Hasta La Ideas

This university library in Paris by French practice Beckmann-N’Thépé Architectes has a knobbly concrete facade that looks like blocks of earth.

The new Marne-la-Vallée Central University Library building comprises a recessed ground floor, which contains entrance and reception areas, and two upper floors inside a large concrete volume, which holds reading rooms with space for 1200 students.

Boxy bay windows provide large openings on the sides of the concrete facade, which has been shaped and coloured to look like soil.

“The rocky fragment of the library asserts a beauty that comes from harmony and seduction, which works subjectively on the viewer who is affected and moved,” architect Aldric Beckmann explained.

“Between naturalism and terror, the Marne-la-Vallée Library puts us in touch with our dreams – active, joyous, sometimes disturbing, comforting, but always salutary,” he added.

The glazed walls of the ground floor are surrounded by a moat and lend a lightness to the concrete above, making the weighty block appear to hover above the water.

The library is located alongside a 17th century farmhouse and outbuildings.

Photographs are by Beckmann-N’Thépé and Alain Deswarte.

We previously reported on two competitions won by Beckmann-N’Thépé, one for a zoological park outside St. Petersburg, Russia, and another to remodel Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki, Finland.

Earlier this week we featured a university library in Poland with a grid-like facade of red sandstone.

See all our stories about libraries »
See all our stories about universities »
See all our stories about concrete »

Here’s some more text from the architects:

Future heart and social area of the Marne-la-Vallée university campus, the new central library has the significant advantage of being located on an outstanding site: the Ferme de la Haute Maison. Dating from the 17th century, this historic site endows the building with a strategic role.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Its identity does not just stem from the quality of the constructions: the surrounding moat, which extends into a water garden, and the central courtyard which becomes the main parvis, are two federating components of this site, generating a special emotion.

Lower floor plan – click above for larger image

Positioned along the horizontal line of the existing gutters, the two parts of the building are marked and differentiated. The lower part (reception) recreates a frontality with the other part of the preserved Farm. Simple and rectilinear, it drops down towards the moat and becomes the support of the upper part (reading rooms).

First floor plan – click above for larger image

A suspended telluric volume, as though torn out of its natural element, it extends out on the garden side, pierced by projecting golden glass inclusions and patios which bring natural lighting from underneath.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

Inside, calm and whiteness prevail. Plants here and there create spatial sequences and provide additional visual comfort to the landscape installed. Special attention is also paid to the environmental quality (HEQ approach), mainly regarding energy management. Private and public spaces are clearly separated and marked out, allowing obvious management of the flows. The large functional entities can therefore be quickly identified by their morphology and their location.

Section – click above for larger image

Location: Cité Descartes, Champs sur Marne, Marne-la-Vallée – 77, France
Programme: Construction of a library / Landscape and moat / Reading rooms, auditorium, cafeteria, offices, logistics, car park (20 places)
Architects: Agence Beckmann-N’Thépé (Paris)
Client: Marne-la-Vallée University
Client Assistance: AURIS
Area: 8670 m2 net floor area + outside spaces
Cost: 19.6 M€ excl. VAT
Delivery date: May 2011 (site in progress)
Architectural design office team:
Project manager: Hélène Méhats

Elevation – click above for larger image

Architects: Fabio Cummaudo, Wilfried Daufy, Anne-Catherine Dufros, Marc Durand, Nicolas Gaudard, Thamila Hamiti, David Malaval, David Tajchman, Frédéric Taupin
Assistant architects: Amélie Authier, Maïté Dupont, Li Fang, Linna Lay, Laetitia Pignol
BET (technical design office) team:
Structure + Fluids: COTEC
HEQ (High Environmental Quality): Franck Boutté Consultant
Landscape designer: Emmanuelle Blanc
Facade engineer: VAN SANTEN
Economist: Sterling Quest Associates
Acoustics: PEUTZ
Fire safety + Fire Safety System coordinator: Prévention Consultants
Quality and technical building control: QUALICONSULT
Health and safety coordinator: Ouest Coordination
Building supervisor and coordinator: IPCS

Special finishes and materials:
Facade made from “earth-like” bulk-dyed architectonic concrete. Metallic structure and special glazed facades. Special textile fabric for false ceilings. HEQ standard (ventilation and heating, rainwater recovery), HEQ certification.

