Hasta La Ideas

Tiny homes are a fast-growing trench in the architectural world and why wouldn’t they be? The upcoming consumer is the millennial generation and tiny homes are perfect given the skyrocketing prices for real estate and avocados. Handcrafted Movement is a company that is here to bridge that gap between homes and budgets, in their words they have been created to create – what better motto when you build beautiful spaces right?

One of their projects that I absolutely loved was the Pacific Harbor model. The details truly show the team’s wanderlust and craftsmanship. It is built on a 30’x8.5’ triple axel Iron Eagle trailer – compact, convenient and classy. The interiors are kept light and breezy to manifest the feeling of spaciousness. The tiny home includes a downstairs flex area that can be turned into a bedroom or home office, a sleeping loft in the back, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and a Mini-Split System for air conditioning and heating. The exterior features Board & Batt, black-framed windows, cedar accents, a cedar post & deck system.

The house has lots of natural sunlight given the wide windows and a charming little table for sharing food on. The colors perfectly compliment the structure and make is inviting. It is a perfect set up for one or two people with enough space while saving space. Tiny houses always amaze me because they showcase the maximum optimization of every corner without ever giving you the feeling of “small” – in fact, they always make the heart feel bigger because of how thoughtfully they are made.

Designer: Handcrafted Movement

Architect Ben Aranda has described the closing of Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture at Taliesin as a “tragedy” and demanded more information.

Aranda made the remarks in a lengthy comment on Dezeen’s story that the school will shut in June after failing to come to a financial agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

“Frank Lloyd Wright must be rolling in his grave”

“It’s a tragedy” Aranda wrote. “The foundation has removed the soul of Taliesin for selfish interests. They don’t see the school (as an accredited MArch programme) as part of their mission of preserving Taliesin.”

“A very sad day indeed for architectural education,” he added. “Frank Lloyd Wright must be rolling in his grave at the news.”

“The irony is that Taliesin was always an architecture school and the foundation was established to protect that tradition,” he said. “Shutting down the school is an assault on Wright’s legacy and also the possibility that Wright’s idea of organic architecture will have a platform to be taught.”

The architect runs his New York and Tucson-based design studio Aranda/Lasch with Chris Lasch, who was appointed Director of Academic Affairs of the school in 2016 and is currently the dean. Aranda told Dezeen that all opinions are his own.

“Shame on the foundation for wanting to keep their precious halls clear of the spontaneous, ’round the clock, and sometimes messy life of an architecture student’.”

“There is more to be told, and we should demand to hear more”

Aranda also questioned the financial reasoning of the school’s closing in the discussion in conversation with other commenters on the story.

“There is more to be told, and we should demand to hear more,” Aranda said. “But it’s not about the school’s bottom line. In fact, the school was growing and attracting more students by the year. The story is likely one of control and the Foundation ultimately wanted complete control of the site.”

“Even just a petition from the architectural community would let the governing board realise how precious the school is.”

The school released a statement yesterday that its board was forced to make the “gut-wrenching decision” to close both of its campuses in Scottsdale, Arizona and Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Wright established the school 88 years ago

It said that it had failed to come to an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which owns the school’s campuses at Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona.

This split was due to an accreditation issue, which meant that it needed to become an independent entity to have its accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), one of the agencies that accredit US architecture schools, renewed.

Wright, who is celebrated as most of the most important architects from the 20th century, founded the school with his third wife Olgivanna in 1932. The campus is split between the architect’s buildings at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and Taliesin in Wisconsin.

It was originally called the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and funded by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, but was renamed the School of Architecture at Taliesin in 2017, as part of its break from the parent organisation in 2017.

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is “deeply saddened”

Following the news, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation released a statement that it was “deeply saddened” by the closure.

“What has always made the Taliesin campuses unique and special is that they were more than the historic sites; they were places where architecture and design were practiced and advanced,” said the foundation.

“As we transition from hosting the School on our campuses to new programmes for professional education and engagement, we are committed to ensuring that the traditional of living and working communities will continue.”

