Some of the concrete walls of this house in Yokohama, Japan, by Tai and Associates were formed against wooden planks, while some have been rendered white and others have been left plain (+ slideshow).
Japanese studio Tai and Associates designed the two-storey House in Shinoharadai for a hillside corner plot already owned by the family, creating separate floors for different generations and a small home office.
“A new program composed of a two-family residence and office is applied to the building, while paying attention to preserve the family’s history and memories attached to the land,” said the architects. Continue Reading…
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in this movie Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto discusses his philosophy of designing structures that are “in between” opposing concepts such as nature and architecture, and says the approach could work just as well on a skyscraper as a small private house.
Sou Fujimoto. Copyright: Dezeen
“Nature and architecture are fundamental themes [of my work],” says Fujimoto, speaking to Dezeen after giving his keynote speech at this year’s World Architecture Festival.
“I like to find something in between. Not only nature and architecture but also inside and outside. Every kind of definition has an in-between space. Especially if the definitions are two opposites, then the in-between space is more rich.”
Fujimoto gives his recently completed Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London as an example of his philosophy, in which he used a series of geometric lattices to create a cloud-like structure.
“In various meanings it is in between things,” he says of the project. “It’s made by a grid, but the shape is very soft and complex. The experience is half nature and half super-artificial.”
Final Wooden House in Kumamoto, Japan, by Sou Fujimoto. Photograph by Edmund Sumner
Fujimoto then goes on to discuss Final Wooden House in Japan, in which chunky timber beams form the walls, floors and roof of the house, as well as the furniture and stairs inside.
“It’s a beautiful integration of the architectural elements in various different levels,” says Fujimoto. “The wooden blocks could be the floor or the furniture or the walls, so in that house every definition is melding together.”
House NA in Tokyo by Sou Fujimoto. Photograph by Iwan Baan
Finally, Fujimoto discusses House NA in Tokyo, which consists of several staggered platforms and hardly has any walls.
“It is not like a house but more like a soft territory, something beyond a house,” he says. “The client is a young couple and they are really enjoying their life in that house.”
Fujimoto believes his approach can be scaled up to larger projects
“The concept of creating something in-between is not only for the smaller scale,” he says. “I think it could be developed more, for example [up to] skyscraper scale.”
“The high-rise building and landscaping are opposite, but maybe it could be a nice challenge to find something between skyscrapers and landscaping. I like to expand my way of thinking to explore pioneering or hidden places in the architectural field.”
Competition: as media partner for the Wearable Futures event taking place in London in December, Dezeen is giving away 50 tickets to attend the two-day exhibition and conference dedicated to technology for the body.
Wearable Futures will explore current and prospective technologies, making links between business, technology, design and fashion.
All forms of wearable technology will be discussed over the two days, with talks and seminars covering how wearables will impact sectors such as health, retail and the city.
Visitors will be able to try on and test some of the technologies, plus create their own wearable prototypes in a special lab.
The event will take place at London’s Ravensbourne College on 10 and 11 December. Find out more about the event here.
Lauren Bowker for Peachoo+Krejberg
To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Wearable Futures” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.
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Competition closes 11 November 2013. Fifty winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
More information from the organisers follows:
Wearable Futures 2013 brings together the worlds of design, technology and social science to uncover the future wearable landscape. Over 10-11 December Ravensbourne in London will play host to 50 thinkers and doers from around the world showcasing, debating, reflecting, and sharing their vision for the future of wearables, from smart materials to new technologies. Speakers include Daan Roosegaarde, Lauren Bowker, James Bridle and Clara Gaggero.
The event will explore wearables across all forms; from those that are embedded to those that surround us; from function and problem solving to enabling expression. The two days will include a wide ranging programme of talks, interactive and immersive installations, and the chance to get your hands dirty experimenting with new technologies and digital making for wearables, as well as designing your own wearable for the future.
