Hasta La Ideas

This house by architect Marlene Uldschmidt has been built into the side of a hill in Portugal and features a vertical light well that links its upper and lower floors (+ slideshow).

Located in the fishing village of Ferragudo, the split-level building was designed by Portuguese studio Marlene Uldschmidt Architects with layers of internal and external glass partitions that allow natural light through each of the rooms.

Interior and exterior staircases link the different levels of the sloping site, leading down from a staggered rear terrace to the two main floors of the house, and then further down to the entrance at street level.

“The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen the visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond,” said architect Marlene Uldschmidt.

Built on a narrow rectangular site, the glass, stone and wooden house is squeezed between a pair of neighbouring buildings on the hillside street.

“The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river,” added the architect.

A small wooden door at street level leads into a long entrance hall on the ground floor, then through to the spacious master bedroom and the only two bathrooms in the house.

A flight of white stairs appears to grow out from the surface of one of the walls, leading to first-floor kitchen, dining and living room spaces.

The upstairs kitchen and dining area opens out to the rear terrace, which steps up to various gardens and patios.

A rectangular swimming pool, wooden sun deck and a private solarium complete this garden.

Other Portuguese houses featured on Dezeen include a weekend retreat created from farm buildings and animal pens, a house with its rooftop extended into the hillside and a home with a long stone wall and a folding timber facade.

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Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Living Behind the Wall 

Our studio were excited to take on such an interesting project in the Fishing Village of Ferragudo, Portugal.

The historic centre of Ferragudo is an extremely sensitive area to work in and we believed that our intervention should be balanced harmonious and above all integrate with the surrounding architecture and history.

The studio decided to explore the concept of “LIVING BEHIND THE WALL” ! connection.

The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river levels.

The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen their visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond.

The concept we chose was to use the changes of level within the site in order to achieve this goal.

Another challenge of this concept was to create a light and airy feeling within the building.

We created a vertical well of light that links all levels to achieve this.

In order to balance the simple white walls natural materials of wood and stone in earthy tones were chosen.

Author: ultramarino |marlene uldschmidt architects; Marlene Uldschmidt, Arq.a
Collaborating: Maurícia Bento, Arq.a
Location: Ferragudo, Algarve, Portugal
Area: 230 m2
Year: 2010-2013
Structure: Protecna Engineering Team
Carpentry: equipa quatro

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Uldschmidt Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the “death-ray” effect created by sunlight reflected off the glazed facade of Rafael Viñoly’s Walkie Talkie skyscraper in London were predicted over a year ago by a professional CGI artist, it emerged today as developers rush to install protective screens.

The artist, who goes by the forum username Bobdobbs, anticipated that the curvaceous facade of the 37-storey tower at 20 Fenchurch Street could at certain times of the year create light reflections up to 600% brighter that its surroundings buildings, using a simple 3D mock-up of the volume.

“A clear hot late September/October day may throw up some very interesting lighting effects,” he wrote on a thread at website SkyscraperCity. “I’m fairly confident that the difference, from measurement, is about 600% brighter! I know where I wouldn’t want to stand!”

Comparing the project to nearby skyscraper The Shard, which is reported to have dazzled train drivers, Bobdobbs added: “The Shard’s death ray will be nothing compared to this.”

The news emerges as developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf take emergency action to prevent more damage being caused by intense glare from the nicknamed “Walkie Scorchie”, which is said to have melted vehicles, cracked pavement tiles and even started a small fire.

“Following approval from the City of London, we will be erecting a temporary scaffold screen at street level on Eastcheap within the next 24 hours,” said a spokesperson. “This solution should minimise the impact on the local area over the next two to three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared.”

They added: “We are also continuing to evaluate longer-term solutions to ensure this issue does not recur in future.”

Philip Oldfield, a tall buildings expert from the University of Nottingham, has suggested that amendments to Rafael Viñoly’s initial concept could be to blame. “It seems the original design included small horizontal balconies on the south facade rather than the continuous glass facade as built now,” he told The Independent. “This would have surely mitigated any significant glare like we are seeing at the moment.”

