Hasta La Ideas

French architect Emmanuelle Weiss has added a contrasting dark brick extension to a red brick house outside Lille (+ slideshow).

Weiss wanted to create a contemporary extension, but also respect the traditional materials palette. “The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context,” the architect explained.

Unlike the original building, which has a vernacular roof, the extension features an asymmetric roofline that slopes upwards at two opposite corners of the building to form a butterfly shape.

The two buildings barely touch, so only a single doorway connects to the existing hallway from a new open-plan living and dining room, while two patios slot into the spaces between.

A new staircase leads up to the first floor, where the irregular shape of the roof provides a faceted ceiling over the extra bedroom and dressing room.

There is no connection to the main house from these rooms, but a doorway leads out to a small terrace on the roof.

See more residential extensions on Dezeen »
See more architecture in France »

Photography is by Julien Lanoo.

Here’s some more information from the architect:

Maison D – Emmanulle Weiss

House D (Maison D) is an extension of a family home in the middle of an urban area on a parcel of land twice as wide as the existing house.

The house doubles the linear qualities of the existing house façade, thus unifining a roadside landscape that was deconstructed before. The extention also doubles the importance of the private family garden.

The House D extension welcomes all the important living functions, private income patio, kitchen and living room, the architect (Emmanuelle Weiss) chose to incorporate on the first level of the extention an equipped sleeping quarter, with bathroom and a well organised dressing room.

The result of this exercise frees up the existing house, wich has mainly become the children’s territory. Also now, the complementation of House D makes room to add a large office area in the existing house, addapted to the professional life of its inhabitants.

The volume, high levels, low levels: “zones” create a dialogue with the existing typical style house. All the volumes in House D translate into its roofline, bringing a richness to the space. Natural light embraces the volume, sometimes directly, sometimes reflected, it fills the complete project and living quarters.

House D is an answer to the existing devision of the main house. Its functional properties talk directly to the vertical circulations of the existing house, it opens up living space.

To link the old and new together, the architect chose to use a minimal contact between both architectures. The new differentiates itself on the outside by two little patios, only linking itself to the old on the interior where the new encroaches into the hallway.

The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context. Dark bricks (reflecting back on a modern way to the dark old red bricks typical for this area) and aluminium detailing show subtle hints to thier surroundings.

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan (extension only)

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Emmanuelle Weiss appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architects Tredje Natur and PK3 have designed a series of artificial islands that will transform Copenhagen’s harbour into a recreational area filled with wildlife and water sports (+ slideshow).

Above: House of Water

Commissioned by the city’s planning department, Tredje Natur and PK3 were inspired by Copenhagen’s long history of artificially constructed islands, many of which served as a navy base in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to create the masterplan.

Entitled Blue Plan, it covers five zones in and around the harbour and is conceived as a public recreation area for residents and tourists, as well as an educational facility.

Above: House of Water

“The harbour bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here – a privilege only a few large harbour cities in the world share,” explained Tredje Natur’s Flemming Rafn Thomsen and Ole Schrøder, describing how they imagine the space as “a showcase for Danish water technology”. 

The first of the five zones is to be named House of Water and will comprise softly curving concrete islands, accessed by a traditional wooden jetty.

Above: Bird Island

Fugleøen, or Bird Island, will be a plant-covered islet that birds, small animals and insects can use as a habitat. “[This] island will be the obvious destination for bird lovers, angling enthusiasts, shell collectors, biologists and school classes to be taught biology, history and geography,” said the architects.

Above: Krøyer’s Puddle

The third zone will be Krøyer’s Puddle, a harbour bath with heated inlet pools and sauna caves, while the fourth planned area is Operaparken, a temporary park outside the Royal Opera House where music will be projected for all to hear.

Above: Operaparken

Sportsøen is designed as a water sports island in the centre of the harbour and will feature scuba diving, swimming and kayaking.

