Rotterdam studio Kraaijvanger has added two new buildings to a school in a suburb of the Dutch capital, The Hague, with pitched roofs and rustic materials that reference the site’s original role as a farm (+ slideshow).
Kraaijvanger‘s additions to the American School of The Hague include a sports hall and a larger barn-like building that houses a nursery, 12 classrooms and a gym for babies and children up to the age of six.
The new “barn” adjoins a sixteenth-century farmhouse that the architects are currently renovating. The site’s historic significance meant that the height and shape of the buildings had to correspond with the existing agricultural structures.
“We weren’t allowed to build any higher than the old farm buildings so we had to bury the lower storey below ground,” architect Annemiek Bleumink told Dezeen.
Wood is used for the external cladding to tie the buildings in with their rustic setting, as well as for internal beams and columns that continue the natural look indoors.
“Because the buildings are used by small children we wanted to use warm materials for both the exterior and the interior,” explained Bleumink.
Large windows in the sloping roof fill the nursery classrooms with natural light, while a glazed walkway traverses a void between that part of the building and an atrium housing the main entrance.
A bridge crossing a public road links the “barn” with the sports building, which has sloping roofs covered in plants that further emphasise the scheme’s agrarian aesthetic.
School as farmyard: expansion of the American School of the Hague with the Early Childhood Center & renovation monument farm Ter Weer.
As a farm with several buildings, The American School of The Hague in Wassenaar is expanded for The Early Childhood. This set-up fits the small scale of the area. On the location stood already the 16th century farmhouse ‘Ter Weer’. The farm is restored and incorporated into the whole. The entire complex is integrated into the environment and the landscape. The school has a capacity for 250 children from 0 to 6 years and includes a nursery, twelve classrooms, a gym and a multipurpose room. The entrance is in line with the arrival route over the Deijlerweg and is designed as a monumental glass heart between the farm and the ‘barn’.
Dialogue between old and new
The dialogue between the two buildings, can be felt both inside and outside. The expansion partly deepened to encrouch the monument is not too much. The new and the old are connected to each other by a bridge in the new atrium. The materialization of the new building refers to a barn by applying wood substructures, caps and wooden parts for wall cladding.
Program
The barn houses the classrooms. Because of the inclined slope they all recieve enough daylight. The classrooms are characterized by the entry of natural light, the use of healthy materials and the direct relationship with the surrounding landscape. In farmhouse are located the administrative functions of the school a lunch room for 100 children, a kitchen, a nursery, a library and a local labor.
The sports facilities are housed in a separate building. It contains a gymnasium, changing rooms, a canteen and the clubhouse of the local handball association. The building is designed as two interlocking volumes with sloping green roofs, matching the shape of the extension and rural character of the area. A large window is placed in the gymnasium overlooking the connecting bridge to the main building and offers insight from the school and outside play areas.
Around the school are several playgrounds to suit the different age groups. They are designed by design studio van Ginneken with greenery, seating and educational components such as a vegetable garden. Hedges, wooden fences and gentle slopes locks provide a friendly separation between the different squares. In an adjacent site parking there are gravel pavement and rows of trees between the parking.
The building is fully integrated into the environment and the surrounding landscape. The design of the landscape is based on the objectives of the school. A healthy environment where young children playfully learn why sustainability matters. By using water, natural materials and to show how energy is generated children come in a natural way in contact with this theme. The building makes use of solar energy, LED fixtures, cold and heat storage, wastewater reuse and craddle to craddle materials such as Accoya cladding.
Interview: forty years after he first met her, London design retailer Zeev Aram has launched a website dedicated to the work of his late friend, the modernist designer Eileen Gray. In this interview, Aram describes his working relationship with the elderly designer who, despite being frail and almost forgotten, could ” see with one eye what many architects couldn’t see with two eyes” (+ slideshow).
De Stijl side table, 1922
Zeev Aram is the owner of the Aram Store, which he launched in 1964 on London’s fashionable Kings Road. He introduced the work of many legendary designers to the UK, including Marcel Breuer, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray, who he first met in 1973.
Aram says that Gray, who was revered in the 1920s and 30s for her modernist furniture and architectural projects, was almost forgotten by the time he first encountered her and was “a bit bemused that somebody was interested in her work.”
Bibendum armchair, 1926
Working with Gray, who was in her early-90s at the time, Aram began to reproduce some of her most famous pieces, including the Bibendum armchair, the E1027 table, and the Tube Light.
The two became close friends and Gray would regularly visit Aram at his showroom to talk about design. “Working with her was very, very appealing because she knew exactly her mind,” recalls Aram. “With one eye she saw what many architects I know and admire couldn’t see with two eyes.”