Other preventative measures that could be taken include adding small fins to the exterior or applying a special coating that reduces the impact of the reflections.

This isn’t the first time that a building by the Uruguayan architect has prompted complaints about glare. In 2010, guests at the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas complained of scorched hair and melted drinks glasses. The hotel has since used anti-reflective film, oversized plants and rows of umbrellas to fix the problem.

The unfinished skyscraper is not set to open until next year and will feature an elevated garden and observation deck that will be open to the public.

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Photograph of the Walkie Talkie is courtesy of Shutterstock.

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effect a year ago appeared first on Dezeen.

This timber-clad house in Auckland by New Zealand studio Glamuzina Paterson Architects zigzags across its site to outline gardens on both its east and west sides (+ slideshow).

Glamuzina Paterson Architects named the residence S House in reference to its angular plan, which was designed to offer an alternative to a typical plot house with rectangular front and back yards.

“The house becomes the active space between the gardens, and affords the occupants multiple views and sectional level changes as they move through the site,” explain the architects.

The house accommodates a couple and their three children, so the two gardens were designed to suit the parents’ different tastes. “The front garden is predominantly native and rugged; the rear garden, exotic and sculpted with a long dark pool,” said the architects.

Residents enter the house through a porch at one of the corners, arriving at an informal corridor that meanders through the house.

At the rear of the building, this corridor opens up to a split-level kitchen, dining room and living area, while outside the childrens’ bedrooms it swells out to create a playroom.

Stained cedar cladding clads the exterior walls and is arranged in both horizontal and vertical stripes. The angled roof is covered with corrugated metal.

Glamuzina Paterson Architects also recently completed a brick courtyard house at the foot of a mountain.

Other interesting houses from New Zealand include a guesthouse with walls of Corten steel and a residence that can be towed off the beach.

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Photography is by Patrick Reynolds.

Here’s some more information from Glamuzina Paterson Architects:

S_House

The parti of S_House divides the long thin lot into two gardens, challenging the conventional diagram of the front and back yard of the typical suburban house. The house becomes the active space between the gardens, and affords the occupants multiple views and sectional level changes as they move through the site.

The house was designed for a family of five, with the clients wanting a house that responded to the contours of the land with a sense of connection to the garden and pool. The 1920s stables to the rear of the site was to be restored.

The site is located in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden. It is a 15m wide x 72m long rectangle that slopes from the street towards the middle of the site then slopes downwards towards the rear boundary. The front yard setback was 10m due to an existing use right.

S_House differs from the standard villa that has a compact form and central circulation. The elongated plan allows more surface connection with the landscape and sun penetration for a south facing section. This site wrapping creates east and west gardens that reflect the differing tastes of the parents. The front garden is predominantly native and rugged, the rear garden exotic and sculpted with a long dark pool.

The activities of the house, cooking, eating, relaxing and play take place across a singular spine corridor which expands and contracts spatially as the house mediates the site. The corners are broken open to form the entry and provide a series of connections with the gardens. The kids play area and bedrooms occur at one of the turning points – a ‘knuckle’ in the plan. The ‘kids’ space opens to both courtyards, providing connection between the two ‘parent’ gardens.

The cladding is stained cedar with a corrugated iron roof that is a continuous series of hips and valleys. The internal palette of the house is black and white with a black oxide concrete floor and built in furniture. Excavated basalt was used in garden retaining and planting plan. The intention with the street elevation was to create a landscape that is quite austere and outward-looking, with Ribbonwood and Kowhai trees that will grow to a substantial height and leave the architecture sitting in a forest.

As Robin Evan commented: “Ordinary things contain the deepest mystery.” The S_House reflects these values.

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Paterson Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

An old brick and timber house appears to have been cut in two inside the new Shanghai flagship store for shoe brand Camper, designed by Chinese architects Neri&Hu (+ slideshow)

Intended to evoke the look and feel of one of Shanghai’s traditional narrow streets, the newly constructed building was inserted within an old industrial warehouse to turn the store into a “house within a house”.

