Israeli ceramicist Michal Fargo produces these vases by ripping blocks of spongy foam into rough shapes before dipping them in porcelain and firing them (+ slideshow).
Vase from the original Else collection
Michal Fargo developed the unusual technique used to make her Else collection as a way of avoiding parting lines and pouring points that determine the conventional ceramic casting process.
Vase from the original Else collection
“The idea was to create different surfaces in ceramics, to find something interesting and diverse and in some ways more authentic,” said Fargo in a video about the project.
Detail of vase from the original Else collection
The Rock vases, which form part of the Naturelike collection developed for Spanish limited edition brand PCM, are made by tearing chunks from foam blocks until they take on the shape of vessels with a random natural appearance on their internal and external surfaces.
Else Rock Vases from the Naturelike collection
After dipping them in liquid porcelain with a coloured stain, the vases are fired in an outdoor kiln to harden the material while retaining the porous surface detail of the foam.
Foam shapes used to create the Else collection. Photograph by Sasha Flit.
“I was really bored with mould-making and having all these clear, smooth surfaces so I started sculpting in sponge and then just dipping it and firing it,” explained Fargo. “Afterwards I started trying to do some other things like casting into sponge blocks.”
Else Moss Vases from the Naturelike collection
Other pieces in the Naturelike collection are produced using rubber moulds cast inside rough foam shapes. Resin poured into the moulds preserves the bubbly texture of the foam as it sets.
Else Coral Vases from the Naturelike collection
The resin is coloured to give the Coral vases their distinct bright-red hue, and the Moss pieces their subtle green shade.
Vase from the original Else collection
As well as her hands, Fargo uses a small saw and a Japanese knife to carve out organic shapes with different textural surfaces.
Vase from the original Else collection
The Rock vases and centrepiece bowl have been produced as one-offs as the foam shapes used to create them are destroyed during the firing process, while the Coral and Moss designs are made in limited editions.
These asymmetric holiday homes with vivid yellow walls were designed by Korean office Studio Koossino to accommodate visitors travelling to a botanic garden outside Seoul (+ slideshow).
Studio Koossino‘s architects say they were influenced by the historic stone Moai statues of Easter Island in Chile when developing the design for the six vacation residences, which are located on a gentle hillside in Gapyeong County.
Like the statues, the Moai Pension buildings each have the same shape – a top-heavy volume with a concrete base and a faceted upper section. They are also lined up alongside one another so that each appears to be facing in the same direction.
“Various sizes of Moai have similar shapes,” architect Jae Hwan Lee told Dezeen. “This project has arranged similar mass on an inclined plane, creating a sense of place by emphasising repeating images.”
Bright yellow panels clad the cantilevered upper floors of each building so that they stand out against the green landscape, which the architect says makes them “a milestone” for tourists on their way to the Garden of Morning Calm arboretum.
The colour reappears inside the homes, where doors, staircases and furniture are picked out in yellow to stand out against the white and grey tones of the walls, lighting fixtures and upholstery.
Each residence contains a kitchen on its lower level, leading out to a small patio and pool, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the top floors and feature sheltered balconies.
Studio Koossino also designed a single-storey stucture at the base of the site, which facilitates reception areas, a cafe and a rooftop swimming pool.
Photography is by Jae Seong Lee.
Here’s a project description from Studio Koossino:
Sketch of MOAI Architecture
The 6000m2 site has a 10m slope. In order to make active use of the inclined plane, a horizontal mass was inserted in the core. The horizontal mass consisting of a gallery café and a pool at the upper part serves as a stylobate for the cutting area.
An atypical mass of six buildings was put on the stylobate linked to the gentle slope. The atypical mass with a motif of mysterious stone statues, Moai in Chilean Easter Island is remembered as a milestone of Mother Nature.
The outer surface was painted in yellow with a stark contrast to the natural colour while the inner atypical space was painted in homogeneous white to maximise the diffusion of light.