Above: Sportsøen

“Research shows that there is a clear connection between the physical activity level of humans and the experienced accessibility to nature – the easier the experienced accessibility to nature is, the bigger desire for physical activity. Other research indicates that stays in nature have a positive influence on the mental health of humans and on the reduction of stress,” said the architects.

Above: House of Water

Floating pathways and bridges will connect the new islands, and the architects will now work up a detailed urban analysis to move the project into the next stage of development.

Above: Copenhagen aerial photograph

Copenhagen’s harbour makes up almost a third of the entire city and is set already set to change shape in the near future, following the construction of bridges and quays by Danish foundation Realdania and the opening of 3XN’s Blue Planet aquarium.

See more stories about Copenhagen »

Here’s some more information from Tredje Natur:

Blue Plan – An urban spatial perspective on the Copenhagen Harbor

Ambition

TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen have an ambition to make the Copenhagen Harbor a living, accessible, useful and recreational area in Copenhagen. The plan for this ambition, we call ”Blue Plan”. Blue Plan enters the development of the harbor into the historic development of the city but also showcases the contemporary recreational potentials and utility function of the harbor. With Blue Plan we wish to give the harbor of Copenhagen back to the Copenhageners!

Blue Knowledge

Copenhagen is founded by its central location by the water and the resources connecting to it. The plan is to reorient the city life and functions towards the harbor and through this, strengthen the recreational benefits of the place to the joy of the citizens, merchants and tourists of Copenhagen. This will, among other things, take place by reintroducing the city’s long tradition for creating new islands and islets. The islets will create new connection, both physically and between the citizens within, increase awareness of the nature we all depend on and they will contribute to branding the highly developed knowledge in Danish water technology.

Denmark is at the front when it comes to knowledge about water. In this way, Blue Plan makes the Copenhagen Harbor a presentation of the Danish water-technological successes and the know-how that connects to it. The harbor bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here – a privilege only a few large harbor cities in the world share. By creating an accessible, recreational and experiment-oriented blue urban space, the Copenhagen Harbor can thus make itself a showcase for Danish water-technology.

Waterload on the Harbor

The climate is changing. We can forecast more short but violent rain storms like the ones Copenhagen has experienced in the past two summers. At the same time, rising ocean levels is an internationally recognized problem which in particular threatens the urbanized areas. Thus, the harbor is under pressure from both sides as the rain water must be able to exit into the harbor and at the same time making sure that the rising harbor water does not run into the city. The climate safeguarding of Copenhagen is of a previously unseen proportion and a new generation of architects are asking how the allocated money also can lead to a greener and more eventful city. In conjunction with the new water and climate adaptation technologies, the architects work to ensure a more coherent and eventful Copenhagen.

The direct experience of the possibilities the technologies create for the recreational activities will promote the branding of the city and the Danish know-how. At the same time the useful and recreational blue urban spaces can function as a reminder to us Danes of the invisible consummation we have of the scarce water resources of the world – not in the form of a pointing finger but by making it apparent that we in Denmark actually can make a difference here and now.

Strategy – Water Surfaces, Connections and Edges

Blue Plan is thus a tale of the harbor of the future where the possibilities of the water and the recreational benefit carry the leading role. This tale is unfolded in the plan through three concepts that will each participate in qualifying the harbor and water potentials:

Water surfaces – the most important quality of the harbor is the water. A central concept in Blue Plan is to create opportunities to interact with the water by creating safety and room for a number of different water activities and experimental offers such as walks on the bottom of the harbor in a network of glass walkways or biology classes under the surface in glass bells.

Edges – another concept that will strengthen the recreational and useful role of the water is a cultivation of the edges between water and land. The distance between the edge of the quay and the surface must be reduced and the direct accessibility developed. This must happen by the creation of new islets and islands in the harbor, remodeling edges to stairs, creating stone quays or establishing floating bridge and walkway systems on the water surface.

