Hasta La Ideas

Small cabins perched on tree trunk-like columns provide outdoor rooms for residents of this apartment complex in Singapore by WOHA (+ slideshow).

The Goodwood Residence designed by Singapore studio WOHA comprises 210 apartments surrounding a central courtyard that is lushly planted to create a visual connection with the nearby Goodwood Hill.

“Articulated as two 12-storey L-shaped blocks, the 2.5-hectare development dialogues with the hill that it embraces and merges with in a language of openness and continuity made expressive by varying degrees of scale and privacy,” said the architects.

A tree-lined boulevard leads from the estate’s entrance to the large courtyard, which is flanked by the apartments and features a swimming pool, clubhouse and lawn area.

The facades of the apartment blocks are covered in sunscreens made from aluminium fins that can be raised or lowered to adjust the amount of daylight and privacy inside the residences.

Fifteen of the apartments on the second and third storeys are connected to outdoor huts, which are raised to the height of the surrounding tree canopies.

Staggered balconies rising up the facades from the fourth to the eleventh floors provide shaded outdoor spaces and penthouses on the twelfth floor feature roof terraces with views across the city.

A total of 1700 square metres of vertical landscaping includes planting on the exterior of the stairwells, while small pools surrounded by trees and plants create decorative natural features.

A garden wall is constructed from granite blocks salvaged from a quarry, while natural-cleft stone lines the covered walkway that leads around the edge of the courtyard.

Photography is by Patrick Bingham-Hall.

Here’s a project description from WOHA:

GOODWOOD RESIDENCE, SINGAPORE

Set amidst an enclave of black and white houses just off the prime Orchard/Scotts Road area, and against a verdant 20-hectare backdrop of greenery, the 210-unit Goodwood Residence is conceived on a macro scale as a breathing space – a rarity in high density urbanised Singapore – and an extension of the Goodwood Hill tree conservation area that it shares a boundary of 150m with. Articulated as two 12-storey L-shaped blocks, the 2.5-hectare development dialogues with the hill that it embraces and merges with in a language of openness and continuity made expressive by varying degrees of scale and privacy.

All units are one apartment thick, with the blocks configured like boundary walls that define and enclose a series of courtyards that first draws its residents through an intimately scaled tree-lined boulevard that wraps around a pair of foliage screened tennis courts, leading to a formally scaled cobblestone entrance courtyard featuring a cluster of majestic rain trees, and finally opens out from under the canopies, like a clear forest glade, into an expansive central open lawn/ swimming pool.

This spacious courtyard that visually merges into Goodwood Hill, measures some 100m across opposite blocks, which enhances the privacy of its residents while offering excellent views towards the lush greenery. It is the main community gathering place and breathing room of the development, complete with club house facilities (concierge, reading lounge, private function room and pools) that parallel that of serviced apartments. Smaller landscaped courtyards branching off the sheltered walkways are further extended into the basement car park as entry points, making pleasant the homecoming experience with natural day light, fresh air and planting.

On a building scale, distinct strata of living experiences are crafted. The ground floor units are designed as a new typology of “landed housing apartments”, with lofty ceilings, generous outdoor pool terraces and specially devised auto-sliding gates/garden windows that are a modern interpretation of a traditional haha wall, allowing owners control over the degree of privacy and views out into the central lawn.

Overlooking the central courtyard on the 2nd and 3rd storeys, are 15 units designed with treehouse cabanas perched amidst the treetop canopies, immersing its inhabitants in close-range nature. Rising above this tree line are the mid-levels (4th-11th storeys), which have overlapping double volume balconies – semi indoor/outdoor spaces reminiscent of the projected drawing studios of the black and white colonial houses from which to fully enjoy the expanse of openness and panoramic views towards Goodwood Hill. This culminates in the 12th storey penthouses that are sky-bungalows complete with generous roof/pool terraces that effectively recreate a new ground level with the added advantage of unobstructed city views and cooling breezes at elevated height.

Inspired by patterns of traditional Asian woven textiles and the roll up bamboo chicks of the black and white colonial houses in the vicinity, all typical apartment units (2nd storey upwards) feature fine aluminium fins orientated at 45 degrees to north-south, that are devised as operable façade screens which not only provide vertical sun shading without compromising on ventilation, but also allows user-controlled amounts of privacy as well as facade animation. Planters of 1m width, coupled with projecting balconies of either 2.7m or 4.5m depth, further provide vertical greenery and horizontal shading for the apartments below.

Conceived with sustainable design principles from the very onset, the project showcases several other (below listed) innovative environmental features and demonstrates that the introduction of such green measures, which cost only 1% more in construction cost, need not come at a high premium if adopted early in the design process. The estimated savings from these implementations are approximately $600,000 on annual utility bills for the home and the common areas, which is equivalent to 20% reduction in the monthly maintenance cost. Goodwood Residence has been awarded the prestigious GreenMark Platinum Award by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore.

