Czech designer Martin Zampach has produced a range of hexagonal bowls that are each made from three interlocking wooden leaves.
Martin Zampach constructed the Poly Bowl using pieces of cork, coated with ash, maple and alder wood veneers to create different colours and textures.
Curved edges allow the pieces to slot together, forming the hexagonal shape.
“The flexible building materials allow for extreme shaping of the segments and when all parts are locked to form the bowl the structure gets its strength,” Zampach explained.
The designer also says that the pieces fit together in different arrangements, “to form illusional 2D and 3D ornaments”.
News: construction has begun on a new federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles designed by US firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM).
Scheduled for completion in the summer of 2016, the $319 million building is underway on a 1.5-hectare site between First Street and South Broadway and is set to replace the existing 1930s courthouse on North Spring Street.
Working alongside Clark Construction, SOM has designed the 10-storey building as a cube-shaped volume that will appear to hover over a solid stone base. It will feature a serrated facade, intended to maximise views whilst reducing solar heat gain for 24 courtrooms and 32 judicial chambers.
The US General Services Administration (GSA) says the new courthouse will be a “high-performance green building” that will feature an all-in-one cooling, heating and power system, as well as roof-mounted solar panels.
“Additionally, the high efficiency building systems, water-efficient fixtures, and advanced irrigation systems will help the building meet its energy and water conservation goals,” said the agency.
The Los Angeles Federal Courthouse is being constructed as part of a wider revitalisation of downtown Los Angeles, which is also home to Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall and the Los Angeles Cathedral. Other projects include a new Police Department headquarters, a building for the California Department of Transportation, a renovated Hall of Justice, and a newly developed Grand Park.
The arced profile of this charred wooden house by architects Horibe Associates is designed to resonate with the traditional temples and shrines of Yoshinogawa, Japan (+ slideshow).
Horibe Associates chose the bowed shape and dark external materials to help House in Kamoshima to integrate with the forms and colours of the local architecture and landscape.
“With its simple arced shape echoing the shape of the property and its charred cedar exterior similar to that found throughout the neighbourhood, this residence blends seamlessly into its surroundings of peaceful rice fields, temples and shrines,” said the architects.
Charred cedar cladding cloaks the curving wall at the front of the timber-framed property.
This plain facade is only interrupted by a doorway to one side and a small rectangular window in the middle, which looks into a bright central courtyard.
The courtyard features stepped wood decking and can be accessed via patio doors from the main bedroom, the combined kitchen and living area, and a spare room.
“The layout allows the residents to keep an eye on their small children no matter where in the house they are,” the architects said.
The back of the building opens up to extra garden space through more large glass doors from the kitchen and tatami room.
Most of the accommodation is on the ground floor, though a small staircase leads up to a roof terrace concealed behind the top of the curved facade.
Separate schools for art and music are contained within the glass and timber walls of this academy in Latvia by Riga architects Made (+ slideshow).
Previously housed in independent buildings, Made created a single home for the music and art institutions that pupils in the west Latvian town of Saldus attend on top of their standard educational programme.
The facade is constructed from large timber panels fronted by glass profiles, which help to heat the air trapped in between and insulate the structure.
“Building structure and materials work as passive environmental control and at the same time exhibit [the building’s] functionality,” said the architects.
Chunks missing from the two-storey volume create sheltered patios on the ground floor and balconies on the first floor.
Bright colours distinguish the areas used by each faculty. Green denotes spaces for the music school and the blue zone is occupied by art students.
Staircases, walls and doors are coloured in these bright shades, which contrast with the exposed concrete walls and flooring.
Practice halls and libraries are located at the building’s centre, along with a double-height auditorium surrounded by rippled panels to improve acoustics.
Classrooms and studio spaces are situated around the perimeter so they benefit from the light coming through full-height windows.
The external walls are lined with lime plaster, absorbing humid air that could damage the musical instruments.
The building of Music and Art school comprises two schools working separately until now. The classrooms are placed on perimeter, while practicing halls and libraries in the middle of the building.
Light courtyards are the result of the compact plan, providing a lot of daylight and reflected light in the middle of the school, and at the same time being spaces for both schools to interact.
The green colour in the interior marks the music school, while blue is for the art school. Large thermal inertia of the building and integrated floor heating deliver an even temperature regime.
