Hasta La Ideas

Dutch studio Bureau SLA has inserted a smooth white house-shaped art gallery into a timber nineteenth-century Dutch military building.

By excavating a three-metre basement, Bureau SLA added an extra storey to the former armoury but kept the original timber structure intact. The building at Fort Asperen in the Netherlands is now used as an art gallery.

The move turns a long, low barracks-like building into a much larger, generously proportioned one. The original timber frame, window-frames, eaves and roof were retained, the exterior repainted and a new structure inserted within the existing building fabric.

Architect Peter van Assche describes the new structure as a “little house” that contains the bar, stairs and elevator and exhibition space. Its exterior is clad in Corian.

“Where the old interior looks more like the inside of an Austrian ski-hut, the new addition looks shiny, bright and white. The skin of the white house has more of an iPhone feeling: seamless, smooth and white, which maximises the difference between old and new,” said van Assche.

Internally the triple-height space is timber-lined, with large glass tiles placed beneath the original skylights. The original beams and metal ties pierce the ceiling of the new volume.

Van Assche describes the practice’s light touch to restoration. “By not restoring the original wooden monument ‘to death’, the look and feel of the building is not destroyed in the name of sustainability.”

“Our restoration philosophy is simply put: repair what is broken, do not touch the rest, make outstanding new additions,” van Assche said.

The armoury building is an outbuilding of the Fort Asperen military complex. It sits within the New Dutch Waterline, a network of defensive channels which circle the Dutch cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem.

These channels were developed in the nineteenth-century to protect the Netherlands from invasion from the east. In times of war the network could be flooded by a system of sluices, dikes and flood canals.

A layer of water only 40 centimetres deep was enough to make the land difficult to pass for soldiers, vehicles and horses. At the same time, it was not deep enough to navigate by ship.

Each year hundreds of bats come to hibernate in the adjacent Fort Asperen. The fortress island used to be completely closed during the winter season, but from now on visitors can visit the renovated monumental armoury all year round.

Here’s a project description from Bureau SLA:

The Armoury

Fort Asperen is one of the most treasured fortresses of the so-called New Dutch Waterline. This longstretched military complex of a series of inundations was made in the 19th century to protect the Netherlands against invasions from the east. The Waterline is so unique, that it was nominated for Unesco World Heritage in 2011. Fort Asperen has been open to the public since 1986, hosting controversial art- and design exhibitions. The fortification is not only popular with people: bats also love it. Each winter the fortress tower closes its doors to make sure that the hundreds little mammals have an undisturbed hibernation. The fortress island used to be completely closed during the winter season, but from now on visitors can visit the renovated monumental armoury all year round.

Originally, the armoury consisted of little more than a bare wooden shack next to the fortress tower. Wooden beams, wooden floors, wooden walls and wooden window frames with wooden shutters. An Austrian ski hut, really. The designers of bureau SLA made sure that this rather rustique atmosphere of the armoury was fully kept. This was against the given brief: the intention was to insulate the wooden shack from the inside and to make sure that the place could be used through summer and winter in comfortable climatic conditions. To provide the necessary spaces bureau SLA did a trick: they lifted the shack by a few meters, poured a concrete basement and placed the wooden building back in its original position – now on a new foundation. The insulated basement spaces take care of perfect climatic conditions, while the old armoury provides the authentic feeling of the military past.

The basement extension peaks through the ground floor with a shiny white little house. The cladding of the white house is made of the smooth and seamless composite material Himacs/Corian, so that the contrast between old and new is maximised. In the white house we find the main exhibition and conference room. Daylight enters through big windows, that also allow spectacular views from both sides. Bureau SLA strategically placed custom-made glass tiles on the roof, so daylight pours in abundantly where needed.

The new Armoury is an example of bringing back life to a (state) monument in a new and unconventional way. By not restoring the original wooden monument ‘to death’, the look and feel of the building is not destroyed in the name of sustainability.

Bureau SLA had a similar approach with their design for the New National Glass Museum – not far from Fort Asperen. Their restoration philosophy is simply put: repair what is broken, do not touch the rest, make outstanding new additions.

Bureau SLA also came up with the design of the tables. They are made from leftover wood from the removed attic.

