Hasta La Ideas

One pivoting door sits within another to create a rusted steel entrance that can be big or small at this combined house and photography studio in Spain by American firm Olson Kundig Architects (+ slideshow).

Tom Kundig of Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects designed Studio Sitges as the home and workplace of a photographer and his family in the coastal town of Sitges, north-eastern Spain.

Eschewing the stuccoed walls and tiled rooftops of the local Tuscan houses, Kundig opted for an industrial material palette that includes pre-weathered Corten steel and raw concrete, some of which was cast against timber formwork to create grainy textures.

The pivoting entrances form part of a large section of Corten steel, which curves around the top of the facade to reveal a row of clerestory windows that are sheltered beneath overhanging eaves.

Other features include a glass lift that ascends between all of the floors and a rooftop study offering views out over the Mediterranean Sea.

The building contains two double-height photography studios, both set below ground level. A ramped entrance allows cars and other large pieces of equipment to be driven straight into the spaces, while a mezzanine balcony with a glass floor offers views into the studios from the level above.

A glass lift ascends to living spaces on the two storeys above. On the ground floor, living and dining spaces can be opened out to the garden using more pivoting doors – this time made on glass – and furniture includes restored teak tables and leather seating.

A master bedroom is housed within a cantilevered block that extends out over a patio in the garden. A bridge connects it with three smaller bedrooms that open out to a terrace on the roof.

Photography is by Nikolas Koenig.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Studio Sitges

Studio Sitges is a live/work space for a photographer and his family. Located three blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, the building captures the casual energy of this cosmopolitan beach town thirty minutes from Barcelona.

The house is zoned vertically, with two large below-grade photography studios anchoring the building, a main floor for entertaining both large and small groups, and private areas above. A glass elevator moves between floors and culminates in an intimate rooftop atelier. Kundig describes the whole house as a studio – a space in which things can happen.

A custom-designed wall and gate of rough concrete and weathered steel pushes the boundaries of the design out to the street. The gate rolls away to reveal a garage and a steeply sloping driveway leading down to the studios. Large panels of Corten steel arch from the ground over the facade to form part of the roof; the entrance to the house is via a tall steel pivot door, inset with a pilot door.

The underground, double-height photography studios are strikingly raw. In both, cycloramas enable the illusion that the studio floor stretches into infinity. Cars and large pieces of equipment can drive directly into the space. Support areas include a glass-floored viewing area on a mezzanine overlooking the studios, as well as separate dressing, makeup, and spa areas. The studios are wired so that in-progress shoots can be viewed around the world.

The design of the ground floor takes advantage of the mild climate, using sliding and pivot doors to maximise indoor/outdoor living. On the second floor, an interior bridge spans the space and connects the master suite with the other bedrooms. The master suite cantilevers over a dining terrace, while a guest suite opens onto a roof deck and planted roof overlooking the lap pool.

Throughout the house, low-maintenance materials such as Corten, concrete (board formed and cast in place), and mild steel give the home a handcrafted feel. At the top of the house, an atelier with indoor and outdoor space offers the home’s only view of the sea. At night, the atelier combines with the glass-topped elevator to appear like a beacon when lit.

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photography studio by Olson Kundig appeared first on Dezeen.

Untreated copper cladding will gradually change colour from golden brown to vivid turquoise on the walls and roof of this house near Ghent by Belgian studio Graux & Baeyens Architecten (+ slideshow).

Intended by Graux & Baeyens Architecten to give the building “a poetic impermanence”, copper panels with visible seams cover the whole exterior of House VDV and were left untreated to allow the material to oxidise over time.

“We wanted to integrate the house into the woody surroundings as much as possible,” architect Basile Graux told Dezeen. “The copper gave us the opportunity to do that, as it will continuously change colour over the years, from gold in the beginning to blue, than brown and green at the end.”

The two-storey residence is located in Destelbergen, east of the city centre, beside the remaining brick wall of a castle that was destroyed during the second world war.

The architects generated the house’s irregular plan by abstracting a simple rectangle and making cutaways along its length, creating three blocks that angle away from one another.

The roof features a steep gable modelled on the form of traditional farmhouses. “The typical rural pitched roof house is an archetype that has been really common in Belgium and the northern part of Europe for centuries, but strangely enough has never been seen as an modern way of building,” explained Graux.

“When urbanism regulation stipulated that the house needed to have a pitched roof we saw that as an opportunity to experiment and a modern interpretation for it,” he added.

The two gable ends are both fully glazed, as are the two triangular recesses along the sides of the building, one of which accommodates the main entrance.

Family rooms such as the lounge and dining room are all located on the house’s ground floor, and feature a mixture of oak and marble flooring.

A spiral staircase leads up to first-floor bedrooms, where angular ceilings reveal the slope of the roof overhead.

Photography is by Filip Dujardin.

Here’s a project description from Graux & Baeyens Architecten:

House VDV

This single family house is located just outside the town of Ghent. The plot is part of a domain where used to be a castle destroyed in WWII. Parts of the surrounding wall is still standing and is a silent reminder of this history.

House VDV appears simultaneously familiar and strange. The volume, consisting of one level with a pitched roof, alludes to familiar archetypes such as the rural homestead or barn.

But at the same time the volume is broken up by large glass facades, so that the relationship is established with the surrounding trees and the listed castle wall.

The mandatory implantation in the back of the plot ensures that the house is conceived as a pavilion. A garden-house with no front or rear, but with two identical facades and a 360 degree experience of the entire plot.

The (non-treated copper) cladding gives the project a poetic impermanence, which is echoed in the reflection of the surrounding trees in the glass facades.

Architecture & Interior design: Graux & Baeyens Architecten
Function: dwelling
Location: Destelbergen, Belgium
Design year: 2011
Construction year 2012-2013
Square metres: 410 sqm + 73 sqm basement

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will change colour over time appeared first on Dezeen.

