Hasta La Ideas

News: John Pawson has become the latest designer of a holiday home for Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project with his proposal for a black brick lodge in the Welsh countryside (+ slideshow).

Named Life House, which translates as Tŷ Bywyd in Welsh, the single-storey residence was designed by John Pawson Architects for an isolated site on the lower slopes of a valley near the small town of Llanbister.

It will become the eighth residence in the Living Architecture series, which was initiated by author and philosopher Alain de Botton to promote modern architecture by offering members of the public a chance to stay in new architect-designed houses.

Pawson’s design features a cross-shaped plan where rooms are set along the edges of two intersecting corridors. Large rooms described as “contemplative spaces” will be positioned at the ends of each corridor, including two set into the hillside and two facing out across the landscape.

Handmade Dutch bricks will be used to construct the building, creating an all-black facade and a contrasting white interior. These will be complemented by terrazzo flooring and oak ceilings.

The house will be available to rent from 2015 and will offer three bedroom suites for guests.

Other Living Architecture projects due to open in the next two years are the Peter Zumthor-designed Secular Retreat in Devon and a house inspired by fairytales by FAT and Grayson Perry for Essex. The first completed house in the series was MVRDV’s Balancing Barn, which cantilevers over a hillside in Suffolk.

Here’s a project description from Living Architecture:

Life House/ Tŷ Bywyd

In mid Wales, near the small town of Llanbister, amidst a landscape of rolling hills, Living Architecture has invited the architect John Pawson to create a timeless house of simplicity and beauty – Life House/ Tŷ Bywyd.

The site lies on the lower slopes of a small and intimate Welsh valley, remote and away from any near neighbours. The house has been designed to reflect the surrounding undulating landscape. Carefully placed to take advantage of the distant Welsh views, it is a series of ‘rooms’ set along two long corridors, at right angles to one another. Each corridor leads to two separate spaces of contemplation, one semi-submerged in the ground, the other set in the wider landscape. Three bedroom suites are individually created for the experience of music, reading and bathing.

The house will be constructed of Dutch handmade bricks; black for the exterior and white for the interior. As would be expected in such a finely detailed John Pawson designed house, the polished terrazzo floor, set against the white brick, and light oak timber ceilings, will create a peaceful and life calming space to spend time in.

The post John Pawson designs countryside lodge for
Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: writer Alain de Botton has announced plans to build a series of temples for atheists in the UK. The first will be a 46 metre-tall black tower designed by Tom Greenall Architects and constructed in London to represent the idea of perspective. 

The move follows the publication of de Botton’s latest book, Religion for Atheists, and his Living Architecture social enterprise to construct holiday homes by the likes of MVRDV, Peter Zumthor and NORD Architecture.

Read more about Living Architecture on Dezeen here.

Here are some more details from Alain de Botton:

Alain de Botton – A Temple for Atheists

Author Alain de Botton has announced a bold new plan for a series of Temples for Atheists to be built around the UK.

‘Why should religious people have the most beautiful buildings in the land?’ he asks. ‘It’s time atheists had their own versions of the great churches and cathedrals’.

Alain de Botton has laid out his plans in a new book, Religion for Atheists, which argues that atheists should copy the major religions and put up a network of new architectural masterpieces in the form of temples.

‘As religions have always known, a beautiful building is an indispensable part of getting your message across. Books alone won’t do it.’

De Botton argues that you definitely don’t need a god or gods to justify a temple. ‘You can build a temple to anything that’s positive and good. That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective.’

De Botton has begun working on the first Temple for Atheists. Designed by Tom Greenall Architects, this will be a huge black tower nestled among the office buildings in the City of London. Measuring 46 meters in all, the tower represents the age of the earth, with each centimetre equating to 1 million years and with, at the tower’s base, a tiny band of gold a mere millimetre thick standing for mankind’s time on earth. The Temple is dedicated to the idea of perspective, which is something we’re prone to lose in the midst of our busy modern lives.

De Botton suggests that atheists like Richard Dawkins won’t ever convince people that atheism is an attractive way of looking at life until they provide them with the sort of rituals, buildings, communities and works of art and architecture that religions have always used.

