Hasta La Ideas

Mysterious flights of stairs float in mid-air or form elevated outdoor walkways in this series of installations by artists Lang/Baumann (+ slideshow).

Among the installations in Lang/Baumann’s Beautiful Steps project is a curved white staircase that hangs in the hall of Trautenfels Castle in Austria, contrasting with the richly coloured frescoes on the ceiling.

They also installed an open walkway that loops around the outside of the castle and is accessed by steps under the windows.

An aluminium staircase connected by false doors was constructed on the exterior of a building in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The building appears taller than it is because the grid of windows doesn’t match the ceiling heights, so the artists made their work to a slightly smaller scale than a normal door and stair to accentuate the illusion.

Another staircase with lopsided steps was installed between the floor and ceiling of a Parisian art gallery, Galerie Loevenbruck, and can be adjusted to different heights by adding or subtracting steps.

They also suspended a wonky staircase inside the Fundación PROA museum in Buenos Aires and planted an arched staircase on a lawn in Lausanne.

Swiss-born Sabina Lang and San Franciscan Daniel Baumann have worked together since 1990 and are based in Burgdorf, Switzerland.

Other unusual steps we’ve featured include a concept for a staircase based on a whale’s backbone and a suspended staircase that leads down to steps built into a kitchen counter – see all staircases.

See all installations »

Here’s some more information from the artists:

Beautiful Steps #2 – 2009 Biel-Bienne CH, Utopics. 11th Swiaa Sculpture Exhibition

Technique: steel zincked, anodised aluminium
Dimensions: 177 x 523 x 458 cm
Curator: Simon Lamunière

The congress building in Biel-Bienne plays a trick on perception: because the diminutive grid of its large glass front does not match the ceiling height of the floors, the building appears taller than it is—more like a skyscraper than its actual 50 meters (164 foot) of height. The building also features an unusual concrete structure that encloses one half of the volume like an oversize frame, leaving a gap on one side between itself and the building. On this pillar, almost three-quarters of the way up, an aluminum stair was attached, leading from one fake door to another around one corner of the structure. In keeping with the optical illusion of the building, the work was built to a slightly smaller scale than a normal door and stair. The slender sculpture plays with an imaginary functionality.

Beautiful Steps #3 (Trautenfels) – 2010 Schloss Trautenfels A, Regionale. Fabricators of the World. Scenarios of Self-will

Technique: wood, paint
Dimensions: 11.5 x 5 x 4.3 m
Curator: Adam Budak, Peter Pakesch

A white, curved stair, slightly askew and suspended in midair in a baroque castle hall, was held aloft by a few slender, almost invisible cables. The lean shape and the white surface of the sculpture formed a striking contrast to the lush frescoes on the ceiling.

Beautiful Steps #5 – 2010 Schloss Trautenfels A, Regionale. Fabricators of the World. Scenarios of Self-will

Technique: laminated wood, paint
Dimensions: width of the step 70 cm, height 110 cm, diameter 8 m
Curator: Adam Budak, Peter Pakesch

Two curved stairs ascended to two windows at right angles. Outside each window a curved walkway projected into the air and disappeared in a loop around the facade of the building. Viewed from the outside, the walkway could be seen to connect the two windows like a fragile band around the castle’s corner tower. Interior and exterior elements of the scultpture formed a complete circle.

Beautiful Steps #8 – 2011 Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris F

Technique: wood, lacquer
Dimensions: height 310 cm, diameter 250 cm
Courtesy: Galerie Loevenbruck Paris

A winding stair, slightly askew, was mounted between floor and ceiling of the gallery. Somewhat smaller in scale than an actual stair, the functional aspect of the sculpture was further diminished. This modular piece can be adjusted to different ceiling heights by adding or subtracting steps.

Beautiful Steps #9 – 2012 Vaudoise, Lausanne, CH
Technique: stainless steel, lacquer
Dimensions: 2.5 x 3.7 x 3.5 m

A fragment of an impossibly twisted circular stair rises from the ground and leads nowhere. While invisibly anchored in the ground, the sculpture inexplicably stands upright on its own. The first step is horizontal and parallel to the ground, but with each successive step the stair torques away from its original axis by 5 degrees until it projects into space at a steep angle. Adding to the drama, a continuous reduction in riser height emphasizes the foreshortening of the sculpture towards the top.

The post Beautiful Steps
by Lang/Baumann appeared first on Dezeen.

This tiny house in northeast Los Angeles by local studio Anonymous Architects contains only three rooms and is lifted off the hillside on a set of concrete pilotis (+ slideshow).

