Hasta La Ideas

The concrete walls inside this house in Poland by Ultra Architects were formed against wooden boards, creating a grainy texture that inverts the surface of the timber-clad facade (+ slideshow).

Named Seaside House, the three-storey residence was designed by Poznań firm Ultra Architects for a site behind the sand dunes of a beach in north-west Poland. This meant that groundwater levels were particularly high, so the house had to be built with a heavy waterproof structure.

Architects Marcin Kościuch and Tomasz Osięgłowski chose a concrete framework that could be left exposed on walls and ceilings throughout the interior.

“The building’s structure was designed as a monolithic shell made of reinforced concrete,” they said. “This kind of construction secures safety, geometric stability and tightness. It also let us use a structural material as a natural finishing of interiors.”

The exterior walls are clad with the same kind of timber panels used as formwork for the in-situ concrete, allowing the two different materials to match one each other in texture.

“In effect we achieved a characteristic reversal – warm wood on the outside and rough concrete with imprints of a formwork inside a house,” said the architects.

The house was constructed on the exact footprint of a demolished older house to prevent disturbing the roots of any surrounding pine trees.

The volume of the building is made up of two rectilinear blocks that are offset from one another. These form the two main floors, while a third storey is buried below ground level.

Bedrooms are all positioned on the uppermost floor, including a master suite with its own living room, while living and dining areas occupy the middle floor and open out to a wooden deck. A swimming pool is located in the basement.

Photography is by Jeremi Buczkowski.

Read on for more information from Ultra Architects:

Seaside House

The very first task was to choose a structural material which would work in heavy natural conditions on a plot where the building had to stand.

For the sake of instability of the ground and high level of ground water, the shell of the building must be heavy and waterproof. It also must be firm and solid since we designed large windows to open the interior for a beautiful view of a seaside landscape.

The answer was simple – concrete. Choosing it, we wanted to make best use of its qualities. Our main idea was sincerity of material – concrete is true both in the way it is used and it looks. These two aspects are not separated from each other but they create a coherent wholeness.

The building’s structure was designed as a monolithic shell made of reinforced concrete. This kind of construction secures safety, geometric stability and tightness. It also let us use a structural material as a natural finishing of interiors. Concrete has become a leitmotif of the whole design, also determining aesthetic solutions in interiors. Grey colour and a rough texture of concrete are balanced with whiteness of some internal walls and bright, wooden floors.

Another important material we used in this design is wood. Exterior cladding of elevations is made of screw-in vertical boards (in analogy to the formwork for monolithic structure). In effect we achieved a characteristic reversal – warm wood on the outside and rough concrete with imprints of a formwork inside a house. The third material is a sheet metal. Window-frames and all other exterior metal elements were designed in graphite colour.

The house was built in a coastal town, on a plot located just behind dunes. It replaced an old building which was too small and architecturally unattractive. Pine trees grow all over the plot and we wanted to save them all. New cubical block was inserted in the place of a former building this way not to remove any of them.

All elevations of a building are almost identical (each follows the same pattern). Characteristic point of a house is an entrance area which offers two entry points located in both eastern corners of a building, in a part of a plot adjacent to the road. Along the south-west and north-west elevation there is a wooden terrace with a built-in barbecue stove.

Each storey of a building acts different function. The ground floor which was designed as an open space is intended for daily home activities. First floor serves leisure and entertainment functions. It is divided into two sections: the bigger one, with a view for a sea, it’s owners’ private zone.

It contains a small living room, bedroom, wardrobe and a bathroom. In the southern part of a floor there are situated three identical guest rooms with bathrooms. Basement accommodates storage and technical facilities as well as a swimming-pool.

Architects: Marcin Kościuch, Tomasz Osięgłowski / Ultra Architects
Collaborators: Łukasz Piszczałka, Marta Perlik-Napierała
Year: 2013
Area: 470 sqm

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concrete interior by Ultra Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: online retail giant Amazon has presented a prototype for a service that uses flying robots to deliver packages to customers within half an hour of ordering (+ movie).

