The walls of this six-sided community centre in a suburb of Shanghai by Scenic Architecture Office project outwards from a central courtyard and are connected by an angular roof (+ slideshow).
Local firm Scenic Architecture Office designed Community Pavilion as a multipurpose centre for residents of Malu in the Jiading district of Shanghai.
“We played down the differences between the attributes of the six indoor and outdoor spaces and tried not to dictate where is the interior, where is the outdoors, or how each space should function,” said the architects.
Two sides of the building are enclosed to create a recreation room and a teahouse, while a third acts as a covered stage. The other sides are open to provide views of two bridges and the adjacent river.
At the centre of the building is an open courtyard with a tree planted in the middle. Six brick-clad walls radiate from the courtyard, creating openings that act as entrances and shaded outdoor areas.
Latticed wooden shades on either side of the indoor spaces can be opened to connect the rooms to the courtyard and the outside.
The arrayed walls all extend upwards from the building’s core, reaching different heights and creating a dynamic, angular roofline that funnels rainwater down into the courtyard.
Aluminium cladding covers the outer edges of the roof, while the top surface is tiled to reference the traditional local vernacular.
Timber slats cover the underside of the roof where it projects over part of the courtyard, creating a sheltered walkway.
Located on a spur of land at the junction of two rivers, a low concrete bridge to the northwest and a stone bridge to the east of the site connect the community centre to the surrounding neighbourhood and farmland.
The resident of a compact apartment in Madrid demonstrates how she can rearrange walls and pull furniture out of the ceiling in this movie by photographer and filmmaker Miguel de Guzmán.
Designed by Spanish studio Elii Architects, the Didomestic apartment occupies the loft of an old building, so it was designed to make optimal use of space by creating flexible rooms that can be adapted for different activities.
Sliding pink partitions allow the main floor to be either opened up or divided into a series of smaller spaces, while a new mezzanine loft provides a bedroom where floor panels hinge open to reveal a vanity mirror, toiletry storage and a tea station.
The architects also added several fun elements to tailor the space to the resident’s lifestyle; a hammock, playground swing and disco ball all fold down from the ceiling, while a folding surface serves as a cocktail bar or ironing board.
“Every house is a theatre,” explained the architects. “Your house can be a dance floor one day and a tea room the next.”
The movie imagines a complete day in the life of the apartment’s inhabitant, from the moment she wakes up in the morning to the end of an evening spent with a friend.
“The idea was to show all the different spaces and mechanisms in a narrative way,” said De Guzmán.
Getting dressed in the morning, the resident reveals wardrobes built into one of the walls. Later, she invites a friend round for a meal and they dine at a picnic table that lowers down from the kitchen ceiling.
A rotating handle on the wall controls the pulleys needed to bring this furniture down from overhead, while other handles can be used to reveal shelving and fans.
A metal staircase connecting the two levels is contained within a core at the centre of the apartment and is coloured in a vivid shade of turquoise.
A shower room lined with small hexagonal tiles is located to the rear of the kitchen, plus there’s a bathroom on the mezzanine floor directly above.
Here’s a project description from Elii Architects:
Project for the complete refurbishment of an attic in downtown Madrid
The scope of the project covers from the development of a customised functional proposal for a user that is turning a new leaf to the rehabilitation of the structure, the insulation, the facilities and the modernisation of the existing construction systems.
The selected approach removes all obstacles from the floor to provide the greatest possible flexibility. Two basic elements are used: firstly, the central core, comprising the staircase, some shelves and the larder. The core is at the centre of the main space under the mansard roof. It connects the access floor and the space under the roof and allows the natural lighting coming through the roof into the living room. Secondly, there are two side strips for the functional elements (kitchen, bathroom, storage space and domestic appliances).
This basic arrangement is complemented by two strategies that provide flexibility to the domestic spaces.
Firstly, the moving panels that are integrated into the core and run along guide rails. These panels can be used to create different arrangements, such as adding an extra room for a guest, separating the kitchen from the living room area or opening the whole floor for a party. The panels have transparent sections so that the natural lighting coming through the mansard roof can reach this space.