Push Snowboarding by Vitamins Design
Just some of the Wearable Futures speakers:
Lauren Bowker, founder of The Unseen who describes herself as a Materials Alchemist will be talking about the potential of integrating biological chemicals and electronic technology with fashion.
Clara Gaggero, director of Design and Research at Vitamins will be explaining the origins of wearables and their history right up to the current day, and exploring the role of wearables now and in the future.
Caroline Till from Textile Futures will discuss biological design and living technology, in relation to Future Wearables.
Jessi Baker, a Creative Technologist who has worked with clients such as LVMH, Galleries LaFayette and Mulberry, will talk about the role of open data in wearables and the future of retail.
Despina Papadopoulos from Studio 5050 NYC will discuss the ethics of wearables and explore the concept of the qualified self rather than the quantified self.
Leading international make up artist Alex Box will talk about how she continues to push and blur the boundaries between technology, make-up, the skin and the human body.
Digital Makeup by Alex Box for Gareth Pugh
Simon Roberts, formerly senior design anthropologist at Intel, will describe a set of lenses that helps us understand the different speed at which social and cultural conventions and technology develop and what that means for how we respond to wearables.
Zoe Romano, founder of Makerfaire Rome, an associate at arduino, and founder of openwear.org will talk about Wearables, DIY and Empowerment.
Kuniharu Takei, one of MIT’s Top Innovators Under 35, will be talking about his innovations in nano-materials including current work on a smart bandage that will be able to sense and respond to glucose level, skin temperature and more.
Tomas Diez, the creator of Smart Citizen Kit will be talking about wearables in the city.
Wearable Futures will also be presenting The Futures 10, an exhibition of 2D and 3D responses to questions that we have set to leading thinkers and doers including Ben Hammersley (Wired) and Peter Gregson (the Electric Creative CoLab). Themes that will be explored include Wonder, Consciousness, Echo, Absorb, Hybrid and Memories.
This timber house in Kanagawa by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has a square plan with a teardrop-shaped courtyard at its centre (+ slideshow).
Shigeru Ban planned the single-storey Villa at Sengokubara with a radial arrangement, creating a sequence of rooms that each face inwards towards the central courtyard.
The roof of the house angles gently inward, creating a canopy around the perimeter of the courtyard, and it varies in height to create lower ceilings at the building’s entrance.
Timber columns and roof joists are exposed inside the building, and line the ceilings and rear walls of every room.
Spaced wooden slats form partitions and doorways between some rooms, allowing views between spaces.
A wooden staircase leads to a mezzanine level beneath the highest section of the room, which looks out over the main living and dining room.
Two study rooms are tucked away behind, while the kitchen and main bedrooms are positioned just beyond.
A sheltered terrace separates this side of the house from a guest suite containing two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Here’s a short description from the architects:
Sengokubara S Residence
The 2‐storey wood structure residence is situated on a flag pole shaped site, 30m square in plan with a 15m diameter interior courtyard.
With the main living room centred on the interior courtyard, all spaces are arranged in a radial manner from the entrance.
The eight sliding doors separating the main living room and interior courtyard can be opened at any time so that the space can be used as one.
The structure is made up of wooden columns and beams, which are 75mm x 350mm L‐shaped pieces, also arranged in a radial manner, creating a large one way sloped roof.
The large roof varies in height, achieving ceiling heights between 2.4m to 7.5m.
Location: Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan Architects: Shigeru Ban Architects Project Team: Shigeru Ban, Nobutaka Hiraga, Wataru Sakaki, Jun Matsumori Structural engineers: Hoshino Structural Engineering General contractors Hakone Construction Principal use: residence Site area: 1770.00m2 Building area: 576.89m2 Total floor area: 452.60m2 Structure: timber Number of storeys: 2
Smith and Gill, who are currently also working on construction of the world’s tallest skyscraper, will masterplan a 173-hectare site in Kazakhstan’s capital. It will include a 25-hectare exhibition centre to host the world fair, alongside housing, schools, healthcare facilities, shopping centres and parks.
