Portuguese architect Duarte Pape has combined a long stone wall with folding timber facades in this residential extension in northwestern Portugal (+ slideshow).
Duarte Pape used timber cladding and blue limestone to extend the traditional Portuguese house located in a tiny rural village called Mação.
“The goal was to create a connection between the old structure and the surrounding nature,” explains the architect.
A long stone wall constructed from Portuguese blue limestone Ataija runs the entire length of the extension and stretches out into the surrounding landscape, providing protection from prevailing northerly winds.
Oriented for maximum sunlight, the south and east facades of the extension are encased in a timber shell with screens that concertina open in front of sliding glass doors.
Constructed from American pine, the timber structure extends beyond the building facade forming a chunky frame that overhangs the veranda.
A canopy can be suspended within the void of the frame to create a covered outdoor space.
The blue limestone floor and wall create a uniform backdrop within the interior space, broken up by a central support column that features a small open fireplace.
Private bedrooms and bathrooms are contained within the existing building, while the extension houses living areas, a kitchen and transitional spaces.
Duarte Pape collaborated closely with local carpenters and stonemasons during the design and construction process, including local sculptor Moisés Preto.
Located in a small village in the Portuguese North West border, the project arises from the necessity of expansion of a preexisting old housing structure, with typical and vernacular identity, and adaptation to new constructive and spatial requirements.
Concept sketch
The preexisting structure – ground floor and first floor levels – hosts the private housing program, rooms and bathrooms, which in the constructive issue, sought to recover some of the traditional construction techniques, keeping as well the humble architecture language.
The new expansion volume, receives the social housing program – living rooms, kitchen and transition spaces – takes on to an contemporary language that searches for the better landscape framework, connected with the efficient sunlight orientation, that creates an fine relation between interior & exterior space. The option for the wood and noble material facade, contributes to the low visual impact and good integration to surrounding atmosphere.
This house in western England by London studio Paul Archer Design features a mirrored facade that slides across to cover the windows (+ slideshow).
Photograph by Paul Archer
Surrounded by gardens, Green Orchard house is designed to camouflage with the landscape, so Paul Archer added huge panels of polished aluminium to the walls. “The outer reflective panels will pick up the colours of the landscape, the idea being to make the structure almost invisible,” he says.
The panels are well insulated and connected to a motorised system, so that the client – Paul Archer’s mother – can transform the building into a thermally sealed box with relative ease.
Photograph by Paul Archer
The house has two storeys, including one that is sunken into the inclining landscape. The living room, dining room and kitchen occupy an L-shaped space on the ground floor and lead out to terraces on both the south-west and north-east elevations, designed to catch the sun at different points of the day.
The master bedroom is also on this floor, while three extra sleeping rooms are located on the sunken lower level. Part of this floor emerges from the ground, allowing enough space for a few high-level windows.
A wood-burning stove is positioned at the centre of the plan and provides all of the house’s heating. A 93-metre well supplies fresh water, which can be heated via thermal solar panels on the roof.
“Whilst unashamedly contemporary in its design, Green Orchard is a sensitive response to its location, integrating appropriate materials and functional details to create an innovative and tangible solution to current environmental issues,” says Archer.
Photograph is by Will Pryce, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s the full project statement from Paul Archer:
Green Orchard: A Zero Carbon House Compton Greenfield, South Gloucestershire, UK
Green Orchard is a new 200 sq m carbon-neutral house designed by Paul Archer Design. Set within 2,675 sq m of landscaped gardens in the green belt of South Gloucestershire, the house benefits from spectacular views over the Severn Estuary.
Having earned a reputation for highly contemporary residential extensions and renovations predominantly in an urban setting, Green Orchard is the practice’s first new-build detached single-family dwelling commission. The project brief called for a Californian case study house with green credentials, which would permit seamless outdoor/indoor living whilst delivering a zero carbon agenda.
The house replaces a dilapidated single-storey dwelling with a contemporary low-rise four-bedroom home. Set within landscaped gardens without the constraints imposed upon typical urban projects, Green Orchard is designed in the round, with all four elevations taking advantage of views out and access to the garden. Maximising its rural setting, the house adopts the methodology of a passivhaus typology without the single orientation.