Tube Light, 1927
A contemporary of Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer and J.J.P. Oud, Gray was a pioneer of tubular steel and glass furniture and her architecture projects, including two houses in the Alpes Maritimes in southeast France, are now considered among the most outstanding examples of modernism from the interwar period.
Aram feels that Gray deserves to be considered alongside “all the other big shots, like Le Corbusier, Mies, Breuer,” but because she chose a “quiet, modest life she was not included.”
Before she died in 1976, Gray offered Aram the exclusive license to reproduce her products, but he now struggles to find the energy to battle the copyists who continually produce imitations. “I’m not prepared to spend my life with lawyers and solicitors and in courtrooms to prove that we have the license and these people are charlatans,” he says.
E1027 table, 1927
The new website, www.eileengray.co.uk, features images and information about Gray’s products and a timeline of her extraordinary life, which is currently being made into a feature film called The Price of Desire starring Orla Brady and musician Alanis Morissette.
Here’s a full transcript of our interview with Zeev Aram:
Alyn Griffiths: When did you first meet Eileen Gray?
Zeev Aram: I met her in 1973. I think she was 92 or 93 and she was retired many years and living in her flat in Paris, but I actually met her here in London.
Alyn Griffiths: Did you meet with her to discuss licensing her products?
Zeev Aram: No, not at all. Actually, my knowledge of her was quite thin. I remembered reading about her many years earlier when I was in college and she was just part of the milieu of art deco artists and designers. I must admit I didn’t really remember anything about her.
But then, in the late sixties there was a very interesting article written by Joseph Rykwert in Domus magazine about her and that triggered my curiosity about this particular artist that nobody wrote about, nobody talked about, nobody had seen her work. Neither had I, and then in the beginning of 1973 there was a small exhibition that my friend, the architect Alan Irvine, mounted at the Heinz Gallery that used to be the RIBA gallery in Portman Square and he said come along, it’s a little exhibition but it’s very interesting. So I went to see it but there were only pictures, and about three or four pieces of furniture and one of her rugs, so not very impressive and I looked at the pieces and the photographs and then I asked him how can I get in touch with her because I think her work is very interesting and very important but seems to somehow slip the consciousness of everybody, including me.
Alyn Griffiths: What did you think was so important about it?
Zeev Aram: Well, when you see something that triggers your curiosity and interest, that’s a good enough reason to pursue it further. I didn’t know what would come out of it, I didn’t know if she would be at all interested in talking to me, but I did know that what I saw was good. I’d been around the design world for a while and introduced a few things to the country when we opened the store on the Kings Road in Chelsea, so I just wanted to see what’s going to happen.
E1027 house interior
Alyn Griffiths: What was she like as a person?
Zeev Aram: Descriptive wise, she was a frail little lady. She was wearing glasses and one glass was black because she got injured in her eye and couldn’t see in one eye. Very frail and very elegant, but not in an ostentatious kind of way. She was very shy but at the same time she knew exactly what’s what.
She used to come over to visit her niece, the painter Prunella Clough, who would drive Eileen to us and we would sit and have tea and talk about little things, always more generally about what do I think about design and the way it is going and the way architecture is becoming very anonymous and nothing to do with the person who designed it.
It becomes a statement of structure, not a statement of the person who designed it. When she retired, she lived in the Roquebrune flat for many years and she was always doing little models and mock ups and plans, so she never retired from the work, as such, she retired from the world of the work. When she visited we would wander around the showroom and she would ask about the new materials and the new techniques like injection moulding and ABS plastics. She wanted to understand what was going on.
Roattino, 1931
Alyn Griffiths: Did she ever talk about the past and her relationships with some of the great architects she has worked with?
Zeev Aram: Not really because actually, don’t forget we’re talking about a lady of 93. Her interest was never waning, but her energy was and her stamina was. So we constantly dealt with the work in hand, what we were doing. Whenever I raised something like that, she would say “that was a long time ago” and what that meant was, actually that’s not interesting to talk about now.
She was very much involved and she knew her value, but you see – Joseph Rykwert said in his article that she was completely left in the sidelines, and everybody rushed ahead and the last person actually to pay homage to her was Le Corbusier because in the late thirties he included her work in an exhibition he did. And since then, until this article as Rykwert said, it’s surprising that nobody has said, “Here’s somebody that’s really important”. Meanwhile of course, we have all the other big shots, like Corbusier, Mies, Breuer etc, and she’s not included.
E1027 table, Bibendum chair and Tube light
Alyn Griffiths: Obviously you think she should be?
Zeev Aram: Not only that she should be. Not mega importance like Corbusier, who did the Unité d’Habitation, which is a very important statement architecturally. He knew how to major in publicity. But because of her modesty, maybe because of her style of life, she chose the quiet, the modest. If you are modest and you don’t shout, nobody asks you to do anything. So that was what she was.
