Hasta La Ideas

Stripy glass screens obscure views between rooms at this dental clinic in Torres Vedras, Portugal, by MMVArquitecto (+ slideshow).

Patterned with vertical stripes of green and black, the semi-transparent walls surround the reception and waiting area of the clinic and are made from recycled glass panels of different thicknesses.

“The inspiration came from a block of ice,” architect Miguel Marques Venâncio told Dezeen, and explained how he wanted to “potentiate the reflections and the vibrations of the light, creating a perception of space that is constantly mutating.”

Narrow recesses fold around the walls and ceilings, and are illuminated from behind to provide channels of light.

Apart from the colourful screens, the clinic has an all-white interior that is only interrupted by a handful of red and blue chairs within the three surgery rooms.

See more stories about dentists on Dezeen »

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s some more information from MMVArquitecto:

The challenge is based on the re-interpretation of a Dental Clinic, in the search of a new clarity and spatial character.

The site is located on a first floor of a common building in the centre of Torres Vedras. The space requires a new image to provoke new atmospheres, new sensations.

The desire of creating a distinguished space in the city, more paused, contemplative, a space of reflection, leading to the discovery of the importance of silence and of spaces apparently empty yet full of drive.

An experimentation where the selection of materials is sustained by the nobleness of the materials. That experimentation is essentially realised with the immaterial architectural element, which is space.

Working with space, is determined by perception, paths, light, reflections, transparencies, fluidity.

The mass composed by a summary of recycled glasses, potentiates the reflections and the vibrations of the light, by creating a perception of space that is constantly mutating.

The search of a timeless space, with a plentitude of senses, where light is filtered in different ways, gives poetry to spaces, dignifying them.

Location: Torees Vedras, Portugal
Client: R. Leal
Architect: Migues Marques Venâncio

Collaborators: B. Pedrosa (project, digital images), V. Vázquez (project), M. Álvarez (project), T. Palos (models, drawings)
Construction supervision: MMVArquitecto
Construction company: António Manuel Nogueira Cesário

Plan – click above for larger image and key

Long section – click above for larger image

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MMVArquitecto appeared first on Dezeen.

Beijing Design Week: designer Arthur Huang used Nike shoe material to create a colourful web in a rusting gas tower during Beijing Design Week (+ slideshow).

Designed for running shoes, the Flyknit fabric is made from precisely engineered yarns and Nike have commissioned a series of designers around the world to showcase the material in an installation for the Nike Flyknit Collective.

This installation, named The Feather, was created by stretching thin strings of the lightweight fabric from various points around the tower in a pattern that looked like a drawing made by a Spirograph toy.

A circular pavilion made from recycled plastic bricks sat on the ground in the centre of the tower and contained a single pair of shoes suspended in the air.

Splayed metal rods folded over the pavilion walls, providing the framework for a two-layered canopy of tightly woven fabric.

Springs under the pavilion floor were connected to the metal rods so the strings moved up and down when people walked around inside.

The gas tower is located in the 751 art district in the north-east of Beijing, a former industrial zone that is now home to many galleries and studios.

Watch a movie of Nike’s global creative director talking about the knitted Flyknit Racer running shoes here.

See all our stories about Beijing Design Week »

See all our stories about Nike »

Here is some more information from Nike:

Arthur Huang’s “Feather Pavilion”

Taipai-based engineer, architect, entrepreneur and pioneer in sustainable thinking, Arthur Huang, sees the world differently. His interpretation of FlyKnit’s key tenets — performance, lightness, formfitting, and sustainability — created through his MINIWIZ company, is both metaphorical and literal, resulting in the Feather Pavilion.

This spectacular space is a platform for showcasing every value of FlyKnit in an interactive, innovative way, that lets multiple concepts take flight though inspiration from nature’s own mechanical masterpiece — the feather.

Itself encapsulating the four FlyKnit principles, the feather is reflected conceptually throughout as well as physically though the shape of the pavilion roof, resulting in a personalized journey for visitors that, like FlyKnit and the Nike philosophy, is part of something much bigger — portable and capable of being the centerpiece of a stadium or larger exhibition space.

After seeing FlyWire innovations, guests enter a second half where the concept surrounds them for a 360 degree understanding of the technology where they can revel in Huang and Miniwiz’s vision.

Performance is represented through every element of Huang’s work – just by walking into the pavilion, stepping onto the platform creates a sensory action elsewhere in the structure.