The post Marne-la-Vallée Central University Library
by Beckmann-N’Thépé Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

News: WXY Architecture are the third and final studio with plans for the future of New York’s Grand Central Terminal and have suggested a 380-metre skyscraper and a network of elevated cycling paths (+ slideshow).

Alongside other firms Foster + Parters and SOM, the architects were invited by the Municipal Art Society of New York to look at the public spaces in and around the 100-year-old station then come up with a strategy for the future.

Like Foster + Partners, WXY Architecture proposes the pedestrianisation of Vanderbilt Avenue, above which an elevated deck would surround the base of the 250-metre-high MetLife Building.

The architects refer to this deck as a “podium park”, which would feature transparent glass paving and seasonal plants, plus routes for cyclists and pedestrians and spaces to pause for reflection.

“The plan for Midtown’s near future needs to make the Grand Central neighbourhood a place people enjoy being in not just running through,” said WXY’s Claire Weisz.

The new skyscraper would be constructed to the west of the station and the architects have imagined a pyramidal structure with vertiginous gardens that protrude from the facade.

All three architecture teams presented their proposals at the third annual MAS Summit for New York City last week.

SOM’s design features a floating observation deck, while Foster + Partners’ plans are to widen approach routes.

Here’s a project description from WXY Architecture:

WXY Architecture + Urban Design was one of three distinguished firms invited by New York City’s Municipal Arts Society to create a vision for the future of the public areas around Grand Central Terminal and the surrounding East Midtown district. With deep experience in civic projects, the firm has proposed opening up more public space to city dwellers and visitors for enjoyment and reflection. The plan would also create inviting thoroughfares devoted to pedestrians and bicycle riders.

Proposed pedestrian and bicycle route – click above for larger image

“New zoning rules should trigger real transportation links to public space. One way is to harness the untapped potential of Grand Central’s edges” says Claire Weisz, one of WXY’s founding principals. “The plan for Midtown’s near future needs to make the Grand Central neighborhood a place people enjoy being in not just running through.”

WXY’s proposal would create a striking new ground transportation hub, through the following interventions:

» Transforming Vanderbilt Avenue into a pedestrian-only street,
» Creating new public spaces around the base of the MetLife building,
» Adapting the west side of the current Park Avenue Viaduct into an elevated pedestrian and bicycle path, with a glass floor and seasonal plantings, and
» Introducing a new tower, featuring “sky parks,” on the west side of Grand Central Terminal.

Focusing efforts along 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, the plan by WXY Architecture + Urban Design restores pedestrian-friendly amenities to what had been an automobile-centric urban layout. The pedestrian/auto hybrid strategy includes making Vanderbilt Avenue a pedestrian-only walkway. The west side of the Park Avenue viaduct would become an elevated promenade featuring tall grass plantings and glass paving — a space for reflection hovering over the city bustle.

Proposed new entrances – click above for larger image

Combining walkable skylights with wide staircases and a multi-level approach, points of entry to the Grand Central area become unusual and gracious outdoor rooms that provide access and support to an expanded terminal city. Direct access to and links between the multiple subway and train lines — including the new East Side Access/LIRR lines — would be greatly expanded and improved.

Egress from the MetLife building’s base would become visually striking and yet relaxing to use, with escalators transporting travelers into a cleared podium park. Some years after completion, visitors exiting via these escalators will have the experience of being greeted first by the park’s grove of trees, a pleasant surprise in the Midtown East district. Surrounded by an active facade and a sky lobby above, the podium park presents an opportunity for a unique public event space.

WXY’s plan also includes a proposed obelisk-shaped tower west of Grand Central Terminal. The tower’s graceful, elongated pyramidal lines are broken at odd intervals by garden terraces that protrude like enormous window-box gardens, and feature seasonal plantings. The roof is likewise vegetated, reinforcing New York City’s renewed commitment to finding and creating green spaces for the health and enjoyment of its citizens.

The post Third Grand Central Terminal proposal
includes 380-metre skyscraper appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architecture firm BIG has scattered miscellaneous street furniture from 60 different nations across a brightly coloured carpet of grass and rubber at this park in Copenhagen (+ slideshow).

The architects worked alongside landscape architects Topotek1 and artists Superflex on the design of the Superkilen park, which stretches 750 metres through the Nørrebro neighbourhood in the north of the city.

Neon signs from Russia and Qatar, picnic benches from Armenia and ping-pong tables from Spain are just some of the different objects in the park, which are meant to represent the nationalities of every local resident.