Working with her was very, very appealing because she knew exactly her mind. With one eye she saw what many architects I know and admire couldn’t see with two eyes.
She was so precise, so accurate and so confident. For her to sit on a chair such as Bibendum and say to me it should be 3cm wider. I mean, I’ve worked with many architects – nobody would even – yes they’d measure, maybe it needs to be a bit wider, let me see. Anyway, she was quite an interesting person.
Bibendum chair, 1926
Alyn Griffiths: What was your working relationship like?
Zeev Aram: We were just working on the furniture because she was actually a bit incredulous. She wasn’t taking it as a joke, but she was a bit bemused that somebody was interested in her work.
She wouldn’t say it, although after several times meeting I managed to pull out a little bit because when we got to know each other she relaxed more and there was a bit of small talk and so on. I did sense that she was somewhat disappointed, but not in a sort of a big way – ‘I’m a great person and nobody thinks of my name’, but disappointed that she was forgotten. And yet, she knew – I mean J.J.P. Oud invited her to Holland and then they made a whole issue of her work and Rietveld said that she was one of the greatest and still the world just passed by. She was disappointed with a small ‘d’. Without the content, that’s the way life is, she had her wonderful years, she had wonderful fame, she had a wonderful working life – with ups and downs, and that’s that.
By the time you become ninety and almost a recluse, you adopt to a certain view of the world and she wasn’t expecting anything. So when Alan told her that this guy was interested to meet her and do something with her designs, she apparently shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘Me? My work? Who’d be interested in my work?’
Brick screen
Alyn Griffiths: Which of her pieces is your favourite?
Zeev Aram: I love them all because they’re like your children. Each one has got its own character, you like each one because of what it is and each one has got its own inherent function and beauty. So no, I have no favourites but I do like when I see three of the E1027 tables side by side. I think this is the most wonderful composition, just to see how one differs from the other and how she resolved the solution in the problem of the different tables, it’s wonderful.
Alyn Griffiths: You worked with Eileen until her death in 1976 and in that time she decided that you were going to have the world license to produce her designs exclusively. Was that important to you?
Zeev Aram: Yes, very. It’s very important, not because it makes me recognised and makes me important, it’s important because I think we still haven’t quite finished but we are getting there. When I decided that I would like to introduce the designs her name was not at all on the front line of anything design, worldwide I’m talking about, not the person. And I asked friends of mine, good friends, architects and designers to tell me about Eileen Gray. What do you know about Eileen Gray? Nine-and-a-half out of ten were sucking their teeth, saying the name reminds me of something but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m paraphrasing, of course.
Now, 30 years have passed: it took Zeev Aram to make it happen – I’m sure that there would have been someone else but there wasn’t, the fact is that we did it and now you are interviewing me not because she’s an anonymous person, but because she’s an important design person.
Occasional Tables, 1927
Alyn Griffiths: I wanted to ask you about having the exclusive license and how difficult it is to look after that and to make sure people aren’t imitating these designs.
Zeev Aram: Yes, the table I mentioned before, the E1027, at last count there was something like 120 companies producing them. All over the place. You see, companies like Herman Miller and Vitra and Cassina are making big investments in these things and even so they cannot prevent people copying some of the designs. I think it is very frustrating, I have a whole pile of them, of people, and I just think we have won a few cases in the States and Germany and so forth. But life is too short. I’m not prepared to spend my life with lawyers and solicitors and in courtrooms to prove that we have the license and these people are charlatans. Because I tell you, there are police forces all over the world trying to prevent crime, and it still happens.
People who want the proper thing, they’ll come to us. People recognise it, people are prepared to pay for it. Because people who understand quality that’s the way it is. People who want the cheaper stuff, they buy the cheaper stuff and if it doesn’t perform and it breaks down it’s part of life. You buy cheap, you get cheap. And it’s not because I’m bitter about it, I’m not. It’s a fact of life. After my last court case, which was some years ago in the States, I said never again will I go through anything against any company. Although we won the case in the federal court, all expenses paid etcetera, I am not prepared. It’s too much. Too much of me going into that.
Alyn Griffiths: You’ve just launched a website dedicated to Eileen Gray’s work. Why did you decide that now was the time to do that?
Zeev Aram: This is not a late show, not a late, late show. It’s a damn late response. It was just one thing after another. We kept on saying it’s nearly ready, its nearly there. Years of saying this! So you know what, Halleluiah that it’s done. Now it’s there and we’ll make the best of it. It’s still not quite right, it needs some adjustments done. But at least it’s there for anyone who is interested in Eileen Gray and wants to know about her.