The light that comes through the scuttle and the side slit window induces the volume of the space in various ways. The ground floor consisted of an open deck, a stand-alone swimming pool and a kitchen. The extended upper floor linked bathroom and bedroom so as to allow a visitor to look at the surrounding landscape.
The space of Moai is a place to confess, which feels calm. It has a spacious ground in which people can assimilate with nature and walk along the light and sound of the universe and surrounding landscape.
The Moai, located in Gapyeong, an hour and a half away from Seoul, provides workers running urban life with an opportunity to take a rest in the bosom of nature.
The Moai is perceived as a milestone by people headed for the Arboretum and remains as a memorable object. The mass of the Moai located changing its course little by little along the gentle slope is emphasised as a consistent form. It sends a more obvious message by repeating a mono-typical shape rather than a dispersed image of various planes or forms.
Architect: Seung Min Koo Project team: studio KOOSSINO Site area: 3258.00 sqm Building area: 594.49 sqm Gross floor area: 559.05 sqm Building coverage ratio: 20.00% Building scope: 1-6dong – 2-storey building/ 7dong – 1-storey building Structure: reinforced concrete
Site planGround floor planFirst floor planRoof planLong sectionCross section
Stockholm 2014: Swedish design studio Front has launched a modular storage system called Tetris that’s made up of stacked blocks (+ slideshow).
The product is named after the puzzle video game where the aim is to rotate and shift falling blocks of different shapes and sizes so they slot together.
Front‘s system for Swedish brand Horreds can be layered in different configurations to allow the user to create their own piece of furniture.
The modules are available in two different sizes, one square and one rectangular, of varying depths. They can be wall-mounted or piled on top of each other in any quantity and orientation to form furniture or room dividers.
By leaving the block as an open box it becomes a bookcase, glass doors create a display cabinet or solid doors create a cupboard.
“Everything from large, convenient devices for the office to small and fun furniture for your home can be created,” said Front. “You just have to mix and build!”
The customer can choose materials such as wood, felt, copper, leather, brass and steel. Each block can be a different material and colour or the whole can be coordinated.
Details such as steel legs and leather handles can be added to further personalise the design.
Foliage is scattered around the interior of this hotel in Berlin by designers Studio Aisslinger to create an “urban jungle” (+ slideshow).
Studio Aisslinger incorporated plants throughout the interior of the 149-room 25hours Bikini Berlin Hotel, located inside the listed 1950s Bikini-Haus building close to Berlin Zoo. “The [hotel] is as diverse as the big city it is located in and as wild as a jungle,” said the studio.
Walls of planters partition communal areas and bags filled with vegetation are hung from the ceiling sporadically.
Plants also climb through windows and doorways of the greenhouse-like restaurant.
The bar is stocked with bottles displayed in metal backed with wire mesh and drinkers can relax on large steps that double as seating.
Illuminated room numbers hang above doors along dark corridors with exposed concrete ceilings. Similar lettering marks communal areas such as the lounge.
Decorative features in the bedrooms include copper headboards and illustrations on the walls.
The hotel also boasts a sauna overlooking the Tiergarten park and a rooftop terrace with 360-degree views of the city.
25hours Bikini Berlin Hotel is due to open later this week. Photographs are copyright 25 Hours.
Here’s some more information from the designers:
25hours Bikini Berlin Hotel – Urban Jungle
25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin celebrates its grand opening on the 20th and 21st of February, 2014 in the heart of Berlin. Together with Restaurant Neni Berlin and Monkey Bar the new hotel on the bor- der between city and jungle is going wild.
The 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin is as diverse as the big city it is located in and as wild as a jungle. The hotel showcases cosmopolitan Berlin at its location in the listed Bikini-Haus building between the Tiergarten park and Breitscheidplatz with Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The hotel is popular not only among its own guests thanks to the restaurant and bar on the top floor with a 360° rooftop terrace and first-class views of the city and the Tiergarten park.