The facade consists of massive timber panels covered with profile glass and is a part of an energy efficient natural ventilation system, preheating inlet air during winter.
Massive wood walls with lime plaster accumulate humidity, providing a good climate for people as well as for musical instruments inside the classrooms.
Inner concrete walls and massive wood walls visible through the glass exhibit their natural origin, which we find an important issue especially at education institutions.
Brazilian studios MMBB and H+F Arquitetos reference tower blocks from the 1960s with this social housing complex flanking the Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge in São Paulo (+ slideshow).
The Jardim Edite Social Housing Complex replaces a large favela on the junction between Avenida Berrini and Avenida Marinho, a part of the city that has seen a boom in high-end real estate in recent years.
MMBB and H+F Arquitetos teamed up to design the complex, creating 252 new residences within three 17-storey towers and a pair of adjoining two-storey blocks.
Each unit has two bedrooms and an area of 50 square metres – the maximum permitted size for social housing in the city.
Public services occupy the ground-floor spaces, offering a healthcare facility, a children’s daycare centre and a catering school. There are also communal gardens and rooftop terraces for residents.
The architects deliberately left out any parking provision, which they hoped would deter local office workers from moving in. Instead, many of the favela’s original residents returned to occupy the new homes.
“For us it is a laboratory for investigating ideas for the kind of city we want to build here in São Paulo,” H+F’s Eduardo Ferroni told Architectural Record.
The Jardim Edite Social Housing Complex was commissioned to replace a favela located on one of the most significant areas of recent growth in both the business and financial sector of the city of São Paulo.
To ensure the integration among the housing complex and its rich surroundings, the project articulated the housing program vertically and occupied the ground floor entirely by public facilities, available for the residential community as well as for the rest of the city, inserting the complex in the economy and everyday life of the region.
The rooftops of the public facilities also functions as a common area for the inhabitants, connecting housing buildings within each block, allowing for a secluded place for social interaction between the residents in the midst of the metropolitan scale of the surrounding area.
The project has a total area of 25.500 sqm, with 252 housing units of 50 sqm, a restaurant school (850 sqm), a basic health-care unit (1300 sqm) and a daycare center (1400 sqm).
Location: Av. Eng. Luís Carlos Berrini with Av. J. Roberto Marinho, São Paulo Area: 25.714 sqm Client: Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo – Secretaria Municipal da Habitação (Sehab/Habi) Architecture: MMBB and H+F
This house in Kanazawa by Japanese architect Takuro Yamamoto is punctuated by a series of interconnecting voids, including a terrace with a shallow reflecting pool (+ slideshow).
The client asked Takuro Yamamoto Architects for a simple building with several outdoor spaces, so the Tokyo-based firm inserted holes into the monolithic structure to create a courtyard and covered parking space on the ground floor, as well as the first floor terrace.
“The connection of voids – we call it Cave – is the theme of this house,” explain the architects, adding that the different voids “serve multiple purposes in order to make up for the space limitations.”
The house’s exterior appears as a plain white volume, with one surface interrupted by an aperture that creates the parking space and a covered entrance passage to protect the owners from the winter snowfall.
This void continues around a corner, where it becomes a secluded courtyard visible from the open plan kitchen and living space through full-height windows.
Views of the “cave” change throughout the day depending on the angle of the sun, and the architects added the shallow pool on the terrace “because we thought water is inseparable from white caves.”
The interconnected outdoor spaces also provide a route for snow to be cleared if it starts to build up in winter.
Takuro Yamamoto Architects previously designed a house in Kashiwa, Japan, around an angled central courtyard that divides the surrounding space into smaller rooms.
White Cave House is a massive lump engraved by a series of voids interconnected in the shape of a kinked tube. The connection of voids – we call it Cave – is the theme of this house.
Internal rooms are designed to enjoy the minimum views of Cave characterized by its whiteness. At the same time, this concept is also the practical solution to realize a courtyard house in Kanazawa city known for heavy snow in Japan.
The client’s original request was a white minimally-designed house with many external spaces, such as a large snow-proof approach to the entrance, a roofed garage for multiple cars, a terrace facing to the sky, and a courtyard.
Though a roofed entrance and a garage are desirable for snowy place, it takes so many floor areas away from the internal rooms for the family, while the space and the budget is limited. In addition, courtyard style itself is not suitable to the snowy country because courtyards would be easily buried under snow.