Alyn Griffiths: And what about the movie? Do you think that’s going to help bring her to the attention of a wider audience?
Zeev Aram: I’m sure, because you know people do like to see a nice cinema movie and so forth. And don’t forget the big retrospective exhibition at the Pompidou that will be opening very soon in Ireland, at the IMMA. Very nice. The same exhibition comes over to Ireland. And from then I think it’s being negotiated to go over to the States and from there it probably goes to Tel Aviv.
So by putting her work in a more comprehensive way, not just little samples, on the world stage in these important venues, it’s bound to enhance her reputation. And I mean there are quite a number of books written about her as you probably know and so it is all helping her reputation. She’s not God, but if we talk about all these big names in the design world I think Eileen Gray should be one of them. You know, because she is that important as far as I’m concerned.
Alyn Griffiths: What is it about her work that is so unique and so special?
Zeev Aram: It’s not that bend, its not that weld, its not that proportion, it’s not that function – it’s none of that. You must ask why do I think that the sunlight is wonderful, that the sunset is so wonderful. And you can’t start enumerating them, listing them.
I really feel, and I’m not joking, I feel I have a blessed life that I’m able to walk between not only other designs which we have in the showroom, but to walk between Eileen Gray’s work and to see all the time something fantastic and something interesting and something which gives me great delight. And it’s not because it makes money you know, it’s not the money value here.
It’s the satisfaction to see the person who has been able to create such wonderful stuff and to anticipate what is going through our mind today, to anticipate this 50 or 60 years ago. And that’s what makes it great.
Cacti, gravel, concrete floors and a wooden bridge feature in this Brussels fashion boutique by JDS Architects (+ slideshow).
Danish architect Julien De Smedt of JDS Architects created the raw industrial interior for the two-storey Siblingsfactory shop, which opened last week in Belgium’s capital city. The store sells clothing and accessories for men and women, vintage furniture and a selection of homeware, plus the design team has also created a small magazine library where customers can sit down and have a cup of tea.
Fibreboard bridge
Raw concrete and white painted walls surround the retail space. A fibreboard footbridge spans diagonally across the double-height store entrance, while rows of thin cacti are planted in gravel along the edge of the mezzanine.
Ground floor
The ground floor features rows of clothing rails and a long wooden reception desk. Box-like shelves are hidden under a staircase and display products such as lamps and footstools.
Ground floor reception
Two white shelves are fixed to the concrete wall behind the reception desk and used to display accessories such as bags.
On the second floor there additional clothing rails and a selection of furniture pieces, including a bookshelf made from five stacked wooden boxes.
The architects positioned vintage furniture pieces around the store, alongside new products designed by Julien De Smedt and lamps by French lighting designer Marine Breynaert.
First floor
Siblingsfactory opened last week to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of clothing label Le Mont St Michel. Other brands on sale include A Peace Treaty and Studio Nicholson, and the store plans to donate a portion of its annual profits to children’s charity Afghanistan Demain.
Last week De Smedt launched Makers With Agendas – a new design brand with products ranging from solutions to natural disasters to coat hooks and tea sets. Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs spoke to De Smedt ahead of the launch. Read the full interview »
Marie de Moussac and Aymeric Watine, Siblingsfactory co-founders
Photographs are by Nico Neefs, courtesy JDS Architects.
Here’s a project description:
SiblingsFactory concept store
A concept store of 230m2 invented by the Belgian architect Julien De Smedt, pleasant and welcoming, ideal for beauty, quality and excellence in the heart of the Dansaert district in Brussels.
Marie de Moussac and Aymeric Watine, SiblingsFactory co-founders
In Siblingsfactory one finds a coherent and intelligent mix of fashion, design and contemporary art. One can enjoy a sophisticated selection of fashion and accessories for men and women, exhibitions, vintage furniture and design, a cup of tea and a library with art magazines.
To realise the project, co-founders Aymeric Watine and Marie de Moussac worked closely with the JDSA architects and its founder Julien De Smedt. The agency consists of young architects and designers who are known for projects such as the ski jump in Oslo and their collaboration with Muuto.
She studied communications at the EFAP (Ecole Française des Attachés de Presse et des Professionnels de la Communication). Marie then spent eight years working at a communication agency in Paris as a project manager. Marie is passionate about contemporary art and design and has a thorough knowledge of the art market.
In 2007, she works for an advertising agency in Kabul in Afghanistan and met Mehrangais Ehsan, founder of the association Afghanistan Demain, which aims to get children off the street and into school. A portion of the proceeds from the new Siblingsfactory concept store will be donated to the charity.
This wooden nursery and elementary school complex in Lyon by French architects Tectoniques has hilly rooftops carpeted with plants that feature walkways for students to explore (+ slideshow).