Dezeen contacted school president Aaron Betsky, who is a regular Opinion writer, but he was unable to comment.

Others that have expressed remorse of the decision include architecture critic Blair Kamin, who described it as an “End of an era” on Twitter, while Olly Wainwright posted that he was “Sad to hear this!”, along with photos taken at the school.

“Remember visiting students camping out in the Arizona desert in shelters – which they had to design, make and live in as one of their first projects.”

Photography is by Andrew Pielage.

The post Shutting the School of Architecture at Taliesin is “an assault on Wright’s legacy,” says architect Ben Aranda appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian firm Diamond Schmitt Architects has revealed a new building for Ottawa‘s public library system, featuring a curvilinear roof and glass walls that offer expansive views of the city.

Diamond Schmitt Architects are working with local studio KWC Architects to design the project comprising a five-storey joint facility for Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada (OPL-LAC) in the capital city’s downtown.

It will be located on a sloped plot overlooking an escarpment and the Ottawa River, and be close to Canada’s National Holocaust Monument designed by Daniel Libeskind. It will replace Ottawa’s current public library a 15-minute walk away.

The design is strongly influenced by the site’s natural surroundings, with large expanses of glazing that will wrap around the building and provide vistas of the adjacent river and Gatineau Hills in Quebec.

“The building’s design draws from Ottawa’s rich history and natural beauty with a dynamic form reminiscent of the nearby Ottawa River,” said Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Ontario limestone will clad much of the structure to relate to the escarpment below, while a wavy roofline is intended to offer a reference to Ottawa’s riverfront.

“The curvilinear form of the roof on the building relates to the flow of the majestic Ottawa River,” founding principal Donald Schmitt added in a video revealing the project.

OPL-LAC will measure 216,000-square-feet (20,067 square-metres) and include reading rooms, an archive and research centre, a children’s area, exhibition and collections spaces, a genealogy centre and a cafe.

Inside, the spaces will be arranged around a central, wood-clad atrium. Other wood-lined interiors are intended to add warmth to the interiors.

The library will be located within the glazed top storey and have views to Ottawa’s Parliament Hill that houses government buildings and a visitor centre by Moriyama & Teshima Architects.

Additional areas in the building include an Indigenous Centre that will showcase the languages and cultures of Canada’s indigenous peoples, known as the First Nations.

“The location at a cultural crossroads of a route that traces the three founding peoples – French, English and Indigenous – underscores the spirit of confluence in the building’s design and the possibilities for these memory institutions in a modern facility to advance the Canadian story,” said Schmitt.

OPL-LAC, which is expected to open in 2024, will have three different entrances: on the east and west sides, and one close to the Pimisi train station that services the Ottawa’s light rail system.

Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects worked closely with the local community to design the project. The on-going public engagement programme is called Inspire555 as a nod to the project’s site at 555 Albert Street.

Four public workshops were held over the course of a year to discuss ideas, and Ottawa residents and people from all parts of the country were encouraged to get involved.

Diamond Schmitt Architects was founded in 1975 by Schmitt and Jack Diamond, and has offices in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City. It has designed other buildings in Ottawa such as the National Arts Centre and a temporary home for Canada’s Senate.

The firm is also involved in the redesign of the New York Philharmonic concert hall at Lincoln Center with local firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien.

Renderings are by Diamond Schmitt Architects.

The post Diamond Schmitt Architects designs Ottawa public library and archive centre with wavy roof appeared first on Dezeen.

Co-owners Travis Talmadge and Jason Goodman on their spa for the future in a century-old building

Williamsburg’s aptly named, recently opened Bathhouse—in a renovated 1930s soda factory that was once home to the Brooklyn Bottling Company and Dr. Brown’s Soda—has been renovated and designed by co-founders Travis Talmadge and Jason Goodman in collaboration with Jennifer Carpenter of Verona Carpenter Architects. The space meticulously preserves many of the original elements including the vaulted ceilings, original brickwork and a 100-foot-tall smokestack that now serves as a private ritual bath area. A striking custom concrete walkway flanked by giant infinity mirrored boxes leads guests through well-appointed locker room areas before descending to the 6,500-square-foot subterranean bathhouse.

