Hasta La Ideas

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma conceived this primary school in north-west Tokyo as the modern equivalent of a traditional Japanese schoolhouse with timber-clad walls (+ slideshow).

The Teikyo University Elementary School comprises a row of twelve connected classroom buildings that Kengo Kuma and Associates also compares to a row of terraced houses.

Like many of Kuma’s buildings, the three-storey school is clad with cedar on every elevation. “We used cedar for the material of the exterior, as an attempt to recover a wooden schoolhouse in the midst of the big city,” says the studio.

Conventional timber siding was chosen for some surfaces, then combined with “yamato-bari” wooden panelling and vertical “renji” louvres to give variation to each of the facades.

The asymmetric pitched roof is made from steel, which breaks down to a skeletal framework in the courtyard between two of the blocks. The slope of the roof is visible on every floor inside the school, due to a tiered flooring arrangement and several double-height spaces.

Most classrooms are arranged along the southern side of the building, which is lined with glazing on all three floors. A first-floor balcony also stretches across this elevation, allowing a double-height recess below the eaves.

A central axis runs longways through the school to connect each set of classrooms. Group study zones are accommodated within this area, while communal activity rooms such as the library, canteen and media centre are lined up along the northern side.

The school is one of several projects completed by Kengo Kuma and Associates in recent months. Others include an experimental house in Hokkaidō and a timber-clad visitor centre in Tokyo. See more architecture by Kengo Kuma on Dezeen.

Photography is by Edmund Sumner.

Here’s a project description from Kengo Kuma and Associates:

Teikyo University Elementary School

We aimed at a wooden schoolhouse of our age. The building consists of a big roofing and materiality of wood for interior and exterior.

By changing its length and height of eave, roof can create multiformity to respond to its environment and different programs. In this building, we designed a big roof to run through the entire building, differentiating expressions on each side – a relaxed face toward south where abundant green of Tama hill expands – and subtle appearance to the north facing public housing standing in lines.

We also changed its form accordingly to the volume of each classroom. As the result, it has grown to a building that looks like 12 different-sectioned terraced houses being arranged in a row.

Composition of the space emphasises the atmosphere of the terraced (1-storey) house created by the roof. While the structure is 3-storey, the atrium connects the sections of the special room and the open space on 2nd and 3rd floors, so that you can feel the slope of the roof on every floor. Further, in the center of the building situates the Media Center that skips three stories as a measure to avoid segregation within the building.

We used cedar for the material of the exterior, as an attempt to recover a wooden schoolhouse in the midst of the big city. We also applied three different lining method for the wall, according to the location and function of the parts in the building – siding work, louvers and Yamato-bari (wood panels arranged with its side slightly layered onto the next one – forming as a whole regular unevenness) so that the building can hold various expressions. Cedar is treated in heat to secure durability.

We also utilised the plasticity of trees. We set up a huge wall of a recycled material made from chips of straw, rush and poplar, which can work as a notice board. As there is more freedom in the design of interior for schools, we managed to achieve this environmentally-friendly plan that can enhance the warmth of natural materials.

Big roofing is also good for environment for efficient building facilities. Using the wide roof toward the south, we installed there a device to gather heat. In this solar system, the air warmed under the roof circulates and vents from under the floor during winter. The roof also gathers rainwater. The water flows through the vertical drainpipe to the water conduit in the south, and it nurtures a biotope in front of the science room.

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by Kengo Kuma and Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Doors, windows and recesses are picked out in yellow ochre on the timber facade of this retirement home near Paris by French studio Vous Êtes Ici Architectes (+ slideshow).

The four-storey Morangis Retirement Home was designed by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes with a Y-shaped plan that divides the interiors into three wings.

Siberian larch is arranged in vertical strips over the exterior of the building and also forms canopies across the various entrances.

The primary entrance is located at the junction of two wings and leads into the centre of the building. Additional entry points are positioned along the northern facade for service access.

The ground floor of the building is taken up by communal rooms, health facilities and staff areas. Shared dining rooms, living rooms and other social areas are grouped together around the south-east elevation and open to a private residents’ garden.

Bedrooms occupy the three upper floors of the building. The first and second floors accommodate typical residents and are divided into clusters of 13 bedrooms, each with their own dining and activity room. Meanwhile, the third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Central corridors provide clear routes between the different sections of each floor. Rather than relying on artificial lighting, they each feature windows to bring in as much daylight as possible.

The third floor also features two roof terraces with direct access to ground level via a pair of outdoor staircases.

We’ve previously featured a nursing home in Portugal on Dezeen, which was this year shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe Award.

See more housing developments on Dezeen, or see more architecture in Paris.

Photography is by 11H45.