Connections – the third and last concept is about qualifying the connections in, along and across the harbor. The course of the harbor is in many places disrupted and the visitors are forced to move back and forth in the same path instead of around. By strengthening the harbor connections, possibilities are created for more coherent, eventful and circular patterns of movement on the harbor. This can for example happen by connecting Nordre Toldbod and Langelinje so the promenade becomes a circular walkway, by creating new islands in the harbor that can create life and movement across the water and by creating dynamic and varied walking paths extending from the upcoming four bicycle and pedestrian bridges.

From HAFN to CPH

The earliest traces of urban development around Copenhagen can be dated back to approx. year 700 and consists of various remnants of boating bridges found by Gammel Strand and Kongens Nytorv. But the foundation for the merchant town of Copenhagen was laid about 1000 years ago. At that time the area was still mostly consisting of moist tidal meadows and low islets – a moraine formation shaped by the latest ice age providing shelter for a humble trade center for the trade between Denmark and Scania. Around year 1100, King Valdemar the Great delegates ”Hafn”, as the city was called, to the bishop Absalon of Roskilde.

Hereafter, the development of the city gains speed. In a short amount of time Copenhagen grows tenfold because of the rising sales of fish, the easy access to transport by sea and the advantageous location in between Roskilde and Scania. Copenhagen is now center of trade in the area.

Concurrently with the growth of Copenhagen and the city becoming an important power center, the Copenhagen harbor is narrowed. From the 1550’s and onwards a series of artificial islands and islets were created such as Slotsholmen, Bremerholmen, Nyholm, Frederiksholm, Arsenaløen and Dokøen which all served as base for navy activities. In 1617 Christian IV gets the acceptance of the Council to found a new town in the harbor, that of Christianshavn. Other examples of artificially created islands and islets in the Copenhagen Harbor are Trekroner, Kastellet, Teglholmen and Sluseholmen.

A Blue Urban Space Perspective on the Copenhagen Habor

Copenhagen is founded because of its central location by the water and the resources connecting to it. With Blue Plan TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen wishes to reorient the city life and functions towards the harbor and through this, strengthen the recreational benefits of the place to the joy of the citizens, merchants and tourists of Copenhagen. This will, among other things, take place by reintroducing the city’s long tradition for creating new islands and islets. The islets will create connection across, both physically and between the citizens within, increase awareness of the nature we all depend on and they will contribute to branding the highly developed knowledge in water technology of Denmark.

The recreational potentials of the harbor

The Copenhagen Harbor today make up – despite the many backfillings of the harbor fairway – still almost a third of the total area of Copenhagen. Yet, only a few areas are accessible to the citizens of Copenhagen and even fewer appears as recreational areas which encourage stay. The harbor is today quite oppositely strongly dominated by big scale company domiciles and hotels with the harbor bath on Islands Brygge and the area around Skuespilhuset and Ofelia Beach as a few of the exceptions. With Blue Plan the Copenhagen Harbor is transformed into a blue and recreational urban space adapted to human scale. An urban space with a multifarious animal and plant life which invites to a stay in and by the water creates possibilities for different forms of activity and offers sensuous places of sojourn.

Blue Plan thus puts action behind knowledge and enters the development of the Copenhagen Harbor in the fight for a better and more health-promoting urban environment. Research shows that there is a clear connection between the physical activity level of humans and the experienced accessibility to nature – the easier the experienced accessibility to nature is, the bigger desire for physical activity. Other research points towards that stays in nature have a positive influence on the mental health of humans and on the reduction of stress. The recreational visions of Blue Plan for the harbor can in this way carry a decisive role in heightening the general wellbeing and level of health.

The harbor as a contemporary commons

In the book ”Fælledskab” (common-ity), Tor Nørretranders and Søren Hermansen describe how the community connection to the place, the intimate and social life slowly has been lost in the contemporary society. According to Nørretranders and Hermansen, the ”eye-level- perspective” has disappeared in our cities and decisions have been removed from those they in fact influence. If this development is to be turned around and humans yet again shall experience a togetherness with, care and ownership of the local area, society must promote and care for an already growing trend – that of the fælledskab or common-ity. Common-ity is described in the book as a combination of the two words commons and community. Communities are valuable according to Nørretranders and Hermansen but they need a task, a purpose that binds it together and strengthens it – a commons.

