Hasta La Ideas

More bamboo: this floating tea house in Yangzhou, by Chinese architects HWCD Associates, features brick rooms linked by louvred bamboo corridors and brises soleil.

Situated in the ShiQiao garden in Yangzhou, a city to the northwest of Shanghai, the tea house is organised in asymmetric cubes on a lake.

Tall rows of bamboo create corridors along the outdoor walkway. The bamboo is arranged vertically and horizontally to produce “interesting depth” and visual effects as you walk around, the architects told Dezeen.

Lights are inset into the door frames, providing a glowing pathway between the grey brick buildings.

We’ve featured tea houses from all over the world on Dezeen, including a lantern-like structure near Washington, D.C. and a timber and rope teahouse in the Czech Republic.

Recent stories about bamboo architecture include a Bangkok hair salon with thousands of bamboo stalactites and a thatched bamboo bar in the middle of a lake in Vietnam.

See all our stories about tea houses »
See all our stories about China »

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Tea, one of China’s most precious culture heritages has remained popular throughout the thousands of years. As tea leaves come from modest tea trees, through the long process of picking the leaves, drying the leaves and finally produces a cup of tea.

Thus, tea requires an unassuming setting in order to understand its lengthy process. Today, the appreciation of Chinese tea has become an art and furthermore, many teahouses are designed for this purpose.

Amongst the lush ShiQiao garden, stands this humble tea house which embraces the traditional Chinese garden fundamentals while blending into the natural environment.

The tea house is known as the bamboo courtyard as it mainly uses bamboo to create an interesting play of vertical and horizontal lines. In some spaces, the vertical and horizontal elements intensify to form a psychedelic perspective, evoking a profound sensory perception.

Traditionally, Yangzhou courtyards are formed with inward facing pavilions, creating an internal landscape space. So, drawing inspiration from this, the bamboo courtyard was designed from a basic square footprint, fragmented into small spaces to create an internal landscape area. Each of the spaces has views into the surrounding lake, allowing a panoramic view of the area.

As one walks through the bamboo courtyard, the asymmetrical corridors present an intentional semi-obstructed vision with the layering of bamboos.

There is a strong experiential sense of space, layered from one to another; from totally open to the internal lake to narrow spaces between the rough brick finish and bamboo curtain.

Section – click above for larger image

From the exterior, the bamboo courtyard has a cube form with a variation of solids and voids. The strong verticality becomes more apparent at night when the teahouse lights up to illuminate the surroundings. The simple form illustrates the harmonious blending of architecture with nature.

North elevation

Moreover, the natural materials such as bamboo and bricks have low embodied energy and low impact on the environment. The pocket of voids improves natural ventilation within the bamboo courtyard while the thick brick wall retains heat in winter, reducing the dependency of mechanical heating and cooling system.

East elevation

One who appreciates tea would understand that every serving of tea differs in colour, scent and taste even if it is from the same pot. There is a layering of experience in enjoying every cup of tea. Thus, the bamboo courtyard is an abstraction of the tea experience, creating layers of experience through spaces.

South elevation

If tea is an art and architecture is a way of life, then the bamboo courtyard is the portrait of the both worlds.

West elevation

Location: ShiQiao, Yangzhou
Client: Building And Construction Authority of YangZhou Economic and Technological Development Zone
Client-side Project Manager: YaoQiang
Design Firm: Harmony World Consulting & Design (HWCD)
Design-partner-in-charge: Sun Wei, Shi Jun
Building Area: 400m2
Completed: May 2012

The post Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse
by HWCD Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Benthem Crouwel Architects have completed the new extension to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which looks rather like the underside of a kitchen sink (+ slideshow).

Designed by A. W. Weissman in 1895 the museum’s original red brick building has been renovated and enlarged with a curvy white extension, part of which is underground.

The entrance is situated in a transparent facade facing onto the open grassy expanse of Museumplein.

The upper edges of the white extension extend outwards to shelter the plaza.

Above image is by Ernst van Deursen

The museum’s shop and restaurant are located next to the entrance, while a large exhibition hall, library and ‘knowledge centre’ all lie below ground.

Above image is by KLM Carto

Two escalators in an enclosed tube connect the exhibition spaces on the lower and upper levels, allowing visitors to bypass the entrance area.