The service would be called Amazon Prime Air and would be available to customers living within a ten mile radius of one of Amazon’s distribution centres.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are called “octocopters” because they feature eight propellers and Amazon claims they could be implemented as soon as 2015.

A video released by Amazon shows a drone collecting a package inside a plastic container from a conveyor belt at a distribution centre before taking off and delivering it to the customer’s doorstep. The flying robots would be directed by GPS to coordinates specified by the customer.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement yesterday on American investigative news programme 60 Minutes and explained that the technology is already in place, but that the legal issues surrounding such an operation are likely to delay its implementation.

“The hardest challenge in making this happen is going to be demonstrating to the standards of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) that this is a safe thing to do,” Bezos told 60 Minutes.

“I don’t want anybody to think this is just around the corner. This is years of additional work from this point,” he said, before stating that he hopes it could be made available to customers in four to five years.

“We hope the FAA’s rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015,” said Amazon on a webpage dedicated to the project. “We will be ready at that time. One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today.”

“The FAA is actively working on rules and an approach for unmanned aerial vehicles that will prioritise public safety,” the company added. “Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards.”

During a demonstration, Bezos pointed out that the unmanned vehicle can still fly if one of its rotors suffers a failure. “I know this looks like science fiction; it’s not,” he said.

Sydney startup Flirtey claimed to have launched “the world’s first unmanned aerial vehicle delivery technology” earlier this year, using flying robots to deliver books directly to customers based on the location of their mobile phone.

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This new metro station in Leipzig, Germany, by Swiss architect Max Dudler comprises a 140 metre-long tunnel made up of illuminated glass blocks.

The Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz S-Bahn station is one of four stops along the new Leipzig City Tunnel railway line that has been under construction for over ten years and is set to open next month, creating a new link between some of the city’s major stations.

Swiss architect Max Dudler, whose previous projects include a glowing library and a castle visitor centre, won a competition to design the station in 1997 with his proposal for a glowing tunnel with a gently curved concourse and raw concrete details.

Back-lit glass blocks are arranged in groups within a concrete framework to create large glowing squares across the entire length of the walls and ceiling.

“The seemingly endless repetition of the same element in the course of the slightly curved, light-filled hall increases the sensation of the dimensions of this already large structure,” said the studio.

The station platform is covered in pale terrazzo and interspersed with concrete volumes that form seating areas and signage boards.

“All station furnishings of the station are arranged as geometric concrete sculptures,” added the studio.

Entrances are positioned at the north and south ends of the platform, where solid concrete staircases are sandwiched between escalators. At street level, these entrances are contained within rectilinear structures that were also constructed using glass blocks.

Photography is by Stefan Müller.

Here’s a project description from the design team:

Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz Station

S-Bahn trains will cross beneath the centre of Leipzig from December 2013. This is when the 
5.3 kilometre long city tunnel Leipzig, a joint development of Deutsche Bahn AG and the Free State of Saxony, will be completed. Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz / Platz der Friedlichen revolution station on the southern end of the historic city centre is one of four stations of the major project that is currently one of the largest inner-city infrastructure projects in Europe.

The design of the station is based on architect Max Dudler’s successful competition entry from 1997. The Swiss architect’s impressive 140 metre long and 20 metre wide station concourse has just recently been awarded the city of Leipzig’s architecture award.

The station concourse, with a rectangular section and a slight longitudinal curve, is situated 20 metres below ground. Walls and ceilings of the elongated, column-free hall are clad with large, backlit prefabricated glass blocks set into a framework of fair-faced precast concrete. This gives the station concourse a bright and spacious feel. Extreme repetition of one and the same motif makes its actual dimensions almost intangible for passengers.

The light-coloured, jointless terrazzo flooring of the insular platform acts as a quiet counterpoint to the seemingly endless pattern of the walls. All necessary station furniture is arranged on the platform in the shape of geometrical concrete sculptures, all functions such as seating, timetables and ticket machines having in a sense been subtracted from or carved out of the concrete cubes.