To solve the problems, we proposed to connect these external spaces to one another with a large single tube, or Cave, and have each part serve multiple purposes in order to make up for the space limitations.
We designed Cave unstraight because it prevents passengers outside from seeing through, though it is not closed. By this arrangement, Cave takes a new turn for each part letting in the sunshine while protecting privacy of the courtyard, the terrace, and the internal rooms.
The family inside can enjoy the view of Cave changing its contrast throughout a day under the sunshine. Cave also serves as a route to remove snow from the external spaces in winter, otherwise you would be at a loss with a lot of snow in the enclosed courtyard.
In order to make Cave deserve its name more, we wondered if we could add the reflection of water to the house because we thought water is inseparable from white caves.
We eventually figured out that the terrace was an appropriate site to place it. The terrace covered by white waterproof FRP holds a thin layer of water like a white basin.
Credits: Takuro Yamamoto Architects Location: Kanazawa Use: independent residence Site area : 493.88m2 Building area : 132.68m2 Total floor area: 172.33m2 Completion: June 2013 Design period: February 2011-September 2012 Construction period: October 2012-June 2013 Structure: Wood Client: a married couple + a child Architect: Takuro Yamamoto Structure design: Yamada Noriaki Structural Design Office Construction: Ninomiya-Kensetsu
German firm Archequipe has renovated a townhouse in Cologne’s Deutz district with a gabled facade that steps back and forth to respect the boundaries of a neighbouring residence.
Haus KLR was designed in the 1980s by architect Jutta Klare as a home for herself and her husband. Originally the five-storey building had housed an apartment for the couple’s in-laws on its second floor, but this space has now been converted into an architecture studio for Archequipe.
Thirty years ahead of its completion, the architects have given the building a facelift, re-plastering the staggered white walls that comprise the south, east and north elevations.
These offsets help to maximise the building footprint on each floor while respecting a guideline that required various setbacks on different storeys.
“The valid building law requested three metres distance between ground floor and the eastbound property line while the second floor required 4.5 metres distance to the same boundary,” explained the architects.
There’s also a south-facing oriel window that reinterprets the local 1930s vernacular.
Archequipe’s renovation included repainting the frames surrounding all the building’s windows, which are either square or made from combinations of square panels.
Stone floors were restored throughout both the studio and house, which includes a large dining room that opens out to the garden. Bathrooms were also overhauled on each floor.
The House KLR was built 1982 in Cologne as a townhouse with two units. In these days it was one of the first realised buildings of the architect who designed it for her husband and herself. A rentable in-law apartment with a separate staircase was supposed to support the young couple financially.
The district Deutz, where House KLR is located, was traditionally regarded as a secondary part of Cologne, whose centre resides on the opposite side of the river Rhine. In the last decade the once neglected district Deutz evolved into a popular address within Cologne’s inner city.
Most parts of the neighbourhood were erected in the 1930s with 3-4 story residential buildings while the narrow building site of House KLR was used as a fruit and vegetable garden until the 1980s. The simple and practical post-war architecture, nowadays most common in German cities, dominates the area today.
Ground floor plan – street level
One challenge regarding the design was to follow building laws while producing sufficient living space on the small plot. The valid building law requested 3.0 metres distance between ground floor and the eastbound property line while the second floor required 4.5 metres distance to the same boundary. In reaction to these demands a sculptural structure originated that seems to jump back and forth playfully multiple times.
First floor plan
The diversely leaping cubes led to additional useful surfaces which made the construction of a sufficiently spacious roof terrace for the in-law apartment possible. The two remaining facades – one facing the street the other the garden – were designed in the style of the sculptural structure of the east façade, thereby, preserving the element of the oriel present in the surrounding buildings. Besides the motif of the oriel the small window formats and the plastered facade as typical elements of the neighbouring housing were included into the design.
Second floor plan
The main apartment reaches over the three lower levels, the entrance to the amount of the middle level. The kitchen and dining area are set in the lowest level, so that the garden can be used as an additional dining area during the summer. The garden is also regarded as a recreational area, as for his unique position – below street level and shielded by the enclosing wall – it gains the character of a lonesome oasis in the midst of the city. The bedrooms of the main apartment are located on the first floor and are connected with the two other floors through stairs within the apartment.
Attic floor plan
The in-law apartment is also structured as a maisonette, and reaches from the second floor till the attic. Today it accommodates the Cologne architecture office of archequipe.