We recently featured another large white extension to a red brick building – a museum in a former brewery in Zurich.

See all our stories about museums »
See all our stories about Amsterdam »

Photographs are by John Lewis Marshall except where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum is renovated and enlarged. Designed by A.W. Weissman, the building is celebrated for its majestic staircase, grand rooms and natural lighting. These strong points have been retained in the design along with the colour white introduced throughout the museum by former director Willem Sandberg. The existing building is left almost entirely intact and in full view by lifting part of the new volume into space and sinking the rest underground.

Its entrance has been moved to the open expanse of Museumplein where it occupies a spacious transparent extension. The smooth white volume above the entrance, also known as ‘the Bathtub’, has a seamless construction of reinforced fibre and a roof jutting far into space. With this change in orientation and the jutting roof, the museum comes to lie alongside a roofed plaza that belongs as much to the building as to Museumplein. Against the backdrop of the old building, the white synthetic volume is the new powerful image of the Stedelijk Museum.

Besides the entrance, a museum shop and the restaurant with terrace are situated in the transparent addition on ground level. Below the square are among others, a knowledge centre, a library and a large exhibition hall of 1100 m2. From this lowest level in the building it is possible to move to a new exhibition hall in the floating volume level. Via two escalators in an enclosed “tube”, straight through the new entrance hall, the two exhibition areas are connected. This way the visitor crosses the entrance area without leaving the exhibition route and without being distracted by the public functions; visitors remain in the museum atmosphere.

The detailing and color on the inside of the old and new buildings is in alignment, making the explicit contrast between the old building and the new building barely noticeable when walking through the museum. The Weissman building is reinstated in its former glory as it embarks on a new life, facing Museumplein, under one roof with the new addition.

Client: City of Amsterdam
Architect: Benthem Crouwel Architekten
Gross floor area: 12000 m²
Start design: 2004
Start construction: 2007
Completion: 2012

The post Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam by
Benthem Crouwel Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Russian studio Za Bor Architects have furnished the new St. Petersburg offices of internet company Yandex like the desktop of a computer, with pixellated backgrounds and huge icons (+ slideshow).

The offices are organised along a 200-metre-long corridor, where screens and shelves take the shape of a music play button, cursor arrows, the @ symbol and even a Pacman logo.

A printing station is concealed behind a large bulbous clock and meeting rooms are framed by ribbon-like shapes and coloured curtains.

The reception desk resembles a text box, like one where a computer user inputs their username or password.

Yandex is currently the largest search engine is Russia and the architects explain how they wanted to give guests the impression of being ”inside the Yandex search service.”

We’ve also featured interiors of other technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Skype – see them all here.

See all our stories about office interiors »

Photography is by Peter Zaytsev.

Here’s a project description from Za Bor Architects:

It is indicative that this office is to some extent a return to the roots of cooperation of za bor architects and the largest Russian IT-corporation Yandex.

The first office developed for Yandex by za bor architects is in the same building of the Benois business center in Saint Petersburg, but on a lower floor. In 2008 it was a brilliant premiere published by almost all the leading architecture and design media in Russia. The project has picked up many awards.

Four years later za bor architects and Yandex had decided to repeat the success on a larger scale – Yandex Saint-Petersburg office II is almost twice as large as the previous one – it houses the entire fourth floor of the building and has a corridor about 200 meters long (total floor area 3310 sqm), but size doesn’t matter, clients wanted an “extraordinary office like no other.”

So the architects had at least two challenges – first to organize a very complex space outstretched along a central corridor axis. The second challenge was to make the office a showy and impressive.

After a long thought Peter Zaytsev, and Arseniy Borisenko, the project architects, decided to use the double loaded zoning, with meeting cells, work areas, and unusual objects located along the corridor. The unusual objects being provided with a particular function. As a result of this concept implementation, guests find themselves inside the Yandex search service: at the reception they are met by a well-known “Search” button and a yellow arrow (an unofficial Yandex logo and a significant part of the web-site).

While passing the corridors they see the familiar user name and email password input boxes, and at each step they meet symbols and icons of Yandex services, although they are not always easy to recognize as tiny pixel icons, had turned into 3D objects.

The office guests receive a unique transcendental background, the one of which Aldous Huxley hadn’t even dreamed of. Visitors find themselves both in an amazing space which architects had transformed from linear into 3D, observing the pixel objects which grew to gigantic proportions.