“Rather than plastering the urban area with Danish designs we decided to gather the local intelligence and global experience to create a display of global urban best practice comprising the best that each of the 60 different cultures and countries have to offer when it comes to urban furniture,” said BIG project leader Nanna Gyldholm Møller.

The park is split into three colour-coded zones and different objects can be found in each one.

A patchwork of pink rubber blankets the ground and covers the sides of buildings in the first zone, and the designers have planted maple trees with matching red leaves.

The local market is held here, beside benches from Brazil, cast iron litter bins from the UK and a Thai boxing ring. There’s also a children’s playground, containing a slide from Chernobyl, a climbing frame from India and a set of swings from Iraq.

Above: photograph is by Torben Eskerod

The second zone is conceived as an “urban living room” where locals play board games beneath the shelter of Japanese cherry trees and Liberian cedar trees.

Painted white lines run north to south across the ground but curve around the outside of the street furniture, which includes Belgian benches, Brazilian bar chairs, a Norwegian bike rack and a Moroccan fountain.

Above: photograph is by Torben Eskerod

Grass plains and hills comprise the third zone, which contains areas for sports, sunbathing and picnics.

A Texan pavilion provides a venue for line-dancing, while a sports arena accommodates football and basketball.

“Rather than perpetuating a perception of Denmark as a mono-ethnic people, the park portrays a true sample of the cultural diversity of contemporary Copenhagen,” said Topotek1′s Martin-Rein Cano.

See the initial designs for Superkilen in our earlier story.

Other landscape architecture on Dezeen includes an undulating public square in Mexico and a plaza in Austria.

Photography is by Iwan Bann, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Torben Eskerod

Here’s a detailed project description from BIG:

Superkilen Masterplan

Superkilen is a half a mile long urban space wedging through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. It has one overarching idea that it is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice – a sort of collection of global found objects that come from 60 different nationalities of the people inhabiting the area surrounding it. Ranging from exercise gear from muscle beach LA to sewage drains from Israel, palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia. Each object is accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing the object, what it is and where it is from – in Danish and in the language(s) of its origin. A sort of surrealist collection of global urban diversity that in fact reflects the true nature of the local neighborhood – rather than perpetuating a petrified image of homogenous Denmark.

Superkilen is the result of the creative collaboration between BIG, Topotek1 and SUPERFLEX, which constitutes a rare fusion of architecture, landscape architecture and art – from early concept to construction stage.

Above: photograph is by Torben Eskerod

A World Exhibition at Nørrebro

Superkilen is a park that supports diversity. It is a world exhibition of furniture and everyday objects from all over the world, including benches, lampposts, trash cans and plants – requisites that every contemporary park should include and that the future visitors of the park have helped to select. Superkilen reattributes motifs from garden history. In the garden, the translocation of an ideal, the reproduction of another place, such as a far off landscape, is a common theme through time. As the Chinese reference the mountain ranges with the miniature rocks, the Japanese the ocean with their rippled gravel, or how the Greek ruins are showcased as replicas in the English gardens. Superkilen is a contemporary, urban version of a universal garden.

Above: photograph is by Torben Eskerod

Three Zones, Three Colors – One Neighborhood

The conceptual starting point is a division of Superkilen into three zones and colors – green, black and red. The different surfaces and colors are integrated to form new, dynamic surroundings for the everyday objects.

The desire for more nature is met through a significant increase of vegetation and plants throughout the whole neighborhood arranged as small islands of diverse tree sorts, blossom periods, colors – and origin matching the one of surrounding everyday objects.

Traffic Connections

To create better and more transparent infrastructure throughout the neighborhood, the current bike paths will be reorganized, new connections linking to the surrounding neighborhoods are created, with emphasis on the connection to Mimersgade, where citizens have expressed desire for a bus passage. This transition concerns the whole traffic in the area at outer Norrebro and is a part of a greater infrastructure plan. Alternatives to the bus passage include signals, an extended middle lane or speed bumps.

Market/Culture/Sport – The Red Square

As an extension of the sports and cultural activities at the Norrebrohall, the Red Square is conceived as an urban extension of the internal life of the hall. A range of recreational offers and the large central square allows the local residents to meet each other through physical activity and games.

The colored surface is integrated both in terms of colors and material with the Nørrebrohall and its new main entrance, where the surface merges inside and outside in the new foyer.

