Hasta La Ideas

Our second recent story from Japanese architects Studio Velocity is a house shaped like a fairytale tower with five different staircases connecting its two floors (+ slideshow).

House in Chiharada was designed by Studio Velocity in the garden of another residence in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, so architects Miho Iwatsuki and Kentaro Kunhura specified a cylindrical volume that would contrast with the rectilinear structure of the existing building.

“To avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square-shaped volume of the main house,” explained Iwatsuki.

The first of the five staircases wraps the curved perimeter of the house, leading up to a first-floor entrance that is sheltered beneath an ultra-thin canopy.

Inside, a large circular room occupies the entire floor and contains a sequence of family spaces that are divided by four box-shaped volumes with various proportions.

Each box contains a staircase down to a different room on the floor below. Arched wooden doors lead inside, while square windows help to draw in extra light.

One staircase descends into the bath and washrooms, while the other three head directly into bedrooms. There are no corridors between these rooms, but extra doors give direct access to the bathroom from the other rooms.

“By intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together,” said Iwatsuki.

To allow this arrangement to work, the architects gave low ceilings to the ground floor so that each staircase needed only ten treads. Meanwhile, the upper level is a double-height space that brings light in through openings in the roof.

Additional doors allow residents to open their bedrooms out to the garden.

Studio Velocity also recently completed a house with a squashed diamond shape designed to maximise space without overlooking the neighbours.

Other Japanese houses on Dezeen lately include a residence where furniture forms sections of staircases and a home with a tunnel-like entrance and faceted interior walls. See more houses in Japan »

Photography is by Kentaro Kurihara.

Here’s a project description from Studio Velocity:

House in Chiharada

Deconstruction of a multi-floored architecture

A site with a two-storey main house is split in half and a new house for a young couple is going to be built on the vacant area.

Although there is enough space within the surrounding environment and there are no approximate buildings, it is inevitable that the new house be built rather close to the main house. In addition, a multi-floor living space was needed due to the limitation of the site area.

Therefore, to avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square shaped volume of the main house. It was arranged so as to create a valley-like space in between the two buildings spreading open towards the outside. The round shape is set on an irregular shaped site, creating various shaped gardens around it that can be shared with the main house. Each room on the first floor in the round-shaped building has a door that opens to the gardens.

A number of small rooms and a bathroom are located on the first floor, and a single large hall where everyone can gather is arranged on the second floor. Downstairs and upstairs are relatively close by lowering the height of the slab (the upstairs floor) that lies between the two floors, and therefore, the garden grounds can be seen even from the centre of the second floor through the enclosed staircases and downstairs rooms.

Entering through the entrance on the second floor, enclosed staircases are arranged within the living room that is filled with natural light from a high ceiling; the enclosed staircases look like slender structures of various heights. The space seems like being on a street in a town, and makes you feel that it is on the ground level although it is upstairs of the multi-floor building.

Each of the four enclosed staircases connects to an individual room on the first floor. When you look up at the open ceilings from the children’s room or the bedroom (inside of the enclosed staircases) that almost reach the roof, the sky can be seen and natural light pours down from skylights above the openings in the enclosed staircases. It was intended with this house that a person be able to feel the ground and sky throughout, though it is a multi-floored building.

Elimination of the discontinuity between multi-floor stairs that usually exists might result in the unfolding of a united and continuous new living environment. By interrelating with each area, including the outside, and by intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together.

Location: Chiharada, Okazaki-city, Aichi, Japan
Site Area: 144.93 sqm
Built Area: 55.28 sqm
Total Floor Area: 110.56 sqm

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by Studio Velocity appeared first on Dezeen.

An asymmetric tunnel leads through an all-black facade to a bright and spacious interior at this house in Chiba Prefecture, Japan (+ slideshow).

Designed by Tokyo studio Sugawaradaisuke, Kiritoshi House provides the home for a family of four on the rural perimeter of a residential district in Oamishirasato.

While the black-painted front elevation presents a blank face to the street, the rear features a glazed wall that opens the house out to the neighbouring fields.

“The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment,” said architect Daisuke Sugawara.

