Hasta La Ideas

Twitter’s headquarters in a 1937 San Francisco building features brightly coloured furniture, padded booths, games rooms and an enormous roof terrace (+ slideshow).

Global interior firm IA Architects collaborated with local San Francisco practice Lundberg Design on the renovation of floors seven to nine of an eleven-storey Art Deco building that formerly housed a wholesale furniture store.

“Twitter’s new headquarters is the first workspace designed specifically for the company, with the intent to reflect and nurture the Twitter culture, enable creativity, and appeal directly to Twitter’s bright and passionate staff,” said IA Architects.

The offices’ large open spaces are punctuated by original concrete columns, with meeting rooms, breakout spaces, a yoga studio, fitness room and games rooms distributed across the two floors.

“The multi-storey location gives a new twist to the term ‘urban campus’ and sets the bar for all comers,” IA Architects added.

The brand’s bird motif recurs throughout the interior, as does its signature shade of blue.

Wood is also used as a unifying feature, with imagery of twigs appearing on wallpaper and real branches emerging from a round lightwell next to the lifts. The reception desk is partially clad in wood reclaimed from a bowling alley.

An expansive cafeteria with acoustic panels suspended from the ceiling in an undulating pattern also features a stage that can be used for meetings and events.

Large windows connect the cafeteria to a 2023-square-metre outdoor terrace with turfed and planted areas that overlook the city.

Responsibilities for the project were divided between Lundberg Design, which focused on the front office and dining area, and IA Design, which led the planning, layout and design of the remaining spaces.

Other offices designed for software companies recently include Google’s headquarters in Madrid, which features wooden arches leading to colourful meeting rooms, and Pinterest’s converted warehouse headquarters with two-storey white cuboids that house meeting spaces, bars and a canteen.

Photography is by Chad Ziemendorf.

The following project description is from IA Architects:

Twitter Global Headquarters

Twitter’s new global headquarters occupies floors 7-9 of the 11-floor Market Square complex, an iconic 1937 Art Deco landmark that once housed the San Francisco wholesale furniture mart. Until recently, the building, like the rest of its mid-Market Street neighbours, has been a casualty of urban blight.

Twitter’s occupancy marks the beginning of a long-overdue renewal for the area, which is adjacent to some of the city’s most historic venues: Davies Symphony Hall, the War Memorial Opera House, the Asian Art Museum, and City Hall.

Twitter’s desire to stay in the city where it was founded and a recently-passed San Francisco tax forgiveness measure inspired the company to commit to the area. This decision has subsequently attracted other tech companies to consider locations nearby.

Twitter’s new headquarters is the first workspace designed specifically for the company, with the intent to reflect and nurture the Twitter culture, enable creativity, and appeal directly to Twitter’s bright and passionate staff. The multi-story location gives a new twist to the term “urban campus” and sets the bar for all comers.

The space is subtly branded throughout with the use of the Twitter logo and signature blue, natural wood, and a frequent twig motif. The once cavernous open space, including the building’s original concrete columns, has become a great expanse of white benching systems, punctuated with informal seating areas, large and small conference rooms, break areas with pantries, banquettes, and easily reconfigured lounge areas, all complimented by art from local artists.

A yoga studio, fitness room, and two very popular game rooms are also part of the mix. This variety of options takes full advantage of the huge floor plates and natural light at the window walls. The overall effect is edgy yet polished, complimented by an array of art by local artists.

An enormous cafeteria and gathering space known as the Commons offers an impressive menu and includes a stage for group meetings and entertainment. It opens onto the park-like roof garden that covers almost half an acre and offers impressive skyline views – a great place to hang out by day (blankets provided for those chilly Bay Area afternoons) and a dramatic venue for nighttime events.

Using a highly integrated team approach, IA collaborated with Lundberg Design; all design decisions were made as a group. Lundberg Design was the lead on the front office area and dining facilities; IA led the overall planning, layout, and design for the rest of the project, with responsibility for construction documents and administration.

Twitter fully occupies its new space and has recently taken two additional floors; other tech companies have taken additional floors. A retail area is planned for street level, with cafes, restaurants, a health club, and grocery store.

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by IA Architects and Lundberg Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Steel reinforcing bars are used for shelving and partitions at this coffee shop in Dublin by VAV architects.

VAV created storage spaces at the Bear Market Coffee shop from a series of vertical steel bars usually used to reinforce concrete in buildings. The bars also run from floor to ceiling in the centre of the space, holding up a chunky wooden table.

“Our intent was to fill the space with vertical lines, and thus gently fragment the space, filtering the views and people within it,” said the architects. “This forest of steel would, we hoped, create a brutal yet honest space.”

Sourced from a local steel manufacturer, the bars create gridded units that are built into the wall behind the coffee bar and have wooden planks inserted between them to display products.

Bronze-coloured pendant lamps hang above the counter, which is made from stacks of oak sleepers.

Thick wood planks have also been reused as table tops and the floor is made from recycled timber.