A spherical Kazakhstan Pavilion will form the centre of the exhibition, surrounded by International, Theme and Corporate Pavilions. Once the exhibition is over, everything inside the new buildings could be either dismantled or adapted to accommodate new functions, meaning no demolition would be required.
Jeremy Rifkin, chairman of the technical committee of the competition, said the winning scheme is “the most practical in terms of both sustainable development and architectural and artistic design”.
Bearing the title Future Energy, the Astana Expo 2017 will be centred around the promotion of sustainable energy sources and technologies, so all the energy consumed by visitors to the exhibition will be generated from renewable sources including solar panels and wind turbines.
Following on from Milan’s Expo taking place next year, the 2017 exhibition be hosted for three months during the summer of 2017 and will feature pavilions from over 100 participating countries. The most recent Expos held were the Yeosu Expo 2012 in South Korea and the Shanghai Expo 2010, which featured Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral.
This house in Mexico City by local firm Taller Hector Barroso is built around a courtyard to bring in more natural light and to make up for a shortage of exterior views (+ slideshow).
Taller Hector Barroso designed the house for a mother and son in the capital’s Santa Fe neighbourhood, creating a two-storey structure with a penthouse on the roof.
Natural grey stone clads most of the house’s exterior, interspersed with pine slats that wrap some of the lower walls around the entrance.
The architects used the same stone for the walls surrounding the courtyard and added more pine to create the surface of the deck.
“The project is based on communication with the outside and outside,” they said, comparing the facade with the courtyard elevations. “We sought to eliminate the boundaries between the two so they were connected visually and spatially, generating views that extend towards the edge of the plot.”
Glazed doors fold back to allow the house to be completely opened out to the courtyard, connecting the space with living and dining rooms on either side.
“By having the indoor and outdoor continuity we generated light-filled spaces with natural ventilation,” added the architects.
A trio of large square windows sit within recesses on the rear facade, overlooking a garden that can be accessed from both the living room and a bedroom on the ground floor.
More bedrooms and a second living room occupy the second floor, while the glazed rooftop penthouse is sheltered beneath a steel roof that protrudes over the edge of the walls.
Hardwood timber floors throughout the house tie in with the decked surface of the courtyard, which has a single tree growing in its centre, and interior walls feature sections of marble panelling.
Here’s a short project description from the architects:
Casa Cumbres
Located in Santa Fe at Mexico City in one of the most exclusive areas of the city, the project is built around a courtyard, due to the shortage of exterior views. From this courtyard different areas of the program are connected as well as an extension of the living room. Boundaries are lost and create a indoor-outdoor which gives more fluidity into space. The living room area can be completely open witch enriches natural lighting and ventilation. The inner courtyard was the main driver of the project and is the main element in the composition of the project.
The presence of textures is very important; we used different woods of pine and a variety of natural stones. Finally on the rooftop we proposed a set of lines and lightness, we have a floated slab of steel to contain the playground witch takes advantage of the remaining outdoor area.
The inspiration for the project is the integration of the house to the immediate context, the incorporation of natural light to the interiors and the play of textures.
The project is based on communication with the outside/inside. We sought to eliminate the boundaries between the two so they were connected visually and spatially, generating views that extend towards the edge of the plot. Another important factor that was light. By having is indoor-outdoor continuity we generated light-filled spaces with natural ventilation.
The main idea in choosing the materials for the house was to highlight this same connection from the outside to the inside, several tests were made with different types of materials until we found the proper relationship between the taste of the client, the architect, the texture and the integration with the outside.
Light is one of the elements that best define all spaces, each room is naturally lit and surrounded by gardens, the interior and exterior are intermingled with the textures of vegetation through the crystals and the different finishes in the spaces: hardwood floors, marble wall panelling, wooden walls and continuity of material outward. In the end, interior spaces end up speaking the same language as the outside by means of light and texture.