The main living spaces and master bedroom are located on the ground floor with direct access to the garden. An excavated sunken level creates a second floor for additional sleeping accommodation, ensuring a low-rise profile that embraces the natural topography of the site.
The house incorporates four bedrooms (two of which have en-suite facilities), a main bathroom, a workshop space, kitchen, dining and living area. All living spaces are open-plan with a wood burning stove at the heart of the plan and plant room located on the floor below, to give a greater sense of openness and maximise views and sunlight. Two external terraces connect to the garden and are orientated to catch the sun at different times of the day.
The outer skin of the building is made of bespoke hand-crafted full-height panels, which are electronically motorised to slide open fully. The panels are highly insulated and allow the occupants to control and vary the thermal performance of the house depending on the time of the day and year. The panels are constructed of locally sourced timber and clad with mirrored aluminium to reflect the landscape and camouflage the structure in its surroundings.
The house and landscape have been designed with specific intention to reduce the consumption and requirement for energy: a wood-burning Stuv stove is the only heat source; water is supplied by a 93 metre bore hole; thermal solar panels on the roof yield heating for 80% of the house’s water; and photovoltaics provide all electric use when taken over the yearly cycle. A green roof embeds the property into the landscape, filtering out pollutants from the surrounding air and acts as an effective active insulation. It keeps the building cool in summer and warm in winter, reducing the requirement for excessive energy production.
Set in gardens cultivated by the client, Green Orchard is screened from its neighbouring properties and road frontage. A sunken driveway and raised garden reduces the visual impact of the house and planting provides a tranquil setting from which to enjoy the countryside views.
Green Orchard is the second house the practice has designed for the same client, practice director Paul Archer’s mother and her husband. The plan allows for easy navigation and access to all areas whilst generous room sizes and a flowing internal layout ensures that manoeuvrability is unhindered, an essential consideration when designing for a client in their later years.
An innovative house has been achieved on a modest budget by designing the entire house to accommodate modular off-the-shelf interior units. The client has taken a hands-on approach to deliver high quality finishes by contributing their own expertise, from the design and planting of the garden to the carpentry of the exterior sliding panels and manufacture of the interior glass balustrades.
Whilst unashamedly contemporary in its design, harnessing the latest in green technology, Green Orchard is a sensitive response to its location, integrating appropriate materials and functional details to create an innovative and tangible solution to current environmental issues, presenting a way forward in designing for a sustainable future.
Spanish studio Nook Architects stripped out false ceilings and dividing walls to transform two next-door apartments in Barcelona’s gothic quarter into a pair of bright and spacious homes (+ slideshow).
Nook Architects found the two apartments in a poor state, with several adaptations over the years leaving them with a confused layout of compartmentalised rooms and very little natural light.
Layers of false ceilings, flooring and dividing walls were removed and the entrances were relocated to give the apartments a similar size and layout.
Each apartment is organised into a day zone oriented towards the street and a night zone towards the quieter rear facade.
Dividing the two zones is a chunk of wooden flooring, which extends upwards into a bench. Above it is a metal rail that conceals a strip of lighting and acts as a clothes hanger.
The polished concrete floors give way to unpolished concrete in the bathrooms, which are open to the rest of the space, with the showers and toilets separated by a translucent screen.
Twin House Two apartments in Barcelona Nook Architects
From the historic Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, a project for two adjacent apartments arrived to us, which turned out to be a diamond in the rough. The dwellings were on a deplorable state; several low quality interventions from different times overlapped each other.
Its distribution was the result of common customs of the past in which the space was highly compartmentalised, generating small rooms with little or no natural light or ventilation.
The first intervention consisted on stripping down the structure, removing layer after layer of false ceilings, pavements, and coatings, added over the years to the original state. Once the essence of the building was restored, we began our final intervention.
The two existing apartments shared the stair’s landing. The unfortunate placement of the access doors resulted in two different typologies that could barely be distributed under balanced conditions. By relocating the entries and taking into consideration the original elements that were rediscovered, we created a new space that reclaimed the original spirit.
The original wooden beams were treated to avoid future plagues, and were reinforced with steel elements to limit their strain. The same was done with the floor; a compression layer was added, firming up the girder-slab, and evening out the floor level.