Tectoniques built the two schools on a sloping site opposite a wooded parkland in the northern city suburb of Rillieux-la-Pape.
The two- and three-storey buildings were designed with V-shaped plans. The nursery school frames a garden, while the elementary school wraps around a narrow courtyard.
In certain places the plant-covered rooftops appear to emerge from the ground, created a series of slopes and pathways that children are encouraged to investigate.
“One of the project’s major characteristics is the relationship it establishes between architecture and nature,” said the architects. “The structures in keeping with their surroundings are, at times, allowing nature to more or less literally to get the upper hand.”
“The general profile is uniformly and deliberately low, harmonising with the slope in such a way as to minimise the excavation and foundation work,” they added.
The two schools operate independently, but share some facilities. A communal entrance provides a place for parents to congregate before and after school, and is linked to the village by a pedestrian pathway.
Timber cladding covers most of the building’s interior and exterior, but is interspersed with a few yellow-painted panels on the walls and ceilings.
Spacious corridors run between classrooms and feature floor-to-ceiling windows to increase natural light.
A vegetable garden grows on the perimeter of the school, plus a new gymnasium will be added to the site next year.
Photography is by Renaud Araud and the architects.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Paul Chevallier School in Rillieux-la-Pape
The Paul Chevallier school complex is situated in Rillieux-la-Pape, a northern suburb of Lyon. At 5,034 m2, it is an unusually large project; and this indicates the growing attractiveness of the area. The complex currently comprises a nursery school and an elementary school. In 2014, a gym will be added, which will also be available for community activities. The site occupies an entire block, close to the centre of the district. The two schools are functionally and administratively autonomous. While following on from each other, they make up a continuum, in an overall composition.
They are made up of rectangular modules in “V” formations enclosing internal spaces which, in the case of the nursery school, is a garden, and, in that of the elementary school, a patio. The design takes account of the sloping terrain. The structures in laminated KLH® panels have imposing planted-out roofs with overhangs. Lending its tone to the entire project, this extra “façade” represents the lyrical nature of the relationship between nature and architecture, in a Japanese-inspired atmosphere. It is accessible and visible from inside the buildings via the volumes of the first floor, part of which rises up over the roof and seems to float over this hanging garden.
Integration into the urban mosaic
The site is surrounded by disparate constructed forms that illustrate the historical development of the area. The old village stretches out along the Route de Strasbourg, and on the southern side there is a mix of apartment blocks and private housing developments. Dense, diverse plant life accompanies and modifies this urban environment. Across from the site is the wooded Brosset park, with, on its perimeter, the Maison des Familles, the Centre Social and the Ecole de Musique, whose functions are complementary to those of the schools.
The nursery school occupies a calm, sheltered position in a garden at the heart of the site, with an area of vegetation close to a château and some villas. The elementary school has a façade that gives onto Rue Salignat. The future gym will follow the alignment of the street. A pedestrian pathway leads to the entrance, organising the area where the parents congregate, and linking the schools to the village, as a prolongation to the existing axes of communication. It is lined by the structures themselves, thus leaving room for the playgrounds and gardens on the southern side.
Reconciling architecture and nature
One of the project’s major characteristics is the relationship it establishes between architecture and nature. The structures are in keeping with their surroundings, at times allowing nature, more or less literally, to “get the upper hand”. The general profile is uniformly, deliberately low, harmonising with the slope in such a way as to minimise excavation and foundation work. The project harmonises vegetation on the upper and lower levels. The volumes in wood are separated by the broad, planted-out roofs, with their waves of colour.
The inclined roof planes and broad overhangs energise the silhouette, and attenuate the massiveness of the blocks. This schema is an encouragement to strolling and dallying. It projects an impression of insouciance that is ideally suited to the world of children. From the inside, nature is framed by the large windows of the classrooms, and its close proximity makes it an element of the children’s educational needs. The landscapers have provided places of discovery and experimentation. There is a vegetable garden beside Rue Salignat, and a discovery path on the way to the canteen in the northern wing of the nursery school. There are also walkways on the roofs, which introduce the children to another ambiance.
Poetry and surprise
The two schools are unified by their broad, pleated roofs, the nursery school being lower down on the slope. The ground plan is simple, so that the children can easily find their way around. The geometry, and notably the passageways, contrast with the spatial intensity. The inner perspectives are telescoped or attenuated, depending on whether the walls are convex or concave. Views onto the outside world, and superimposed spaces, are always different, always new. There are multiple, changing, irregular facets. No two façades are the same.