Secondly, the secret trap doors that are integrated into the ceiling of the access floor and into the floor of the mezzanine and that house the rest of the domestic functions. The ceiling doors are opened with handles fitted on the walls. These handles actuate pulleys that lower part of the furniture (such as tables and the picnic benches, a swing or the hammock) or some complementary functions and objects (such as the disco ball, the fans to chill out on the hammock or an extra shelf for the guest room).
In addition, the floor of the space under the roof has a series of invisible doors that can be opened to alter the functionality of the raised space where the bedroom area is (these spaces house the dressing table, the tea room and the storage spaces for the bathroom).
All these elements are integrated within the floor and the ceiling and they appear and disappear at the user’s whim. The secret trap doors and the sliding panels complement the basic configuration, fit the needs of the moment and provide different home layout combinations.
Dezeen Music Project: we spent 2013 travelling to cities around the globe as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour. Here’s a playlist of some of the new music we discovered along the way, which we’ve been using on the soundtracks to all our movies.
You can listen to all the tracks we used on our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies on the Soundcloud playlist below. We’ll continue to publish video content from the tour over the coming weeks – watch the latest movies here.
This vase by London designer Lambert Rainville supports flowers in a free-standing arrangement by holding their stems halfway up.
The prototype Crown Vase comprises a clear plastic ring of triangular funnels that sits halfway up the stems of flowers with sturdy stalks.
Each stem sits at an angle, balanced out by those leaning the other way on the opposite side of the circle.
“The flowers are treated as part of the vase and not just the content,” said Lambert Rainville. “Making the most of the structural capabilities of the stems reveals the complete beauty of flowers.”
The arrangement can be placed on a dish of water for fresh cut flowers or straight onto a table top for dried flowers.
Rainville was born in Montreal and lives in London, where he is studying for an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art.
This rectilinear wooden cabin in Hungary by young studio Béres Architects nestles up against the exposed rock face of a former quarry (+ slideshow).
Hungarian architects Attila Béres and Jusztina Balázs of Béres Architects designed Hideg House as the holiday home for a couple and located it on the outskirts of historic town Kőszeg.
A geometric black frame encases the two sections that make up the house, while a sheltered terrace sandwiched between offers view out over the landscape as well as back towards the jagged rock face.
“Natural light and views to the surrounding nature were the most important factors in the arrangement of spaces,” said the architects.
The owner and his wife spent three years building the house themselves. The outer frame was constructed from roughly sawn larch, while the two contained volumes also use larch, but were sanded smooth and left with their natural colour.
“The contrast between the rough sawn larch cladding stained black on the exterior surfaces and the same material with natural finish and smooth surface on the inside leads visitors towards the interior spaces,” said the architects.
The largest side of the house contains the main living spaces, including a combined living room, dining area and kitchen, as well as a bedroom with an adjoining sauna and bathroom.
The smaller western end of the house is a self-contained guest suite. Like the rest of the interiors, it has a plain interior with white walls, plain furnishings and timber-panelled flooring.
Photography is by Tamás Bujnovszky.
Here’s a project description from Béres Architects:
Hideg-ház – Kőszeg, Hungary
Focusing on sculptural cliffs and friendly hillside woods, Hideg-ház is an unusual object in the landscape of the outskirts of Kőszeg, a charming historical town in Hungary.
The site had been used as a quarry a few centuries ago so the exposed rock face was one of the strongest elements of the environment. In order to get enough direct sunlight all-year-long and to stay close to the sculptural cliffs, the building had been placed about 10 meters above the road that runs along the bottom of the valley.
“An abstract footprint of a family’s lifestyle – perhaps these are the best words to describe the floor plan” architect Attila Béres says. The wooden cabin is floating a few steps above the natural terrain. The two parts are tied together with a thick black frame. These units taken apart create space for the covered outside terrace which became the central space of the cabin with its perfect views towards the colourful forms of the exposed rocks and the woods on the south side.