The interior spaces are arranged to complement this arrangement, with bedrooms grouped together at the front of the house and an open-plan living room and kitchen leading out to a terrace at the rear.

“The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house,” added Sugawara.

A wooden panelled floor runs through the house and is mirrored by a matching ceiling in the living room. Walls between are painted white and feature a series of triangular openings and facets.

Sugawaradaisuke previously completed two studio apartments divided by central twisting forms in a Tokyo apartment block.

Other recently completed Japanese residences include a house shaped like a squashed diamond and a shared occupancy house in Nagoya. See more architecture in Japan »

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here’s more information from Sugawaradaisuke:

Kiritoshi House

This house is designed for a married couple with two children, and is located in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture. The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house, so that the residents enjoy the life in the green ambience.

The building sits on the borderline between the new residential area and the pastoral fields. The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment. The exterior is finished as a simple box, allowing the residence to blend in easily with the rest of the surroundings.

The interior spaces are constructed according to the three-dimensional cellular structure, and in the middle is the largest space for the family members to gather. This maximises the physically sensed largeness and at the same time, each room’s storage capacity.

The relativeness of the scenery, space and body changes dramatically by moving from each space to space. The physical perception experienced in this house is like that in an excavation (=”Kiritoushi”) – the fusion of both natural and artificial dimensions.

Project name: Kiritoshi House
Location: Oamishirasato city, Chiba Pref
Concept design: Sugawaradaisuke
Schematic Design: Sugawaradaisuke
Design Development: Sugawaradaisuke + Osato Sogokanri
Construction: Osato Sogokanri

Principal use: residence
Structure: wooden structure
Site area: 228.72 sqm
Building area: 103.98 sqm
Floor area: 91.89 sqm
Number of stories: 1

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Sugawaradaisuke appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a complex of Nazi rally grounds in Nuremberg designed by Hitler’s favourite architect will undergo repairs costing €70 million (£60 million) to prevent the crumbling structures endangering tourists.

Around 200,000 visitors flock to the site in Nuremberg, southern Germany, each year but the monuments, designed by Nazi architect Albert Speer to last as long as Roman structures, have been gradually deteriorating since the end of the Second World War and are in danger of collapsing.

Nuremberg mayor Ulrich Maly told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that the only other available choices are to fence off the grounds, which would “certainly not be an appealing story for the city”, or to renovate the site and prevent future accidents.

Some parts have previously been demolished, but Maly says this is no longer an option as the site is now listed as a historically significant memorial.

“It’s not about prettying up the city” he said. “We won’t be searching for true to original sandstone.”

The six-square-mile site featured as a backdrop for Nazi propaganda movie Triumph of the Will and includes 24 towers and a “Zeppelin Tribune”. It was used to host six Nazi party rallies between 1933 and 1938.

The first section of repairs are set to include a structural examination of the Zeppelin Tribune, including the mosaic-lined “Golden Hall” that the Fuehrer used for private audiences. It is understood that graffiti left on the walls by Allied soldiers after the war will be left intact.

Speer designed the buildings of the Reich to outlast the regime and used materials like granite and marble instead of steel and concrete in the hope that they would prove as enduring as classical monuments. In his “Theory of Ruin Value”, Speer wrote: “By using special materials and by applying certain principles of statics, we should be able to build structures which even in a state of decay, after hundreds or (such were our reckonings) thousands of years would more or less resemble Roman models.”

See more architecture in Germany »

Photograph is courtesy of Adam Jones.

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to be rebuilt appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Rafael Viñoly’s Walkie Talkie skyscraper in London is reflecting a beam of light intense enough to melt cars, according to a series of recent reports.

Claims surfaced over the weekend that the glare from the curvaceous glass facade of the 37-storey tower – currently under construction at 20 Fenchurch Street – have caused vehicle paintwork to melt and bodywork to distort.

Engineer Eddie Cannon, who parked his Vauxhall Vevaro beneath the building, told local newspaper City AM: “The van looks a total mess – every bit of plastic on the left hand side and everything on the dashboard has melted, including a bottle of Lucozade that looks like it has been baked.”