At the forefront of the space is a custom dark aqua and white Roman bathhouse-inspired mural created by Brooklyn-based artist and illustrator Amit Greenberg. Various cedar wood saunas and a steam room with custom lighting inspired by the night sky activate the space, creating an ambiance that is social and also meditative. Also included are 10 treatment rooms with original ceilings and many eclectic design touches such as kilim rugs, tribal masks, and vintage anatomical illustrations. Hidden away in a quiet corner of the women’s locker area, one can find a ritual room with a single cast iron bathtub at the base of an illuminated 100-foot-tall brick smokestack.

Co-founders Travis Talmadge and Jason Goodman were instrumental in the design process. We sought their additional insight on each space within.

How did you choose the space?

Travis Talmadge: We knew that Williamsburg was the right neighborhood for us; the community here is so focused on fitness, mindfulness and design. We also knew that we wanted to be in an old building with great bones. We have a very modern vision as to what a bathhouse can be: blending the latest technology and modalities with techniques like sauna that go back thousands of years. So for us, an old building shell with a very modern interior was an obvious and natural fit. Just so happens, there are fewer and fewer post industrial buildings laying around in NYC’s great neighborhoods nowadays.

Tell us about the process of converting the space.

Jason Goodman: The building is over 100 years old and hadn’t been occupied in decades, so it was a process to modernize it for our use. The most difficult part was hand-digging the pools and removing all the old machine parts that were buried in the floor. We also came across a boulder in the soil where the hot pool is now that was the size of a Volkswagen. We had to buy a micro-blaster to detonate the boulders in order to break them up into pieces that were small enough to move.

What other bathhouses in the world inspired the design?

TT + JG: We tried to take our favorites from everywhere: we love the character of European bathhouses, the marble of the Turkish hammams, and the clean design from the Japanese onsen. Ultimately, we used those for inspiration but wanted to give this space its own identity entirely and the result is a very modern design inside an otherwise vintage space. The bathhouse is really a product of old and new. We have an experience centered around ancient rituals in a modern, clean space. The design reflects that and literally is a modern build-out inside an old factory. The result is a mix of clean lines and high-end materials with some existing brutalist textures. The whole space features a lot of contrast.

How were the color palettes and materials chosen?

TT + JG: Bathhouse is an elemental place, a place to tap into the fundamental humanity inside all of us. We wanted to keep the design very elemental and simple as well as sticking to natural materials, black and white.

What mood were you hoping to reflect in the design?

JG: A bathhouse from the future—elemental, modern, and intuitive. From our perspective, great design means a space that needs no explanation. You know where to go and what to do, just very natural from a usability perspective.

Images by Adrian Gaut 

Might I loosely paraphrase Mean Girls this fine Wednesday by saying that this doghouse ‘is so fetch’! Literally titled the Fetch House, this doggy-kennel is made from a 3D-printed skeleton that holds a thousand tennis balls to make what I can only describe as canine paradise. I mean look at how pleased the dog looks in the picture above!

The Fetch House was designed by CallisonRKTL as an entry into the Bark + Build Pet House Design & Build Competition held in Dallas, Texas. The house (designed to shelter one incredibly happy canine) comes with a modular internal structure that allows you to compression-fit as many as a 1000 tennis-balls into it. The balls can randomly be pulled out of their individual enclosures for the purpose of playing fetch (hence the name), and can easily be press-fitted back in when done. Conversely, owners can add fewer balls to form patterns in the facade or create windows for light and ventilation. “Ultimately, we would like to create a platform that allows individuals to customize the doghouse design based on their specific dog,” says Brendan O’Grady, VP of CRKTL’s Dallas office. “They can then download the digital model and use a local maker space or their own desktop 3D printer to fabricate the structure.” Now isn’t that just paw-fect?

Designer: CallisonRTKL