Facades are incorporated visually in the project by following the color of the surface conceptually folding upwards and hereby creating a three-dimensional experience. By the large facade towards Norrebrogade is an elevated open space, which almost like a tribune enables the visitors to enjoy the afternoon sun with a view.

In addition to the cultural and sports facilities, the Red Square creates the setting for an urban marketplace which attracts visitors every weekend from Copenhagen and the suburbs.

Superkilen’s central marketplace is located in the area of the existing hockey field. A large area on the square is covered by a multifunctional rubber surface to enable ballgames, markets, parades, and skating rinks in winter etc. The mobile tribunes of Norrebrohallen can be moved there for open-air movie/sports presentations. The square towards East allows outdoor service from the café inside by the future main entrance. Towards North, the visitors will enjoy basketball courts, parking spaces and an outdoor fitness area.

» The red square is defined by a street in each end and building and fences along the sides. The edge is moving in and out – and we have tied the area together by connecting the surrounding given lines and edges in the big red pattern. A big red carped stretched out between all sides of the square.
» Fitness area, Thai boxing, playground (slide from Chernobyl, Iraqi swings, Indian climbing playground), Sound system from Jamaica, a stencil of Salvador Allende, plenty of benches (from Brazil, classic UK cast Iron litter bins, Iran and Switzerland), bike stands and a parking area.
» Only red trees except the existing ones.
» Basket ball next to parking.

Urban Living Room – The Black Square

Mimers Plads is the heart of the Superkilen Masterplan. This is where the locals meet around the Moroccan fountain, the Turkish bench, under the Japanese cherry-trees as the extension of the area’s patio. In weekdays, permanent tables, benches and grill facilities serve as an urban living room for backgammon, chess players etc.

The bike traffic is moved to the East side of the Square by partly solving the problem of height differences towards Midgaardsgade and enable a bike ramp between Hotherplads and the intersecting bike path connection. Towards North is a hill facing south with a view to the square and its activity.

» The square can be spotted by the big, dentist neon sign from Doha, Qatar.
» Brazilian bar chairs under the Chinese palm trees, Japanese octopus playground next to the long row of Bulgarian picnic tables and Argentinean BBQ’s, Belgian benches around the cherry trees, UV (black light) light highlighting all white from the American shower lamp, Norwegian bike rack with a bike pump, Liberian cedar trees.
» To protect from the street ending at the north east corner of the square and to meet the wishes from the neighbors, we have folded up a corner of the square creating a covered space.
» Unlike the pattern on the red square, the white lines on Mimers Plads are all moving in straight lines from north to south, curving around the different furniture to avoid touching it. Here the pattern is highlighting the furniture instead of just being a caped under it.

Sport/Play – The Green Park

Bauman once said that “sport is one of the few institutions in society, where people can still agree on the rules”. No matter where you’re from, what you believe in and which language you speak, you can always play football together. This is why a number of sports facilities are moved to the Green Park, including the existing hockey field with an integrated basketball court as it will create a natural gathering spot for local young people from Mjolnerpark and the adjacent school.

The activities of the Green Park with its soft hills and surfaces appeals to children, young people and families. A green landscape and a playground where families with children can meet for picnics, sunbathing and breaks in the grass, but also hockey tournaments, badminton games and workout between the hills.

» The neighbors asked for more green so we ended up making the green park completely green – not only keeping and exaggerating the curvy landscape, but also painting all bike- and pedestrian paths green.
» From Tagensvej at the very north, the park is welcoming with a big rotating neon sign from USA, a big Italian chandelier and a black Osborne Bull from Costa del Sol (a wish from a Danish couple living in the area!).
» Armenian picnic tables next to Mjølnerparken with South African BBQ’s, a volcano shapes sports arena for basket ball and football, a line dance pavilion from Texas, muscle beach from LA with a high swing from Kabul, Spanish ping pong tables and a pavilion for the kids to hang out in.