Natural light and views to the surrounding nature were the most important factors in the arrangement of spaces. The solid and open surfaces of the 110 sqm building react to these elements as well – large but shaded openings towards the best views on the south side, glimpses of the rock from accentuated spots on the north.
The contrast between the rough sawn larch cladding stained black on the exterior surfaces and the same material with natural finish and smooth surface on the inside leads visitors towards the interior spaces. The clear white walls in the interior pick up the random colours of the sky and the surroundings.
The building is located in a country with very diverse climate. Hot summers and cold winters desire a smart mix of architectural decisions to keep the cabin comfortable and easy to run in all four seasons. The clients had a clear concept about what they wanted to achieve in terms of building services and comfort. A combination of high-tec and simple ecological solutions resulted in extremely low energy consumption and moderate building cost.
Hideg-ház is the first project realised by Attila Béres and Jusztina Balázs. Their young architecture firm started the design of this building in 2009 when Mr. Hideg noticed Attila Béres in Wallpaper magazine’s Graduate Directory – an annual list of talented young architects. Detailed design and construction of the cabin finished in 2013.
Mr. Hideg and his wife spent 3 years on site to build this precisely detailed and custom-tailored house by hand. They carried out almost every phase of construction from cleaning the cliffs to building custom furniture. Their devotion and insistent enthusiasm had key importance along the process of design and construction of the holiday home.
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: architect Terrence Riley takes us on a tour of downtown Miami and says that redevelopment of the historic area has coincided with a new emphasis on outdoor living in the city.
Miami River
Downtown is a small nineteenth-century area of Miami located to the north of Miami River and the west of Biscayne Bay. Formerly the economic hub of the city, the neighbourhood was largely abandoned in the nineteen-seventies.
“The developers, their clients and the tenants needed bigger spaces,” explains Riley, a partner at Keenen Riley Architects and former director of Miami Art Museum and curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “Eventually you saw empty stores, empty office buildings and it was really across the river, in the south, where all the development began.”
“This is a very familiar tactic,” Riley says. “Take a really lousy neighbourhood and what do you do? You put the cultural facilities there, because they’ll go anywhere those people.”
“Miami Art Museum, from its earliest days, was put into this situation of trying to be a catalyst for spurring development downtown.”
Miami Center for Architecture and Design in a former downtown post office
Riley claims that downtown Miami is now a very different place compared to when the museum first opened in the nineteen-eighties.
“What were empty lots are being redeveloped,” he says, pointing out the old post office, which has now been taken over by the American Institute of Architects.
Downtown Miami
The redevelopment and repopulation of downtown Miami has coincided with the emergence of a renewed interest in outdoor living in the city, Riley says.
“A lot of people in Miami lived this air-conditioned life 12 months a year,” he explains. “Now I think the attitude is changing. You see that reflected in all the outdoor cafes and things like bike riding.”
“The whole idea that you can live downtown now, shop downtown and have restaurants downtown is something completely new.”
Downtown Miami
Many of the buildings in downtown Miami feature long arcades to shelter people on the streets from the elements.
“Miami was [originally] laid out as a pedestrian city,” Riley explains. “Miami lost a lot of that common-sense architecture with air conditioning and underground garages where you go directly from your car into the building.”
However, he believes that architects are now using similar principles in the design of new buildings.
“You’ll notice on the Herzog & de Meuron museum these long, broad, overhanging eaves that provide protection all the way around the museum,” he says. “These recall some of the more thoughtful, intelligent things that they used to do in the traditional city.”
Visitors to London department store Selfridges can take a virtual reality tour created by technology company Inition inside a helmet by fashion designer Gareth Pugh (+ slideshow).
Gareth Pugh worked with Inition to create a “multi-sensory experience” called Monolith, installed at Selfridges for the Festival of Imagination taking place this month.
“The inspiration for this piece really came from the desire to create a totally immersive experience,” said Pugh. “I’ve always believed in the importance of fashion film and new technology as a means of communication.”
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
The visitor enters a soundproofed booth and completely covers their head with a pointy black helmet, which Pugh designed specifically for the installation based on costumes he created for the Royal Ballet.