200 years ago, commons were open grass areas where everyone could send their animals to graze freely. In the book the common is reintroduced as a resource and as a means for reconnecting with the intimate, local and social life. Examples of contemporary commons can be communities of food supplies, child caring, yard maintenance, wireless networks, sports arenas and green energy supplies. With Blue Plan, TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen wishes to make the Copenhagen Harbor into a contemporary commons by creating a series of purposes that different types of communities can form around. This could for example be by creating new and better possibilities for fishing, sport, water activities, bird sanctuary, apiculture, teaching and communication. By cultivating the common-ities on the harbor, Blue Plan can contribute to increasing the togetherness and co-ownership in the city.

Benefits of the harbor

Denmark is at the front when it comes to knowledge about water. In this way, Blue Plan makes the Copenhagen Harbor a presentation of the Danish water-technological successes and the know-how that connects to it. The harbor bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here – a privilege only a few large harbor cities in the world share. By creating an accessible, recreational and experiment-oriented blue urban space, the Copenhagen Harbor can thus make itself a showcase for Danish water-technology – a technology market that globally has an annual turnover of a four digit billion figure (in Danish Kroners).

Five new blue urban areas

Blue Plan specifically presents four areas that will strengthen the recreational value of the harbor. These five areas we call House of water, Fugleøen, Krøyers Pøl, Sportsøen and Operaparken and are all created by making room for the great visions in the name of pragmatics through the game “what if…” Way too much architecture has wrestled its way out of great visions in the name of pragmatics but in the work with Blue Plan we have put the energy and drive that lies in these visions to use in order to, through this, create a rethinking and different urban space. The game is in this way used as a can opener for all of the conserved ideas and realizable dreams many share for the harbor and urban space.
The result of this game with visions is vitalizing, sensuous, playful and hybrid blue urban spaces which do not limit themselves by traditional understandings of the harbor role and look. Urban spaces, which both draws on the historic heritage of the city and makes room for new forms of use and life.

HOW – House of Water

”The wish of a better reputation will not create a better country but create a better country and it will automatically transmit a better reputation” has been said by one of the world’s leading experts in national branding. Or said with other words; strong brands are created by meaningful visions, through actions and by interacting with its surroundings. And that is the ambition of the Rethink Water-project.

Imagine if the Danish water-businesses worked together to create a House of Water on the Copenhagen Harbor? A place where all visitors could engage in the urban space and at the same time learns about the global water challenges and solutions. Knowledge, water and nature are melted together in a new type of contextual architecture that gives more to the city and the harbor than it takes. A remarkable design in soft concrete folds creating both room and landscape to interact with the water.

Fugleøen (Bird Island)

Imagine if a bird island was in the middle of the harbor. A green island surrounded by a stone reef that takes you back to the landscape that surrounded the first settlements in Copenhagen; an island where the plenty biodiversity and unregulated development of nature is the pivotal point.

Fugleøen is the dream of creating an unregulated island in the middle of the Copenhagen Harbor which can serve as a transmitter of the historic landscape that Copenhagen is built upon, which can attract a rich bird life and which can be used for experimenting with the local bio diversity. The island will be the obvious destination for bird lovers, angling enthusiasts, shell collectors, biologists and school classes to be taught biology, history and geography and for regular citizens who only wish to enjoy the possibility of the long afternoon sun and at the same time experience the unregulated nature in the middle of the Copenhagen Harbor.