Neni restaurant
Neni Berlin is the place to come for indulgence, be it a diverse breakfast, a light lunch or a more extensive evening meal. In keeping with the urban jungle theme, it can be found in a striking green- house built out of parts of old hothouses. The restaurant draws its inspiration from cuisines from all over the world and is a place to meet and sample and enjoy a little of everything.
Rooftop terrace
The rooftop terrace is the highlight of the whole hotel thanks to the breathtaking view of western Berlin and the tree canopy in the Tiergarten park. It surrounds NENI Berlin on three sides and also Monkey Bar, with its six-metre full-length windows. The view and the location speak for themselves.
Monkey bar
Monkey Bar is located right next to the restaurant on the tenth floor and is an evening and night-time hotspot for top drinks and sophisticated bar food created by NENI. The NENI Berlin world of herbs has also found its way into the bar and its cocktail creations. With its outdoor enclosure, Monkey Bar is the coolest place in which to watch the sun set and enjoy music events.
Bikini island
The Wohnzimmer lounge at the 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin comprises multiple areas. The Working Lab, Bikini Island and DJ corner segue from one to the other and transpose Berlin’s diversity right to the heart of the hotel. People can work, relax and chat here side by side. The aim is to create a space that provides a little time out from work and productive discussions.
Work hard, stay calm and enjoy tonight
Extraordinary settings result in extra special events. The 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin boasts unique function rooms with a great deal of atmosphere: the three rooms come alive thanks to the interplay of transparency and being obscured from view. The two Microhouses and the Freiraum function room are the perfect places for workshops and conventional meetings. And together with the NENI Berlin restaurant, Monkey Bar and the rooftop terrace, they constitute an extra special event option. Free Wi-Fi is available to the guests throughout the hotel.
Australian studio BLOXAS adopted elements from Japanese architecture to reorganise the spaces of this Melbourne residence around a courtyard then added a new timber-clad extension shaped like a periscope (+ slideshow).
Located in the suburb of Fitzroy North, the renovated open-plan house was designed by BLOXAS to provide a “dynamic mix of spaces” for a family of four who had previously spent many years living and working in Japan.
The building has an L-shaped plan that wraps around the long north-facing courtyard. A wooden deck runs along the edge of the lawn as an imitation of the traditional Japanese engawa – a narrow veranda – and prompted the residence to be named Engawa House.
“This design was structured around the concept of engawa,” explained architect and studio principal Anthony Clarke. “This space offers a transition between the yielding comfort of the grassed courtyard and the polished concrete floor of the interior.”
Three red brick chimneys belonging to the old structure are dotted through the house. One sits along the street-facing southern elevation, forming a visual break between the white-painted weatherboards cladding the original house and the black-stained plywood walls of the extension.
Comparing the building to a red brick factory across the street, Clarke added: “The black stained plywood exterior of the facade will age sympathetically with the warehouses surrounding it, offering a unique composition against the retained brickwork fireplace.”
Living, dining and kitchen areas occupy a large rectilinear space at the centre of the house and can be opened out to the courtyard by sliding back a series of floor-to-ceiling glass doors.
A staircase leads up from the living room to a mezzanine study, from which residents can survey activities going on beneath them.
New timber-framed windows puncture the facade and a bathroom wraps around another of the old chimneys.
Read on for a project description from Anthony Clarke of BLOXAS:
Engawa House
Melbourne’s inner-north has a distinct European feel of community living. Small houses compel people towards local parks and curbside gardens, blurring the threshold between public and private. The Engawa House in North Fitzroy, embraces this atmosphere, as the dynamic and historical patchwork of the surrounding context becomes part of each living space.
The clients, a family of four, described a space offering them a feeling of discovery, through a variety of intersecting planes, and the layering of natural light. They required a relocated central bathroom, kitchen, dining, living, additional bedroom with ensuite, as well as a mezzanine office and external entertaining area.
