Hasta La Ideas

This black wooden house in Austria by Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten is raised off the ground on wonky metal stilts to frame views of the landscape and allow room underneath for a sheltered garden (+ slideshow).

Austrian firm Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten designed S House for a pair of school teachers in Vorderweissenbach, northern Austria, who asked for a floor area of 130 square metres arranged on a single storey.

There was no requirement for a basement floor, so the architects were able to position the building at the highest point of the sloping site. The front of the structure meets ground level, while the rear is lifted several metres into the air.

Rooms are arranged on a U-shaped plan that wraps around an elevated terrace. Bedrooms and a study run along one side and the other half contains a large living, dining and kitchen space.

“We tried to combine the requirements and the qualities of the plot in a very cost-effective design. The U-shape of the house made a very familiar and protected terrace with stunning views,” architect Dietmar Hammerschmid told Dezeen.

The architects gave the building a timber structure, meaning construction could be completed in just four months.

Exterior walls are clad with roughly sawn spruce and were painted matte black using traditional Swedish Falu Rödfarg paint.

“We chose the black paint because the U-shaped building has a very large surface and a dark building integrates better into the surrounding landscape,” added Hammerschmid.

Wooden floors run through the house, while large windows frame views towards the surrounding hills.

Here’s a brief description from Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten:

S House – Vorderweissenbach

Initial situation was a steep, rather small plot of land with excellent views.

The owners required a cost-efficient house with a maximum of 130 square metres of living space. A basement was not necessary. These requirements led to the decision, to base the whole building on pillars.

The U-shaped floor plan responds to the neighbouring settlement. Living rooms and bedrooms are oriented to a terrace that offers great views of the surrounding hills.

Because of the chosen typology the natural terrain could be untouched over the whole plot.

In the garden the building offers a large, weather-protected area.

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Pachl Seebacher raised up on stilts appeared first on Dezeen.

Paris studio Marchi Architectes layered up timber slats of different thicknesses and proportions to give an irregular texture to the walls of this sunken house extension in Normandy, France (+ slideshow).

Adélaïde and Nicola Marchi designed the single-storey Black House to accommodate a new open-plan kitchen, dining room and lounge for an existing family house, allowing the owners to reconfigure their current layout.

The structure extends from the rear of the property, but is set at the lowest level of the site so that it is barely noticeable from a road running alongside.

Black-stained timber cladding covers the walls and roof of the extension, allowing it to look like the shadow of the main house, while the textured surface was designed to help it blend in with the surrounding woodland.

“The dark timber cladding plays with light and shadows so that the extension disappears in the shade of the forest around,” said the architects.

Shutters are clad with the same material and can be slid across the windows to screen the interior.

Inside, a two-stage staircase folds around one corner to create routes into the extension from different storeys of the house. There’s also an extra door leading straight out to the garden.

The kitchen is tucked into the corner beneath the staircase, while the dining table sits in the middle of the space and the living area is positioned at the far end.

A pair of skylights help to distribute natural light through the room and heating is provided by a wood-burning stove.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Read on for a short project description from Adélaïde and Nicola Marchi:

Black House

The client wanted to move the living spaces to a more open and transparent space, in order to free some spaces in the old house. A unique volume is set up, arranging kitchen, living and dining room. From the interior, wide views are offered to the garden and landscape.

The extension is connected to the existing house as a structurally light volume, as not to overload the foundations. The project is minimal: the volume is integrated in the surrounding, partially recessed in the topography of the ground to stand lower than the street level.

The dark timber cladding plays with light and shadows so that the extension disappears in the shade of the forest around.

Program: Housing
Size: 80 m2
Date of design: 2010-2013
Date of completion: 2013

Project team: Olivia Massimi, Marcello Orlandini
Client: Private
Consultants: Baldeschi, SBH, Valentin, Vauchel-Louvel

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in the forest by Marchi Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

The arced profile of this charred wooden house by architects Horibe Associates is designed to resonate with the traditional temples and shrines of Yoshinogawa, Japan (+ slideshow).

Horibe Associates chose the bowed shape and dark external materials to help House in Kamoshima to integrate with the forms and colours of the local architecture and landscape.

“With its simple arced shape echoing the shape of the property and its charred cedar exterior similar to that found throughout the neighbourhood, this residence blends seamlessly into its surroundings of peaceful rice fields, temples and shrines,” said the architects.

Charred cedar cladding cloaks the curving wall at the front of the timber-framed property.

This plain facade is only interrupted by a doorway to one side and a small rectangular window in the middle, which looks into a bright central courtyard.

The courtyard features stepped wood decking and can be accessed via patio doors from the main bedroom, the combined kitchen and living area, and a spare room.

“The layout allows the residents to keep an eye on their small children no matter where in the house they are,” the architects said.

The back of the building opens up to extra garden space through more large glass doors from the kitchen and tatami room.

Most of the accommodation is on the ground floor, though a small staircase leads up to a roof terrace concealed behind the top of the curved facade.

