French auto brand Renault has designed a concept car that launches its own drone from a hatch in the roof (+ slideshow).
The Renault Kwid Concept, unveiled at the Delhi Auto Show, is the first car to come with its very own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which could help the driver scout ahead for traffic, take aerial photos of the surrounding landscape and detect obstacles in the road.
The device, referred to as a Flying Companion, is stored in a rotating rear portion of the Kwid’s roof when not in use. When activated, the panel slides open and the quadrocopter – named after the device’s four motors – can be operated in one of two modes.
In automatic mode, the drone flies along a pre-programmed flying sequence using in-built GPS. In manual mode, the UAV is controlled via a tablet built into the dashboard of the car.
“Customers in new markets are much younger,” explained Serge Mouangue, brand manager and innovative cooperative laboratory manager for Renault. “Their expectations are different and customers are basically gamers. They tend to take a closer interest in technology and want to enjoy themselves.”
The Kwid resembles an off-road buggy thanks to the oversized wings, mud guards and wheel arches. However, designers at Renault have suggested the car will come in two-wheel drive instead of four – meaning it’s more likely to be for city dwellers than rural ones.
The Kwid will come with a 1.2-litre turbocharged engine with a dual-clutch transmission, allowing the owner to drive in automatic or manual mode. Renault has suggested that it could also come with an electric motor. The interior features two-tone white seats with a yellow-trimmed dash. The chairs are wrapped in a web of white elastic polymer to give the impression the passengers are sat in a bird’s nest, according to designers on the project.
The driver is sat in the centre of a row of three, allowing the same model to be used in both left-hand, and right-hand drive markets.
In the rear, passengers can adjust the air-conditioning via a panel on the back of the driver’s seat, which also features ventilation ducts built in.
While just a concept for now, Renault has said the Kwid will go on sale within two years, with particular focus on the Indian market. “Young customers in India are often trend setters, looking forward to pushing the envelope when it comes to technology and enjoyable drives,” explained Gilles Normand, chairman of Renault’s Asia-Pacific Region.
“The Kwid Concept, with its Flying Companion, meets this forward-looking spirit with both its dynamic styling and hyper connectivity,” he added.
Czech studio A1 Architects covered the walls of this cafe in Prague with a tactile mixture of black plaster, coal and pieces of straw, in a modern take on the clay plasters used inside traditional Japanese tea houses (+ slideshow).
A1 Architects converted a nineteenth-century apartment with vaulted ceilings to create the Tea Mountain cafe, reinforcing the concept of a Japanese tea house by filling the space with charred log columns, each with an illuminated gilt section in its middle.
“We’ve already designed three tea houses and we are very much inspired and fascinated by Japanese architecture and its details,” architect Lenka Kremenova told Dezeen.
“We used even pieces of coal to emphasise the blackness so it feels like you want to touch not just look at the plaster,” she added, referring to the walls. “We always search for a certain kind of quality of materials which could be called ‘touchableness’.”
A gold-plated arch divides the tea house into two halves, creating a light side for service and a dark side for sitting down with a drink.
The first is painted in a shade of pale yellow, and accommodates a serving counter and wooden shelves stacked with tea. The opposite side features dark plastered walls and is filled with tables and stools made from ash wood.
“The seating is in the black part because it is supposed to be a more calm and relaxed place with an ambient atmosphere to enjoy drinking the tea,” Kremenova explained.
A row of globe lights are suspended at different levels above the serving counter, while wooden shelving around the edges of the shop are covered with teapots and other tea-related paraphernalia.
The shop sells a range of tea imported from Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan and China.
Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from A1 Architects:
TEA MOUNTAIN, the teashop a new concept of drinking tea
The shop called Tea Mountain, recently opened in Prague, brings a new experience how to enjoy the tea, next to contemporary style of serving it is also traditional gustation of high quality tea imported from Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan or China. One of the main issues of a1architects and the owners discussion was how to present the tea in its best to wider audience in a delicate yet friendly manner.
Shop interior
Two worlds, two atmospheres… The seating and drinking happens under the dark vault with its calm appearance and just next to it in bright earthy colours one could buy or watch the presentation of tea. The space of two original 19th century vaults is divided by gold-plated arch line situated almost in the centre of the shop.