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
Using an Oculus Rift virtual reality display embedded in the headpiece, the wearer is taken on a journey through monochromatic cityscapes, undulating walls and figures with silhouettes that are also similar to Pugh’s costumes.
“It’s an abstract narrative based on Gareth’s life, his works and his experiences,” senior creative at Inition Alex Lambert told Dezeen.
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
Once geared up, a 360-degree white environment is visible all around. “When you’re inside [the headpiece] you are transported to another world,” said Lambert. “It’s a totally immersive, full 360-degree virtual world that you can look around.”
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
The experience begins when staring at a spinning black cube found in the artificial world. “Aesthetically it looks very similar to Gareth’s work, and as soon as you look at that cube and it spins for a certain period of time it starts,” Lambert explained.
Hand rails are installed around the sides of the compact space in case the user loses their balance during the experience. Industrial music by London artist Matthew Stone accompanies the visuals.
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
The project was developed as one of a series of experimental installations and pop-ups at the Festival of Imagination that runs all this month, as well as to coincide with the London Collections: Men fashion event that took place in the British capital last week.
Visuals seen during the virtual reality experience
Here’s some more information sent to us by Inition:
Experience fashion designer Gareth Pugh’s virtual reality journey at Selfridges
Creative production company Inition produces a mind-bending virtual reality experience launched by Selfridges to mark fashion designer Gareth Pugh’s first appearance on the London Collection: Men’s Schedule.
The Monolith installation includes a futuristic cutting edge immersive journey into the inspirations and aesthetics of the acclaimed designer’s vision for his new collection.
Gareth Pugh says: “The inspiration for this piece really came from the desire to create a totally immersive experience. I’ve always believed in the importance of fashion film and new technology as a means of communication, but the team at Inition were able to propose a new and exciting way for us to approach this project. It’s an exciting opportunity to re-imagine my aesthetic in a totally new context.”
Pugh worked with Inition 3D artists to ensure the multi-sensory experience truly reflected his inspirations.
“This was a very exciting project to work on, as it was very creatively led but also had a number of new technical aspects that needed to be overcome in order to achieve the desired feeling that Gareth wanted to convey,” says Inition senior 3D artist Lee Spooner.
After entering a soundproofed chamber, users wear a characteristically geometric Gareth Pugh VR headset, which harnesses Oculus Rift technology to bring the 3D visuals to life. Virtual reality has never been used in a retail setting in such a way before.
With hand rails provided in case of momentary loss of balance, the two minute futuristic fashion film and part fairground ride begins, featuring monochromatic cityscapes, undulating walls and signature stark shapes, all underscored by an industrial gritty sound track produced by London based artist Matthew Stone.
Inition has been producing virtual reality experiences since 2001 but with recent advances in technology, imagination can now be less constrained, as perfectly illustrated by the Gareth Pugh’s Selfridges installation.
“Our history of creating bespoke experiences using emerging technology platforms was a natural fit with the pioneering work of Pugh and the innovative approach to retail taken by Selfridges. This is a market with huge potential for digital technologies and Inition is delighted to be pushing boundaries within this space,” says Ainsley Henn, Producer at Inition.
Monolith installation from the outside
“It was nice to be able to let our creativity and imaginations run free, and early on we had a good understanding with Gareth about the direction he wanted this immersive experience to take,” says Lee Spooner.
Gareth Pugh continued, “The title, Monolith, is the perfect description for this piece: something singular and imposing, and in some way otherworldly. I imagine that each person will view it differently, but I would hope that it’s something memorable and engaging. Ultimately the installation requires a little commitment, you need to step into that world – from the padded sound proofed booth to the angular head piece required to view the installation… they’re all considered parts of this unique experience.”
The Monolith installation is now open to the public and is located in the Menswear department of Selfridges (London) on Level 1.
This baguette shop in Warsaw, Poland, by architects MFRMGR is modelled on market booths and stalls set up in the city during the 1990s (+ slideshow).
Polish firm MFRMGR, formerly known as Moko Architects, designed Serwus as a healthy and modern version of the traditional Zapiekanka stall, which served open baguettes topped with meat, vegetables, cheese and ketchup as a popular type of fast food.