Long section
In 2012, exactly 30 years after building House KLR, extensive renovation work was performed. All facades were newly-plastered. Roof sheetings and window benches were renewed, the windows painted in a corresponding color. Inside, the stone cottage floors were refurbished, and walls plastered smoothly. Bathrooms on all levels were completely renovated.
These wooden shelving units and tables have been designed by South Korean designer Lee Sanghyeok to look like scaffolding (+ slideshow).
The Useful Arbeitsloser (Jobless) furniture range by Lee Sanghyeok includes two shelving units and two tables of different sizes.
The lightweight wooden furniture features a similar criss-crossing structure as building scaffolding and is fixed together with polished brass joints.
Sanghyeok claims that scaffolding can be seen as a metaphor for a designer who, like himself, lives and who works in a foreign country. “Scaffolding is is always passed by, constructed and moved away without much attention, but is still a necessary element in construction sites,” he said.
The Useful Arbeitsloser (Jobless) project was first exhibited at Nomadismi at Gallery Altai, Milan earlier this year.
Mesh sections in the walls and floor of this Corten steel bridge in Norway provide views of the Suldalslågen river rushing beneath it (+ slideshow).
Norwegian firm Rintala Eggertsson Architects designed the bridge to connect the town of Sand with a woodland area that is a popular recreation spot with local residents.
Inhabitants of the town were invited to vet early proposals for the bridge during a workshop with Rintala Eggertsson Architects and Czech architect Ivan Kroupa.
“The idea behind the chosen proposal was to establish a horizontal reference line in the landscape, to emphasise the undulant and organic shapes in the bedrock,” say the architects.
Walls with diagonal bracing are clad in sheets of Corten steel and panels of stainless steel mesh, which allow users to look out at the landscape and cause the bridge to glow from within at night when the internal lighting is switched on.
The enclosed steel volume amplifies the sound of the cascading water, which can also be seen through a steel grate in the floor.
A small concrete pavilion on the south side of the river can be used as a picnic site or resting place.
The bridge is located just north of the town Sand in the municipality of Suldal on the west coast of Norway. It is the result of extensive design process which started in 2008 after a design workshop together with Czech architect Ivan Kroupa where the inhabitants of Sand were given the opportunity to make a referendum over some of our initial ideas.
The bridge connects the town to a vast wooden landscape which is used for recreation by the inhabitants of Sand. This new connection makes the area more accessible for the general public and allows people of all generations to use the area.
The idea behind the chosen proposal was to establish a horizontal reference line in the landscape, to emphasize the undulant and organic shapes in the bedrock. The bridge consists of two steel lattice beams in corten steel on each side of the walkway, with a system of vertical and diagonal members.
The walls are clad with sheets of stainless steel stretch-metal and corten steel. On the south side of the river, after crossing the bridge from Sand, a small pavilion in concrete was made to accommodate for small picnics and pit-stops for passers-by.
Site plan
An important issue from the very start of the design process was to capture the power of the river running underneath the bridge. This was developed into an enclosed acoustic space above the middle of the river with a view through a steel grate directly down to the river, which gives the visitor a direct connection with this untamed natural element.
News: Kengo Kuma’s latest proposals for a new outpost of the V&A museum in Dundee, Scotland, have been granted planning permission, following a redesign to reduce costs (+ slideshow).
Planned for construction in Dundee’s Craig Harbour, Kengo Kuma’s competition-winning design for the V&A at Dundee first gained approval in autumn 2012, but spiralling costs forced the architect to redesign the structure so that only its prow projects over the edge of the water, rather than the whole building as originally intended.
The £45 million building will be constructed on the site of a former leisure centre and will feature an angular body with thick horizontal striations, creating exhibition spaces that are naturally lit and ventilated. It is set to become the leading centre for design in Scotland.
Philip Long, director of V&A at Dundee, commented: “Kengo Kuma’s fabulous design will give Dundee and Scotland a wonderful space to enjoy outstanding international exhibitions, and to learn about and get involved with Scotland’s remarkable history of design creativity. I believe it will attract visitors from across the world.”
Detailing the timeframe for construction, he said: “The projected date for the main fabric of the building to be in place is the end of 2015. Its completion, the interior fit-out and installation of the first exhibitions and displays will follow throughout 2016.”
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