Kinetic energy changes the look and the actual architectural form of this building, The ceiling moves like a feather, sounds are emitted and light and video is transmitted both internally and externally throughout the walls and floors, resulting in a sense of technical and musical harmony.

Lightness imbues every element of the Feather Pavilion experience – beyond being visually themed on the very essence of lightweight, the lightweight feel and transparency of the recycled TPU POLLI-Brick construction twinned with the shifting ceiling makes it utterly immersive. Formfitting is embodied in the precision engineered, industrial and tailored spirit of this project.

An intricate pulley system mirrors the motion of a loom, similar to the looms that create FlyKnit, while the building adjusting in line withthe form of its occupants, taking the form of a feather in the wind, transforms pure physics into an expansion of Nike’s breakthrough.

Sustainability is more than just a buzzword. It’s a testament to MINIWIZ’s work in the field that the sustainable nature of this entire structure, with the POLLIBrick compression walls, might go unnoticed.

This is the art of turning trash, something of no perceived value, something seen as primitive, into something awe inspiring. Made entirely from recycled TPU, each POLLI-Brick interlocks to create a resilient structure. To add further 100% organic reinforcement, recycled rice husks continue this design’s merger of tradition and the future of creativity.

Made with specifications from Nike’s R&D lab after a visit to Nike WHQ in Beaverton, a yarn runs through the pavilion in a Volt Green colour that matches the smaller scale version, turning into rugged caribiner cables that tie, with the threads becoming rope. This is function and beauty on a scale never before seen. And at the end of its own journey, the Feather Pavilion is capable of being recycled to create the next visionary MINIWIZ structure.

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Arthur Huang appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian architect Omar Gandhi has completed a wooden cabin for two artists that appears to be climbing up a hill in rural Nova Scotia (+ slideshow).

Surrounded by woodland, Moore Studio is built on the side of a slope so that the upper floor is accessible through the back door – an arrangement that creates jagged, asymmetrical elevations at each end.

While the western side of the house has a simple gabled roof, the eastern side of the roof has been split to create a long clerestory window on the upper floor.

The exterior walls are clad with vertical timber while seamed aluminium has been used on the roof.

Inside the house, plywood and chunky chipboard appear on the walls, floors and ceilings alongside industrial fixtures such as bare bulbs and concrete floors, ”emphasising the rawness of the interior,” as the architect explains.

On the ground floor are a double height kitchen, dining area and living room, leading to two bedrooms at the front of the house and two bathrooms and a storage room at the rear.

Two separate first-floor studios overlook the kitchen and are partly lit by the narrow glazing in the roof.

We’ve previously featured a writer’s retreat in the woods of upstate New York and a series of artist’s studios on a small island off the coast of Canada.

See all our stories about Canada »

Above photo is by Omar Gandhi

See all our stories about houses »

Photographs are by Greg Richardson except where stated.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The clients, who are new empty-nesters with two dogs, had previously been full time artists before finding other work to support their family. The project is intended to be a vehicle for pursuing their youthful ambitions once again. The new home is built on a recently purchased piece of land amidst a dense forest in the small town of Hubbard’s, Nova Scotia, approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Halifax.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

The 1500 square foot house is designed to be left exceedingly raw, providing open spaces and allowing plenty of natural daylight to penetrate the interior. The objective was to provide a platform for their artistic aspirations to flourish once again, while also providing a quiet setting for the couple to enjoy the surrounding landscape with their dogs, free of the stress of the city.

First floor plan – click above for larger image and key

The project relies heavily on idea of metamorphosis. The point of departure for the form began as a simple and elegant gable with a 12:12 roof pitch, a vernacular form commonly found in Nova Scotia. As the design process began, the undemanding form began to shift and change to allow for the space and natural lighting requirements of the clients, while still relying heavily on the simplicity of the original gable.

Section

The unique product of this distortion is a result of the relationship between all of the entities involved, including the landscape, the programme and the clients.

Section

The palette of the designed house is soft wood, exposed to the sometimes harsh weather of Nova Scotia, aluminium roofing and concrete floors. The interior walls, floors and ceilings are clad in plywood and OSB, reducing the need for drywall to a minimum and emphasizing the rawness of the interior.

East elevation – click above for larger image

The ground floor includes a double height kitchen and dining space, a living room, 2 bedroom and bathrooms. The upper floor is separated into two individual studios for Peg and Garth, each looking down upon the kitchen from above.

South elevation – click above for larger image

Materials such as caged industrial fixtures, salvaged steel grating and natural construction materials (plywood) flank the interior space. Stretching along the main façade of the house is a continuous strip of windows, which allow for a long view of the property and opens up the main floor to the exterior.