A full facing northern wing, mixing a combination of single and double storey forms, attaches itself to the front rooms of the existing house. The simple orientation takes advantage of the full range of views from the mezzanine, whilst being sympathetic to its elevational context. The living, dining and bedroom/en suite skirt a large and long courtyard garden, maximising sustainable performance, and offering northern light into each new program.
This design was structured around the concept of “Engawa”, referring to an exterior hallway on the side of a traditional Japanese dwelling. This space offers a transition between the yielding comfort of the grassed courtyard and the polished concrete floor of the interior. It also offers a transitional space for informal seating.
The open living and mezzanine enhance a visual and auditory connection, with a distinct lack of privacy, embracing the family’s already strong connection.
Rather than competing with the streetscape, BLOXAS utilised council restrictions to invite exploration yet maintain integrity. The striking black form signposts the street corner and its palette of styles.
The Engawa House interplays scale and height, contributing to the elevational rhythm of the red factory brickwork, single-storey weatherboard terraces and the multi-storey residential context.
Large timber windows to the southern boundary invite the engagement between neighbouring residents and the clients of the Engawa House.
Underpinning the projects conceptual idea was a very tight budget. The addition provides a smaller overall footprint than the previous plan, now maximising the site’s potential. The black stained plywood exterior of the facade will age sympathetically with the warehouses surrounding it, offering a unique composition against the retained brickwork fireplace. This facilitated a high quality interior where the client desired a more minimal and refined finish.
Architect: Black Line One X Architecture Studio Location: Fitzroy North, Melbourne, Australia Builder: Zachary Spark Constructions Project Year: 2013 Furniture: Ross Gardam, Earl Pinto
Belgian studio Atelier Tom Vanhee has renovated and extended the brick buildings of a community centre in the village of Westvleteren using a contrasting contemporary brick (+ slideshow).
The site was originally occupied by a disparate cluster of buildings including a nineteenth century school building, a former town hall, a library and a youth club, which the local council asked Atelier Tom Vanhee to transform into a more practical space for community activities.
The poor condition of the facilities and lack of an obvious entrance or consistent elements unifying the buildings led the architect to propose a range of renovations, with brick acting as a common material.
“We used brick because the existing buildings were already a patchwork of different renovations from the past hundred years,” architect Tom Vanhee told Dezeen. “We thought it was beautiful and that we could strengthen this by adding a modern brick.”
The facade of the renovated activity hall shows evidence of former doors and windows that have been removed and filled in with new bricks. An extension made from the same brick replaces the building’s old gabled roof and incorporates new windows.
“The things we changed we filled in with bricks so you can see what we did,” Vanhee explained. “It also relates to the historical renovations that you can see elsewhere in the site.”
To create a more obvious and practical entrance for the community centre the architects removed a derelict storage building and extended the space housing a small concert hall to create a corner enclosing a courtyard that can be used for outdoor events.
A glass and steel box projecting from the brick wall signals the new entrance, which leads into a space that connects the previously separate facilities of the centre.
The windows running along the upper section of the white-painted activity room’s wall fill the space with light and provide views of the nearby church.
Materials throughout the interior were chosen based on their sustainable credentials, including FSC-certified timber used for the staircase and the highly insulated new windows.
The architects also added a green roof that reduces heat from solar gain in the summer and prevents any damage to the ceiling from heavy rainfall.
The meeting centre offers accommodation to various community activities. The complex of buildings consists of successive constructions, ranging from a 19th century school building and an old town hall to an industrial construction from the 1990s.
The dilapidated storage building makes place for enlargement of the meeting hall. That way the back yard becomes an outdoor space for the party room. The gabled roof is replaced by a single slope roof, making the room and space higher, and bringing a better acoustic sound in the hall. The high windows bring light and give views on the nearby church.