This newly sound space, divided by a thick load-bearing wall, was configured in two zones: the day zone, oriented towards the street and the liveliness of the neighbourhood, and the night zone, located on the posterior, more quiet façade.
We arranged the basic elements for the functions and commodities of today, like the kitchen and bathroom, in a subtle manner that was respectful to the space. We therefore treated the kitchen as if it were wooden furniture inside the living room, horizontal, with under the counter refrigerator and freezer to avoid any vertical, tall standing units, and white wall-units that camouflage with the background.
The bathroom was likewise incorporated into the bedroom, leaving the washbasin open to the rest of space, which is only differentiated by changing the floor level. The only compartmentalised elements were the shower and toilet, separated from the rest of the space by a light, and translucent wall.
The two wet zones of the house are therefore contiguous and line the median wall of the neighbouring building, minimising the water and sanitary installations. The glazed tiles boost this idea of a horizontal strip that contains the humid zones, simultaneously revitalising the reclaimed envelope.
A wooden plank was embedded into the concrete floor, establishing a threshold between the living room and the sleeping quarters. This plank then folds and lifts up and turns into a night table or a bench. Above the plank, we placed a metal profile that contains lighting and acts like a hanger and support for possible curtain.
Our objective with this refurbishment with such a tight budget was to create an infrastructure that would hint to the user how personalise it later. A carefully studied configuration of polyvalent and proportionate spaces multiplies the possibilities of two very small dwellings with very large potential.
The illusion of giant cable knits was created by prints on sportswear fabric in Westminster student Philli Wood’s BA fashion collection.
Wood chose to print black knitwear patterns onto pink and orange performance nylons instead of knitting the pieces. “I liked the idea of something looking like knit from afar but in fact being something completely different,” he told Dezeen.
Three dimensional cables on a round jacket and a separate chunky scarf appeared to be inflated. The wool patterns were also printed onto silk dresses and tights in the same colours.
Parkas of various lengths with wide-brimmed hoods were lined with orange nylon to reference the traditional anoraks.
Drawstrings used to manipulate the outline of the garments were made from thick rubber and had oversized metal toggles. “For the silhouettes I began looking at traditional parkas and then exaggerated the traditional shape into something more modern and exciting,” said Wood.
Wood’s collection featured in the University of Westminster BA Fashion 2013 show, which took place last week.
Climbing plants and vines shoot up over a gridded facade of metal beams and panels at this house in Binh Duong Province by Vietnamese architects a21studio (+ slideshow).
Constructed on a limited budget, the house was designed to both “look green” and fit in with its neighbours. The architects at a21studio used steel beams to construct a basic framework, then clad the exterior with lightweight mesh and corrugated panels, and encouraged plants to grow up around it.
A see-through outer facade functions as a boundary fence. Beyond it, the house has no walls on the front or rear of its ground floor, revealing a simple living room and kitchen with a small garden beyond.
Colourful ceramic tiles cover every inch of the floor and also extend out beyond the shelter of the roof. A kitchen counter runs longways through the room and more tiles clad its sides and surfaces.
A staircase leading up to the two first-floor bedrooms is made from a single sheet of folded metal and uses reinforcing rods as a banister.
To furnish the house, the architects used reclaimed items that include a set of wooden chairs.
“By making the most of abandoned items and using spaces cleverly, people can easily have a comfortable house that is fulfilled by nature and flexible for future needs,” say the architects.
The house is designed for a middle-aged newsman who has been working in years for Vietnam architectural magazines. The site is located at the outskirt of a new city in being urbanism with a variety of housing architecture styles in its surrounding. Therefore, both the architect and client came up with the idea that the new house should be looked green, but not compromise to its comfortable and specially should not much differentiated to next-door neighbours.
Within his constraint budget, a light structure as steel and metal sheets is applied instead of bricks and concrete as usual. Moreover, unused furniture, abandoned but still in good condition, is considered as an appropriate solution for most parts of the house which not only reduces construction cost but also gives the house a distinctive look, the beauty or serenity of old items that comes with age.
Without any doubt, using steel structure not only makes the foundation lighter, but also helps shorten the construction period than normal, and saving cost as well. The house-frame is made by 90×90 steel columns and 30×30 steel beams connecting to metal sheets, then covered or filled in between by plants, so from a distance look, the house is like a green box. Among these “cool-metal” bars, the nature is defined itself.