Thus, according to the architects conception, guests and employees of the office are involved into Yandex net services, to which they are accustomed to work with exclusively in 2D screen. That is why in some places miniature “icons”, which grew to giant size are breaking to large volume “pixels” sprouting from the walls.

Bright colors, spots scattered here and there, guide visitors through the office and cheering up the office staff.

Speaking of function, many of the major elements seem to be decorative only at first glance. The spiral elements for example are separating the informal communication zone from the corridor. The casted polymer “jellyfish” clocks contain network printers station, etc.

The project has turned out rather complex, the first thing because no one did such things before, not only in Saint Petersburg but even in Russia. Therefore, many solutions are made on the spot during on-site designer supervision.

The difficulties were not caused by 3D objects – they are made according to advertising designs technologies (their cages are filled with polystyrene foam, meeting all standards of fire and environmental safety).

On the other hand – the ceiling, build up of original “blades” was extremely difficult to install.

As Yandex offices have twenty-four-hours operation schedule, the project was provided with variety of well-developed recreation zones.

In addition to working areas and rooms, the office has a gym, cafeteria, showers, and several coffee-points.

The number of formal and informal points for negotiation, two lecture halls, and workplaces perfectly equipped with Herman Miller and Walter Knoll systems, make this office a place of attraction, fascinate visitors, and surely makes work very enjoyable pastime.

Plan – click above for larger image 

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by Za Bor Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Every room inside this concrete house in Kyoto by Torafu Architects is accessible for a resident in a wheelchair (+ slideshow).

Both a lift and staircase connect the ground floor with the central living room and kitchen on the floor above, where worktops are set at a reduced height.

Smaller rooms surround this living/dining room on every side and feature sloping ceilings that don’t all correspond with the shape of the roof outside.

A large square aperture reveals the location of a courtyard along one side of the house, with openings that let natural light into the rooms beyond and below.

Other recent projects by Torafu Architects include a shelf with a secret drawer and a skincare shop with stained wooden surfaces that look like marble.

See all our stories about Torafu Architects »

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Here’s a project description from Torafu Architects:

House in Kitaoji

Located in a quiet housing estate in Kyoto, this house was designed with a hard concrete outer shell in order to protect the client need for privacy from the outside, as well as for accessibility in a wheelchair-bound lifestyle.

Firstly, to protect the privacy of the family, we built walls along the site boundary to elevate the main living space, which is maximised on the 2nd floor.

We designed a large central space with individual rooms, wet areas and circulation and other utility spaces surrounding it, to ensure a distance is kept well from the outside.

This compact formation also eliminated the need for passageways in this house.

In contrast with the outer wall of this building, we used various kinds of furniture at the central space as partitions to softly separate the internal areas.

Avoiding windows along the road, we located spaces with open ceilings and a terrace inside the building for light and ventilation.

This way, the occupants can feel the outside anywhere from within this central space.

Considering the environment of the site resulted in a building with a gabled form.

We folded the roofs of the small rooms around the central space into the yard to achieve a funnel shaped cross section, which allows light to enter easily into centre of the house.

We also individualised the rooms by giving each a different ceiling height.

Although unseen from the outside, within the spaces of these different rooms under this big roof, a bright and open space was made possible.

Principle use: House
Facility design: Daiko(Lightings)
Structural design: Takashi Manda Structural Design
Production: Kyoto kensetsu

Above: ground floor plan

Building site: Kyoto
Site area: 139.39m2
Total floor area: 133.93m2

Above: first floor plan

Number of stories: 2F
Structure: RC

Above: section A-A

Design period: 2010.07-2011.10
Construction period: 2011.11-2012.08

Above: section B-B

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by Torafu Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Slideshow feature: Dezeen architecture reporter Amy Frearson selects her top five pavilions from the Giardini at the Venice Architecture Biennale in this slideshow, including the shape-shifting Dutch pavilion and an earthquake in an empty room.

Other exhibitions at the biennale include a huge pleated metal funnel by Zaha Hadid and an archive of local authority-designed buildings presented by OMA.

See all our stories from the biennale here and watch our interview with director David Chipperfield here.

The post Dezeen’s top five pavilions at the
Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 appeared first on Dezeen.