A central entrance in the armpit of the building complex offers the building an address. The entrance hall connects the different functions and spaces. The use of different types of bricks betray the successive renovations in the past. The new added walls in contemporary bricks build in the recent renovation strengthens the patchwork of different bricks. The meeting centre is so adapted to the modern requirements, with respect for the environment and the users, but also with a whimsical character.
A green roof keeps the meeting hall cool in summer, increases the sustainability of the epdm membrane of the roof, and constitutes a buffer for heavy rainfall. The new toilets are supplied with recycled rain water from the existing buildings.
Materials are chosen by the score at their circle of life analysis. The used wood is FSC-labelled : the structure of the light interior walls, the windows, extra wooden bars for floors and for fixating isolation. We used fibre boards. The lights are energy efficient. The heating system recuperates the heat of the evacuating gases. We took care of better isolation: we changed all windows in high isolating glass, the roofs or ceilings, the floors and new walls are isolated.
Three mature trees were rooted to the centre of this site in Western Australia, but architecture firm MORQ managed to convince the owners to build their family house around the peeling trunks and burgeoning foliage (+ slideshow).
Located south of Perth in the town of Margaret River, Karri Loop House was constructed around one large Karri tree and a pair of Marri trees – both of which are indigenous to this region of Australia – after MORQ came up with a design that prevented them needing to be chopped down.
The single-storey residence has an H-shaped plan that wraps around the trunks of the three trees and also frames a pair of irregularly shaped courtyards.
To avoid disturbing the delicate shallow roots, the architects raised the house off the ground by positioning it on hand-placed steel tripod footings, rather than digging pile foundations.
Dramatic double-height ceilings and large windows were then added to the living room and master bedroom to “celebrate the presence of the trees” by offering residents views of the leaves and branches overhead.
“These trees, their root systems and their unstable large branches presented a challenge to the build-ability of the house,” said the architects.
“We like to think of this project as a mutually beneficial development; the building is designed to retain the trees, while the trees visually contribute to the quality of the inner space,” they added.
A raised deck runs along the northern side of the house to create an outdoor seating area beneath the canopy of the Karri, while a sheltered triangular terrace at the end of the living room features a vertical window framing another view of the tree.
A rainwater harvesting system is built into the roof, which channels water through to an irrigation system feeding the tree roots.
Plywood clads the inner and outer walls of the house. On the outside, it has a roughly sawn surface coated with a layer of black paint, while interior surfaces have been sanded smooth to reveal the natural grain.
Wooden ceiling beams were left exposed in various rooms inside the building. Straw bales were also added to provide insulation, but are concealed within the walls.
The mature trees located in the middle of the site (a Karri and two Marris) played an essential part in shaping our project. The first part of the design process was spent in investigating the requirements for retaining these trees, as well as convincing the clients of their unique presence on an otherwise anonymous site. With the support of a renowned arborist, the decision was finally made to keep the trees. As a result, the house sits in between the tree-trunks and its outline defines two open courtyards of irregular shape. These embrace the trees and the surrounding landscape, around which family life occurs.
A tall window in the dining area and a periscope-like skillion in the master bedroom, celebrate the presence of the trees from within the house, framing views of both foliage and peeling trunks. These trees, their root systems and their unstable large branches presented a challenge to the build-ability of the house. We like to think of this project as a mutually beneficial development: where the building is designed to retain the trees, while the trees visually contribute to the quality of the inner space.
To protect the integrity of the shallow root-system a matrix of steel tripod footings was used: each of them had to be dug by hand, and repositioned every time a root was encountered, resulting in an irregular structural grid. These footings also raise the house off the ground and give it a somewhat temporary look.
Any part of the house footprint overlapping the root system would result in an uneven rainwater supply to the roots, which could cause a shock to the trees. Rainwater collected on the roof is therefore taken under the house, channelled into a trickling irrigation pipes and then evenly fed to the tree roots.