Name: Armoury Fort Asperen
Architect: bureau SLA, Amsterdam
Client: Foundation Monument Fort Asperen
Address: Langedijk 60, Acquoy, The Netherlands
Start design: 2010
Completion: 05/2013
Gross Floor Area: 381 m2
Building costs: ca. € 650.000 ex. VAT
Program: conference and exhibition space, office, bar, restaurant
Contractor: Van den Dool Bouw, Leerdam
Structural Engineer: ABT Delft
Sustainability: Van der Weele Advies, Groningen
Glass Rooftiles: Royal Glass Factory Leerdam, Carina Riezebos
Design team: Peter van Assche, Mathijs Cremers, Hiske van der Meer, Laura Maeztu

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into old timber armoury appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects Mette and Martin Weinberg have overhauled a 1940s cottage in Denmark to create a modern home for their family, complete with timber-lined walls and cosy furnishings.

Weinberg Architects collaborated with fellow Danish architects Friis & Moltke on Villa Weinberg, situating it on a corner plot in Højbjerg, a residential area of Aarhus.

Polished concrete floors feature through the house and while some rooms have been painted white, the main living spaces are lined with oil-treated oak boards.

“We used the wooden boards to obtain a warm, cosy feeling to the living room – a social space,” architect Mette Weinberg told Dezeen. “They also help to form a close relationship to the garden space, in an atmosphere and material overhaul.”

Large windows frame views of the surrounding gardens, where flowerbeds are covered with bark chips to recreate the architects’ dream of a little house in the middle of a forest.

The main bedroom opens out onto a small inner courtyard, while a kitchen, study and extra bedrooms make up the rest of the ground floor.

A combined wooden bookshelf and staircase in the living room leads up to the first floor, where a large study and roof terrace also overlook the garden.

In contrast with the natural wood of the house’s interior, the exterior of the house is clad with black-painted timber panels.

Photography is by Mikkel Mortensen.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Villa Wienberg, Denmark

A quiet heart, a setting sun

Both outside and inside, the atmosphere is cooling and calming. As soon as the foot touches the ground of this protected corner-plot, a special feeling wraps itself around you like a soft shawl: A feeling of being pleasantly, mysteriously alone in one of the great forests of Finland – or perhaps of stepping into a universe, where Yin and Yang finally found their perfect balance and harmony. It is quite difficult to believe that actually you are in a very traditional residential neighbourhood, Højbjerg, situated in suburban Aarhus.

Until recently, this little corner-plot nested a small summer cottage, built during wartime in 1942 and later almost hidden behind tall trees. The cottage has now been integrated into a brand new, tall and very ambitious black beauty.

The walls are planked on the outside and the villa opens to its surroundings with windows that are perfectly proportioned for the double purpose of inviting nature in as well as creating a cozy and cooling private space.

The villa, which has been awarded the City of Aarhus Architecture Prize 2008, playfully breaks the strictly square shape of the plot in a careful orchestration of angles and split-levels.

The way it seems to organically grow into the rich vegetation of pine, temple-tree and rhododendron leaves the baffling impression on the beholder that this villa simply grew out of the ground!

Light and Shadow

It was the joint creative forces and dreams of architects Mette and Martin Wienberg that led to this exciting and untraditional framework around their family-life. Atmosphere was the keyword and contrast was an important tool: By creating a covered entrance in a quite strict style dominated by black wood and concrete, they wanted to enhance the experience of the movement from architectural serenity to the open garden – which is organically structured, but sharply defined by raised sleepers that frame and contrast the soft lawn which lies in their embrace almost like a green lake.

The plants and the trees are essential to the design: All the flowerbeds are strewn with coarse bark-chips in order to enhance the illusion of “The little house in the forest” and the natural mosaic of the foliage creates changing patterns of shadows and filters the light: This couple did not seek the great panorama, but rather a dynamic variety of intriguing views bringing a unique atmosphere to each and every room.

Project name: Villa Wienberg
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Engineer: Tri-consult A/S
Architect: Friis & Moltke A/S and Wienberg Architects/ www.wienbergarchitects.dk
Area: 184 m2
Construction period: 2007-2008
Text by: Susanne Holte

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Friis & Moltke contains cosy oak-lined rooms appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designers Bernotat & Co have created a range of coverings for chairs that are modelled on a grandma’s dressing gown, baggy overalls and an oven mitt.

Dutch designers Bernotat & Co developed the concept for people to recycle old chairs and make them more comfortable to sit on.

“Being slightly strange, some of them maybe even awkward, they trigger emotional reactions,” said the designers. “People relate differently to the chairs when they’re dressed up and the chairs suddenly acquire a certain anthropomorphic quality.”

The newest piece of the chair clothing, Big Baggy, is made from heavy duty canvas used in overalls and work wear. The back features two big pockets for newspapers, books and magazines, while the side pockets have space for stationary, iPads, iPhones and a hanging loop for headphones.

Pique Pocket is made from a quilted fabric similar to that of an oven mitt and slips over the back of a chair, tucking in at the sides like an apron. Users can slips their hands into the large pockets that hang down behind when they are seated.