The green park is turning into Mimers Plads on the top of the hill to the south. From the top of the hill you can almost overlook the entire Superkilen.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Facts

Client: Copenhagen Municipality, Realdania
Location: Nørrebro, Copenhagen / from Norrebrogade to Tagensvej
Function: Public space
Site area: 30.000 m2 / 322917 sq.ft / 750 m long public space
Completion: Spring 2012
Authorship: BIG, Topotek1, Superflex
Collaboration: Lemming Eriksson, Help PR & Communication
Budget: Ca. 58,5 MIO DDK / 7.7 MIO EUR / 11 MIO USD

Project credits

ARCHITECTURE: BIG
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Mikkel Marcker Stubgaard
Team: Ondrej Tichy, Jonas Lehmann, Rune Hansen, Jan Borgstrøm, Lacin Karaoz, Jonas Barre, Nicklas Antoni Rasch, Gabrielle Nadeau, Jennifer Dahm Petersen, Richard Howis, Fan Zhang, Andreas Castberg, Armen Menendian, Jens Majdal Kaarsholm, Jan Magasanik

LANDSCAPE: TOPOTEK1
Partners in charge: Martin Rein-Cano, Lorenz Dexler
Project Leader: Ole Hartmann + Anna Lundquist
Team: Toni Offenberger, Katia Steckemetz , Cristian Bohne, Karoline Liedtke

ART CONSULTANCY: SUPERFLEX
Partner-in-Charge: Superflex
Project Leader: Superflex
Team: Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen, Bjørnstjerne Christiansen

The post Superkilen by BIG, Topotek1
and Superflex appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects Estudio BaBO clad these three wooden houses in Patagonia, Argentina, with black-painted cypress so that they would look “as monolithic as possible” (+ slideshow).

“Some of the traditional wooden houses of the area are painted black, and we tried to replicate that effect,” architect Francisco Kocourek told Dezeen.

All three houses have pine frames and wooden walls, and only the roofing is metal. “We used to live and work in Norway where building entirely with wood is quite common,” explained Kocourek.

The rectangular houses are joined to one another, but are staggered to frame outdoor spaces at the front and rear.

Intersecting angled roofs disguise the boundaries between the different dwellings and create sloping ceilings in some of the rooms.

Entrances are located beneath recessed porches, which give each house a partially sheltered driveway.

More cypress wood can be found inside the houses, where it is used for flooring, skirting boards, doors and window frames.

Ground-floor living rooms and kitchens face each other across small, partially covered patios that are walled on three sides and open out to the gardens.

Upstairs, bedrooms and bathroom sit beneath the slanted ceilings, which are covered with chunky chipboard.

Located in a neighbourhood sparsely populated with detached houses, the units were built according to new planning regulations instated to encourage row houses.

Other projects clad in blackened wood that we’ve featured include a pointy gallery and studio in Japan and a sauna that can be towed like a sled.

See all our stories about blackened wood »

See all our stories about Argentina »

The information below is from the architects:

CLF Houses

The project is located on a plot along a low density residential street in the neighborhood of “El Once”, approximately 400 meters off the principal boulevard of Villa La Angostura. In spite of its apparent centric location, there is a predominance of small isolated and unaligned single family houses, empty “urban” plots and large private properties. In addition to these characteristics you will find the compacted rubble of the street, the absence of sidewalks, urban furniture and light points and the great profusion of trees give the area an unstructured and open character. A recent change in the regulations was made to modify this situation. The goal is to achieve a higher density in the area, without intention of creating an urban street section, by encouraging the construction of new row houses. This change comes with a very strict set of rules regarding the choice of materials, the use of colors in the facade and the angles of the roof.

Isometric diagram

The assignment was to design and build three units of row houses, each one of two floors. The program consists of a living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet, and laundry room on the ground floor and two bedrooms and a complete bathroom on the upper floor. A patio is incorporated in each of the units to enrich the visual connections and to open up the ground floor. It also allows a solution for the heights in the project to satisfy both the program and the regulations. The decision is also taken to step the units linearly freeing one of the sides of the patio. These operations guarantee a greater and more homogeneous natural lighting of the units and allow the visual impact of the project and its immediate environment to be minimized. Indirectly a greater privacy in the garden expansions is achieved, and the visuals from the living rooms are controlled. Volumetrically the project is articulated to be understood as one unit. The inclined planes of the roofs link the units together and the walls are understood as a result.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

One of the challenges presented was to build the whole project entirely of wood, including the structure and all enclosures and finishes. Despite the profusion of wood as a material in the south of Argentina, the lack of specialized knowledge and of a specialized industry narrow its uses to isolated structural elements and interior and exterior finishes, often presenting pathologies caused by their poor implementation. An integral system used in Norway based on the indications and experience of the “Norges Byggforskningsinstitutt” (Research Institute of the Construction of Norway) was chosen for the project. The system was adapted to the climatic (higher temperatures, more intense rain, less accumulation of snow), the physical (need for calculating seismic proof structures, different types and quality of wood) and human (unskilled labor, need to assemble a workshop under construction) reality of Argentina.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