“The Camper Showroom/Office in Shanghai recalls both the spatial qualities and the vibrant activities characteristic of life in a typical Shanghai alleyway, called a nong-tang,” explained architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu.

Constructed from reclaimed wooden frames and grey bricks, the house structure extends out from one wall of the interior. A mirror runs along one edge, creating the impression of a hinge, while the sliced edges are finished in bright red paint to match the block letters of Camper’s logo.

Offices are located within the house’s upper floors, while the lower level accommodates a traditional shop where shoes are presented on perforated bronze shelves that were custom made by the designers.

More shoes are attached to steel hooks and hang down from a series of suspended steel rods outside the house – a reference to clothes hanging out to dry.

The space below offers a gathering area, which can be used for hosting talks and presentations, and is naturally lit via a huge skylight.

Neri&Hu are the latest in a long list of well-known architects and designers to design interiors for Camper. Other recent stores include Nendo’s Camper New York, Shigeru Ban’s House of Shoes and a Lyon store by Studio Makkink & Bey with staircases that seem to go on forever.

Dezeen recently caught up with Camper founder Miguel Fluxá, who explained why the brand works with such a varied list of designers.

See more stories about Camper »
See more architecture by Neri&Hu »

Photography is by Dirk Weiblen, apart from where otherwise indicated.

Here’s more information from Neri&Hu:

Camper Showroom/Office
Shanghai, China

Drawing inspiration from the surrounding urban condition, the Camper Showroom/Office in Shanghai recalls both the spatial qualities and the vibrant activities characteristic of life in a typical Shanghai alleyway, called a “nong-tang”.

The exterior lane extends into the showroom creating a physical sectional cut of the new house and a gathering space used for presentations and talks. A mirrored surface at the end of the lane visually lengthens the sectional cut.

Neri&Hu inserted their interpretation of a brick and reclaimed wood clad two-storey house into the shell of an existing warehouse, resulting in a layering of spaces from exterior to interior to the in-between, which showcases a unique hanging shoe display.

The house is constructed out of timber framing using locally sourced reused wood and grey bricks as infill material. The wood salvaged from demolished lane houses reveal years of patina from paint, newspaper and wallpaper still attached to the planks.

A new skylight addition above heightens the experience of being in an exterior alley by casting long linear shadows across the walls throughout the day.

Several furniture pieces were custom designed for the project; the bronze perforated shelving, the Neri&Hu Solo Chair with special edition red legs, and a ‘Lazy Susan’ table for the Press Room.

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by Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects including Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are depicted like vintage video game characters in these images by graphic designer Federico Babina (+ slideshow).

Federico Babina illustrated a series of well-known architects as pixellated graphics with white or black outlines, as if they feature in an 8-bit video game from the 80s.

Each is paired with one of their famous projects in the background, coloured with a limited palette.

Babina intended the pixellated portraits and backdrops to display the essence of each architect and their buildings.

“The idea of ​​this project is to represent the complexity of the forms and personalities through the simplicity of the pixel,” he told Dezeen.

Frank Lloyd Wright stands next to his spiralling Guggenheim Museum in New York, Louis Kahn is positioned in front of the concrete Salk Institute campus in California and Le Corbusier is shown beside his Ronchamp chapel in France.

Along with buildings, architects Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto are also pictured with iconic chairs they designed.

Antoni Gaudí can be seen with his incomplete Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, surrounded by a construction site.

Japanese architects Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, Arata Isozaki and Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA are all represented too.

Curved towers by Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster in Barcelona and London respectively are featured, as well as Richard Meier with his Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art.

Current “starchitects” Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas complete the line-up.

Babina described the style as a kind of “digital pointillism”, with the mouse replacing the brush: “The pixel reappears and emphasises the importance that has the single dot, seen as something essential that in combination with other points form a more complex picture.”

“It’s a metaphor of architecture where every little detail is a key component of the whole mosaic,” he said.

We’ve previously featured an animation which runs through an A to Z to architects by showing their most famous buildings.

Other graphics on Dezeen include portraits of electronic musicians and DJs that show one image during the day and another at night, plus billboards that stretch outwards to double as street furniture.

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Federico Babina appeared first on Dezeen.