The latest projects we’ve published by Horibe Associates include a house with a sweeping peristyle around its entrance and a combined home and dog-grooming salon.

A dazzling white home with a shallow reflecting pool and a residence with a garden that snakes between its cedar-clad walls are the most recent Japanese houses on Dezeen.

Photos are by Kaori Ichikawa.

See more Japanese houses »
See more architecture by Horibe Associates »
See more design and architecture in Japan »

Drawings key:

1 – Entrance
2 – Living & Dining & Kitchen
3 – Tatami space
4 – Bedroom
5 – Storeroom
6 – Free space

7 – Walk-in closet
8 – Lavatory
9 – Washroom
10 – Bathroom
11 – Courtyard
12 – Car parking space

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by Horibe Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

A museum housing sixteenth century Tudor warship the Mary Rose opens today in an elliptical timber-clad building designed by London office Wilkinson Eyre Architects (+ slideshow).

Located in the historic dockyard of Portsmouth, England, the Mary Rose Museum displays part of the ship that served the navy of King Henry VIII for 33 years before spending 437 years undiscovered at the bottom of the sea.

Wilkinson Eyre Architects designed the museum with a stained black exterior, intended to reference traditional English boat sheds, and a disc-shaped metal roof that curves up over its elliptical body.

The starboard section of the ship’s hull is housed in a temperature-controlled chamber at the heart of the building and can be viewed through internal windows on three different storeys.

The interiors, by London firm Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will, were designed to recreate the dark and claustrophobic atmosphere found below a ship’s deck.

“We designed a museum that would recreate the experience of being on board the ship hundreds of years ago and created a context gallery to highlight its precious contents,” said studio principal Chris Brandon.

Spaces feature low ceilings and are kept deliberately dark, with lighting directed only onto exhibits and handrails so that visitors can find their way through the galleries.

Two smaller extensions branch out from the sides of the museum. The first accommodates a reception, cafe and shop, while the second contains an education centre.

Wilkinson Eyre Architects was the recipient of last year’s World Building of the Year prize for its role in the Gardens by the Bay tropical garden in Singapore. The firm also recently won a competition to design a skyscraper on Sydney’s harbourfront.

See more architecture by Wilkinson Eyre Architects »
See more museums on Dezeen »

Photography is by Richard Chivers.

Here’s some more information from the design team:

Award-winning architects bring the Mary Rose back to life and create a new centrepiece for Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard

The design of the new £27m Mary Rose Museum – by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (architect and design team leader) and Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will (architect for the interior) – is a story of collaboration, with the project team combining delicate conservation, contemporary architecture and specialist technical expertise. The result is a truly unique design that reveals the secrets of the famous Tudor ship, marking 30 years since the hull of the Mary Rose was raised from the Solent where she lay undiscovered for 437 years.

Like crafting a jewellery box to house a precious gem, the design team has together created a building and interior that protects and showcases the Mary Rose. Designed from the inside-out, the Museum building takes many of its cues from the historic ship, allowing its hull, artefacts and exhibitions to take centre stage and create a visitor experience befitting this remarkable piece of history.

At the heart of the project, within a carefully controlled ‘hot box’ environment, is the starboard section of the hull of the Mary Rose. Alongside it, a virtual port-side hull has been created over three levels to view the ship and house the context gallery. Encasing the Mary Rose and the largest collection of Tudor artefacts in the world is an architectural form that alludes to the historic significance of the Museum’s collection and announces the arrival of a major new cultural attraction.

Chris Wilkinson, Founding Director at Wilkinson Eyre Architects, said: “When you have a treasure like the Mary Rose, which continues to capture the world’s imagination, the architecture of the building takes a supporting role. However, the building has a very significant part to play in projecting the Museum and its remarkable collection to the world, creating intrigue and heightening the visitor experience of this major cultural attraction.”

Chris Brandon, Principal of Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will (PBP+W), said: “This museum is unique – the only one in the world to take its inspiration from the archaeological finds of the Mary Rose and the ship herself. Our role was to create a showcase for The Mary Rose and her artefacts befitting their significance, so we designed a museum that would recreate the experience of being on board the ship hundreds of years ago and created a context gallery to highlight its precious contents. Coming from a marine archaeological background, finally I can unite my two passions in life – architecture and marine archaeology. I hope visitors to the Mary Rose Museum are as excited by the end result as I am.”

The architecture

When working with such a fascinating artefact like the Mary Rose, the architecture needs to complement rather than distract. In this case, the challenge was finding the right architectural language to help articulate the story being told by the Museum, whilst adding a confident piece of contemporary architecture to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The simple, pure elliptical form of the new building is derived from toroidal geometry echoing the shape of the Mary Rose; its timber is reminiscent of the ship’s historic hull, showcasing the innovative Carvel construction methods of the 16th Century. Further embedding the building in its maritime heritage, the timber has been stained black to reflect England’s vernacular boat shed architecture. ­­

The challenges of the site’s historic context, adjacent to HMS Victory and the listed Admiralty buildings, are compounded by the nature of the site itself: a late 18th Century Dry Dock that is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Care has been taken to keep the height of the Museum as low as possible to remain sensitive to the proportions and scale of the surrounding buildings. The low-profile, shell-shaped metal roof follows this logic and reduces the internal volume of space which has to be environmentally controlled to precise standards to ensure the conservation of the hull.