Named BIG & small House, the two-storey residence was designed to maximise space, as it occupies a plot around half the size of its neighbours.

Rather than squeeze in lots of small rooms, Anonymous Architects chose to add just one large living room, a single bathroom and a mezzanine bedroom. “What the house lacks in square footage it provides in volume,” explains the architect.

A single-car parking garage run along the side of the house, and the mezzanine bedroom stretches out over the top, allowing the combined living and dining room to become a double-height space.

To increase natural light inside the house, interior partions don’t meet the ceiling. This was intended to create an “open-lofted feeling”.

The shape of the house is defined by the outline of its sloping site. The base of the building barely touches the declining ground, but is held firmly in place by concrete-pile foundations.

“The house is a completely isolated object,” architect Simon Storey told Dezeen. “It’s almost like a industrial shed compared to it’s neighbours, however the undulating roof softens the house just enough that it feels part of the neighborhood.”

Seamed metal sheets clad the entire exterior, while interior walls and floors are lined with timber.

Anonymous Architects previously worked on another house on a small plot in Los Angeles and named it Eel’s Nest after the narrow residences found in Japanese cities.

See more recently completed houses in the US, including an aluminium-clad country house in upstate New York.

Here’s a project description from Anonymous Architects:

BIG & small HOUSE

Starting with a vacant lot that was half of the typical minimum lot size, the objective was to compensate for the relatively small footprint of the house.

To achieve this there are only two full height walls inside the house which makes the main interior room nearly as large as the building footprint. This gives the house an open-lofted feeling with very high ceilings and abundant natural light.

It is an inversion of expectation, so that the smallest house contains the largest room. What the house lacks in square footage it provides in volume.

The free plan of the vacant lot is preserved since the house touches the ground only at the four small piles, giving full access to use the space between the house and the lot. The footprint of the foundation is in fact less than 20 sq.ft. and the house doesn’t touch the ground at any point.

The plan of the house follows the shape of the site which is an asymmetric parallelogram. This form resulted in unusual geometry inside and outside the dwelling and explains the shape of the house. The elevations of the house are designed to mirror the plan.

Date of completion: April 2012
Clients: Jon Behar/ Joyce Campbell
Lot Area: 2,500 sq.ft
Building Area: 1,200 sq.ft
Cost per sq.ft: $175
Single story with loft
Building footprint: 900 sq.ft
Method of construction: concrete pile foundation; steel (primary floor structure – cantilevers); wood floor, walls and roof
Primary materials: standing seam metal roofing and siding, aluminum dual glazed windows, white oak floors, feature wall and kitchen countertop

Above: site plan – click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

Above: long section – click for larger image

Above: cross section – click for larger image

Above: front elevation – click for larger image 

Above: side elevation – click for larger image

Above: rear elevation – click for larger image

Above: side elevation – click for larger image

The post BIG & small House by
Anonymous Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This suburban family house in Japan by architect Yoshiaki Nagasaka is pretending to be a cabin in a forest (+ slideshow).

Yoshiaki Nagasaka describes his concept for the house as “a series of contradictory aspirations”, which include rooms that can be both large and intimate and private and open.

The architect has therefore designed a single-storey house that is divided up by sliding plywood partitions, with a gabled roof that creates a variety of ceiling heights for different rooms.

The residence is located between the cities of Nara and Osaka. It contains a living room, dining room, kitchen and traditional Japanese room as one large family area, while the main bedroom and two children’s rooms are tucked away at the back.

Both children’s rooms feature mezzanine lofts, separating beds from play areas. Sliding plywood screens also cover these lofts so that they can be opened out to the rest of the house when necessary.

An informal corridor runs through the centre of the building and is lit from above by a long narrow skylight. Walls are lined with cedar boards and are punctured by clusters of differently sized windows.

The house is entitled Hut In Woods, as a reference to the woodland that historically covered the area but has since been interspersed with housing developments. As a nod to this, the architect has planted trees in the surrounding garden. “We propose to replant original vegetation on the house plot, regenerating the plant cover in 10 years,” he adds.

Other recently completed Japanese houses include a home that points out like a giant telescope and a residence with a shimmering glass-brick facade. See more Japanese houses on Dezeen.

Photography is by Yasunori Shimomura.