“The entire spatial idea relates to the market booths where virtually everything was sold in Warsaw in the 90s,” said the architects.
“Generally, we have pleasant memories from that time when small businesses developed and huge changes took place in our country after the fall of communism,” they added.
Red and yellow steel frames – coloured to resemble ketchup and cheese – surround wooden serving counters, representing the framework of a market booth.
During construction the architects also exposed the original tiled floor, dating back to before the Second World War.
The interior is divided into five stalls. The first one is a welcome zone with the menu and cash register while the second zone separates the customer and staff area with a flap and gate.
The third stall is designed as an area for preparing sauces and storing ingredients. The fourth stall is the food preparation area and the fifth stall, in front of the window, features a high counter where customers can sit and enjoy their food.
Recently, hamburgers and other types of food from distant places of the world have become extremely popular in Warsaw. However, we always felt sentimental about the typical Polish toasted baguettes called zapiekanka which were common fast-food in the 90s and were sold in hideous booths on markets or in trailers.
The basic zapiekanka was made with delicious baguette with mushrooms and real cheese with ketchup on top. Unfortunately, the typical tasty zapiekanka became extinct like the dinosaurs or we can say that they ate their own tail – instead of a yummy meal you could buy just a large frozen baguette with cheap ingredients (ham, cabbage, onion etc.) which was prepared in a microwave.
At Serwus we decided to experiment with the vision of zapiekanka. Apart from the reference to classics we created variations with original and healthy ingredients. Our offer is based on the idea of slow-food – each morning fresh products are prepared while the sauces (ketchup) is prepared using homemade methods. The ingredients, shape and size of the baguette was prepared by a partner bakery according to our guidelines. Zapiekanka is prepared in a fan oven.
The entire spatial idea relates to the market booths where virtually everything was sold in Warsaw in the 90s. Generally, we have pleasant memories from that time when small businesses developed and huge changes took place in our country after the fall of communism.
The small space features five such booths with different dimensions. Each stall is dedicated for a particular function in the process of preparing food. The structure of the stalls consists of powder-coated steel profiles which have the colour of ketchup and cheese. The frame of one stall is zinc-coated. Countertops and enclosures of the oven and refrigerators are made from softwood plywood coated with clear varnish. Round bulbs with visible filaments hang from horizontal steel connectors. Intensity of illumination can be regulated while the worktops can be illuminated with warm-colour fluorescent bulbs.
Each stall is equipped with all necessary elements for completing a certain function. Stall 1 – welcome zone for the customer. This is where the menu and cash register is located. Under the counter there is a place for beverages and a small refrigerator. After ordering and paying the customer moves further into the restaurant.
Stall 2 – serves as a separation point between the customer zone and the employee zone. There is a flap and gate. Stall 3 – the area for preparing sauces where the induction stove is installed. It also features the storage area for ingredients in plastic cases. It is possible to attach herb pots, knives, cutting boards etc. on the steel profiles.
Stall 4 – the area for preparing food, cutting bread and putting ingredients on the baguette. This area also features a large fridge, an oven and a storage area for bread in plastic cases. Apart from the multi-function hangers there is also a paper towel holder.
Stall 5 – the area for customers where they can enjoy their food, read a newspaper or have a cup of coffee. Due to the small space, this area features only a high counter where the guest can eat or talk to friends.
During renovation of this shop we discovered unique flooring from the pre-world war II period. The wooden frame where the glass panels were attached using putty was refurbished and repaired where necessary. The frame was coated with red varnish on the outside and cream-white varnish on the inside. We also successfully renovated the brass door handle. In order to easily locate the restaurant we have designed a neon light using old technology.
Project name – SERWUS – Zapiekanka Bar Project city, country – Warsaw, Poland Designers/architects – MOKO ARCHITECTS / MFRMGR / Marta Frejda , Michał Gratkowski / Collaboration – Pamela Krzyszczak Logotype – Lange & Lange Status of project / expected completion – completed in 2013 Usable floor area: 18 m2
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