The complex is labile, asymmetrical, surprising. In terms of organisation, the classrooms are rectangular, and can take thirty children comfortably. The collective spaces (library, concourse, music and computing rooms) stand out, in part, above the roofs. Large windows, sheltered by the roof projections and sunshades, open onto the playgrounds on the southern side. And the nursery school also receives natural light from the north. Access to the nursery school classrooms is through cloakrooms, via yellow perforated metal entry points that indicate a passage from one world to another.
The toilets and dormitories are shared by two classrooms, and there is customised furniture in three-ply spruce, from the cloakrooms to the cupboards in the classrooms. The passageways have their own character, and are the project’s main axes. The galleries, main entrance, hall, covered playground, corridors and terraces are carefully designed, spacious, with natural lighting, for easy occupation.
Wood in depth
Wood is a pre-eminent presence. Tectoniques generally uses wood frames for its school projects, but in this case there are wood panels throughout, for the walls, façades and floors. They are left exposed on the inside surfaces, giving solidity and depth to the walls and partitions. This impression of mass and weight creates an impression that is unusual for construction in wood, which by its very nature is light.
Apart from the foundations, slabs, ground floor and stairwells, everything is in wood, including the lift shaft. The outer aspect of the complex is characterised by overhangs that are 2.4 m long and 0.18 m deep. Structurally, the roof is made of KLH® panels, as mentioned above, while the upper storey has cavity floors in prefabricated laminates between OSB planking on dry slabs, with soft coverings.
The design-construction process is similar to certain techniques that have been used in Austria. Industrially-produced panels and more elaborate components are used for on-site dry assembly. This is one of the most ambitious project of its kind to be implemented in France, using a constructional approach that is one of Tectoniques’ specialities.
The sprawling topography of the Portuguese landscape provided the shape of this restaurant, guest house and wine showroom by architecture studio Carvalho Araújo (+ slideshow).
Sited just outside the town of Passos do Silgueiros, the building was designed by Carvalho Araújo for Portuguese wine brand Quinta de Lemos as a place where critics and customers can sample and critique different vintages.
Glass walls angle back and forth to give the concrete building its winding plan, which nestles closely to the rugged forms of the rocky hillside.
“The building’s drawing is developed starting from the topography, based in contour lines,” said the architects. “It defines an extensive course that represents the dimension of the territory on which it is placed”.
Visitors arrive at the building after traversing a winding pathway down from the road. Upon entering, they can either head into a large dining room, or make their way to one of three guest bedrooms.
The wine showroom is positioned just beyond, past a private indoor swimming pool that offers far-stretching views across the vineyards and hills.
A pair of long staircases tucked behind the building lead up onto the roof, which is covered with paving slabs and functions as a large viewing platform.
“The building is drawn by the land,” added the architects. “Its openings and orientation respect the main points of view over the vineyard, control of natural light and the discretion that is intended.”
Answering the request for the conception and design for a gourmet restaurant, we developed the project with the idea of a guest house, private equipment as complement of the first. The group intends to relate to the wine production, and to frame this investment in a global brand strategy, instead of an isolated act in the territory.
The guest house doesn’t have a formal reception; the services create an intimate atmosphere, family like and exclusive. The bedroom is not just the private domain; it includes other spaces of social character, which makes this equipment different from the usual offer of temporary lodging. The bedroom is really a small house.
The association established with the wine production justifies the restaurant. It includes spaces for wine proofs, and a reserved area to discussion, analysis and wine critic, suggesting a flexible drawing for the space in all these uses.
The building’s drawing is developed starting from the topography, based in contour lines, as a reference to the platforms and the distant association that unites them in time, characteristic of wine’s production especially in the Douro and Dão region.
It defines an extensive course that represents the dimension of the territory on which is placed and is built in a level quota, being the direct result of the topography.
The building is drawn by the land, and its openings, orientations and internal definition of the program respect the main points of view over the vineyard, control of natural light and the discretion that is intended for the group, in spite of its apparent dimension.
The attractive point where the building is located creates a tension between the existent building and the new construction, being constituted as two poles, forcing the accomplishment of a course to relate them. The implantation of the new construction is just the continuity of that course; a drawing in the landscape, a built course leaning towards the beauty of the linear rhythm of the vineyards.
Architecture: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design Team: José Manuel Carvalho Araújo, Joel Moniz, Sandra Ferreira, Emanuel de Sousa, Ana Vilar, André Santos, Liliana Costa, Nuno Vieira, Pedro Mendes, Carlos Santos, José João Santos, Leandro Silva
Client: Celso de Lemos Esteves Date: 2007 – 2012 Location: Passos do Silgueiros, 3500-541, Viseu, Portugal
Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem has exposed vaulted ceilings and stone walls inside this renovated house in the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv (+ slideshow).