Read on for more details from Vous Êtes Ici Architectes:

Ehpad de Morangis – Vous Êtes Ici Architectes

How could we build a socially orientated retirement home and never neglect comfort and sensorial fulfillment?

A retirement home for all

Based on an off-plan concept led by AXENTIA as a social contractor and IMMODIEZE as a private developer, the Morangis Retirement Home was constructed with financial support from the Conseil Général de l’Essone, Regional support as well as the Regional Health Agency and the town of Morangis.

The operator and tenant of the new building is an Autonomous Public Establishment that offers stays as low as €60 per day. This low and democratic offer was attained without sacrificing the quality of service or the finish of the construction.

An orientated building

The building is constructed on 4 levels and is based on a Y-shaped plan. The building occupies the site as follows:
1) The main public entrance is located where the “Y’ strands connect
2) The north façade is dedicated to service, deliveries and employee’s entrance
3) The south façade is generously opened towards the residents private park

The plan is organized according to a few constraints: compact, rational and open towards the outside.

The living areas as well as the main activities areas (restaurant, salon) are developed around the private gardens. These areas benefit from the view and easy dedicated access to the gardens. The gardens include therapeutically themed spaces as well as more traditional paths around flower beds and a rose garden.

The rooms on floor one and two are dedicated to classical geriatric residents, the rooms are disposed into 6 units of 13 rooms each.

The third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other similar neurological disorders. The floor includes vast dedicated spaces for specialized activities, rest and well-being.

All the floors are accessible from the central node intersecting all of the buildings functions and patient units.

Views and light for all

One of the base lines of this project is to offer, all through the construction and all its sleeping units, framed views. Each unit has a main gathering area for activities or meals as well as a smaller area placed in front of loggia or suspended gardens. All these small areas include large windows and quality framed views.

The corridors, usually blind and suffocating spaces, always include wider spaces with outside views, this allows our elders to move around at their pace towards lights and rest areas in the buildings circulations, they may easily meet and chat with fellow residents without having a difficult and stressing path to do so.

The third floor has two large terraces easily accessible to the residents. These terraces, widely orientated towards the park, are treated as a prolongation of the inner spaces.

On an individual’s point of view, the building rooms were designed differently with windows offering distant views of the countryside and treated as hotel rooms more than hospital rooms. The windows all designed with a glass panel to the floor allowing bedded residents to have a view.

Materials and Volumes

A unique volume with different spaces: unity is not uniformity.

On the outer skin wrapping the building, openings are pierced following no specific symmetry; the sculpted facades offer various views and volumes behind the outer skin.

This envelope covering the building is made out of Siberian larch wood; these wooden boards are warm and comforting. The outer skin vibrates according to the sun and time of the day. The larch boards are top quality solid wood, they are butted together to prevent deformation and to remove defaults.

Wooden awnings extend the facades skin away from the building creating shelter from the sun and rain and protecting the ground floor’s salons and restaurants.

Every time the outer skin is punched in to form a dent in the global volume this corresponds to a specific socializing space: inner rest areas widely opened towards the park or the third floors terraces. The “dents” allow the sun and the light to reach in deeply into the building for those whom have difficulties moving about. As soon as the outer skin is breached to create a volume a different material and color is used to outline these inner volumes. A warm orange to yellow coating has been applied on the outer walls exaggerating the warmth of the light. The ambiance is friendly and warm and the yellow resonates nicely with the natural warmth of wood. As a result the dynamic spaces we offer are worth the effort needed to reach by elderly people.

This bright and lively color, stimulating without being aggressive, is also the one used for the window and door frames of the facades found under the awnings and in the bedrooms. As one approaches the building and passes below the awnings towards the yellow coating, as he is welcomed, will feel and understand the building’s harmony. One will easily understand how the building works and how it is connected to its natural and urban surroundings.

Developer: Immodieze and AXENTIA for the Conseil General du 91
Architects: Vous Êtes Ici Architectes
Location: Morangis southern Parisian suburb
Program: Retirement home with 91 rooms
Cost: 9.4 million euros
Calendar: First building permit 2010, final delivery 2013
Area: 5315 sqm, 46 parking spaces, total plot area 9950 sqm
Partners and collaborators: Dumez IDF (general contractor), FACEA (fluids engineering) LECARPENTIER (exteriors and landscaping) SPOOMS (kitchen engineering) CAP HORN (Acoustics engineering) LAPOINTE (roads and water engineering)

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by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

Patterns of colourful tiles line the walls and counters of this north-east London pizza bar by architects Gundry & Ducker (+ slideshow).

“We wanted to see what we could do with the 150-millimetre square-format tiles” Christian Ducker told Dezeen. “Our medley of references included graphics from New York in the 1950s and 1980s.”