Green Space & Green Living

Complementing and extending the green of Goodwill Hill are 55 existing trees which are preserved, along with approximately 500 new trees that are native to Southeast Asia. This is reinforced by some 1,700sqm of vertical landscaping and the grand central lawn at the heart of the development. Almost 80% of the estate is dedicated to landscaping and communal facilities.

Smart Water Management

To minimise the use of potable water, a self-sustaining irrigation system that harvests rainwater, irrigation water run-off and underground water to irrigate the plants during the wet and dry seasons is devised. This is made possible due to the site’s high water table and foothill location. Reed planting beds that act as filters further provide a natural bio-filtration process along the water migration route in order to improve water quality before it is stored for the next cycle of irrigation.

User Friendly Dual Pneumatic Chutes

Separate refuse chutes for organic waste and recyclable waste are provided side by side at the common service lobbies for the convenience of residents and are connected to a development-wide pneumatic waste system, eliminating the need for multiple refuse collection points within the estate.

Zero Building Waste Concept

100% of the internal walls of Goodwood Residence are built from reclaimed aggregates that originated from the pre-existing building walls and structures.

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Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: wearable technology will revolutionise healthcare for doctors and patients alike, says the director of design studio Vitamins in our final movie from December’s Wearable Futures conference.

“In the future there’s no doubt that wearable technologies are going to be part of our everyday lives,” says Duncan Fitzsimons of Vitamins. Increased usage of personal health-monitoring devices will be one example of this, he says, making the “the doctor-patient relationship change [for the] better”.

Fitzsimons explains how the current constraints on an appointment between patient and doctor – lack of time and lack of information – can be mitigated by personal monitoring devices that collect patient data over a long period of time.

“When we are ill at the moment we only see the doctor for a very small amount of time. This is just a snapshot in the progress of your illness,” he says.

“If [a doctor] has access to a wider amount of data, they’ll be able to see how your illness has started, progressed and perhaps is tailing off,” he continues. “That will enable them to have a lot more information to diagnose you better and also enable you to have a more transparent window into your health so that you can understand it better as well.”

For these benefits to be realised, Fitzsimons says the technology to record this data needs to be attractive and easy to use, citing two examples of products by healthcare company Qardio: the QardioArm, which measures blood pressure and the QardioCore, a wearable ECG (electrocardiogram) monitoring device, commonly used to detect abnormal heart rhythms. Both are designed, says Fitzsimons, to look unlike medical devices and use a smartphone as the interface with the patient.

[The above paragraph was amended on 27 February 2014. Previously, it was stated that Vitamins would be launching the QardioArm and QardioCore products.]

Fitzsimons is the co-founder of Vitamins, the design studio which last year won the transport category at the Design Museum Designs of the Year 2013 awards for its Folding Wheel project.

This is the fifth and final movie from the two-day Wearable Futures conference that explored how smart materials and new technologies are helping to make wearable technology one of the most talked-about topics in the fields of design and technology.

In the first movie, designer of Dita von Teese’s 3D-printed gown Francis Bitonti explained how advances in design software mean “materials are becoming media”. In the second, Suzanne Lee explained how she makes clothes “grown using bacteria.” In the third, Shamees Aden explained how scientists are combining non-living chemicals to create materials with the properties of living organisms. In the fourth, Pauline van Dongen called for wearable technology to “transcend
 the world of gadgets”.

The music featured in the movie is a track by DJ Kimon. You can listen to his music on Dezeen Music Project.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration with MINI exploring how design and technology are coming together to shape the future.

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the doctor-patient relationship” appeared first on Dezeen.

An aluminium canopy speckled with triangular perforations shelters the space between old and new buildings at Mexico‘s National Film Archive and Film Institute, recently renovated by Rojkind Arquitectos (+ slideshow).

Mexican firm Rojkind Arquitectos was tasked with upgrading the existing facilities of the campus in Xoco, south of Mexico City, as well as adding extra cinema screens, an outdoor amphitheatre and additional storage vaults for the film archive.

Rebranded as Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI, the complex is used a cut-through from a local metro station, which prompted the architects to create a sheltered space at the centre of the campus that functions as both a public gathering area and a lobby for the buildings.

“We didn’t want it to feel like you’re in the lobby of a commercial cinema, we wanted it to feel more like a university campus, with everything floating in a park” said studio founder Michel Rojkind.

The aluminium-clad canopy curves downwards to form the facade of a pair of new buildings. These accommodate four extra screening rooms, bringing the overall total up to ten, and create a two-storey zone for shops, cafes and seating areas.

“The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard,” said the design team.

Two archive vaults were added to the existing four, making room for 50,000 extra reels of film, and a museum dedicated to the history of Latin American cinema was constructed.

Car parking areas previously dotted  around the campus have been consolidated into a single six-storey building, creating space for planted landscaping and the new 750-seat amphitheatre.

Photography is by Paul Rivera, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Rojkind Arquitectos:

Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI

Located in the southern quadrant of Mexico City, the National Film Archive and Film Institute of Mexico is home to the most important film heritage of Latin America. Its campus occupied an underutilised site of considerable dimensions within the strangled town of Xoco. This historic town, once surrounded by agricultural land, now sits deep within the urban sprawl and faces extinction due to economic and political pressures from developers and municipal authorities which covet its privileged location.

