Hasta La Ideas

Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron referenced 1920s interiors for the renovation of this bar and brasserie near its offices in Basel.

The two rooms are located at the Volkshaus Basel, a cultural venue that dates back to the fourteenth century. The present building was built in 1925 and is currently undergoing a phased renovation to reinstate the library, hotel and restaurant that were included when it first opened.

By adding traditional materials and classic furniture pieces to the restored spaces, Herzog & de Meuron aimed to reincarnate the character of the old bar and brasserie.

“We started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s,” explain the designers. “Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925.”

In the brasserie, pendant lighting hangs from the newly exposed ceiling beams, while the clean white walls are decorated with rectangular and circular mirrors.

High-backed seating divides the space and is complemented by wooden tables and chairs – a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair with a variety of different back pieces.

Walls and ceilings in the bar are painted black, drawing attention to the row of spherical light bulbs overhead. Tin covers the bar and tables, and circular windows provide peepholes to rooms beyond.

The bathrooms are fitted with reclaimed sinks and are lined with wallpaper depicting imagery from seventeenth century etchings.

This the first interior design by Herzog & de Meuron to feature on Dezeen, but recent architecture projects by the firm include a 57-storey residential tower for Miami and a school of government and public policy at the University of Oxford.

Dezeen also interviewed studio founders Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron at the preview of their 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. See more stories about Herzog & de Meuron.

Photography is by Adriano Biondo.

Here’s a project description from Herzog & de Meuron:

Volkshaus Basel Bar, Brasserie Basel, Switzerland 2011 – 2012

The history of the Burgvogtei, a medieval manor and later the Volkshaus Basel, goes back to the 14th century. The location has always been a site of concentrated and varied use – a piece of city within the city. In 1845, a brewery with a restaurant was erected there and expanded in 1874 to house a beer and a concert hall. When the premises were taken over by the city of Basel in 1905, the facilities, with their diverse spaces, became a hub of political, social and cultural activities. The popularity of the location led to a shortage of space and the ensuing architectural competition in 1919 was won by the architect Henri Baur. The new Volkshaus Basel, built in 1925, incorporated the existing concert hall and was expanded to include new halls of various sizes, offices, conference rooms, a library, a restaurant and a hotel. In the 1970s, the Volkshaus just barely escaped demolition; the interior was completely renovated and the building refurbished to meet the latest technical standards. However, in consequence, the building underwent substantial change and today nothing remains of the original character of the beer and concert hall. The concert hall is architecturally defined by the acoustic requirements of its use as an orchestral recording studio. All of the galleries and window openings had to be walled up. The bar and the brasserie were also remodeled to such an extent that little of the original spirit of the space has survived. In particular, the integration of HVAC and other technological facilities led to invasive architectural modifications. The diversity of uses was reduced as well since the head building is now used primarily for offices.

In several steps, the Volkshaus will now be remodeled and former uses reinstated such as hotel, shop and library. Our intervention aims to revitalize the diversity of this location which is so important to the life of Basel, while at the same time restoring its architectural identity. The extent of our intervention will vary from room to room, determined by the individual requirements of each space and based on detailed analysis of its current status. Based on the original architecture of 1925, the Volkshaus will be preserved in all its diversity and complexity and will reflect the spirit of its own history.

In order to achieve this, we started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s. Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925. Where this was too costly, technically unfeasible or unreasonable, we worked with the current status. The study and analysis of plans and visual materials from the archives played an important role, enabling us to identify the original character of the architecture and the defining elements of the interiors. The next step involved working out how the later addition of HVAC and technical services could be integrated into the original architectural idiom, with only slight modifications.

In the brasserie, we removed the lowered ceiling to reveal the old ceiling beams and then doubled them to house the ventilation ducts. The distinctive spatial structure of the brasserie is thus restored and even enhanced. Since the original room dividers no longer exist, we added high-backed seating to subdivide the brasserie into various zones. The historical chandeliers resonate in the pendant LED lamps with thick, mouth-blown glass diffusers. The chair is a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair, except for the back which can be automatically individualized thanks to computer-aided production.

The tin traditionally used for the countertop now covers the entire bar and the tabletops as well. It was important for us to work exclusively with quality materials like tin, leather and wood, which acquire a patina through years of use. Striking architectural elements of 1925 have been reiterated elsewhere in various scales and articulations. For instance, the oval window above the entry resonates in the window to the public passage that leads to the inner courtyard, in the swinging door between the bar and the brasserie, in an opening that reveals the historical staircase and in the mirrors of the restrooms.

The sinks in the restrooms are recycled items found in Basel’s building components exchange. Seventeenth century etchings have been transferred to the wallpaper used in the antechambers of the restrooms, thus establishing a link with Basel in the days of the former medieval manor.