Here’s some more information from Yoshiaki Nagasaka:

Hut in woods – a house that accommodates contradictory aspirations within comfort

The site is situated in the vicinity of two cities; the metropolitan city of Osaka and Japan’s oldest city, Nara, a place of important historic buildings and wilderness. “Hut in woods” is located in a residential area developed during Japan’s economic boom during the late 60s and 70s. The mounds of wild woods nearby are still visible between the housing developments.

We had a series of contradictory aspirations at the start of design process for our future house: how could we create comfortable space encompassing:

Aspiration one – “living with nature, but with the convenience and security of living in a city”

To achieve this goal, we propose to replant original vegetation on the house plot, regenerating the plant cover in 10 years. We will encourage the neighbours around the site to do the same by opening a part of our plot to the public where they can participate in seedling, aiming to create a chain of wood cover in the spaces between the houses.

Aspiration two – “large, bright open spaces as well as small intimate spaces”

Three bedrooms in small sizes of 2no.x5.2sqm and 1no.x 6.2sqm. We designed the diurnal spaces by, combining the living, dining and kitchen areas and a Japanese style living room as one large open space of 35sqm. A 15cm wide continuous light slit spans the roof ridge and accentuates the openness. Sunlight drawn from the slits tells occupiers time and seasonal changes.

Two small bedrooms are positioned for children to be able to build their own area, their ‘castle’, as they grow and achieve their independence. Under the ceiling height of 3.8m, a bookshelf wall and the sleeping areas of the loft space above the cupboards create a playful 3 dimensional space. Once the children are grown and leave the house, their ‘castles’ can be adapted into study rooms for wife and husband.

The main bedroom of 6.2sqm has a reduced ceiling height of 1.98m. The space is cosy and calm with dimmed light levels.

Aspiration three – “to be closer, yet allow privacy, between family members”

A large multi-purpose table in the main living room is a focus for family activities. The double height children’s bedrooms have dual level sliding screens made of ply sheet that can control privacy in relation to the open area. Throughout the house, these sliding screens act as partitions for each space. In their temporary positions, as in a traditional Japanese house, the screens cushion the divisions within the house.

Aspiration four – “to be a traditional, yet also an original, contemporary house”

A local building contractor specialised in hand made wood construction with local cedar was also hired to design the structural joints and junctions for the house. Within the exposed traditional structural elements, the design is infused with a contemporary feel, achieved through a close collaboration between architect and master builder.

The main wall receives natural light with a contemporary twist while the joints and main pillar are visually symbolized in a traditional manner. Plywood sheet, a conventional material, has been crafted in a traditional way for the partitions and fittings as well as visually framing the landscape context of the house.

A contemporary sprit is manifest in the contrasts between the traditional details and its expression in the house that meets our aspirations for the architecture. Modern life is saturated with a variety of materials, we accommodate this in our design. Elements drawn from contemporary life blend beautifully in the light and shadow of everyday existence in nature.

It will take some time until the area grows back to woods but a house is not a transient object. We believe the vegetation should grow back gradually together with the family and community.

The post Hut In Woods by
Yoshiaki Nagasaka appeared first on Dezeen.

The bright lights of Broadway and the Eiffel Tower’s ironwork inspired the interior of this Parisian hamburger restaurant by French studio Cut Architectures (+ slideshow).

Located in the 10th arrondissement, Paris New-York’s interior combines the trademark styles of the two cities, according to Cut Architectures.

Outside the restaurant, a small dining area is covered by a canopy in the style of a theatre or cinema entrance and fitted with a grid of white bulbs.

The bulbs continue along the black ceiling inside and are reflected in the mirrored back wall.

The bar and staircase are covered with sheets of aluminium fixed down with round head rivets, referencing classic American chrome trailers.

Black and white cement tiles inspired by Parisian hallways cover the floors.

The exposed steel structure inside the staircase references both the Statue of Liberty and the ironwork of the Eiffel Tower.

The black ceiling and bare walls upstairs continue the restaurant’s monochrome palette.

We previously featured an apartment full of dotty perforated screens and a cafe decorated with scientific apparatus by the same designers – see all projects by Cut Architectures.

Other restaurant interiors we’ve published lately include a dining room carpeted with fake grass and a canteen with tree-like sculptures growing out of the tables – see all restaurants.

Photographs are by David Foessel.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Paris New-York restaurant is the latest joint of the flourishing hamburger restaurant scene in Paris. The meat and the ingredients are carefully selected to offer high quality burgers.

PNY design is a blend of NYC and Paris cultures and spirits, yet trying to avoid clichés. The black ceiling is pierced by a grid of light bulbs reminding of the Broadway cinemas and theatre fronts, echoing the black and white cement tiles floor iconic of the Parisian hallways.