Location: Mexico City, Mexico Clients: Single family Building area: 635m2 Credits: Hector Barroso Partner architects: Alejandro Cortina, Rafael Montiel, Flavio Velazco
A playground covering the roof of this kindergarten in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, is dotted with wooden obstacles that function as light wells for the nurseries underneath (+ slideshow).
Designed by Japanese architects Archivision Hirotani Studio, the Mukou Leimondo Nursery School accommodates six nursery classrooms that each feature a double-height ceiling.
These angular chimney-like structures burst through the roof of the building, creating wooden sheds that are used as seating areas and hiding places for children playing on the rooftop lawn.
The architects coined the name “houses of light” to refer to the structures. “Children are able to run around the ‘houses’ or take a look down into the nursery on the floor below through the roof light ‘windows’,” they explain.
Windows are positioned at the highest points to allow natural light to funnel down into the classrooms, which are each painted with a different vibrant colour.
“The inside of these ‘houses of light’ differ in shape, colour and direction of the light from above, making very special spaces within the nursery,” said the architects.
The classrooms centre around a large multi-purpose room with timber panels lining its walls and floors. A staircase is located inside this space, providing access to the rooftop.
Mukou Leimondo Nursery School is one of several schools in recent years designed with a rooftop playground because there wasn’t enough space to add one at ground level.
Read on for more details from Archivision Hirotani Studio:
The Mukou Leimondo Nursery School
“The House of Light” and “The Little Village”
This nursery school is situated in a comparatively densely populated residential area of Kyoto prefecture. Due to the limited land area, it was not possible to secure the space necessary if the nursery building and the nursery playground were to be planned on the same plane.
Thus, began the consideration of a “single-level nursery building with a roof playground.” As a result, we were able to realise a bright and spacious nursery by using light wells on the roof and by providing lofty ceilings, and, also, to accommodate an ample, sizeable garden on the nursery roof itself.
Within the nursery, “houses of light” have been arranged where the children are able to feel being in their own homes. The inside of these “houses of light” differ in shape, colour and direction of the light from above, making it a very special space within the nursery.
The light from these openings in the ceiling changes with the time and the season, creating new play methods initiated by the children themselves as they notice such changes and tell about them to their playmates.
On the roof, the “House of Light” emerges as a three dimensional link between the interior space on the ground floor to the roof garden. On the roof , the House of Light are like wooden houses, bringing about the image of the “Little Village” as they dot the lawn space of the roof garden.
It is here that the children are able to become one of the village people as they run around the “houses” or take a look down into the nursery on the floor below through the roof light “windows” or take a look through a window to view the “bullet” train, each one finding a place to their liking and, in so doing, pass away their time at the nursery.
The “Sky House” and the “Little Village” themselves are each a new form of play tool in the form of a space to foster observation, reception and communicative capabilities.
Diagonally laid timber planks create zig-zagging patterns across the exterior of this church in Cologne by German architects Sauerbruch Hutton (+ slideshow).
Sauerbruch Hutton arranged the buildings of the Immanuel Church and Parish Centre around an existing parish garden, creating a series of wooden structures that nestle amongst a group of trees.
A bell tower marks the entrance to the site from the street. A winding pathway leads up to the main church building beyond, then on to a small chapel used for private prayer and a columbarium where funeral urns are stored.
Each building is constructed from timber and clad with the diagonal panels. “Their character is defined by simplicity of form combined with straightforward construction and honest materiality,” said the architects.
Structural columns are exposed inside the church, creating a sequence of ribs that punctuate the pale wooden walls.
A low foyer brings visitors into the central nave, which is designed as a flexible space for hosting various community events. Seating can be moved into different arrangements and extra chairs can be utilised from a first-floor space above the foyer.
Two wings flank the nave on either side, accommodating a sacristy where the priest prepares for services, community rooms, a music room and a kitchen.
The organ is concealed behind a coloured timber partition, while a matte glass window catches light and shadow movements from outside.