The system is based on a structure entirely made of wood which extends to its wooden finished facade. Between the layers a contiguous, controlled air chamber the constant ventilation of the wood is guaranteed, keeping it from rotting, prolonging exponentially the life of the project and the materials. The system also ensures a continuous and substantial layer of insulation, avoiding any cold bridges and providing high interior comfort and energy saving. The windows are solved with double glazing. The heating in the project is solved with a combination of a radiant floor and a strategically located, high-performance salamander. The material palette and colors are reduced to a minimum of black, white, wood and metal. The facade is made of cypress painted black and the separation of the planks is based on the module of the metal plate covering the roof. All interior walls are white, the floors are made in black granite on the ground floor and parquet made of cypress on the upper floor. All the rest of the woodwork is made in natural cypress.

Cross section – click above for larger image

The objective was to analyze and understand the potential of this type of program and the different typologies regarding their placement and appropriation of the land and the resolution of the spatial relationship established between the different units. The approach to the materialization of the project from the details and from the adaptation of a constructive system borrowed from a different background was a unique consequence of the desire to use local materials. For this the application of the system on the site had to be carefully considered in order to be able to transcend the abstraction of our drawn intentions.

Type: Row houses
Architecture: Estudio BaBO
Team: Francisco Kocourek, Francesc Planas Penadés, Marit Haugen Stabell
Collaborators: Marcos Buceta
Construction: Arq. Francisco P. Kocourek
Structure: Ing. Julio C. Pacini
Location: Villa la Angostura, Neuquén, Argentina
Plot Area: 1040 m2
Built Area: 310 m2
Project Year: 2009
Construction Year: Jan 2010 – May 2011

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Estudio BaBO appeared first on Dezeen.

This terrace of eight houses by Peter Barber Architects is clad with timber shingles to match the neighbouring fences and sheds of a housing estate in east London (+ slideshow).

“The building sits at the rear of a 1960s council estate, where there are little rear gardens, rickety sheds and a patchwork of wooden fences,” Peter Barber told Dezeen. “Our building shares a similar aesthetic.”

The timber shingles also create an analogous pattern and texture to the brick walls of the surrounding residences, which face onto the same community garden as the new houses.

Each house has at least two small terraces, whether on the roof or at ground level, and Barber hopes over time these will “get planted and personalised by the people that live there”.

The largest residence has seven bedrooms, while one has six and the others have either three or four.

Half of the houses will be allocated to social housing tenants, while the other half will be sold.

Isometric diagram – click above for larger image

Other housing projects on Dezeen by Peter Barber Architects include 25 new houses elsewhere in east London and a new urban quarter in west London.

Site plan – click above for larger image

See more projects by Peter Barber Architects »

Floor plans – click above for larger image

Photography is by Morley von Sternberg

Here’s a few details from Peter Barber Architects:

Hannibal Road Gardens/Beveridge Mews

Hannibal Road Gardens is a social housing project set around a community garden in Stepney.

The proposal replaces a problematic strip of garages and creates a fourth side to a square within an existing housing estate with 3 slab blocks forming the other sides.

Typical ground floor plan – click above for larger image

The newly landscaped and densely planted community garden created in the centre of the square will be overlooked by a delightful new terrace of eight contemporary family houses.

The new row of houses is conceived as a continuation of the timber garden fences of the existing housing blocks, being constructed from timber and configured as a series of stepped and notched south east facing garden terraces.

Typical first floor plan – click above for larger image

The accommodation is predominantly made up of large family houses (3, 4, 6 bedrooms). These will be 100% affordable, 50% of which are to be socially rented.

Typical second floor plan – click above for larger image

Key features:

» High density, large houses created on a difficult, single-aspect site;
» Innovative notched terrace typology, creating a variety of amenity spaces and outlooks;
» All courtyard houses have their own front door and a minimum of two large courtyards / roof terraces;
» Great example of collaborative approach to planning, working closely with Tower Hamlets Planners and Highways Officers.

Typical roof plan – click above for larger image

Client: Southern Housing Group
Contract Value: c£1.5 million
London Borough of Tower Hamlets

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by Peter Barber Architects appeared first on Dezeen.