The tiles spell out “pizza” in large letters along the wall running from outside the restaurant parallel to the serving counter, though the top of the word is cut off by the ceiling.

Dark blue tiles cover the surfaces and seats along the same wall, while columns and beams are wrapped in yellow and red.

The late night pizza slice bar was converted from a nightclub so the architects had to start from scratch in the space.

“We completely gutted the whole place, took out all the flooring and built in a slope at the entrance,” said Ducker. “The space is all tiled at the front, and they gradually fade towards the back where there are just a few clusters left.”

“We left some exposed brickwork because we wanted the one-tile-thick insertion to be noticeable,” he added.

The tiles extend out and around the building’s entrance, branded with a red neon sign by graphic designers Studio Partyline.

Voodoo Ray’s is named after a 1988 acid house track by UK artist A Guy Called Gerald, who switched on the sign at the restaurant’s opening party.

Gundry & Ducker‘s other projects in London include a sushi restaurant in Soho and a blackened larch house extension south of the city.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

See more architecture and design by Gundry & Ducker »
See more restaurant interiors »
See all our stories in London »

Here some further details from the architects:

Voodoo Rays is a late night pizza slice shop and restaurant in Dalston East London.

The design is intended to sit within, and celebrate its location on Kingsland High Street, a typical inner London high street strip with its ad-hoc signs and frontages. Its neon signage and brightly light interior is intended to be part of the nighttime street scene.

The design of all surfaces is formed predominately from coloured  6″ ceramic tiles. We wanted to form the interior as a sequence of volumes, reducing in scale and density to reveal the original building interior as you move towards the back of the shop. Each element is expressed in a different colour, the larger elements incorporating giant abstracted text.

A long pizza counter runs the length of the shop and projects beyond the shop frontage, which is recessed, so that the counter feels like part of the street. A hidden door leads to a basement club.

The design is intended to have multiple references taken from both East London and New York, and from between the 1950s -1980s. The references range from launderettes to pie shops, to seaside amusement arcades all of which are reinterpreted with a cartoon sensibility.

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Gundry & Ducker appeared first on Dezeen.

Chinese design studio Neri&Hu will present a collection of wooden furniture for De La Espada in New York later this month (+ slideshow).

New items in the collection for the woodwork brand include the Opium Sofa, Solo Table and Tray Desk.

Neri&Hu took the typology of a Chinese Tang Dynasty opium bed and modified it to create a sofa, which has shelves under the deep arms for storage.

The oval Solo table sits on two sets of three legs, each arranged in a triangle.

A two-tier desk folds out into a vanity table, with a mirror in the top shelf and a drawer full of different sized compartments in the lower bottom shelf.

Neri&Hu’s previous designs including the Extend Mirrors that prop up against the wall, slender Duet Chairs, plus their Solo Series of lounge and dining shell chairs are now being produced solely for De La Espada.

The collection will be shown at an exhibition in New York’s meatpacking district during the city’s design week from 18 to 21 May.

We interviewed Neri&Hu towards the end of last year for the opening of their design gallery, shop and event space in a former colonial police station in Shanghai.

The studio recently reinterpreted traditional Chinese architecture and courtyard typologies for a hotel in Xi’an.

See more architecture and design by Neri & Hu »
See more products for De La Espada »
See all our stories about furniture »

Read on for more details from De La Espada:

Opium Sofa

Opium beds for communal lounging have been in China since the Tang Dynasty, when opium smoking became an accepted social activity which necessitated a comfortable and presentable piece of furniture for receiving guests. neri&hu took this historic typology and updated it to create a contemporary sofa with a simple profile that retains the deep seat and low back of its inspiration. Flanking the sofa are deep arms which form two useful shelves, as well as side tables for books or a cup of tea. The solid wood frame cradles our tired bodies on a lazy Sunday morning, as addicts to our newspapers and coffee instead of the opium in imperial China.

Tray Desk

Trays function as a surface container for collectables, and this multi-tasking desk/vanity table was designed as two stacking trays on a light wooden frame . Contemporary lifestyles demand furniture to be more mobile and flexible, servicing multiple functions, while remaining lightweight for easy transport. This piece responds to that need, using the analogy of trays on trestles as a point of departure.

Solo Table

Solo Table is a solid wood dining table with purity of form and material.

Extend Mirrors

In the past, common bamboo ladders were used as household objects inside and outside country homes in China, functioning as an ever-ready stand for hanging a wide variety of things from tools and cloths to dried food. As a tribute to this utilitarian household symbol, neri&hu used three different ladder proportions to make a set of solid hardwood frames for floor standing mirrors. They lean on the floor in a casual manner, as ladders do, and can be used alone or as an interesting ensemble of many ladders with varying heights on the wall.