Lightweight construction seemed the most appropriate response to the existing trees requirements, however straw-bales were chosen as a preferred form of insulation. This decision required all perimeter walls to be prefabricated as ladder-frames and later assembled on site. It also resulted in unusually thick perimeter walls, seldom employed in timber framed buildings.
The house was mainly constructed out of timber, whose grain and texture inform both interior and exterior spaces. Wall linings use different grades of plywood: rough sawn, painted black on the outside, and sanded, clear-treated on the inside. The floor and ceilings are also in clear-treated plywood. The roof structure is resolved with Laminated Veneer Lumber beams, which are left exposed on the inside of the ceiling.
This all-black house in the Yucca Valley desert was designed by Los Angeles office Oller & Pejic to look “like a shadow” (+ slideshow).
Located within the borders of the Joshua Tree National Park, where sunlight is often painfully harsh, Desert House was designed by husband and wife architects Monica Oller and Tom Pejic as a volume that would be easy to rest the eyes on.
They explained: “Our client had given us a brief but compelling instruction at the start of the process – to build a house like a shadow.”
Despite its remote rural location, the house was constructed on a site that had been flattened in the 1960s. This meant the building couldn’t be staggered down the slope and was instead designed with a mostly level floorplate that ends at the edge of a precipice.
“The house would replace the missing mountain that was scraped away, but not as a mountain, but a shadow or negative of the rock,” said the architects, explaining how they imagined the design early on in the process.
The two wings of the house sprawl out across the site, framing various outdoor spaces. A courtyard is sandwiched between the bedrooms and living spaces, while a swimming pool sits in the south-east corner and a sheltered triangular patio points northwards.
“We wanted the experience of navigating the house to remind one of traversing the site outside,” added Oller and Pejic.
The open-plan living room and kitchen forms the the largest space of the house. Floor-to-ceiling windows open the space out to the courtyard and offer panoramic views of the vast desert landscape.
Both this space and the adjoining bedroom wing feature black walls inside as well as out, intended to create a “cave-like feeling”.
“During the day, the interior of the house recedes and the views are more pronounced. At night the house completely dematerialises and the muted lighting and stars outside blend to form an infinite backdrop for contemplation,” said the architects.
Here’s a project description from Oller & Pejic:
Black Desert House
Oller & Pejic Architecture is a husband and wife architecture partnership located in Los Angeles, California.
This project began with an e-mail and a meeting in fall of 2008 for a house in Yucca Valley, which is located near Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles in the high desert near the Joshua Tree National Park.
We had completed two projects in Yucca Valley and occasionally received inquiries about projects in the desert. In the midst of the economic downturn typically these inquiring led nowhere. We had just had our second child and things were looking rather uncertain. We decided to meet with Marc and Michele Atlan to see if their project was a reality. Even from the first communications, Marc’s enthusiasm was noticeable.
After the first meeting, we found that we shared a common aesthetic and process and after seeing the property we knew this was a project like nothing else we had done, really almost a once in a lifetime opportunity. There was no looking back, we immediately began work on the house.
Beyond the technical and regulatory challenges of building on the site – several previous owners had tried and given up – there was the challenge of how to build appropriately on such a sublime and pristine site. It is akin to building a house in a natural cathedral.
Our client had given us a brief but compelling instruction at the start of the process – to build a house like a shadow. This had a very specific relevance to the desert area where the sunlight is often so bright that the eye’s only resting place is the shadows.
Unfortunately, the site had been graded in the 1960s when the area was first subdivided for development. A small flat pad had been created by flattening several rock outcroppings and filing in a saddle between the outcroppings. To try to reverse this scar would have been cost prohibitive and ultimately impossible. It would be a further challenge to try to address this in the design of the new house. The house would be located on a precipice with almost 360 degree views to the horizon and a large boulder blocking views back to the road.