The ceiling is left exposed and brick walls are painted white.

Here is some more information from the architect:

Bear Market Coffee

The coffee shop is located on Main Street, Blackrock Village, County Dublin. Within tight budgetary constraints our objective was to fit various functions, café related, into a minimal preordained space, with limited construction alteration and modification possibilities.

The concept for the design was to explore and question materiality, test the qualities of everyday materials and techniques available, while at the same time creating something unique and totally distinctive.

The chosen material we selected for exploration purposes was reinforcement steel. Our intent was to fill the space with vertical lines, and thus gently fragment the space, filtering the views and people within it. This forest of steel would, we hoped, create a brutal yet honest space.

The finished cafe would be perceived through the filtered vertical lines of the reinforcement bars, with shelving and benches hidden and supported within them. With steel dominating the interior, all other elements would simply act as a backdrop. Thus the original interior was stripped back to the core.

Ceiling was totally exposed, walls were treated minimally, while existing tiles were roughly pulled off, leaving gridded screed surfaces. The floor was roughly laid with recycled timber, interlaid with steel rods, where the verticals connected with the ground.

This timber flooring softened the space and hid the supports of the shelving units, with the reinforcement bars piercing through it to the hidden supports below.

These two new elements – horizontal lines of timber and vertical of steel, intersected each other, griding the interior.

Client: Stephen Deasy
Location: 19 Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
Architects: VAV architects: Darragh Breathnach, Pablo Bolinches Vidal, Daria Leikina.
Construction: Stephen Deasy & VAV

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partitions in Dublin coffee shop appeared first on Dezeen.

American firm Johnston Marklee has designed a circular house with a paddling pool on the roof as part of a series of inventive holiday homes proposed by architects including Sou Fujimoto and Didier Faustino for a national park in Spain (+ slideshow).

Johnston Marklee‘s Round House is number four in the series of Solo Houses, an initiative funded by French developer Christian Bourdais that gives 12 architects free rein to develop any design within a set budget.

Rising above an almond grove, the house will accommodate living spaces and bedrooms on a elevated circular floor. Bedrooms will be positioned around the curved edges of the building, while sliding glass screens will allow rooms to open out to one another.

A spiral staircase at the centre of the house will lead residents up to the rooftop deck, offering panoramic views across the rural landscape.

Architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee compare the building to a string of famous villas with rotundas, including Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotunda and Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House.

“[It] captures the continuous horizon line of the surrounding landscape while accentuating the different spatial characteristics of the site’s orientations,” they said.

Both the base and roof terrace will feature a small square plan, contrasting with the curved outline of the main building’s floor.

Round House is one of 12 houses set to be built as part of the Solo Houses series. The symmetrical concrete Casa Pezo by Chilean studio Pezo Von Ellrichshausen is the only project completed so far, but will be followed by Didier Faustino’s Big Bang-inspired structure and Sou Fujimoto’s Geometric Forest.

Here’s a project description from Johnston Marklee:

Solo Houses unveils the Round House of Johnston Marklee

Situated on the outskirts of Cretas, Spain the Round House follows the grand tradition of country villas sited within an idyllic landscape. Approached along the edge of a dense forest and the Parc Natural dels Ports beyond, the Round House emerges as a singular object amongst a grove of almond trees.

The house consists of a single floor elevated above the almond grove to capture a panoramic view of the surroundings. The circular floor plan is supposed by a smaller base with a square plan, creating a sense of detachment from the landscape whilst remaining grounded by its inherent weight and mass. Protruding from the base is the main entrance. Upon entry the visitor ascends a flight of stairs and arrives within the centre of the house.

The primary axis of the bilaterally symmetrical plan runs along the length of the entry stairway, and is shaped by two curving walls that connect the living and dining areas of the open plan. These walls create a compressed spatial sensation while directing the visitor outward towards the panoramic view at the perimeter. Hovering above the almond trees, the space of the open plan extends into the landscape.

Behind the curving walls are four bedrooms with bathrooms and storage. The sliding doors of the bedrooms can open to connect to the living space and form a complete open plan when desired. A spiral staircase allows visitors to access the roof deck which has a square plan identical to the base of the house. Centred with a pool, the roof deck obtains an unbroken 360 degree view of the Aragonais backcountry.

Following the lineage of Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, and John Lautner’s Chemosphere House; Johnston Marklee’s Round House captures the continuous horizon line of the surrounding landscape while accentuating the different spatial characteristics of the site’s orientations.

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for series of Spanish holiday homes appeared first on Dezeen.

T is for Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose Tama Art University Library is behind today’s advent calendar window. Completed in 2007, the library comprises slender concrete arches that span lengths of up to 16 metres. Ito was also this year’s Pritzker Prize laureate and his other projects include the Za Koenji Public Theatre in Tokyo.

See more architecture by Toyo Ito »

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Toyo Ito appeared first on Dezeen.