Solo Series (chair and table)

Inspired by the Eames Shell Chair, the Solo Chair is an updated version that transforms the early industrial look of the Eames iconic chair into a sophisticated, comfortable chair that is suitable both in domestic and commercial settings.

Solo chairs are a “universe within a chair”, wherein the upholstered shell hugs the sitting body to create a microcosmic universe for the person, where the chair becomes an object of shelter and refuge, where the person can be “solo” and undisturbed while being hugged in this position.

An upholstered foam-covered shell creates the universe that is the chair, and claims its singular autonomy in function, form, and beauty.

Duet Chair

The name speaks to the tectonic nature of the construction. Two pieces of bentwood work as a duet, creating the overall shape of the chair. They are stacked one on top of another to form the backrest, and while one extends to create the arm and front legs, the other turns to form the back legs. Originally created as a variation on the classic Thonet bent-wood tradition, the Duet Chair takes on a quiet yet graceful demeanor that is not unlike the German-Austrian classic original.

Neri&Hu Launches Collaboration with De La Espada

New York Design Week, 18-21 May 2013 at 345meatpacking

New York Design Week 2013 marks the launch of collaboration between Shanghai-based inter-disciplinary architectural practice, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office and leading modern woodworker, De La Espada. The launch event is presented by The Future Perfect at 345meatpacking, a stunning building by DDG. A large-scale purpose-built installation by Neri&Hu sets the scene for the debut of over ten new products born of their collaboration with De La Espada.

A unique sensory environment, the Neri&Hu installation for New York Design Week communicates at once the Neri&Hu approach to interiors and architecture, and their evolution toward product design.

Over ten new products will launch at the event, utilising timber extensively and spanning the needs of the home from dining to living spaces. The pieces are designed by Neri&Hu for their product brand ‘neri&hu’ and manufactured in premium materials by De La Espada craftsmen in Portugal.

The Future Perfect, host of the exhibition, will be the exclusive retailer of neri&hu furniture in the New York City and San Francisco areas.

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De La Espada appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban developed these timber and earth houses for the rehabilitation of a Sri Lankan fishing village that was swept away during the 2004 tsunami (+ slideshow).

Developer Phillip Bay asked Shigeru Ban to design a prototype house that could be built cheaply using local materials and would be suitable for the tropical climate. The house was to form a template for the construction of 100 replacement homes in Kirinda.

“This was not going to be a traditional disaster relief effort where we go in and make homes really fast and leave,” said Bay. “I wanted to treat this like a development project.”

Ban’s design comprises a single-storey structure with walls made from compressed earth blocks and a pitched roof made from locally sourced teak and coconut wood.

Each house has two bedrooms, a hall and a sheltered courtyard, which residents can use as a dining room, social space or simply as a place to repair fishing nets.

Adaptable wooden screens divide the rooms, to suit a Muslim lifestyle. “This is the first time I’ve worked for the Muslim societies,” said Ban, “so before I built the houses I had a community meeting to find out what has to be carefully done depending on the generation, for example, we had to separate the man’s space and woman’s space.”

Ban also designed furniture for the residence, using wood from the rubber trees that are common to the region.

The Post-Tsunami Housing was completed in 2007 but was recently named as one of 20 projects on the shortlist for the Aga Khan Award 2013. Other projects on the shortlist include an Islamic cemetery in Austria and a reconstructed refugee camp in Lebanon. Five or six finalists will be revealed later this year and will compete to win the $1 million prize.

Shigeru Ban has also worked on a number of other disaster-relief projects. He devised apartment blocks made from shipping containers for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and was one of several high-profile architects involved in the Make It Right housing project in New Orleans. See more architecture by Shigeru Ban.

Photography is by Dominic Samsoni.

Here’s a project description from the Aga Khan Award organisers:

Post-Tsunami Housing

This project provides 100 houses in a Muslim fishing village, in the region of Tissamaharama, on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, following the destruction caused by the 2004 tsunami. Shigeru Ban’s aim was to adapt the houses to their climate, to use local labour and materials to bring profit to the region, and to respond to the villagers’ own requirements through direct consultation. For example, kitchens and bathrooms are included within each house, as requested by the villagers, but a central covered area separates them from the living accommodation, as stipulated by the government. The covered area also provides an entertainment space from which women can retreat to maintain privacy. Local rubber-tree wood was used for partitions and fittings, and compressed earth blocks for walls.

Location: Kirinda, Sri Lanka (Asia)
Architect: Shigeru Ban Architects, Tokyo, Japan
Client: Philip Bay
Completed: 2007
Design: 2005
Site size: 71 m2 for each house – Total site area: 3’195 m²

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by Shigeru Ban appeared first on Dezeen.