A long process of research began with the clients showing us images of houses they found intriguing – mostly contemporary houses that showed a more aggressive formal and spatial language than the mid-century modern homes that have become the de-facto style of the desert southwest.
We looked back at precedents for how architects have dealt with houses located in similar topography and found that generally they either sought to integrate the built work into the landscape, as in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and later Rudolf Shindler or to hold the architecture aloof from the landscape as in the European modernist tradition of Mies van der Rohe. While on a completely virgin site, the lightly treading minimalist approach would be preferred, here we decided that the Western American tradition of Land Art would serve as a better starting point, marrying the two tendencies in a tense relationship with the house clawing the ground for purchase while maintaining its otherness.
The house would replace the missing mountain that was scraped away, but not as a mountain, but a shadow or negative of the rock; what was found once the rock was removed, a hard glinting obsidian shard.
Concept in place, we began fleshing out the spaces and movement through the house. We wanted the experience of navigating the house to remind one of traversing the site outside. The rooms are arranged in a linear sequence from living room to bedrooms with the kitchen and dining in the middle, all wrapping around a inner courtyard which adds a crucial intermediate space in the entry sequence and a protected exterior space in the harsh climate.
The living room was summed up succinctly by Marc as a chic sleeping bag. The space, recessed into the hillside with a solid earthen wall to lean your back against as you survey the horizon is a literal campsite which finds its precedent in the native cliff dwellings of the south west.
The dark colour of the house interior adds to the primordial cave-like feeling. During the day, the interior of the house recedes and the views are more pronounced. At night the house completely dematerialises and the muted lighting and stars outside blend to form an infinite backdrop for contemplation.
The project would never have come about without the continued efforts of the entire team. The design was a collaborative effort between Marc and Michele and the architects. The patience and dedication of the builder, Avian Rogers and her subcontractors was crucial to the success of the project. Everyone who worked on the project knew it was something out of the ordinary and put forth incredible effort to see it completed.
Emerging Dutch firm Unknown Architects has renovated a 200-year-old house in Leiden by stripping back its interior, and inserting built-in furniture and a twisting white staircase (+ slideshow).
Daan Vulkers and Keimpke Zigterman of Unknown Architects were careful to restore some of the house’s character and spatial simplicity by removing non-original partitioned walls and suspended ceilings to create open-plan spaces on all three floors.
Wooden furniture elements were built on each level to accommodate seating areas, work surfaces and screens, while timber ceiling beams overhead were purposefully left uncovered to provide a contrast to the modern additions.
Keeping to their client’s preference that the kitchen was the hub of the home, the architects allowed it take over the entire middle floor.
Bleached nutwood was used here to build worktops and cupboards along the side wall, as well as a dining table with banquette seating and an adjoining dresser.
The ground floor can be used as an office, dining room or guest bedroom. Vulkers and Zigterman built a wooden platform at one end of the space, creating a raised seating and storage area that incorporates a fold-out guest bed.
A screen wall separates the staircase from a desk that cantilevers off one wall. It also contains recesses to provide extra storage.
The main bedroom occupies the loft and includes a new bamboo dresser.
Unknown Architects completed the renovation of a 17th century house in the historic city centre of Leiden
Unknown Architects is established by two students, studying at the Technical University in Delft. During their studies they became curious about working with clients. As a part of the honours programme they started this project, where they tried to translate the ambitions and wishes of a client in a design proposal. This cooperation turned out so well that this client decided to commission Unknown Architects for their first project, which was completed in November 2012.
All the non-authentic parts of this monument, like partition walls and suspended ceilings, were removed to bring back the authentic character and spatial clarity. In this relatively small house three fixed multifunctional furniture elements were added.
The ground floor functions as office and second bedroom. One bamboo furniture element incorporates storage space and a platform, covering a guest bed which can be pulled out.
An important wish of the client was to make the kitchen “the heart of the house” where all activities could come together. This was translated in two kitchen elements, made out of bleached nutwood. The central element includes a table, kitchen dresser and a fixed bench that shields the stairwell andprovides the best sightlines to the outside.