The black plaster with added pieces of coal and straw creates an ambient atmosphere and it gets out the customer in his first step into another atmosphere out of the busy street. The following part of the shop is rather light to unable one to focus on details of the tea presentation.
The seating at the table in the black part is accompanied with charred columns with inbuilt gilt cavity which serves as a spot light and brings beautiful warm yellow light on the table. The counter and display shelves are made out of ash wood with exceptional details like inbuilt limestone tea tray, rope handles or charred cover of the scale, all these small unique pieces could be rather seen in a second glance and await patient visitors. Refined details and simple work of layering are the main features of the Tea Mountain shop design.
Client: Martin Špimr Authors: A1Architects( MgA. Lenka Křemenová, MgA. David Maštálka) Project: A1Architects SUPPLIER: Ateliér Mánes – Jakub Vávra Noren fabric: Vít Svoboda a Alžběta Graphics: Toman design Area: 55 m2 Completion: November 2013 Design: Autumn 2013
Part of the table’s circular top is folded upward so it rests flush against a vertical surface. This means that the Yeh Wall Table only requires two legs to stand up.
“The inspiration came from a cheerleader practice I passed by one day on my way to work,” said Yeh. “Two students were rehearsing strength and balance.”
“The male student was in sitting position up against a wall – but without a chair – and the female student was standing on his thighs,” he explained. “The table mimics the position of the male student, back resting on the wall and two legs angled away from the wall for stability.”
Powder-coated steel is used for the surface and thin tubular steel forms the legs.
Kenyon Yeh released the prototype for the side table in 2013, when it was called Kaki.
French visual artist Benoit Challand has combined the visual language of Le Corbusier‘s houses and Santiago Calatrava‘s sculptures to form a vision for a futuristic self-sustaining house on stilts (+ slideshow).
Named Roost House, the conceptual residence is depicted in a set of photo-realistic renderings in a remote location in Scotland. It would be raised several storeys above the ground on an angular scaffolding structure.
Benoit Challand designed the building to reference Villa Savoye and Cabanon, two of the most famous houses by modernist architect Le Corbusier, as well as a series of artistic sculptures by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
According to the artist, the house would generate all of its own heating and electricity. “Using a bunch of new technologies, in terms of building engineering and environmental resources, this house is intended to be fully autonomous,” he said.
Walls both inside and outside the house are pictured clad with timber. Protruding floor plates form balconies around the perimeter, while a vernacular pitched roof is topped with solar panels.
Residents could access the building by climbing a vertiginous ladder (not shown). There would also be a wind turbine attached to the undersides of the lowest floor.
Spaces inside the house are visualised containing a selection of iconic furniture designs, including the LC4 chaise lounge by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, and the LCW chair by Charles and Ray Eames.
This black wooden house in Austria by Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten is raised off the ground on wonky metal stilts to frame views of the landscape and allow room underneath for a sheltered garden (+ slideshow).
Austrian firm Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten designed S House for a pair of school teachers in Vorderweissenbach, northern Austria, who asked for a floor area of 130 square metres arranged on a single storey.
There was no requirement for a basement floor, so the architects were able to position the building at the highest point of the sloping site. The front of the structure meets ground level, while the rear is lifted several metres into the air.
Rooms are arranged on a U-shaped plan that wraps around an elevated terrace. Bedrooms and a study run along one side and the other half contains a large living, dining and kitchen space.
“We tried to combine the requirements and the qualities of the plot in a very cost-effective design. The U-shape of the house made a very familiar and protected terrace with stunning views,” architect Dietmar Hammerschmid told Dezeen.
The architects gave the building a timber structure, meaning construction could be completed in just four months.
Exterior walls are clad with roughly sawn spruce and were painted matte black using traditional Swedish Falu Rödfarg paint.
“We chose the black paint because the U-shaped building has a very large surface and a dark building integrates better into the surrounding landscape,” added Hammerschmid.
The owners required a cost-efficient house with a maximum of 130 square metres of living space. A basement was not necessary. These requirements led to the decision, to base the whole building on pillars.
