal extension, the airport will also benefit from a new railway link between Tbilisi and the Black Sea coast.

The studio said that the new extension will introduce “a sense of place” through its subtle design references to the Caucasus Mountains.

“Visitors are entering this fascinating and hospitable country from all directions and United Airports of Georgia wants to make sure that they are serviced in the most efficient way – but also with a local touch,” it added.

The post UNStudio plans extension to Georgia airport just four years after completing it appeared first on Dezeen.

Work has completed on Tribunal de Paris – a tiered skyscraper, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano to become the largest law complex in Europe.

Comprising a series of stacked glass volumes, the building will bring together the various activities of the French capital’s judiciary system, which had previously been scattered about the city.

It is not set to open until April 2018, but these photographs by Paris-based photographer Sergio Grazia show that the building’s structure is now complete.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop won a competition to design Tribunal de Paris in 2010. The building’s stacked volumes decrease in size towards the top – an approach that the architects took to reduce the visual impact of the building on the skyline.

Each volume is only 35 metres deep, in order to allow natural light to easily reach the core. A dorsal fin runs up the side of the glazed facade, housing two exterior glass lifts.

The long and low ground building is designed as a pedestal for the other three levels to rest upon, with the main entrance located on a 6,000-square-metre plaza on the Avenue de la Porte-de-Clichy.

Inside, the 5,500 square-metre space is divided into three atria with room for 50 reception desks to ensure visitors are seen as quickly as possible.

Each atrium extends up through the full height of the building, with galleries providing access to rooms above and skylights in the roof to allow natural light to filter through.

A total of 90 law courts are housed in the pedestal building, most of which benefit from natural light and are all accessible within minutes from the offices in the volumes above.

The buildings above each contain 30 storeys of meeting rooms and offices for different departments.

The first volume will house the magistrates, the second the public prosecutors, and at the top the presiding judges will occupy the third volume.

Each building is separated by landscaped roof terraces planted with trees and vegetation.

RPBW said the building will set “a new benchmark for energy consumption in a very tall building”.

Solar panels have been attached to the exterior and rainwater is collected. Natural ventilation and the building’s thermal inertia contribute to regulating the building’s temperature.

The Tribunal de Paris will unite the regional court, police court, public prosecution courts and the district courts of each arrondissement.

Its location in the Clichy-Batignolles urban development zone, on Paris’ northern edge, places it at the intersection between the city’s administrative zones and the suburbs. The area is well served by public transport, including a new tramway.

Piano ranked at number 22 on Dezeen Hot List 2016. His other projects in Paris include the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé and the Centre Pompidou, which Piano famously designed in collaboration with Richard Rogers.

Other projects his studio is working on right now include the transformation of a Moscow power station into an art gallery and a moviemaking museum in Los Angeles.

He’s also the architect behind the Shard, a 310-metre tall triangular skyscraper in London Bridge, and recently revealed designs for a 224-metre cylindrical tower in London’s Paddington area.

The Italian architect also has plans to transform a power station Moscow’s Moskva river into a venue for contemporary art.

The post First photos emerge of tiered tower built by Renzo Piano to house Paris law courts appeared first on Dezeen.

Inspired by the cosmos, the Orbis Hand Watch leaves behind traditional hands for elegant orbs. However unusual, they provide an interesting and entirely new way of telling the time, counting seconds, and checking the date.

Like planets in a solar system, the orbs appear as different sizes and locations on the face to distinguish from one another. Because of their shape, they can move in three directions to display the correct numbers. Three motors are fixed under each orb to move and rotate it in different directions. With its dedicated stand that uses electromagnetic induction to charge, it will never go dead!

Designer: Alireza Asadi