On the second floor we added one small dresser made of bamboo shielding the stairwell and providing a place to sit under the dormer.
In this project, we worked with different carpenters who specialised in working with different materials. In order to create a varied experience when ascending through the apartment, we opted for a different choice of wood for the ground floor and the first floor. All the floors – rubber – and walls – fine clay stucco finish – have the same finish.
The uncovered ceilings are intentionally kept as we found them and form a contrast with the new.
Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has transformed the former home and studio of painter David Alfaro Siqueiros into a public gallery and encased the entire complex behind a triangulated concrete lattice (+ slideshow).
Young architect Frida Escobeda reworked the complex built in the 1960s by late artist and political activist Siqueiros as a mural painting workshop, creating an art gallery and artists’ residence in the small Mexican city of Cuernavaca.
A wall of perforated concrete blocks was build around the perimeter of the La Tallera de Siqueiros complex, forming an enclosure around the buildings that groups them together but also allows light to filter through.
Two large murals painted by Siqueiros were moved from their original positions around a private courtyard to frame a new entranceway – a move that Escobeda says was key in opening the complex up to the public.
“Rotating the murals ignites the symbolic elements of the facade’s architectural syntax, altering the typical relationship between gallery and visitor,” she said.
In their new positions, the murals provide a framework for the cafe and bookshop, but also help to separate the gallery building from the old house, which now functions as a base for artists in residence.
Siqueiros’s former workshop remains largely unchanged but had been coated with white paint to create a neutral gallery space. Extensions have been built from concrete, with an exposed surface that reveals the markings of its timber formwork.
La Tallera de Siqueiros was one of 14 architecture projects shortlisted for Designs of the Year 2014 earlier this week.
La Tallera Siqueiros generates a relationship that reconciles a museum and a muralist’s workshop with the surrounding area by way of two simple strokes: opening the museum courtyard onto an adjacent plaza and rotating a series of murals from their original position. The space itself was built in 1965 and became the house and studio of the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros during the final years of his life.
La Tallera is “an idea Diego Rivera and I came up with in the 1920s to create a real muralist workshop where new techniques in paint, materials, geometry, perspective and so on would be taught”. This is how Siqueiros himself defined this workplace, now a museum, workshop and artist’s residency program focused on art production and criticism. By opening up the courtyard, the museum yields a space for shared activity, while also appropriating the plaza.
The murals, originally intended for the outside area, now have a dual role: firstly, as a visual and programmatic link with the plaza by encompassing the public areas of the museum (café, bookshop and store) and secondly as a wall/program that separates the artist’s residence from the museum and workshop.
Rotating the murals ignites the symbolic elements of the facade’s architectural syntax, altering the typical relationship between gallery and visitor. Like the exterior, the gallery space, from both an exhibition design and artistic perspective, though unfolding, generates new relationships and spatial connections.
The distribution of these spaces and the interplay of planes – in murals and walls among others – is revealed in crossing a perimeter lattice that demarcates the urban surroundings – a single horizontal sculptural piece that contains and displays Siqueiros’ work.
Architect: Frida Escobedo Design team: Frida Escobedo, Rodolfo Díaz Cervantes, Adrian Moreau, Adiranne Montemayor, Daniela Barrera, Fernando Cabrera, Luis Arturo García Castro Client: Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros – La Tallera Type: Public building / Museum Adaptation
Consulting: BulAu (Carlos Coronel / Hector de la Peña) Building contractor: Francisco Alvarez Uribe (1st phase), Grupo Mexicano (2nd phase) Construction Supervision: Fernando Cabrera, Javier Arreola, Frida Escobedo Furniture design: Frida Escobedo Total Floor Area: 2,890sqm Budget: $2,240,000 USD Invited competition, 1st. Place Cuernavaca, Morelos Mexico, 2012
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