Two rectangular pavilions are attached to each side of the main building, one housing the main entrance reception, café and shop, and the other occupied by the Learning Centre and main plant room. The overall composition is a piece of contemporary architecture, an elegantly simple form with an air of mystery that encourages visitors to enter and explore.

The interior

The essence of the design of the interior evolved from the frozen moment in time seconds before the Mary Rose capsized and sank on 19th July 1545. Following the painstaking archaeological excavation and recording of the exact location of every find, the project team could see inside the Mary Rose and reunite the original contents – fittings, weaponry, armament and possessions – deck-by-deck.

A virtual hull was constructed to represent the missing port side with all the guns on their original gun carriages, cannonballs, gun furniture, stores, chests, rope and rigging. Visitors to the Museum walk in between the conserved starboard section of the hull and the virtual hull on three levels, seeing all the main shipboard material in context as though they are on board the Mary Rose. The end galleries then interpret the context gallery deck-by-deck in more conventional museum display cases, designed by Land Design Studio.

The atmosphere of being on the ship is further enhanced by the walkways following the shape of the deck from stern to bow and low ceilings on the lower deck. The Museum spaces are deliberately dark with daylight excluded and the only lighting either focused on the objects or concealed under the walkway handrail, lighting the space and re-creating the dark claustrophobic spaces below decks.

Two museum interiors have been designed – the first for 2013 to 2017/18 and the second for the period after 2018. Initially the Mary Rose will remain in her protective cocoon while she is dried and be seen through windows on the three levels of the context gallery and the lifts. However, on completion of the conservation process, the context gallery walkways will be opened and the Mary Rose and all her contents will be seen together.

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and Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will appeared first on Dezeen.

Black-painted pine clads the walls of this small gabled house by Swedish studio Erik Andersson Architects on an island in the Stockholm archipelago (+ slideshow).

The single-storey house is covered with a traditional Falu Rödfärg paint to give it an austere appearance, while the symmetrical roof is clad with black tar paper to match.

Erik Andersson Architects used an exact 1:3 proportion to generate the dimensions of the building, creating a six-metre height, a six-metre width and an 18-metre length.

Located in a woodland area on the island of Yxlan, the building is constructed over a wooden podium that creates a continuous deck around its perimeter. This allow residents to sit in the sun at any time of day.

Large square windows meet the ground on each elevation so that different rooms can be opened out to the deck.

Contrasting with the exterior, most rooms inside the house have white-painted walls, floors and ceilings. The bathroom is the only exception and is lined with square black tiles.

A living and dining room occupies the central section of the house. A double bedroom sits on one side, while a bathroom, a single bedroom and a sauna are positioned at the opposite end.

The house also features an outdoor plunge pool, which can be heated using a wood-burning stove.

Stockholm firm Erik Andersson Architects also recently completed a pedestrian bridge with a built-in heating system to keep it clear of ice and snow.

See more houses in Sweden on Dezeen, including one with a glass-fronted lookout loft and one with an aquarium-like swimming pool.

Photography is by Åke E-son Lindman.

Here’s some more information from Erik Andersson Architects:

Strict proportions by Erik Andersson

On Yxlan in the northern Stockholm archipelago, Erik Andersson Architects has designed the archetypal house. Designed strictly by using the proportional ratio of 1:3, the house measures six meters in depth, eighteen meters in length and six meters in height.

The facade windows also follow a clear pattern: they are all square in form and have the same size. The villa is situated on natural ground, surrounded by pine trees and spruces, and much of the surroundings have been preserved. A terrace runs around the building, making it possible for the residents to lounge and enjoy the sun at any time of the day.

Glass panels on both sides open views right through the house and provide a constant contact with the sea. The house is clad with horizontal pine panels, painted black with Falu Rödfärg – a traditional Swedish paint that can be traced right back to the 16th century – while the roof is covered with tar felt.

As a contrast to the black exterior, the interior is dominated by white. Everything from the walls and pine floors is painted white – except for the bathroom, where black tiles cover everything from the walls to the floor, and a window, high up in the ceiling, provides a glimpse of the sky.

The house also features a sauna with a panoramic view to the sea and the cruise ships passing by, as well as a custom made outdoor plunge pool, which can be heated for winter use with a wood-fired stove.

Project name: Villa Wallin
Type: Private Residence
Location: Yxlan, Stockholm archepelago, Sweden
Status: Completed
Client: Mats Wallin and Petra Ryrberg
Architect: Erik Andersson Architects
Budget: EUR 150.000
Size: 108m.

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Erik Andersson Architects appeared first on Dezeen.