The U-shaped floor plan responds to the neighbouring settlement. Living rooms and bedrooms are oriented to a terrace that offers great views of the surrounding hills.
Chilean studio MAPA referenced local vernacular building techniques by placing two sheds within a larger one for this family house in the forests of the Andes mountains in Chile (+ slideshow).
When MAPA received the commission to create a family house in the El Buchén area of the Andes mountains the studio looked at the construction of timber sheds built nearby.
In most of these simple structures the roof is constructed first and then the interiors are built as separate units within the weatherproofed shed.
Having decided that their building would also follow this approach, the architects decided to build two free-standing separate volumes within the larger shed.
“We chose to build two smaller sheds inside the larger one, which grouped the bedrooms on one hand and the bathrooms on the other. These differ in colour and materiality from the rest of the construction,” said Cristian Larrain of MAPA.
This allows each room to meet different temperature requirements according to what it will be used for, and there are three different types of space throughout the building’s interior.
The first of these is the vestibule space, which sits between the point in the roof where the two gables meet. This can be used as a terrace in the summer, allowing cross ventilation through open doors on each side, and in the winter it can be used as an enclosed hall.
The common living, dining and kitchen area takes up the whole of one side of the building and is a mid-temperature space. Unlike its mirror on the other side of the vestibule, the living area has exposed roof trusses and an unlined soffit.
The warmest parts of the house are the bedrooms and bathrooms, located within the two interior sheds.
The position of trees nearby and the dimensions of the forest clearing the building sits in defined the length, width and height of the structure.
Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from MAPA:
MR House by Mapa
The commission consisted of the construction of a shelter for a family that will house two large areas. In the first, the space around the fire and the kitchen to be constituted as a module without divisions, with the fireplace, wood stove and a play room. And in the second, a module for the bedrooms and bathrooms.
Site
The project is located in the forests of the Andes, in a place called “El Buchen”, in the region of Maule, Chile. It is a place of ancient trees and difficult access. The project is located in a forest clearing in order to avoid interfering with existing trees, an element that defines the length, width and height of the volume.
Habitability
From the commission of building a shed arises the problem of how to inhabit it, understanding that it is a single undivided space. We propose the construction of spaces differentiated by lower volumes containing the various program requirements, which in turn are able to differentiate the temperatures necessary to inhabit them, obtaining different areas that are climatically controlled.
This led to three types of spaces: » Vestibule space, mediating between interior/exterior. It can be used as a terrace in the summer, opening its doors and allowing cross ventilation. It can also be used as a hall in winter, behaving as the first barrier of climate control. » Common area, living/dining/kitchen, which takes advantage of the full height of the building, establishing itself as a mid temperature space. » Private space, bedrooms and bathrooms. With low ceilings and openings controlled by their orientation, in order to achieve thermal comfort.
Form/Sheds
The study of forms arose from the observation of wood sheds in the area, which yielded as a result the following set of rules: » The idea of working with closed volumes, without eaves and with controlled openings, wherein the roof is constructed first to protect from the weather, and then the interiors are built. » One form within another. As a result of building the roof as the first action, the idea arose of organising the program through smaller volumes within the overall volume. For this, we chose to build two smaller sheds inside the larger one, which grouped the bedrooms on one hand and the bathrooms on the other. These differ in colour and materiality from the rest of the construction.
Huge round cushions in shades of mustard yellow and cornflower blue add colour to the pale concrete and timber interior of this kindergarten in western Austria by local studio Bernardo Bader Architects (+ slideshow).
Bernardo Bader Architects designed Kindergarten Susi Weigel for the small mountain town of Bludenz and named it after the late children’s book writer and illustrator Susi Weigel, who lived and worked locally until her death in 1990.
The two-storey building has a raw concrete structure, which is left exposed in parts of the interior. The architects sourced local fir to clad the outer walls and used acacia wood to line interior surfaces.
The entrance to the kindergarten sits within a wide recess at the northern corner of the building, leading into a central lobby where children can hang up their coats and bags.
A row of glass doors forms a second entrance to this space, leading out to a playground lawn at the side of the building, while a wooden staircase provides a clear route up to the first floor.