Krøyers Pøl (Krøyer’s Puddle)

Imagine if the Copenhagen Harbor invited to a stay close by the water, in the water and under the surface. Krøyers Pøl is the dream of a performative area which combines the next generation harbor bath with the utility function of the water.
Krøyers Pøl becomes, with its dynamic floating island sculpted in concrete, a contemporary interpretation of the city tradition of artificially created islands and islets. The floating islands which are to be placed outside of Nordatlantens Brygge, blurs the edges between water and land and creates new connections in the harbor, via raised isthmuses, between islands and quay areas. As next generation harbor bath, Krøyers Pøl offers itself as a blue urban space that allows the bathing people direct access to the harbor water surface, the possibility of bathing in small heated inlet pools and room for relaxation between the hot stones of the sauna caves. But Krøyers Pøls closeness to the water also creates unique opportunities to explore the utility function of the harbor.

A part of Blue Plan is to transform the area around Krøyers Pøl into an attractive place for the many fish and plant varieties of the harbor. Combined with the direct access to the water surface, Krøyers Pøl can become an attractive place for angling, harvesting of water plant and fish farming. The location of the project right outside the world renowned Michelin restaurant noma will present the Copenhagen Harbor as a clean and attractive resource for many of the national and international guests of the restaurant. A harbor which supports the Nordic gastronomic ambition of minimal distance between soil and table – from the harbor to noma. With Krøyers Pøl the harbor is thus made into a display window of the Nordic ingredients and the sustainable development of Copenhagen.

Sportsøen (Sports Island)

Imagine if there was a sports island in the middle of the harbor. An island where the attraction of the harbor, the water surface, is bursting with activities which invites the citizens out onto the water and creates new eventful sports opportunities right there close to nature.

Sportsøen is the dream of continuing the Copenhagen historical heritage in a contemporary and activity based context which links the experience of nature and sport close together. By creating a new island in the harbor which offers facilities to a wide range of water sports, the island qualifies the water surrounding it. Sportsøen will pull the life down into the harbor and make it an attractive place for scuba divers, swimmer, jumpers, kayakers, winter bathers and other forms of water sport enthusiasts. The “soft” users of the harbor need a secure place where they do not have to fear the large fast-moving boats and harbor busses. This is solved by placing Sportsøen in the middle of the harbor fairway which creates a natural division with space for the functional use of the harbor on one side and the recreational use on the other.

Operaparken (Opera Park)

Imagine if the rich sounds of the Royal Opera House were audible in an opera park that connects the Royal Opera House to its surroundings. A sound park that offers seducing, sensuous musical experiences on the edge of the harbor.

Operaparken is the dream of a temporary recreational use of the large grass area by the Royal Opera House. A dream of taking the fine culture to the masses by turning the inside out of the Royal Opera House and provide the visitors of the park with the opportunity to listen to the enchanting and dramatic world of the opera. Operaparken, with the music, its blossoming cherry trees, magnolias and plants which can live in the salty microclimate, will offer a sensuous wholesome experience out of the ordinary.

The temporary park will also work to create a natural connection between the Royal Opera House and its surroundings – a connection which can invite new groups of users inside a world that otherwise might appear strange. In the coming years, new connections are formed across Copenhagen via the four new bike and pedestrian bridges which are to connect Nyhavn with Christianshavn and Holmen. Operaparken will, as an extension of these, make up a new public destination which can attract life to the area and support the work of combining the city closer across the harbor.

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by Tredje Natur and PK3 appeared first on Dezeen.

Scientists at a Spanish university are developing a new type of concrete that captures rainwater to create living walls of moss and fungi.

Unlike existing vertical garden systems which require complex supporting structures, the new “biological concrete” supports the growth of organisms on its own surface, according to researchers from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Top image: simulation of a vegetated facade at the Aeronautical Cultural Centre in El Prat de Llobregat

Above: simulation of a vegetated facade at the Ako-Suites Aparthotel in Barcelona

The concrete contains a biological layer that collects and stores rainwater, providing a moist growing environment where microalgae, fungi, lichens and mosses can thrive, they explain in a report.

A waterproof layer separates the organisms from the inner structural part of the concrete, while an outer layer acts in reverse, allowing rainwater in and preventing it from escaping.

Above: lichens on a rock

The concrete also absorbs carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and acts as an insulating material and a thermal regulator, say the researchers, who are currently in the process of patenting the material.