‘Even the most convinced atheists tend to speak nicely about religious buildings. They may even feel sad that nothing like them gets built nowadays. But there’s no need to feel nostalgic. Why not just learn from religions and build similarly beautiful and interesting things right now?’

The third completed house in Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture series has a faceted black upper storey that sits on top of the glass-walled ground floor like a big hat.

Located on the seafront in Suffolk, England, the two-storey Dune House by Norwegian Architects Jarmund/Vigsnæs has an open-plan ground floor that is entirely surrounded by clear glass.

The zigzagging mansard roof encases the building’s first floor and is clad with dark-stained timber that is typical of gabled barn-like buildings in the area.

Contrasting metallic panels cover the faceted surfaces of the wooden roof, which pitches up and down around four triangular bedrooms and a library.

Grass-covered dunes surrounding the house protect the ground floor rooms and terraces from strong sea winds.

British studio Mole Architects collaborated on this project, as they did with Balancing Barn, the first completed house in the series.

Living Architecture is a series of holiday homes around the UK designed by established and emerging architects – see more about Living Architecture here.

Photography is by Chris Wright.

Here’s a little more information from Mole Architects:

Dune House

The house is situated in Thorpeness, England on the Suffolk coast, replacing an existing building at the site. The house is a holiday house for rental and is part of Living Architecture.

To get a planning permission it was important to relate to the existing, typical, British seaside strip of houses. The roofscape, the bedroom floor, somehow plays with the formal presence of these buildings, and also brings into mind a romantic remembrance of holidays at bed- and breakfasts while traveling through the UK.

The ground floor is contrasting this by its lack of relationship to the architecture of the top floor.

The living area and the terraces are set into the dunes in order to protect it form the strong winds, and opens equally in all directions to allow for wide views. The corners can be opened by sliding doors; this will emphasize the floating appearance of the top floor.

Click above for larger image

While the materiality of the ground floor; concrete, glass, aluminum, relates to the masses of the ground, the upper floor is a construction made of solid wood, cladding stained dark as the existing gables and sheds found in the area.

Click above for larger image

Location: Thorpeness, Suffolk, England
Building type: Holiday House
Client: Living Architecture
Size: 250 m2
Schedule: Completed December 2010.
Primary architects: Einar Jarmund, Håkon Vigsnæs, Alessandra Kosberg, Anders Granli.
Collaborating architect: Mole Architects Ltd.

The Shingle House by NORD Architecture is the second completed holiday home in Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project.

Located on a beach in Dungeness, Kent, the house is clad in tarred black shingles.

The interior is clad in white-painted wooden panels.

Glazed concertina doors in the living areas and bedrooms open up the interior spaces to the beach.

The Shingle House sleeps eight people and is currently available to rent.

Living Architecture is a scheme initiated by writer Alain de Botton to create a series of vacation homes in picturesque locations, designed by prominent architects.

Peter Zumthor, Hopkins Architects, MVRDV and Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects have all designed houses as part of this project (see our earlier story).

See also: Balancing Barn by MVRDV and Mole Architects

The following information is from Living Architecture:

The Shingle House is sited on one of the most unusual and poetic landscapes in England, on the shingle beach of Dungeness, near Romney Marsh.

The vast beach is empty save for a random collection of fisherman’s huts (many of them owned by artists, including – most famously – the late film-maker Derek Jarman), two lighthouses, the terminus of a miniature coastal steam train and in the far distance, the dramatic form of a nuclear power station.

The entire beach is classified as a nature reserve and is filled with unusual flora and is a haven for a plethora of birdlife.

Living Architecture’s house is by a young Scottish practice, NORD Architecture, who responded to the natural drama of the site with a simple monumental black house, finished in tarred black shingles on the outside and in a beautiful palette of concrete and timber within.

The Shingle House sleeps 8 people, and is available to rent from October 2010.

See also:

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Houses for Living Architecture	Het Entreehuis by Bureau B+B	Balancing Barn by MVRDV and Mole Architects