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by Herzog & de Meuron appeared first on Dezeen.

This guest house consists of interconnected boxes that meander between the trunks of cherry and pine trees in a forest near Yonago City, Japan (+ slideshow).

Architect Keisuke Kawaguchi designed the house to fit into gaps between the existing trees, taking advantage of the available space without disrupting the natural surroundings.

“Sensitive dialogue with the site is requisite to building a house that lies in coexistence with nature,” says Kawaguchi. “Our building plan was drafted according to this idea.”

Roofs pitched at different angles squeeze beneath tree branches and add to the building’s staccato aesthetic, while short corridors link the functional spaces.

The largest volume contains a living space with double-height windows looking out onto a series of terraces and the forest beyond.

The house is raised off the ground on pillars to prevent snow from drifting against it in winter, and to stop moisture and heat from the ground penetrating the floors in summer.

Other architecture projects built in forests include a series of woodland cabins in Portugal, a tiny folly that pokes out from between trees at the edge of a pond in England, and a raised walkway that winds around tree trunks in an Estonian forest.

We recently created a Pinterest board with all our stories about Japanese houses, including one comprising five connected cottages in a forest and another with two trees installed in its living room.

Photography is by Koji Fujii.

Here’s some more information from the architect:

This is a guest house located in the forest of Daisen piedmont, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture.

The house site is situated in the midst of abundant cherry and pine trees, standing at natural well-balanced intervals with trunks reaching towards the sky with bountiful leaves. The figures of the trees are beautiful. They are the legitimate habitants of the forest.

Sensitive dialogue with the site is requisite to building a house that lies in coexistence with nature. Our building plan was drafted according to this idea.

We arranged the house with most surrounding trees untouched and ensured the living space in the aperture to a maximum extent.

A style coexisting with the forest is the keystone of our design, so we carefully surveyed and analyzed the lot for building, and designed a way to connect each function space of the house by short connecting passages.

Differently-pitched roofs snuggling up to the extension of branches and foliage made it possible to take in sunlight effectively.

In Daisen we have almost two metres of snowfall in winter, so we adopted a piloti style with living spaces on the second floor in order to allow ample cross-breeze, while also reducing moisture and heat rising from the ground in summer. These considerations made it possible to maintain comfortable living conditions in all seasons.

The forms and colours of the forest seen from each room are as deep as the eye can see. Bright (red), tangible (white), obscure (blue), dark (black) – we may call them the colours of the day.

The changing seasons create a bountiful, colourful composition! How satisfying is the abundance of passing time that the forest beats when living in this house!

Even after the house completes its life in the future, the forest around it would continue on.

Finally, our primary endeavour, coexisting with the forest, would be fulfilled.

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Kawaguchi+K2-Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Huge clerestory windows reveal the exposed timber frame of this school sports hall in Kobe, Japan, by architecture firm Takenaka Corporation (+ slideshow).

Entitled Harmonie Hall, the building functions as both a basketball court and auditorium for the Kobe International Junior High School and Senior High School, and was designed by Takenaka Corporation to fit in with the wood and concrete buildings that already made up the campus.

“This building is designed to capture the most from the rich surrounding environment while inheriting the formal language of the campus as it exists today,” says the architect.

A 46 metre-long wall of uninterrupted concrete lines the north elevation. Narrow lengths of glazing run along its top and bottom, bringing light through to the floor and ceiling of the hall.

Larger windows span the southern elevation so that students elsewhere on the campus can catch a glimpse of activities taking place inside, while students inside can look out towards the surrounding woodland.

“Through the framing of landscape views, the beautiful surroundings engage with the space and offer openness by using the trees and sky to highlight the structural frame,” explains the architect.

Structural timber columns are positioned along this facade to take some of the vertical load from the wooden roof, which protrudes over the edges of the walls.

Toilets, storage areas and a teacher’s office occupy a small annex with a connecting corridor.

Other sports halls we’ve featured on Dezeen include one with bright yellow spectator stands and one with a fluorescent facade.

See more sports halls »
See more architecture in Japan »

Photography is by Tomoki Hahakura, apart from where otherwise indicated.

Photograph by Yasutaka Inazumi

Here’s more information from Takenaka Corporation:

Harmonie Hall, Kobe International Junior & Senior High School

Design Intent

The Kobe International Junior High School and Senior High School Harmonie Hall was based on an idea of a clear and open axial plan utilising concrete and wood to respond to the campus’ history while creating a new relationship with the natural landscape. Harmonie Hall is an ancillary facility that includes a teacher’s room, storage, toilets, and a gymnasium that can be used as both a basketball court and an auditorium.