The next step is to accelerate the process so that the mossy surface develops in under a year, they add.

We’ve featured lots of buildings with living walls, including a mossy office building in Amiens, France, and a São Paulo furniture showroom covered with plant-filled vases – see all our stories about green walls.

We’ve also featured a number of projects using algae, such as a conceptual skyscraper that would make energy from algae and a concept car that would also use the organism to make fuel – see all our stories about algae.

Images are courtesy of UPC.

Here’s some more information from the researchers:

Researchers at the UPC develop a biological concrete for constructing “living” façades with lichens, mosses and other microorganisms

The Structural Technology Group has developed and patented a type of biological concrete that supports the natural, accelerated growth of pigmented organisms. The material, which has been designed for the façades of buildings or other constructions in Mediterranean climates, offers environmental, thermal and aesthetic advantages over other similar construction solutions.

In studying this concrete, the researchers at the Structural Technology Group of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) have focused on two cement-based materials. The first of these is conventional carbonated concrete (based on Portland cement), with which they can obtain a material with a pH of around 8. The second material is manufactured with a magnesium phosphate cement (MPC), a hydraulic conglomerate that does not require any treatment to reduce its pH, since it is slightly acidic.

On account of its quick setting properties, magnesium phosphate cement has been used in the past as a repair material. It has also been employed as a biocement in the field of medicine and dentistry, indicating that it does not have an additional environmental impact.

The innovative feature of this new (vertical multilayer) concrete is that it acts as a natural biological support for the growth and development of certain biological organisms, to be specific, certain families of microalgae, fungi, lichens and mosses.

Having patented the idea, the team is investigating the best way to promote the accelerated growth of these types of organisms on the concrete. The goal of the research is to succeed in accelerating the natural colonisation process so that the surface acquires an attractive appearance in less than a year. A further aim is that the appearance of the façades constructed with the new material should evolve over time, showing changes of colour according to the time of year and the predominant families of organisms. On these kinds of buildings, other types of vegetation are prevented from appearing, lest their roots damage construction elements.

Three layers of material

In order to obtain the biological concrete, besides the pH, other parameters that influence the bioreceptivity of the material have been modified, such as porosity and surface roughness. The result obtained is a multilayer element in the form of a panel which, in addition to a structural layer, consists of three other layers: the first of these is a waterproofing layer situated on top of the structural layer, protecting the latter from possible damage caused by water seeping through.

The next layer is the biological layer, which supports colonisation and allows water to accumulate inside it. It acts as an internal microstructure, aiding retention and expelling moisture; since it has the capacity to capture and store rainwater, this layer facilitates the development of biological organisms.

The final layer is a discontinuous coating layer with a reverse waterproofing function. This layer permits the entry of rainwater and prevents it from escaping; in this way, the outflow of water is redirected to where it is aimed to obtain biological growth.

CO2 reduction

The new material, which has various applications, offers environmental, thermal and aesthetic advantages, according to the research team led by Antonio Aguado and supported by Ignacio Segura and Sandra Manso. From an environmental perspective, the new concrete absorbs and therefore reduces atmospheric CO2, thanks to its biological coating.

At the same time, it has the capacity to capture solar radiation, making it possible to regulate thermal conductivity inside the buildings depending on the temperature reached. The biological concrete acts not only as an insulating material and a thermal regulator, but also as an ornamental alternative, since it can be used to decorate the façade of buildings or the surface of constructions with different finishes and shades of colour; it has been designed for the colonisation of certain areas with a variety of colours, without the need to cover an entire surface. The idea is to create a patina in the form of a biological covering or a “living” painting.

There are also possibilities for its use in garden areas as a decorative element and as a sustainable means of blending buildings and constructions into the landscape.

Architectural renovation

The material lends itself to a new concept of vertical garden, not only for newly built constructions, but also for the renovation of existing buildings. Unlike the current vegetated façade and vertical garden systems, the new material supports biological growth on its own surface; therefore, complex supporting structures are not required, and it is possible to choose the area of the façade to which the biological growth is to be applied.