Pitsou Kedem restored the historical building, estimated to be hundreds of years old, by stripping back the interior to reveal walls of broken clay and shells, vaulted ceilings and large internal archways.
Small pockets are hollowed from the walls at various heights and are used to create storage areas and a desk.
“The central idea was to combine the old and new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together, even intensify them, because of the contrast and tension between the different periods,” said the studio.
A set of three pivoting glass doors frame the downstairs bedroom, while a new kitchen extension on the west side of the house features a long window with views over the Mediterranean ocean.
Tall windows also lead out from the living room next door to a small wooden balcony.
An iron staircase is set into the exposed concrete wall of the living room and is screened by a double-height balustrade of suspended wire cables. It ascends to a master bedroom on the mezzanine floor above.
Exposed concrete flooring throughout the house is covered with a mixture of patterned and textured rugs.
“The project succeeds in both honouring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period,” added the designers.
Jaffa House: contemporary minimalism and historical asceticism
The language of minimalism imbedded in a historic residence in Old Jaffa. The 180 square meter residential home is located in Old Jaffa. Its location is unique in that it is set above the harbour, facing west with all of its openings facing the majestic splendour of the Mediterranean Sea.
Whilst it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old.
Over the years, it has undergone many changes and had many additions made that have damaged the original quality of the building and its spaces.
The central idea was to restore the structure’s original, characteristics, the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches including the exposure of the original materials (a combination of pottery and beach sand).
The building has been cleaned of all of the extraneous elements, from newer wall coverings and has undergone a peeling process to expose its original state.
Surprisingly, modern, minimalistic construction styles remind us of and correspond with the ascetic style of the past, and this despite the vast time difference between them.
The central idea was to combine the old and the new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together even intensify them because of the contrast and tension between the different periods.
The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the buildings outer shell and by respecting the building engineering accord.
The modern is expressed by the opening of spaces and by altering the internal flow to one more open and free and the creation of an urban home environment along with the use of stainless steel, iron and Korean in the various partitions, in the openings and in the furniture.
The project succeeds in both honouring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period.
Despite the time differences, the tensions and the dichotomy between the periods exist in a surprisingly balanced and harmonic space.
Design: Pitsou Kedem Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Raz Melamed, Irene Goldberg Project: 180 sqm house in the old city of Jaffa
Patrick Blanc, the inventor of living walls, has completed his latest vertical garden, covering the side of a five-storey Parisian block with waves of 7600 plants (+ slideshow).
L’Oasis D’Aboukir (the Oasis of Aboukir) is a 25-metre-high green wall by botanist and researcher Patrick Blanc, which covers a building facade in the second arrondissement of the city.
The wall features plants from 237 different species and appears to grow up the facade in diagonal waves. It was planted in the spring and covers the previously raw concrete facade on the corner of Aboukir Street and Petits Carreaux street.
“I am very happy to contribute to the welfare and environmental consciousness of the inhabitants of a historic district in the heart of Paris,” said Blanc, who has been creating green walls for more than 30 years.
Each outfit in this series crafted from paper by students in Estonia represents a different month (+ slideshow).
January by Leelo-Mai Aunbaum
Tutored by fashion designer Marit Ilison, the group of Estonian Academy of Arts students were limited to using paper from a single company though they had free reign over colours and forms.
February by Triin Uibo
“It was a very quick course, so students had two weeks for research and then two weeks to test and execute real costumes,” Ilison told Dezeen.
March by Eelin Lepik
This photo set styled by Ilison was used to create a calendar for paper brand Antalis.
April by Kerti Pahk
“I selected best 12 outfits from 24 participators, then I proposed the idea of a calendar to Antalis and they liked it,” said Ilison. “Later we selected and decided which photo would portray which month.”
May by Maria Kahnweiler
The first two wintery pieces were made from white sheets, with January’s design comprising layers of circular sections with strips cut out.
June by Marion Piirmets
For the second, long tubes crossed the body to form a scuptural dress while shorter rolls were stacked into a headpiece.
July by Birgitta Silberg
Moving into Spring, floral shapes adorned outfits as geometric seed pods and then scrunched up pink petals.
August by Karl Keskla
July’s offering saw the material edged in red, looped tightly back and forth to create giant ruffles similar to Elizabethan neck pieces.
September by Anna Baboshina
Colours became more somber on the autumnal garments, particularly the collection of brown shapes built up around the body and extended over the head that looked like leaves ready to fall.
October by Jelena Rumyantseva
For December reams of colourful ribbon-like strips splayed from the shoulders and curled up by the ends, with some tied in a bow at the neck.
Perforated yellow cupboards and drawers resemble slices of Swiss cheese inside this apartment in São Paulo by Brazilian architects Zoom Urbanismo (+ slideshow).