Spaces are divided up into different zones to create five classes. There are two on the ground floor and three upstairs, each with their own storages areas and toilets.
The ground floor also features a sub-dividable space that functions as a canteen or group activity area, as well as a small office and meeting room.
Glass doors create visibility through the building and are embellished with illustrations from Weigel’s books.
Dutch firm Unknown Architects has modernised a small seventeenth-century house by adding a large wooden structure that incorporates a staircase, storage facilities and sofa (+ slideshow).
Unknown Architects was careful to restore some of the 200-year-old building’s character and spatial simplicity by removing the non-original partitioned walls and suspended ceilings.
Located in the Dutch city of Leiden, the house’s ceilings were purposefully left uncovered to contrast with the more modern plastered walls and bamboo furniture in the rest of the property.
Working with a limited space, the architects designed a bamboo staircase that merges into a fixed sofa with integrated storage space, similar to the design of a ship’s cabin.
The sofa also acts as a pull-out guest bed, providing views of the garden through floor-to-ceiling glass doors at the back of the building.
Keeping to their client’s preference that the kitchen was the hub of the home, Unknown Architects combined it with the living space to take over the entire ground floor.
The kitchen table, work surfaces and storage space are all made of bleached nutwood, which acts as a natural accompaniment to the white, compact kitchen units.
The first floor has a master bedroom overlooking the property’s garden through floor-to-ceiling windows, and a children’s room intersected by a bathroom.
Unknown Architects was founded in 2012 by students Daan Vulkers and Keimpke Zigterman. They are currently involved in a number of projects in both Leiden and Amsterdam, where they are based.
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 and provides the best sightlines to the outside.
Cross section
On the second floor we added one small dresser made of bamboo shielding the stairwell and providing a place to sit under the dormer.
The walls are finished with white clay plaster. The uncovered ceilings are intentionally kept as we found them and form a contrast with the new.
Client: DoorZigt B.V. Location: Leiden, The Netherlands Program: renovation of house and office Gross floor area: 75 m2 Project architects: Daan Vulkers, Keimpke Zigterman Interior design: unknown architects Contractor: Bouwbedrijf Degewij Interior fit-out: Klaas Olthoff Keukenmakerij, Intopmaat
Once illuminated, these faceted grey 3D-printed lamps reveal colourful interiors derived from everyday images (+ slideshow).
The Dazzle lamps by Belgium-based designer and programmer Corneel Cannaerts were 3D-printed in colour using a technique developed by the designer himself.
Using a Z Corp colour printer and a gypsum-like powder, each of the shades is printed in grey on the outside, while brightly coloured patterns are applied to the internal polygon mesh.
The process of additive manufacturing allows the colours to bleed into the material, creating their distinctive glow.
“The dazzle lamp prototypes look at the potential of 3D colour printing to embed different states within an object,” explained Cannaerts.
The volume of the lamps is deformed in such a way that the centre of gravity falls below a triangular opening, allowing room for the light fitting and LED.
For each lamp, two custom fittings are printed so the lamp can be used as either a pendant or standing lamp.
“The irregular triangulated shape is derived from the mesh – still a necessary file format for 3D printing,” he continued. “It looks similar but different depending on the angle you look at the lamp.”
Cannaerts has developed his own custom software application to allow anyone to change the shape and size of the lamps.
His software also allows anyone to source an image – a still from My Little Pony in one example – and the software converts it into a coloured mesh.
At present the application only runs on desktops, but Cannaerts is planning on building a web and mobile version allowing anyone to customise their own shapes and colour schemes.
Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects has completed an academic campus in Rotterdam‘s Hoogvliet district comprising six concrete and glass buildings with subtle surface patterns designed to resemble ivy (+ slideshow).
Wiel Arets Architects used fritted glass and textured concrete to suggest traces of climbing plants on the pared-down walls and windows of Campus Hoogvliet – a school and college campus providing housing and teaching for students between the ages of 12 and 27 years.
All six buildings sit over the asphalt ground surface that defines the limits of the campus. These include a sports centre, an arts school, a safety training academy, a secondary school, a business academy and a housing block for up to 100 residents.