Mirrors are diffracting the light bulbs on the ground floor and reflecting the bare walls on the first floor. Referring to the Eiffel structures and the copper-clad Statue of Liberty, the steel structure of the bar and staircase is covered with raw aluminium boards attached with the round-head rivets used on the Airstream caravans. The steel structure is revealed inside the staircase.

Above: ground floor plan

Project name: Paris New-York restaurant
Programme: Burger restaurant
Address: Paris (10th)
Client: Paris New-York

Above: first floor plan

Size: 90 sq m
Date: Drawings started in May 2012, end of work December 2012
Cost: €180,000 excl. VAT

Above: section

The post Paris New-York by
Cut Architectures appeared first on Dezeen.

Hackney-based Studio Weave has constructed a network of listening pipes in a back courtyard of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital to create a secret factory of lullabies for children (+ slideshow).

The enclosed space was created by the construction of a new building at the historic children’s hospital and will remain until its neighbour is eventually demolished. Studio Weave designed the installation to occupy the space in the interim and has named it the Lullaby Factory.

The architects were inspired by the messy pipes and drainage systems that already cover the surface of the brick walls. Instead of covering them up, they chose to add to them with a wide-spanning framework of pipes and horns.

“We have designed a fantasy landscape reaching 10 storeys in height and 32 metres in length, which can engage the imagination of everyone, from patients and parents to hospital staff, by providing an interesting and curious world to peer out onto,” explain architects Je Ahn and Maria Smith.

Different types of metal create pipes of silver, gold and bronze, and some of the taps and gauges were recycled from a decommissioned hospital boilerhouse.

Sound artist Jessica Curry composed the soundtrack of lullabies, which are played out through each of the pipes. To listen in, patients and staff can place an ear over one of the listening pipes beside the canteen.

The music is also transmitted via a radio frequency, so patients on the wards can tune in too.

Studio Weave previously designed a set of pipes to amplify the sounds of the countryside. Other projects by the architects include a latticed timber hut on stilts and a 324-metre-long bench.

See more architecture by Studio Weave, including an interview we filmed with the architects at our Designed in Hackney day.

Here’s a project description from Studio Weave:

Lullaby Factory, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
Studio Weave with Structure Workshop, AB3 Workshops and Jessica Curry

Studio Weave has transformed an awkward exterior space landlocked by buildings into the Lullaby Factory – a secret world that cannot be seen except from inside the hospital and cannot be heard by the naked ear, only by tuning in to its radio frequency or from a few special listening pipes.

The multi-phased redevelopment of Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London’s Bloomsbury area, means that the recently completed Morgan Stanley Clinical Building and the 1930s Southwood Building currently sit very close together. The latter is due to be demolished in 15 years, but in the intervening period large windows in the west elevation of the MSCB look directly onto a pipe-ridden brickwork facade, with the gap between the two less than one metre in places.

In our competition entry we proposed that the Southwood Building, with its oodles of mysterious pipes and plant is not really the Southwood Building, but the Lullaby Factory, manufacturing and releasing gentle, beautiful lullabies to create a calming and uplifting environment for the young patients to recover in.

Our aim for this project was to re-imagine the Southwood façade as the best version of itself, accepting and celebrating its qualities and oddities; and rather than hiding what is difficult, creating something unique and site specific.

We have designed a fantasy landscape reaching 10 storeys in height and 32 metres in length, which can engage the imagination of everyone, from patients and parents to hospital staff, by providing an interesting and curious world to peer out onto. Aesthetically the Lullaby Factory is a mix of an exciting and romantic vision of industry, and the highly crafted beauty and complexity of musical instruments.

The Lullaby Factory consists of two complimentary elements: the physical factory that appears to carry out the processes of making lullabies and the soundscape. Composer and sound artist Jessica Curry has composed a brand new lullaby especially for the project, which children can engage with through listening pipes next to the canteen or from the wards by tuning into a special radio station.

Our design is mindful of the fact that the space between the two buildings is very tight and any attempt to tidy it up too much would have resulted in significantly reducing the sense of space and the amount of daylight reaching inside the surrounding buildings.

Above: concept sketch

We hope the project will inspire engagement in a variety of ways from children’s paintings to a resource for play specialists to a generator for future commissions.

Our design incorporates old tap and gauges reclaimed from a hospital boilerhouse that was in the process of being decommissioned.

The post Lullaby Factory by
Studio Weave appeared first on Dezeen.