This building is designed to capture the most from the rich surrounding environment while inheriting the formal language of the campus as it exists today. Functionally, gyms tend to be enclosed spaces removed from their surrounding environment, but this time, by utilising a wood structural frame, the building is in concert with the vibrant local environment as much as possible.

The south side leads to an existing building and is comprised of a long 20m wood structural span for views of the woodlands supported by a 6m high and 46m long concrete wall. Opening the building to the lush ecosystem of the north campus was a natural configuration.

By supporting the horizontal force with concrete walls on three sides, with the north side being the exception, the structural roof frame was designed to transfer vertical load to the wooden poles on the north facade.

The north side is a rich and open ecosystem. Through the framing of landscape views, the beautiful surroundings engage with the space and offer openness by using the trees and sky to highlight the structural frame. From the beginning, the design has been interested in offering the experience of simultaneous continuity between the paired horizontal open spaces.

Furthermore, by providing a sufficient aperture to the wind and natural landscape, a space filled with light and consistent breezes from the north is realised.

Also, by using vegetation identified from research and field surveys, trees are transplanted from the construction staging areas while simultaneously cultivating local seeds as a means to visually and biologically produce a landscape of continuity with the local context.

The idea for using structure to maximise openness to the surrounding environment, both conceptually and visually, marries the wind and light of the natural environment with the new space. The environment is the architecture.

Site and Context

The context for this project was a combined junior and high school located in the peaceful hills overlooking Suma with a view of the Akashi Straits and Awaji Island. This school was established in 1992 with aims to foster women with prolific knowledge and grace, and the campus has since been designed with the theme that the campus has made an impression on their memory. The exposed concrete of the design provides a sense of integration with the campus which includes many memorable places.

The existing school buildings, located on the north-south and east-west axes, consist of just two basic geometric shapes, the square and the circle, and were built of exposed concrete. This prompt for this project was to build a gymnasium the size of a basketball court for the 20th anniversary. For this project, I tried to create a new gymnasium, on the angle shaped site located in the west part of the campus, that was in harmony, to the greatest degree possible, with the surrounding environment. The junior high school building has a circular hall in the centre which is surrounded by open related rooms. This memorable hall within the square shaped form is inserted into the hill, but for this project I aimed to create memorable places between this building and the hills.

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Takenaka Corporation appeared first on Dezeen.

Metal trellises offer a framework for climbing plants and vines around these recently completed houses in Poitiers, France, by Bordeaux studio Lanoire & Courrian (+ slideshow).

Lanoire & Courrian has added 32 residences in the suburban district of Bel Air, including 22 rental properties and 10 houses for sale. Arranged in two rows, the houses create new streets that branch off a realigned Rue des Frères Morane.

Each of the houses is clad with corrugated metal, which has been powder-coated in shades of grey and lilac. Timber fencing lines the base of the walls and marks the borders of each property.

Rather than position the houses evenly, the architects used a staggered arrangement to break up the facades and create natural recesses. Narrow passageways were added between houses to offer visual corridors.

“We imagined the project as a series of strips on a plot,” say the architects. “The idea is to have an overall geometry of buildings and vegetation.”

A secondary road scoops in through the centre of the site, leading to some entrances and allowing access to driveways. Houses without driveways can make use of an underground car park with its entrance on Rue des Frères Morane.

“We wanted to create an island that is both an intimate space and a porous and fluid space, allowing different modes of travel with respect to both the outside and inside,” add the architects.

The houses follow a standard layout, with living rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. Each residence also comes with a garden and a small shed.

Other housing projects we’ve featured in France include a timber-clad retirement home near Paris and a social housing complex in Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie with camouflage print on its walls.

See more housing projects »
See more architecture in France »

Photography is by Stephane Chalmeau.

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by Lanoire & Courrian appeared first on Dezeen.

Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with Domaine de Boisbuchet in south-west France to offer the chance to win a place on an architecture and design workshop this summer (+ slideshow).

Taking place in the extensive grounds of a historic French chateau, Domaine de Boisbuchet Summer Workshops offer students and professionals the chance to work on week-long projects with experts in a range of architecture and design disciplines.

Started by Alexander von Vegesack, founding director of the Vitra Design Museum, the workshops have been running for 22 years, producing pavilions by architects including Simon Velez, Jorg Schlaich and Shigeru Ban that are now scattered around the chateau’s grounds.

During the courses, participants will be involved in practical activities experimenting with tools, materials and technologies, and evening activities will include shared meals, plus talks and presentations by course leaders.

The courses will conclude with the presentation of models and proposals, which sometimes lead to construction or production.

Maarten Baas, Benjamin Hubert and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance are among designers leading programmes this year – see the full list of workshops, mentors and dates here.

