Hasta La Ideas

Treatment rooms sit within a translucent house-shaped enclosure at this dental clinic in Kobe, Japan, by Tato Architects (+ slideshow).

Japanese studio Tato Architects started the renovation by stripping the interior back to the concrete and painting it white, before adding the translucent central volume to accommodate three separate treatment areas.

Wooden screens partition the central space. The walls comprise a film-coated glass, while the ceiling is made from sheets of translucent polycarbonate.

Architect Yo Shimada says the softened lighting of the space help patients to feel more comfortable: “We aimed to produce an space which is clean and peaceful at the same time by controlling the state of light.”

“The translucent material was chosen for lighting the consultation rooms only by the light transmitted through, so that light sources would not offend the eye of the patient in the tilted dental chair,” he added.

A waiting room and reception are positioned at the front of the clinic and furnished with square stools, wooden bookshelves and potted plants.

Bare light bulbs hang down from the ceiling, while a children’s playroom faces out to the street.

A dental laboratory, X-ray facility and sterilising rooms are tucked away at the back.

This is second project completed by Tato Architects this month, following a house in Osaka that references the ad-hoc extensions of neighbouring buildings.

Photography is by Yuko Tada.

Here’s a short description from the architects:

Dental Clinic in Nakayamate

The interior of the room was of rather coarse RC and in skeleton state. We painted the interior white and inserted a house type of translucent material to get the ceiling as high as possible without a touch on RC beams. This resulted in getting calm, peaceful consultation rooms.

The translucent material was chosen for lighting the consultation rooms only by the light transmitted through so that light sources may not offend the eye of the patient in the tilted dental chair.

A medical facility tends to become functional, cold space after all due to the indispensable requirement such as contamination-proof. I am of the opinion that we can produce an space which is clean and peaceful at the same time by controlling the state of light.

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by Tato Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio Spaceworkers has inserted a house-shaped cultural centre inside a nineteenth-century schoolhouse in Parades, northern Portugal.

The Centro Interpretação functions as an information centre for the Rota do Românico, a series of tourist trails dedicated to the Romanesque architecture and monuments in the valleys that surround the town, and also hosts exhibitions and educational activities.

To respect the architecture of the existing building, which had formerly been used as the school’s gym, Spaceworkers added two monolithic black volumes, both with gabled profiles that follow the angles of the roof.

“We wanted to preserve the identity of the place with our intervention,” architect Rui Dinis told Dezeen. “We didn’t want to lose the shape of the ceiling, so we chose to add a kind of replicating structure.”

The largest of the two volumes houses an informal auditorium filled with small black stools, while the second contains an information desk with a storeroom and toilet tucked behind. The floor between the structures is also painted black to create the impression of a continuous entity.

Apart from a concrete arch that curves around the centre of the space, the rest of the interior is painted white, creating a visible contrast between old and new.

“The white creates the atmosphere, the black gives some form and the activities of the space will bring the other colours,” explained Dinis.

We’ve featured a few buildings with house-shaped structures inside on Dezeen. Others include a Japanese fashion boutique and a house with a metal exterior and wooden interior.

See more monochrome interiors, including shops by Zaha Hadid and a Singapore hotel filled with statues.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s some more information from Spaceworkers:

Centro Interpretação do Românico Paredes

Preserving the identity of the location and characteristics of the building concerned was for us the slogan for the intervention.

The proposed space appears as a “house inside the house”. A “solid” volume landed within the existing space that reacts to the geometry of the shape.

In this amount is subtracted from the central area thus resulting in a kind of square separating the different functions of the space. On the one hand, a monolithic volume with a central door is “auditorium” on the other, a volume cut is receiving and store.

Project: public building
Year: 2012
Size: 100m2

Address: Paredes
Client: Rota do Românico
Author: spaceworkers®

Team:
Principal architects: Henrique Marques, Rui Dinis
Architects: Rui Rodrigues, Sérgio Rocha, Rui Miguel

Finance director: Carla Duarte – cfo
Engineer: Simetria Vertical, Lda

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by Spaceworkers appeared first on Dezeen.