Sauerbruch Hutton is a Berlin studio led by architects Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young. Past projects include the colourful Brandhorst Museum in Munich, completed in 2009.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Immanuel Church and Parish Centre
The new Immanuel Church in Cologne is approached through an existing parish garden defined by a circle of mature trees. Offering itself for outside activity and worship, this garden becomes the central element of a new ensemble that comprises a bell tower, the church, a small chapel for private prayer, as well as a columbarium.
The bell tower marks the entrance to the site from the street. A visitor enters the church through a simple rectangular entrance into a low foyer that opens out into a central nave flanked by two low wings, somewhat reinterpreting the classical section of a basilica for a small, modern parish. The wings accommodate the sacristy, community rooms, music room and kitchen. The central nave provides a clear space with loose chairs that can be rearranged for community events, while a tribune rising above the foyer provides additional seating.
Behind the altar a coloured timber screen reaches up to the roof, hinting at the location of the organ that lies behind. Daylight enters the church from above illuminating the altar wall, and from the rear above the tribune bringing light and the play of leaf shadows onto a matt glass screen. In the evening low hanging lamps provide an atmosphere of warm light and create an intimate scale.
Standing alone, the small, simple chapel is screened from the outside bustle. Behind the chapel a new columbarium is nestled amongst the trees. The bell tower, church and chapel are clad externally with diagonally laid timber planks. Their character is defined by simplicity of form in combination with straightforward construction and honest materiality.
Welsh designer Kieren Jones has devised a concept for harnessing the destructive power of erupting volcanoes by using lava flows to cast components for buildings.
Scale model of building elements
Having discovered that the current method for controlling lava from the world’s most volatile volcanoes is to redirect it using huge concrete barriers or cool it with sea water, Kieren Jones developed an alternative scenario in which the lava pours into casting beds excavated in the shape of structural building blocks.
“Not only would these casting beds protect the population at the base of the volcanoes but they will also provide them with a constructive material in which to aid the recovery of a community post eruption,” Jones explained.
Scale model of building elements
The designer believes that the accuracy with which volcanic activity can be predicted using sophisticated geological data could enable the casting beds to be positioned at the most effective points to capture the molten rock.
“Lava as a material is naturally light and thermally insulating and has the potential to be a strong building block,” said Jones.
Models of the 16 Decade Volcanoes
Models of 16 of the world’s most active and researched volcanoes, known as the Decade Volcanoes, were presented alongside drawings and scale models at an exhibition called Blanks in Between, curated by Workshop for Potential Design during this year’s London Design Festival.
Model of Mount Vesuvius
Here’s some more information from the designer:
The Volcano Project By Kieren Jones
In 2013 there are 16 volcanoes that have been identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior of being of particular interest to study due to their history of destructive eruption and proximity to populated areas – these 16 volcanoes are known as the Decade Volcanoes.
Traditionally people have toyed with living at the base of volcanoes, as the ground is highly fertile fuelled by the ash and molten lava of past eruptions. Within the immense destruction of these often vast and bubbling mounds lies potential for a constructive future.
The United Nations are currently able to predict with relative accuracy when each Decade Volcano is likely to erupt and determine the direction in which the lava will flow. At present the method for mitigating the destruction of lava flows is to place large concrete blocks in the predicted path of the flowing lava and spraying it with sea water in order to try and cool this molten material.
Intrigued by the potential that these destructive happenings have and keen to find a way to harness this powerful flow into something constructive I have been investigating the potential of creating architectures from the flowing lava. Lava as a material is naturally light and thermally insulating and has the potential to be a strong building block. In fact the early Romans created some vast domed structures using this molten material.
Therefore instead of placing large concrete blocks in its path, I propose to create large casting beds into which the lava can flow, creating building blocks for future shelters. Not only would these casting beds protect the population at the base of the volcanoes but they will also provide them with a constructive material in which to aid the recovery of a community post eruption.
On the occasion of the Blanks in Between exhibition during the London Design Festival 2013, I presented a series of experiments and investigations into the potential that the Decade Volcanoes have to build future architectures providing constructive solutions out of natural destruction.
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