Typically, the house is structured into two vertical parts; two private bedrooms on the upper floor, while kitchen and living room on the ground floor and opened to nature without any door or window. This makes the bounder between inside and outside becomes blurry. Besides, by diminishing living space to just sufficiently fitted and leaves the rest intended uncontrolled, the architect attempts to convey the sense that the natural environment outside is larger and closer, as at any views from the house, the trees can be observed with its full beauty. In the other words, the trees are used as the building’s walls, and the house would provide a variety of links between trees and people.
Finally, the idea of the house, above the organisation of spaces and flexibility uses of structure, is about a general housing concept for low cost construction, which has been attracted the attention in Vietnam society. By making the most of abandoned items and using enough spaces for living cleverly, people can easily have a comfortable house fulfilled by nature and flexible for any future needs with a limited fund.
Client: Tho Location: Thuận An city, Bình Dương province, Vietnam Project area: 100 sqm Building area: 40 sqm Materials: Steel bar, metal sheets Completed: 2013
Hundreds of colourful bristles emanate from headdresses in Maiko Takeda’s millinery collection, presented at the Royal College of Art fashion show earlier this week.
The adornments consist of transparent plastic spikes tinted with colour gradients at the bases and tips, which are held in place between sections of acrylic joined by small silver rings.
“While hats are commonly made with substantial and durable materials such as fabric, felt, plastic, leather so on, instead I wanted to create ethereal experiences for the wearer through the pieces,” Takeda told Dezeen.
“Through the experiment process, I developed the technique to create a visual effect of intangible aura by layering printed clear film, sandwiched with acrylic discs and linked together with silver jump rings.”
One head piece comprises two domes covered in orange and red spines that sit either side of the face with in thin gap in between, and another mask with orange and purple spines wraps around the head like a sea cucumber.
Peacock-tail-coloured quills fan out like ruffled feathers around a visor that masks from forehead to mouth. Another design covers the head, shoulders and bust but leaves the face exposed, while a different garment reaches from one wrist to another along two sleeves that join across the chest and back.
“When I saw the Philipp Glass and Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach last year, it became my main inspiration and its futuristic mood of the space age heavily influenced the aesthetic of my collection,” said Takeda. Her collection was part of the Royal College of Art‘s annual fashion show, which took place on several occasions this week.
Two hundred and seventy six teacups are suspended from the ceiling of this coffee shop in Bucharest by Romanian studio Lama Architectura (+ slideshow).
Origo, by Lama Architectura, is a coffee shop by day and a cocktail bar by night.
“Our goal was to create a relaxed atmosphere using natural materials and colours, but also to have a little tension using contrasts,” explain the architects.
A long bar clad with raw metal sheets runs the entire length of the space, topped with a solid oak counter.
Towards the back of the shop the bar is wrapped in a sheet of folded Corten steel.
A jack allows the bar to be raised from 80 centimetres during the day to 110 centimetres in the evening.
Hundreds of teacups form a cloud of white that appears to hover above the bar, described by the architects as “a very airy, white line; a reinterpretation of the manner that glasses are hung over the bar.”
Black-painted walls contrast with the wooden rafters above, which were revealed after dismantling the existing plaster ceiling and painted white.
Carefully angled spotlights create dramatic contrasts between light and dark, casting shadows in the shape of giant teacups onto the walls.
Tables throughout the shop are constructed from criss-crossing metal rods and oak tops, while lightbulbs housed in coffee drippers descend from the rafters above.
Origo is the answer to the demand of a very passionate barista for a place for himself that should function as a coffee-shop during the day and a cocktail bar during the evenings. We like to think of it as his personal urban living in which we discovered some fantastic, authentic and old wooden beams after dismantling the existing plaster ceiling. We kept them and painted them white.
After understanding what is important from his point of view for a great coffee moment, we tried to mirror his beliefs and create a space that would allow coffee to be the star. Our goal was to create a relaxed atmosphere using natural materials and colors, but also have a little tension using contrasts (dark grey versus light wood color, wood versus metal).
The bar is the main element of the interior (almost over scaled for such a small place) and has a jack that allows it to rise from 80 cm during the day to 110 cm in the evenings. It is finished from raw metal sheets for the front face and Corten and oak massive wood for the counter top.