German designer Jule Waibel has created 25 of her folded paper dresses for fashion brand Bershka’s shop windows around the world (+ movie).

Jule Waibel produces the dresses by hand-pleating large sheets of paper into forms that fit the body. Each takes over ten hours to complete.

She was contacted by Bershka with an offer to exhibit 25 dresses in as many of its flagship stores in cities including London, Paris, Milan, Istanbul, Osaka and Mexico City.

“I was excited and shocked at the same time,” Waibel told Dezeen, “25 dresses for 25 shops?!”

Waibel scores the paper horizontally and vertically before folding along the seams, then repeats the process for the diagonal.

The two halves of the sheet are printed with a different pattern, one for the bodice and the other for the skirt.

Most of the dresses are printed with colour gradients, while a few are covered with detailed patterns.

Different colours and graphics were used for each of the cities, but Waibel was keen to move away from stereotypical shades and motifs such as the ones used in the countries’ flags.

“I found it too obvious to use the typical colours and instead I wanted to try something different,” she explained. “I figured that the people must be bored with seeing the same style all the time.”

Her favourites are the black and white design in Paris, the dress patterned with tiny black and orange fish in Berlin and the installation on London’s Oxford Street that appears to glow like lava.

Waibel and her team spent just over a week producing the garments and a set of accessories at a studio in Barcelona.

“Together with my supportive pleating assistants we managed to fold 25 dresses, two bags and two umbrellas within eight tough working days!” she said.

The origami dresses will be installed until 31 January.

Waibel first designed her concertinaed clothing while studying on Platform 18 of the Royal College of Art’s Design Products course and exhibited her work at ShowRCA 2013.

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for Bershka stores in 25 cities appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Italian architecture and design magazine Abitare is to end the publication of its monthly print edition.

Italian media group RCS will print the final issue in March, though Abitare will continue to publish content online according to Italian news site La Stampa.

The design community took to Twitter over the weekend to express their disappointment about the news.

“Incredibly sad to hear that @abitare will close. Not good times here in Italy,” tweeted writer and curator Joseph Grima, who was a special correspondent for the magazine and edited rival publication Domus from 2011 to 2013.

“Sorry to hear Abitare is closing, but amazed that it has taken so long for a big design/arch mag to go. Credit due for hanging in there,” said V&A senior curator Kieran Long.

Writer and critic Justin McGuirk remarked: “Circa 2007-9 Abitare was really setting the standard. It was the one to beat.”

“Sad to hear that historic magazine @abitare will close. They ran the 1st big piece on my work,” said designer Sebastian Bergne.

RCS is also closing its economics journal Il Mundo as part of its new publishing strategy for 2014.

Abitare was launched in 1961 in Milan and is written in both Italian and English. Covering architecture, design, art and graphics, it became one of the world’s best known design magazines.

Previous editors include architect Stefano Boeri and graphic designer Italo Lupi. Architect Mario Piazza is the magazine’s current editor in chief.

The latest issue 537 hit the news stands on 15 January (cover pictured).

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to cease publication appeared first on Dezeen.

These tents shaped like worms and doughnuts were designed by young studio ArchiWorkshop for a remote campsite in Yang-Pyeong, South Korea (+ slideshow).

Entitled Glamping for Glampers, the tents are named after the growing trend for “glamourous campsites” where visitors can sleep in tents but don’t have to go without domestic amenities including toilets and kitchen facilities.

ArchiWorkshop designed two types of tent for the rural site, which is surrounded by mountains. The first has a long curving form that can be extended, while the second has a hollow circular plan designed to reference the shapes of pebbles.

The skins of the Glamping tents are made from an engineered fabric membrane that shields the interior from UV rays and is both waterproof and fire-resistant.

Two layers of the membrane are stretched around steel frames to give the structures their curved shapes. Each one also has a glazed entrance to allow some daylight inside.

The architects designed custom sofa beds for the inside of the tents and a Korean artist has painted a series of partition walls that screen toilets at the rear.

Photography is by June Young Lim.

Here’s a project description from Archi Workshop:

Glamping in Korea

Glamping Architecture by ArchiWorkshop offers a unique camping experience. Two types of Glamping units with contemporary design positioned in the middle of gentle Korean nature. From the Glamping site, you have a view of the valley, miles of forest and the stream.

Concept

Why not create a Glamping that gives people a chance to experience nature closer, while also providing a uniquely designed architecture experience? These questions led to the creation of Glamping Architecture in Korea – a place where nature, ecological values, comfort and modern design are combined for an exciting adventure.

We developed two types of Glamping units. Stacking Doughnut unit is inspired from pebble stones. And Modular Flow unit is designed for extendable structure by juxtaposing modular floor panels.

These ideas behind stacking donut unit and modular flow unit are to offer high-standard accommodation in various places. We named them sea, dessert, creek, mountain, cave, forest, river and city.

Materials

Glamping unit uses quality membrane which has characters to UV protection, water-proof, fire resistant. Double layered skins provide better resistance against extreme Korean four-season weather condition.

For the complex geometry of the outer skin, computer animated surface plans are plotted with 2D cutters and welded with a high frequency technique, which gives absolute water tightness. The shape and the position of the structures are carefully considered to give aesthetic emergence during both day and night time.

Interior

Each Glamping unit has toilet booth with art wall finish, which is painted by young Korean artist. The furniture is also designed by ArchiWorkshop which suits well in the limited inner area. The folding furniture becomes sitting sofa during the day and sleeping bed at night.

Architect: ArchiWorkshop.kr (Hee-Jun Sim, Su-Jeong Park)
Client: Glampers

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and doughnuts by ArchiWorkshop appeared first on Dezeen.