The station concourse’s supporting structure of precast reinforced concrete is not visible behind the glass block cladding. The wall elements of the glass block envelope are anchored to a steel substructure on the tunnel wall. The ceiling elements are suspended from the building shell.

Passengers access the station through the entrances on the north and south ends of the station that are fitted with solid staircases, escalators and elevators. The architectural design of the two entrances is in deliberate contrast to the filigree, seemingly transparent station concourse. As soon as they dip beneath the surface of the square, the staircases and their inner casings are made entirely of fair-faced concrete. The minimalist, almost coarse design conveys an impression of descending towards the interior of the earth, as if it was tunnelled directly into the rock.

The stairs and the platform combine seamlessly into a monolithic ribbon. Similar to the station concourse, the aboveground entrance buildings have also been fitted with glass block components. They will help bring the square to life when illuminated at night.

Wilhelm Leuschner was a social democrat politician and part of the resistance against National Socialism. Formerly known as Königsplatz, this square in Leipzig was renamed Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz in his honour in 1945. In 2013 it was finally renamed “Platz der Friedlichen Revolution” to honour the important role it played during German reunification.

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In the second of our A-Zdvent calendar of architects, B is for Bjarke Ingels whose projects include the House 8 project (pictured), a power plant that doubles up as a ski slope and the Superkilen park in Copenhagen.

See more architecture by Bjarke Ingels »

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Bjarke Ingels appeared first on Dezeen.

British studio 1508 London has converted a Victorian post office in London into an apartment where perforated concrete shutters can be used to open and close different sections of the interior (+ slideshow).

Commissioned by an art collector, 1508 London planned an “impactful but warm” space where large artworks can be hung from the walls.

Smaller rooms are clustered together on one side of the apartment, freeing up the rest of the space for a double-height living room.

The concrete shutters were added to shield two bedrooms on the first-floor mezzanine, but the circular perforations offer residents glimpsed views down to the spaces below.

“This concrete elevation is the primary feature, allowing abstracted light to pass into the bedrooms in the morning and creating an unique installation of glowing lenses at night,” Chris Godfrey of 1508 London told Dezeen.

A double-height entrance foyer beyond is lined with steel panels that have been chemically weathered to create a grainy appearance.

“The raw, natural material palette further expresses the formal rationale and, by referencing the owner’s taste for Russian political art, creates a dramatic backdrop to the same,” said Godfrey.

A kitchen and bathroom are tucked away at the back, while a black steel staircase leads up to the mezzanine.

Photography is by Michele Panzeri.

Here’s a project description sent from 1508 Architects:

Converted Victorian postal office

Situated in a converted Victorian Postal office in central London, interior and architectural design studio 1508 London have created this imposing apartment for an art collector.

A clear and legible parti has been derived where strong, orthogonal volumes of accommodation are inserted with the pre-existing, near triangular, double-height space to create playful and intelligent inter-relationships.

The raw, natural material palette further express the formal rationale and, by referencing the owner’s taste for Russian political art, creates a dramatic backdrop to the same.

Each material has been carefully selected and crafted to provide depth, texture and richness.

Chemically weathered steel metal panels clad the double height entrance foyer; creating both a warmth of reception and a striking sense of purpose. A central perforated black steel staircase seems to float within the entrance foyer creating a strong yet delicate link between the two volumes but standing strong as its own element.

In the main reception, a powerful singular form comprising of pre-cast concrete panels define and shield the more private aspects of the apartment. Hundreds of purpose-made acrylic lenses puncture the concrete envelope are carefully positioned to playfully provide amplified light to, and distorted views from, the inner spaces; simultaneously highlighting the mezzanine programme from the reception side.

Imposing concrete doors open up onto the main living space from the mezzanine level, transforming the elevation and the spatial relationships: each space is therefore influenced the contiguous throughout different times of the day and modes of use.

The result is a impactful yet warm interior within which the owner can entertain, relax and display large and impressive pieces of art harmoniously.

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an apartment by 1508 London appeared first on Dezeen.