The massiveness of the bar is contrasting with the 276 cups installation that is floating above, a very aery, white line, an reinterpretation of the manner that glasses are hanged over the bar.
We designed the lighting fixtures having in mind the love for coffee and using coffee drippers. We have also designed the tables especially for this project.
We’ve updated our World Design Guide to feature five new events including Designer’s Days in Paris, the AIA Convention in Denver and Beirut Design Week, which all take place this month.
Events we’ve added to the guide this month include:
» Designer’s Days (see above) » Beirut Design Week (see above) » AIA Convention (see above) » Monterey Design Conference: 27-29 September » Budapest Design Week: 27 September – 6 October
News: construction has started on a mixed-use development by Danish studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen on the former site of the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
The 50,000-square-metre Green Valley project is located next to the red Chinese pavilion and will feature shops, offices and restaurants.
Two major buildings will be located on each side of a central courtyard of greenery and water, with each featuring hanging gardens in its atrium.
“It will be a green, sustainable landmark for the city and for the entire region,” said Kristian Lars Ahlmark, partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, which has offices in Shanghai as well as Aarhus and Copenhagen.
Green Valley, which is expected to be completed in 2015, is one of four projects across Shanghai designed by the same architects, all of which are redevelopments of the former industrial sites along the riverfront.
On 30 May 2013, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, East China Architecture and Design Institute, and Shanghai Expo Construction Development Company celebrated the ground breaking for, and start of construction of, the new Green Valley project on the site of the former 2010 Shanghai Expo.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects won the international competition in 2012 to design the 50,000-square-metre project located immediately next to the iconic Chinese pavilion. The Green Valley development will become a new central urban development in Shanghai, integrating new sustainable solutions in both the urban design and the individual buildings on the site.
The Shanghai World Expo in 2010 placed emphasis on the future sustainable development of the formal industrial dockyard area of the city. The Expo event itself transformed this area into a new destination for the city. What remains after the Expo event is over and most of the pavilions are torn down is a strong and well-developed infrastructure with green parks, promenades and cultural attractions. The Green Valley project will mark the heart of the new permanent development of the site.
“The new Green Valley development, with offices, shops and restaurants, will become a new destination not only for the main users of the area but for people from Shanghai in general,” explained Kristian Lars Ahlmark, partner and project responsible at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. “It will be a green, sustainable landmark for the city and for the entire region. It is a great honour to be part of this development on such a prominent site.”
A central open space composed of greenery, water and a soft landscape runs through the middle of the site. It functions as the spine of the Green Valley. This open space splits the site equally into two, with two major buildings located on each side. The buildings have a large, connected structure, tightly choreographed to set a new scene for urban life. It will act as a guiding element in the development of the entire area.
The buildings are designed to offer modern office facilities with a high standard of finish, flexibility, consideration of environmental issues, and low operating costs. The design expresses openness and accessibility, with a strong identity. The green hanging gardens inside the open atriums will be visible from the surrounding areas, and the people working in the buildings will be offered a great view to the greenery and city beyond.
“The project is designed so that, despite the monumental scale of the site, it relates to the human scale in the public spaces, giving a diverse, vibrant and inclusive community,” said Chris Hardie, associate partner and head of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects’ Shanghai office.
The Green Valley is just one of four major projects currently being designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in the centre of Shanghai. All the projects relate to the redevelopment of the former industrial areas along the riverfront, and build on the studio’s celebrated track record in regenerating a number of prominent waterfront sites in major cities throughout Scandinavia. In Shanghai, the studio is designing the new Xuhui Binjiang Performance Arts Centre, is working on a redevelopment of a former coal storage building which will become a new art gallery and museum for an international art dealer, and has recently been appointed to design a pavilion for the West Bund International Biennale of Art and Architecture, alongside architects Atelier Deshaus, Atelier BowWow and Pritzker prize winner Wang Shu.
The Green Valley development is expected to be completed in 2015.
Lead design architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects Local architect: ECADI (East China Architecture and Design Institute) Client: Shanghai EXPO Construction Development Co. Ltd. Area: 50,000 m² Competition: 2012, 1st prize in invited international competition Status: Construction period 2013 – 2015
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