A glass fence surrounds every building and is fritted with the abstracted ivy pattern to maintain privacy for students. The same motif also embellishes the ground floor windows of each building.
A scaled-up version of the pattern reoccurs within each of the buildings, where exposed concrete walls are broken up by stripy concrete reliefs.
Each building can be identified by a different colour, which can be spotted on the glass balustrades that run alongside each staircase, but they are otherwise all identical in materials and finishes.
“Unity defines the campus and its clustered buildings, which are therefore experienced as continuous architecture,” said the architects.
The largest of the buildings is the sports centre that contains a 300-seat multi-purpose hall. The ground floor of this structure is raised up by a storey to make room for car parking, while an outdoor basketball court is located on the roof.
Custom-designed seating is dotted around the site, including white terrazzo benches and circular planters containing Japanese maple trees. There’s also a running track, bicycle storage areas and a campus-wide lighting system that illuminates outdoor areas after dark.
Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:
WAA complete construction on Campus Hoogvliet in Rotterdam
Campus Hoogvliet is a cluster of six buildings that together compose one academic and socially focused campus, located just outside of Rotterdam. These six new buildings – a sports centre, an art studio, a safety academy, 100 residential units within one building, and two schools – have been plugged into a programmed tarmac that communicates the campus’ boundary, and includes custom-designed seating, a running track, and other place-making denotations.
The campus’ immediate surroundings are characterised by mid-twentieth century housing developments – which were prolifically constructed during its booming period of post-WWII growth – and the campus aims to rectify the social and cultural deterioration that coupled the demolition of this once historic village.
A glass ‘fence’ – equal in height to each ground floor facade – surrounds every building. Every fence is fritted with an abstracted, pixilated image of ivy, so as to create an exterior terrace that is both private and transparent. The ground floors of each building are fritted with the same pattern, and all exterior glass was made with a kiss print, which introduces texture to each facade.
A white ring surrounds every building and denotes the transition from public tarmac to private terrace, each programmed with bike parking and play areas. All six buildings share a similar procession of entry: spaces compress in volume when transitioning from the campus’ tarmac toward the glass-fenced terraces; decompress when entering each building’s ground floor communal spaces; and compress again when traversing circulation paths toward upper levels.
The sports centre’s tribune seats 300 and overlooks its multi-purpose and double height activity space, which functions as an exercise area for students and is also available for local events and sports teams. This sports centre – the largest of the campus’ six buildings – has been raised one level in order to accommodate a 80 space parking garage on its ground floor; this introduces a ‘zero-zero’ level to the campus, which compounds the notion of ‘interiority’. Additional parking for 200 aligns with and compliments the campus’s boundary, so as to not disturb its highly trafficked pedestrian areas. An outdoor basketball court occupies the roof of the sports centre’s ground floor; it is perpendicular to a monumental staircase that allows for views over the sprawling campus below.
Load-bearing facades with open corners – combined with concrete cores for stability, and non-polished concrete floor slabs under tension – structure each building. Cores are notable for their concrete relief, derived from an enlarged pattern of the fritted ivy, adjacent to which are each building’s shifting sets of staircases. Balustrades are finished with coloured glass, and each building has a unique colour, to impart a visual identity within each.
Custom-designed white terrazzo seating dots the campus’ programmed tarmac, and Japanese Maples set in custom-designed black terrazzo planters dot each fenced terrace. The entirety of the programmed tarmac, and every terrace, are illuminated at night to ensure the surrounding community’s cohesiveness. Unity defines the campus and its clustered buildings, which are therefore experienced as continuous architecture.
Location: Lengweg, 3192 BM Rotterdam, The Netherlands Typology: Educational, Housing, Retail, School, Sport Size: 41.100 m2 Date of design: 2007-2009 Date of completion: 2014
Project team: Wiel Arets, Bettina Kraus, Joris van den Hoogen, Jos Beekhuijzen, Mai Henriksen Collaborators: Jochem Homminga, Joost Korver, Marie Morin, Julius Klatte, Olivier Brinckman, Sjoerd Wilbers, Raymond van Sabben, Benine Dekker, Maron Vondeling, Anne-Marie Diderich Client: Woonbron Consultants: ABT BV, Wetering Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV
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