Tiling company director Martin Lindsay suffered a similar fate, claiming that the panels surrounding his Jaguar XJ had been warped. Attacking property developer Land Securities, he said: “They’re going to have to think of something. I’m gutted. How can they let this continue?”

Land Securities has acknowledged the claims and is promising to look into the matter. “As a precautionary measure, the City of London has agreed to suspend three parking bays in the area which may be affected while we investigate the situation further,” said a spokesperson.

The skyscraper, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie due to its distinctive profile, is set to be the first London building completed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who is based in New York. This recent controversy has prompted critics to rebrand the building “Walkie Scorchie”.

The skyscraper is scheduled to complete in 2014 and will feature an elevated garden and observation deck that will be open to the public.

See more architecture by Rafael Viñoly »
See more skyscraper news »

Images of the Walkie Talkie are courtesy of Shutterstock.

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“melts cars” appeared first on Dezeen.

This brick courtyard house by Auckland studio Glamuzina Paterson Architects sits at the foot of a mountain in New Zealand’s Otago region (+ slideshow).

Lake Hawea Courtyard House was designed by Glamuzina Paterson Architects as a rural home for a retired couple, who requested a building that “sits on the ground with weight and permanence”.

Occupying a square plot, the single-storey house has an L-shaped plan that folds around the north and east sides of a secluded central courtyard, allowing morning and afternoon sunlight to penetrate the interior spaces.

The walls are constructed from uneven bricks, giving a bumpy texture to the outer surfaces, and large recesses are infilled with a mixture of timber panels and glazing.

“The house is an enquiry into where a site begins and ends,” said the architects. “The use of rusticated bricks creates a material relationship with the site and anchors it firmly to the ground, along with a textural palette that allows for a constantly shifting interpretation of scale.”

Alongside the usual living, dining and bedroom spaces, the architects added a music room and a quiet room, designed to accommodate the residents’ various hobbies.

Entrances to the house lead in through the courtyard, plus a garage in the site’s south-west corner offers parking spaces for a pair of cars.

Other interesting houses from New Zealand include a guesthouse with walls of Corten steel and a residence that can be towed off the beach. See more architecture from New Zealand »

Photography is by Samuel Hartnett, apart from where otherwise stated.

Read on for a description from Glamuzina Paterson Architects:

The Lake Hawea Courtyard House

The Lake Hawea Courtyard House is grounded in rural land at the foot of Mount Maude in the Otago region. The house is an enquiry into where a site begins and ends – how to define the edges of the project and the way that landscape may be inhabited.

Firmly dug into the earth, its low form and simple square plan recalls the modest language of early settler buildings in the region that utilise low slung, stone construction to deal with the extreme environment.

This idea of a singular form clad with simple materials, drove the exploration into the material and formal qualities of the house.

In their written brief the clients requested “a building not built on a domestic scale, that might have been part of a bigger building that sits on the ground with weight and permanence”.

The couple planned to retire to the house so spaces were described by unusual titles, such as the quiet room and the music room that represented their respective hobbies.

The brick amour of the Courtyard facade wraps the house and large central courtyard, framing views to the lofty mountains and low plains.

Living, dining and sleeping spaces occupy the northern and eastern edges, favouring the predominant direction of the sun, while niches and overhangs in the building envelope protect it from the hot, dry summers and harsh winters.

The courtyard bunkered in the landscape responds to the immediate context within which it is placed and allows the building to address continuous enclosure and protection from the prevailing north-east wind. The use of rusticated bricks creates a material relationship with the site, and anchors it firmly to the ground, along with a textural palette that allows for a constantly shifting interpretation of scale. The strategies of shifting roof planes and concrete floor plates enables the house to articulate the relationship of form to land, this in turn is mediated by a plinth that is expressed as a low recessed wall wrapping around the building connecting the mass to the ground and acting as an organisational tool for apertures.

As Ted McCoy once commented: “The good thing about isolation [is that] one had to learn for oneself, by looking at surroundings.” The courtyard house reflects these values.

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by Glamuzina Paterson Architects appeared first on Dezeen.