Zoom Urbanismo renovated the flat for a young couple, moving partitions to create an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining area with an original parquet floor and an exposed brick wall.
“The big windows, high ceiling and the good quality of the wooden floor showed that the apartment had potential,” said the architects, “but the closed spaces, divided by the walls, had poor lighting and ventilation, and deteriorated wall coverings.”
Bright yellow cupboards unite the various spaces and are dotted with holes that mimic star constellations. These holes can also be used as handles.
Thick concrete pillars frame the walls and high ceilings in the dining area and are lined with bookshelves on one side.
Sliding glass doors lead out from the living room to a terrace with a view over the city.
A corridor leads back towards two bedrooms, bathrooms, and a laundry room. These spaces also include perforated cupboards, but feature wooden and white-painted surfaces rather than yellow.
In the neighbourhood of Perdizes, in São Paulo, a young couple (an executive and a graphic designer) purchased the top apartment in a four-storey charming and old building.
The big windows, the high ceiling and the good quality of the wooden floor (all common in old constructions) showed that the apartment had potential, but the closed spaces, divided by the walls, had poor lighting and ventilation and deteriorated wall coverings.
The internal distribution of the apartment was reorganised in order to optimise and integrate the spaces. The social area became wide and articulated with the kitchen and the back balcony, which also contains the laundry.
The shelves and cabinets have different heights, so that many objects could be stored and shown. The cabinet doors have small holes that, combined, form the geometry of constellations. The holes are also handles for the cabinets.
Curving steel columns morph into angular arches around the etched concrete body of this bridge by New Zealand architects Warren and Mahoney over a road, railway and waterway in Auckland (+ slideshow).
Named Point Resolution, the pedestrian bridge connects the coastline with a stretch of headland on the opposite side of the bay. Warren & Mahoney designed the structure to replace an existing 1930s bridge, which had become structurally unsound.
The body of the bridge is framed by three sinuous arcs, which branch out from the steel columns that elevate the structure. “The steel supporting the deck was designed to pay homage to the original bridge by echoing its three arches,” explained the architects.
A curved concrete deck was modelled on the hull of a ship and features a series of etched patterns by artist Henriata Nicholas, designed to look like delicate water ripples.
These patterns continue across the angular glass balustrades that line the edges of the walkway, supporting handrails on both sides.
The architects compare the delicate patterns and curving forms with the nearby Parnell Baths – a 1950s structure that features a decorative mosaic mural. “[The baths] offered a clear language of angular lines meeting sinuous form and became a key motivator of the language and geometry of the design,” they added.
Here’s a project description from Warren & Mahoney:
Point Resolution Bridge
Auckland Council invited Warren and Mahoney to provide conceptual ideas for a replacement pedestrian bridge connecting Auckland’s waterfront to a prominent headland. The existing bridge, built in the 1930s was suffering severe structural fatigue and with the imminent electrification of Auckland’s rail network, the bridge needed to be raised.
The council, recognising the importance of the location, both in terms of its prominence along the waterfront and its proximity to the historic salt water Parnell Baths, wanted something sculptural, elegant and iconic. The baths, designed in the early 1950s in the International Modern style of lido bathing pools with a mosaic mural by artist James Turkington, with its fluid and abstracted swimmers, offered a clear language of angular lines meeting sinuous form and became a key motivator of the language and geometry of the design.
The location of the bridge at the edge of the harbour also provided obvious nautical allusions, both historic and contemporary – the waka and the super yacht.
It was determined that the bridge would be formed using three primary elements:
» A simple but sculpted and hull-like concrete deck would extend from the headland and protrude out into the harbour. This would in turn be cradled by a highly expressive steel armature or exoskeleton which sinuously referenced the language of the baths beyond. A simple cantilevered glass balustrade, co-planar with the concrete deck would provide barrier protection.
» The steel supporting the deck was designed to pay homage to the original bridge by echoing its three arches. The arches begin under the deck as diamond shaped columns which bifurcate to form the arches.
» The deck is formed with three separate twin-celled post tensioned precast concrete sections joined with in-situ stitches. The deck is supported by the steel armature through discrete pin connections.
Artist Henriata Nicholas developed a pungarungaru(water ripple) pattern over the concrete and glass surfaces. It was important that the patterning was delicately completed in a contemporary manner to ensure it would not be read as a patronising cultural reference. To ensure consistency of the concrete colour, a pigmented stain was applied.
To create the fluid and sinuous forms, along with the geometric precision required the bridge was designed and modelled in Rhinoceros with the associated parametric plug-in Grasshopper. The parametric capability allowed for design iterations to be produced quickly and tested against architectural and structural requirements.
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