The existing complex dated from 1982, when a fire destroyed part of the campus and most of its archive, and was a “temporary” facility never well suited for its purpose. Additionally, thousands of people cross the grounds daily as they walked to and from one of the city’s nearby metro station, Estación Metro Coyoacan.

Facing total renewal, Cineteca’s original project brief included the expansion and renovation of the existing complex incorporating additional vault space and four more screening rooms. But in response to the immediate urban condition, additional restorative work needed to be done to reclaim part of the site as public space, give relief to the dense new-development – filled surroundings of Xoco and accommodate the constant flow of pedestrians and casual visitors.

First, surface parking was consolidated into a six-storey structure freeing 40% of the site. Then the pedestrian friendly “back entrance”, located across the street from the historic town’s cemetery, was reactivated – 70% of Cineteca patrons use public transportation and arrive by foot. The reclaimed space now houses the new program organised along two axes, one perpendicular to the street of Real Mayorazgo becoming the main pedestrian entrance and the other perpendicular to Av. México-Coyoacán for both car and pedestrian access.

The axes intersection became a new 80m x 40m public plaza sheltered from the weather by a hovering canopy connecting the existing complex with the new screening rooms. Clad in composite aluminium panels, with varied size triangular perforations, the roof structure wraps around the new screening rooms and becomes their facade. The sheltered space functions as the foyer for the old and new screening rooms and can accommodate additional program options such as concerts, theatre, exhibitions, etc.

An outdoor amphitheatre, extensive landscaping and new retail spaces were added to the original program expanding the possibilities for social and cultural interaction and exchanges, and giving the complex a university campus feel.

The new screening rooms seat 180 each and the existing screening rooms were updated with current technology. Overall the complex can now seat 2,495 visitors in indoor theatres. The outdoor amphitheatre has a 750-person capacity. Two new film vaults were also added to the site, increasing Cineteca’s archive capacity by 50,000 reels of film. Parking capacity was also increased by 25% to a total of 528 cars.

The thousands of people that use the grounds everyday now find welcoming unrestricted public space: commuters still walk back and forth across the campus in the morning and evening, medical staff from a nearby hospital stop by to eat their lunches at noon, students hang out at the park in the afternoon, and moviegoers attend free outdoor events in the evening. The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard.

Architectural project: Rojkind Arquitectos
Interior design: Alberto Villareal Bello, Esrawe Studio
Structural engineer: CTC Ingenieros
Roof structure engineer: Studio NYL
MEP: IPDS
Landscape consultant: Ambiente Arquitectos
A/V consultant: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Acoustical consultant: Seamonk
Lighting consultant: Ideas y Proyectos en Luz
Graphic design: Citrico + Welcome Branding

Program: Cultural
Construction Area: 49,000 m2
Location: Mexico City

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National Film Archive and Film Institute appeared first on Dezeen.

Interior designer Ilse Crawford’s London practice Studioilse has created the interior for a multipurpose arts space and restaurant in central Hong Kong with a lush garden terrace overlooking the city (+ slideshow).

The owners of the Duddell’s venue asked Studioilse to design the interiors of the downstairs dining room, as well as a salon, library and roof terrace upstairs.

All of the rooms feature an extensive array of artworks and are regularly used to host exhibitions and cultural events including discussions and film screenings.

“The greatest challenge was to make a space that could change over time and to really understand what was going to happen there,” Studioilse’s creative director Sarah Hollywood told Dezeen.

“We created spaces that would meet different needs during the morning, noon or night so it became a place of layers based on behaviour,” she added.

Both floors perform different roles throughout the day, with the dining room hosting noisy dim sum lunches and more relaxed evening meals.

The upstairs rooms are used for working, meetings and tea drinking during the day and become more vibrant, bustling spots for evening entertainment.

Throughout the interior, Studioilse employed tactile natural materials such as wood, bronze, concrete and the silver travertine marble used to clad the reception area and stairwell.

“Sensorial natural materials were chosen to provide a great, unusual background to the art instead of the normal white box background that art tends to be shown on these days,” Hollywood explained.

Familiar Asian shapes and materials that appear in details such as the decorative panelled windows complement the traditional dim sum served in the restaurant and the regional art that is on show.

“The key was to create a credible local identity rather than a pastiche,” said Hollywood. “We did this by incorporating a combination of Hong Kong cultural references together with some continental details in the mix.”

Tall plants surrounding the roof terrace give it the impression of a secluded garden, with green tones used on the upholstery of settees and armchairs echoing the colour of the plants and recurring across some of the furniture in the adjoining salon.

The green theme continues in the restaurant downstairs, where plants line the windowsill behind a long bench seat covered in bright yellow cushions.

Concrete floors and marble walls contrast with decorative rugs and sensuous floor-to-ceiling drapes in the upstairs salon.

Bright red table bases and corner sofas help to give this space a more lively feel than the more refined restaurant downstairs.

Photography is by Robert Holden.

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