West elevation – click above for larger image

The upper floor is lit by an end to end clerestory window. The upper floor also opens up to the rear bank as the house is built on the side of a natural hill. Adjacent to the house, a steel shipping container has been re-used as a shed. The house was built by young and highly skilled local contractors Mike Burns and Adam Smith at MRB Contracting.

North elevation – click above for larger image

Moore Studio
Client: Peg and Garth Moore
Location: Hubbards, Nova Scotia
Project Status: Completed Winter 2012
Architect: Omar Gandhi Architect
Contractor: MRB Contracting (Mike Burns)
Structural Engineer: Andrea Doncaster
Physical Model: Ryan Beecroft, Jeff Shaw, Omar Gandhi (photography)

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Omar Gandhi appeared first on Dezeen.

Chunky concrete boxes form a grid of secluded balconies across the facade of this apartment block in Kyoto by Japanese studio VIDZ Architects.

The architects explain that the five-storey building is located on a main road near “many factories”, so the balconies have high concrete walls to “ensure privacy”.

Windows infill the spaces between each balcony, with translucent glazing that also helps to maintain privacy for residents.

The building was completed in 2007, and a concrete stairwell connects it with a second block completed by the architects back in 2000.

Offices with exposed concrete walls occupy the top floor of the block and open out onto a terrace with a view of the city skyline.

We’ve previously featured an apartment block with a mask of wooden louvres, as well as one with indoor balconies for keeping an eye on who’s coming and going.

See all our stories about housing »

See all more projects in Japan »

Photography is by Yoshiharu Matsumura.

Elevation – click above for larger image

Project credits:
Principle use: Housing
Location: Kyoto,Japan
Completion: 2000 (1st), 2007 (2nd)
Site area: 925.58 sq m
Total floor area: 1,969.86 sq m
Number of stories: 5F
Structure: RC

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by VIDZ Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This six-sided building covered in mirrors is the new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in Ohio by London-based architect Farshid Moussavi (+ slideshow).

The four-storey building, which opened this weekend, features faceted walls clad in mirrored black stainless steel and replaces the museum’s former address in the loft of an old playhouse complex.

Visitors to the museum arrive inside a full-height atrium, where the structure of the walls is left exposed and the surfaces have been painted bright blue.

White staircases lead up to galleries on each of the floors, including a large top floor exhibition space where the ceiling is coloured with the same blue paint as the walls to offer an alternative to the standard ‘white-cube’ gallery.

Located at the intersection of two major avenues, the museum faces onto a new public square by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations and has entrances on four of its elevations for flexibility between different exhibitions and events.

As the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is a non-collecting museum, it places extra emphasis on public programmes and events, which will take place inside a double-height multi-purpose space on the building’s ground floor.

Farshid Moussavi Architecture completed the project in collaboration with architects Westlake Reed Leskosky, who are based in Cleveland.

The museum first unveiled the designs for the building back in 2010, which you can see in our earlier story.

Farshid Moussavi launched her studio just over a year ago – find out more here.

Photography is by Dean Kaufman.

Here’s some more information from the architect’s website:

MOCA is a 34,000 sq. ft. non-collecting museum in the emerging Uptown district of Cleveland’s University Circle neighbourhood. Located on the corner of a triangular site at the junction of two major roads, the building will act as a beacon for this area of the city.

The new MOCA is arranged as a multi-storey building in order to produce a compact envelope and optimal environmental performance, and to liberate space for a museum plaza. The building in this location is exposed on all sides and has multiple entrances which will bring the museum added flexibility. Its prismatic form is clad in mirror black stainless steel panels which are arranged along a diagonal grid to follow the diagonal load bearing structure of the external envelope. These reflective panels will respond to weather changes and movement around the museum, providing visitors with constantly changing perceptions.

Upon entering the building, visitors will find the structure left exposed on the interior face of the envelope and treated with a fire-resistant, intense blue paint. The museum’s public and “back of house” activities will be interspersed along the section of the building and accessed physically and visually by a grand stair which ascends the museum’s vertical atrium. Each floor is designed to host a variety of configurations for maximum flexibility, with the blue inner surface which envelopes the different spaces providing a consistency across the various museum events. In the main gallery on the top floor, the blue surface will rise to form a deep blue ceiling, evoking the sky or a sense of boundlessness in contrast to the traditional idea of the gallery as a white, sealed, cube.

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by Farshid Moussavi appeared first on Dezeen.