Hungarian art and design collective Szövetség’39 has unveiled a concept to reduce the impact of rising sea levels in the world’s delta regions by introducing a modular structure that will cultivate mangrove forests to form natural dams.

Anna Baróthy of Szövetség’39 worked in a design team that included biologist and diver Gergő Balázs, designer Janka Csernák and scientist Viktor Grónás to develop the CALTROPe concept, which seeks to prevent the loss of agricultural land caused when pollution and climate change provoke water levels to rise.

After carefully studying the biological qualities of mangroves, the designers found that the salt-tolerant plants act as a natural breakwater against tides, trapping river sediment in their strong roots and helping to prevent ecosystems from washing away.

“After having examined the processes of sedimentation, the hydrodynamic characteristics, and the ecological conditions, we concluded that the intentional retention of water-borne alluvium carried in big qualities by the delta rivers could be the key to compensate land loss caused by sea level rise,” explain the team in their design report.

The designers propose an structure that can be easily installed beneath the water’s surface, providing a modular infrastructure to house growing mangrove plants, which thrive in coastal habitats.

“The modules serve as containers and incubators for the young mangrove saplings that, getting stronger with time, will become self-supporting and form a natural dam,” said theteam.

The project is named CALTROPe – a mixture of the words caltrop (a kind of water chestnut) and rope. The first is a reference to the the curving shape of the objects, while the second refers to the lacy appearance of the modules when combined.

Made from a combination of concrete and organic materials, the structures are expected to crumble away after 15  to 20 years. By this point the plants will be strong enough to support themselves and the dissolved material will become part of the sediment.

“We believe that, when the sea level will go beyond a critical point, the quantity of sediment trapped will form sufficiently high dams to save the current lands,” said the designers. “The protected areas can also be used agriculturally or can be populated because their soil is rich in nutrients and they are solid enough.”

Another benefit of the structure is that it will create new habitats for oysters and prawns.

The project was recently named one of three overall winners in a design competition launched by the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, a non-profit organisation focussing on the relationship between architecture and the sea.

Here’s a project description from Szövetség’39:

CALTROPe: Grand Prix winner Hungarian architecture project in Paris

The Budapest-based Szövetség’39 creative team has won the Grand Prix in the category ‘Architecture and sea level rise’ awarded by the International Architecture Competition organised by the Jacques Rougerie Foundation. The young Hungarian designers’ project called CALTROPe answered the challenge caused by loss of territory due to the water level rise in an innovative and sustainable manner.

The aim of the project is to synthesise and balance the natural dynamics and forces of the delta regions applying an easy-to-install modular structure. CALTROPe is a lace-like structure that is able to catch and collect river sediment with the help of mangrove plants, so integrating natural and architectural elements. Working like a catalyst, it will provoke positive changes at the most critical shoreline points. With this cooperative, participatory and locally supplied work can also reorganise and socialise the local population in a constructive and self-supporting manner.

CALTROPe comes from the words ‘caltrop’ (water chestnut) and ‘rope’, ‘caltrop’ referring to the shape of the object, and ‘rope’, to the linear, lace-like installation principles.

The concept of CALTROPe has been set up by Szövetség’39 Art Base that focuses usually on especially complex artistic planning. In this case the members of the team were Anna Baróthy, leading designer and project manager of Szövetség’39, Gergő Balázs biologist and diver, Janka Csernák designer, Dr. Viktor Grónás senior lecturer of the Szent István University’s Nature Conservation and Ecology Department, diver, Peter Kovacsics graphic and animation designer, Viktor Pucsek and Peter Vető industrial and 3D designers. The project staff was Melinda Bozsó, designer of Szövetség’39, Daniel Csomor architect, Kata Kerekes graphic designer, Vera Krauth architecture student, Ábel Kurta and Veronika Szabó product design students and Nóra Lajkó student in fine arts and painting.

This spring the Jacques Rougerie Foundation announced an international architectural competition in three categories. The call for a total of 529 entries were submitted from 76 countries of the world, out of which CALTROPe won the grand-prix. The competition is named after Jacques Rougerie who is one of the world’s most innovative visionary architects. Rougerie is an expert in space and underwater structures – he has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum in Egypt and the SeaOrbiter that is a cross between a skyscraper and a boat for exploring the unchartered territories of the earth’s oceans.

Szövetség ’39 is an association of artists who primarily deals with complex artistic design. The subject matter of design typically related to some form of spatial situations, such as installations, artistic design of buildings, actions and artworks of plazas, public spaces. The current members of the group are: Anna Baróthy, Csenge Kolozsvári and Melinda Bozsó joined by artists and creative groups in the workshop as well. Szövetség ’39 is an open workshop-site and assures an open-mind, recipient ambient for the development of tentative concepts. Just as the Szövetség ’39 conveys new-thinking and innovative ideas through hosting related events, actions regularly in the workshop. The main profiles of the present members are: architecture, media-art, computer graphics, web design, experimental programming, animation and design of glass.

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rising sea levels by cultivating mangrove forests appeared first on Dezeen.