Vegetated façades and vertical gardens depend on a plant substrate in some type of container, or they use cultures that are totally substrate-independent, such as hydroponic cultures. However, they require complex systems attached to the construction itself (layers of material) and even adjacent structures made of metal or plastic. This can lead to complications associated with additional loads, the reduction of light, or the reduction of space around the building. With the new “green” concrete, the organisms can grow directly on the multi-layered material.

Patent and commercialisation

The research has led to a doctoral thesis, which Sandra Manso is writing. At present, the experimental campaign corresponding to the phase of biological growth is being conducted, and this will be completed at the UPC and the University of Ghent (Belgium). This research has received support from Antonio Gómez Bolea, a lecturer in the Faculty of Biology at the University of Barcelona, who has made contributions in the field of biological growth on construction materials.

At present, a patent is in the process of being obtained for this innovative product, and the Catalan company ESCOFET 1886 S.A., a manufacturer of concrete panels for architectural and urban furniture purposes, has already shown an interest in commercialising the material.

The post Researchers develop “biological concrete”
for moss-covered walls appeared first on Dezeen.

Jagged copper balconies emulate the topography of surrounding landscape as they fold around the exterior of this apartment block in north-east Italy by architects Plasma Studio (+ slideshow).

Positioned beside the Dolomites, the three-storey Dolomitenblick building contains six holiday homes that each face north-east towards the mountains.

A diagonal recess slices down the centre of the facade, separating the balconies of different apartments and breaking down the volume of the building.

“This incision becomes the main defining element of the building,” explains Plasma Studio. “From the cut at either side a strip unfolds that forms the balustrade of a generous covered balcony and ends into the surrounding topography.”

The whole facade also slopes backwards to match the incline of the sloping land, finishing with an asymmetric interpretation of a traditional gabled roof, which the architects were asked to incorporate by the local planning authorities.

“Slightly deformed, it merges with our design intention but also with the traditional typology of pitched roofs,” say the architects, explaining how they wanted to explore the “new potentials of a traditional typology”.

Inspired by local farmhouses, the architects used larch to clad the walls behind the pre-oxidised copper balconies, as well as the floors and walls inside each apartment.

They also made various depressions into the ground, adding low-level windows and a tunnel leading into an underground parking area beneath the building.

Above: balconies design concept

Plasma Studio have completed a few buildings in northern Italy, including a hotel with stripy timber cladding and a housing block in South Tyrol. See all our stories about Plasma Studio »

Above: vertical incision design concept

Photography is by Hertha Hurnaus.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Dolomitenblick

The building is located on a hillside in the Dolomites, at the end of a residential area.

Above: location plan

The volume has been developed mainly from its pragmatic functional request to host 6 independent apartments with one common circulation: through a cut that marks the main access and the division of the units the volume is splitted into 2 halves. Besides its functional meaning this incision becomes the main defining element of the building: from the cut at either side a strip unfolds that forms the balustrade of a generous covered balcony and ends into the surrounding topography. Following the steep natural hillside with each floor the strips and the façade jump back.

Above: site plan

Programme

The building hosts 6 generous holiday homes, all directed to the sun and the panoramic view of the Dolomites. Each private unite is designed to get a maximum of privacy: through the division of the whole building volume into 2 parts, through the stepped balustrades which avoid insight from the above unit and from the passing by street. Each apartment gets an extension of the internal living area by a covered sun and view facing terrace which at each floor ends in a small private garden. Local larch wood defines internal and external living areas. Floor to ceiling glazing allows the maximum view and energetic gain as directed to south, external sun blinds and the overhangs of the above balconies minimize overheating during summertime.

Above: apartments level one plan

The main circulation is very compact and a continuation of the volume defining gap and repeats the use of the local larch wood and the color code of the façade.