Hoodini features a multifunctional cover with a hood attached that can be slipped over a person, completely obscuring their head from view or used as a storage space when it hangs behind the chair.

The quilted fabric is reminiscent of a grandma’s dressing gown or a Chesterfield sofa.

The foam packing for apples inspired the designers to create the Knit-Net design, a stretchy slip-on cover made from acrylic and wool filled with foam. Four press studs help secure it in place at the base of the seat.

The Chair Wear Prét-á-Porter Collection is a selection of their favourite designs from the Haute Couture Collection, presented at Milan and Dutch Design Week last year. The designers have since introduced new colours and one new design.

Here’s a some more information from Bernotat & Co:

Chair Wear

Chair Wear started as a mildly ironical joke, and ended up in a very inspiring new way of looking at furniture upholstery, of seeing it as a separate item, leading to new constructions, productions techniques and materials. With a real collection as a result.

The idea of dressing up chairs evolved while working on the Triennial Chair for Gispen. This chair has a separate cushion in the back, which allows it to be upholstered in two different kinds of fabrics, in endless combinations. With Chair Wear, the idea is taken even further: Bernotat&Co looked at upholstery as a separate item, as clothing for chairs, specially designed and custom-made for this purpose.

Chair Wear stimulates re-use by upgrading old furniture. But the aim is not just restyling. Instead, Bernotat&Co researched the possibilities of adding comfort to hard wooden chairs, or of creating additional functions for simple chairs. For this purpose, the chairs are dressed up with unexpected textiles, ranging from high-tech to industrial to traditional.

For our ‘Prêt-à-Porter models’, we used a variety of techniques and materials, like we did in the initial ‘Haute Couture collection’: Three-dimensional knit-and-wear for Knit Net, the innovative 3d knitted textiles from Innofa for Pique Pocket and Hoodini, and for Big Baggy we used heavy duty canvas that is normally used in overalls and work wear. All of them provide a soft contrast to the hard, basic chairs forming the framework.

In addition, the Chair Wear models give a nice twist to the rather tacky subject of chair covers. As ambiguous objects with various sources of inspiration, they’re open to associations. Being slightly strange, some of them maybe even awkward, they trigger emotional reactions. People relate differently to the chairs when they’re dressed-up, and the chairs suddenly acquire a certain antropomorphic quality. After all, the Dutch word for upholstery is ‘bekleding’ – its root including the word ‘clothing’, creating a direct relation to the human body.

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by Bernotat and Co appeared first on Dezeen.

Rather than slotting onto chains, these 3D-printed pendants by Italian designer Maria Jennifer Carew hang from the edge of the wearer’s clothing (+ slideshow).

Maria Jennifer Carew stripped the pendant necklace down to its most essential component and created her LessIS collection of simple geometric designs that clip onto garments.

“Today accessories are a key element in any outfit, so I decided to focus on the concept of necklace where often the most important role is played by the pendant and not by the chain that supports it,” she told Dezeen.

Each design is based on a continuous strand of material, which loops back on itself into a thin element that hooks behind a lip of fabric.

Shapes range from circles, triangles and squares to more complex polygons. Some pieces have extra bars within the outer edge for added decoration.

The jewellery can be clipped onto the collar of tops, and can also be placed over the placket of a shirt or into the top of a chest pocket.

The pendants are printed in bronze, brass and black or white nylon.

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clips onto garments appeared first on Dezeen.

Enormous dressmaker’s pins seem to puncture the seat of this sofa by Hungarian design student Demeter Fogarasi, pushing through to form legs on the underside.

The Pinsofa by Demeter Fogarasi features wooden poles protruding at angles from the top and bottom of a plywood platform, which is upholstered with two layers of foam and covered with fabric donated by Danish firm Kvadrat.

Large hand-upholstered spherical cushions top each rod to give the effect of giant pins stuck through the seat.

“Walking through the classroom with beautiful sunshine coming through the windows, I discovered a new beauty in the needles sticking out of the needle pillows,” said Fogarasi. “With the enlarged needles I am relating to textile techniques in an abstract way.”

“My main idea was to have a playful concept, what refers to the inner child in every one of us,” the designer continued. “Enlarged objects by themselves generate the feeling of being little, like children.”

Fogarasi is studying for an MA in Furniture Design at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary, and is due to graduate next year.

This project was completed while on an Erasmus exchange programme at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and Fogarasi will present the prototype at Stockholm Design Fair next week alongside other students from the school.

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by Demeter Fogarasi appeared first on Dezeen.