Workshops with Matteo Zorzenoni, Paul Haigh and Patricia Urquiola are no longer available, but the winner can chose from any of the other one-week programmes.

The value of a one week workshop is €795,00 for students, €1025,00 for professionals. The prize does not cover the cost of travel or additional costs.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Domaine de Boisbuchet” in the subject line, specifying which workshop you would like to attend. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 4 July 2013. The winner will be selected at random and notified by email. The winner’s name will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Here’s some more information from the organisers:

Domaine de Boisbuchet – Summer Workshops 2013

This summer the idyllic country estate, Domaine de Boisbuchet in southwest France, is once again the destination for a renowned series of architecture and design workshops. Over seventeen years, internationally established artists, designers and architects have taught courses on current themes.

For four months, participants from around the world arrive every week for the unique experience of a workshop at Boisbuchet – always a memorable time as, far removed from the demands and pressures of daily life, they enjoy living and working with fellow colleagues and experts from a wide range of disciplines.

A glance at our teachers names – Oliviero Toscani, Patricia Urquiola, Maarten Baas, DesignMarketo, Tomas Alonso, Benjamin Hubert, Pierre Favresse, Jordi Enrich Jorba, Shin Azumi, Pedrita, Snarkitecture, Paul Haigh, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, FREITAG, Sandra Piesik, Cristian Zuzunaga, Amina Agueznay, Mischer’Traxler, GroenlandBasel, Marcelo Rosenbaum, Maria Blaisse, Katja Gruijters, Anna Heringer, Tomas Kral, Daniel Michalik, Andrew Ondrejcak, Peter Marigold, Matteo Zorzenoni, Sigga Heimis, Ron Gilad, Nikolay Polissky – makes the ultimate choice of a course quite challenging!

The daily schedule of exploration, experimentation and practical activity with tools, materials and technology is complemented by talks on design theory and presentations by course leaders in the evenings. Each day ends in a convivial atmosphere with shared meals around long dining tables while the courses conclude with the presentation of models and proposals, sometimes leading to construction or production in industry.

The 150-hectare estate with its lake, river and woodland, features an Architectural Park with a guided tour for visitors to discover the wide range of traditional, experimental and international buildings and structures (from an authentic Japanese Guest House, donated by the Prefecture of Shimane, Japan, to several bamboo pavilions) and the site is located in the triangle between Poitiers, Limoges and Angouleme. In previous years, workshop projects have produced pavilions by internationally prominent architects such as Simon Velez, Jorg Schlaich and Shigeru Ban, which provide an inspiring backdrop and remain in place as a fascinating contrast to the historic buildings on site. The most recent installation at Boisbuchet is “Le Manege”, the largest in a series of bamboo pavilions designed by German artist and architect, Markus Heinsdorff and is a gift of the Goethe Institute and the People’s Republic of China. This striking building will become a venue for meetings, performances and various events.

Alexander von Vegesack, founding director of the Vitra Design Museum and originator of Boisbuchet, first had the idea for the workshops twenty-two years ago and has developed Boisbuchet as one of the most renowned international sites of experimentation in design and architecture. The 2013 program is a measure of his connections with those at the leading edge of design and industry as well as education internationally.

The non-profit organization CIRECA co-ordinates all cultural activities including education, exhibitions, events and publications and since 2011, Boisbuchet has been designated by the French government as a “pole d’excellence rurale”, indicating its notable role as a non-urban center of excellence for culture and education.

The Summer Workshop Program and a new Advanced Design Course vividly demonstrate the full potential of the creative industries. In recognition of this, prominent institutions have lent their support and cooperation to Boisbuchet over the years such as Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art, Limoges (ENSA) Charente Developpement, Conseil General de la Charente, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) USA, Xue Xue Institute Taiwan, Artconsulting Korea as well as the Vitra Design Museum.

Students are sent by universities from around the world such as; Parsons the New School for Design New York, the School of Visual Design New York, the Pratt Institute New York, Pasadena Art Center College of Design US, Instituto Europeo di Design Spain, Fabrica Italy, Keio University Tokyo and the UNAM and UAM universities in Mexico City.

Companies and producers like Hermes, IKEA, Vitra, 3M, Kvadrat, Bosch, Jablonex, Kaupo, Fiskars, Ansorg, Papier Direkt, Belux, Modular, Power Film Solar, Pocko, Legrand, Bernardaud, Corticeira Amorim and many others also value the international summer academy and the close collaboration with participants.

In response to the unique character of this forward-looking project, they have served as regular partners and provided both materials and workshop leaders.

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at Domaine de Boisbuchet appeared first on Dezeen.