Above: parking level plan

Material

Sitting at the edges of a residential area with a very eclectic and non-coherent appearance we focus to contrast these surroundings by simply generating a volume which grows out of its natural surrounding topography and blends again into it, by minimizing the used materials to a very local, almost vernacular code: larch wood and pre oxidised copper. Both the copper and the larch wood are exposed to a natural change of colour by the atmospheric influence of sun, rain and snow. Through the repetition of the colours of old, close-by farmhouses with dark, sunburned larchwood facades this building volumes blends into its natural surroundings.

Above: front elevation

Focus was given to the design of the copper balustrades which start from the natural topography, grow, become balustrades, attach to the building where the gap defines the volume, peel again off and end finally in the surrounding topography. When peeling off, the metal sheets which are divided into horizontal strips describe a curved hyperbolic-parabolic geometry: crafts knowledge is brought to its extreme.

Above: side elevation

The dark copper surrounds the volume from all sides, the strips form a second layer which gives shelter from and insight and finally define the roof as a continuation of the overall façade and volume. The form of the roof itself derives from local planning regulation which allows only a pitched roof in this specific building plot: slightly deformed, it merges with our design intention but also with the traditional typology of pitched roofs by not simply repeating but rather exploring what new potentials of a traditional typology can be.

Above: rear elevation

Project: residential building with 6 units and underground garage
Client: private
Size: 1.050 sq m
Location: Sexten / Sesto Italy
Completed: Summer 2012

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by Plasma Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Los Angeles firm Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects has restored a nineteenth century coach house in Dublin, Ireland, and inserted a contemporary house in front of it (+ slideshow).

A small courtyard separates the small Georgian building from a concealed glass and concrete extension and Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has constructed a glass tunnel to link rooms within the two separate structures.

The historic facade now faces the courtyard and a tunnel through the original entrance creates a route to the house’s new front door on the glass facade beyond.

Above: photograph is by Alice Clancy

“One of the key requirements was to provide visual access from the main Georgian house on Pembroke Road,” Lorcan O’Herlihy told Dezeen. “We had to have circulation access through the facade and really integrate it into the home, but the facade itself also had to be restored to exactly how it was.”

A pair of bedrooms and a study occupy the two floors of the renovated building, while a living room, kitchen and two more bedrooms are contained within the ground floor and basement of the extension.

Wooden formwork has left its traces on the cast concrete walls at the rear of the house, which opens out to a small garden and patio.

Sustainability was an important consideration in the design and the house generates all its own heating using solar panels on the roof and a ground-sourced pump.

Above: photograph is by Alice Clancy

Lorcan O’Herlihy is an Irish architect that now lives and works in LA. We’ve previously featured a housing block he designed in West Hollywood.

Above: photograph is by Alice Clancy

See more Irish houses on Dezeen, including four limestone-clad extensions to a residence on the south coast.

Photography is by Enda Cavanagh, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects:

Flynn Mews House

In the heart of Dublin, LOHA has completed a single-family mews home that marries modern aesthetics with its historic Georgian site. The home incorporates an 1847 coach house façade, which was restored and minimally altered to comply with local planning efforts. The visual link between the coach house and its primary manor has, too, been maintained; these parameters drove a transparent and honest design approach that pays homage to the Flynn Mews House’s origins.

Above: photograph is by Alice Clancy

Entering from the alley into the forecourt, the home’s front face is a composition of board-formed stained concrete and glass, with an entry passage highlighted by white plaster. Gradually sloping downward, the passageway funnels the guest through this initial volume and into an enclosed split-level garden. Here in the courtyard, the coach house façade reflects upon the curtain-wall glazing of the entrance form and the contemporary bridge that joins it with the site’s older half.

As part of the Dublin Green Building Pilot Program, the project incorporates a significant amount of sustainable measures achieved through a holistic design approach. Solar panels are used for domestic water heating while radiant floors utilize an underground heat pump system that incorporates gray water. Materials include stained concrete with recycled glass content, high performance insulated glass, and high gloss plaster.

Above: the coach house facade before renovation

Location: Dublin, Ireland
Size: 260 sq. meters
Program: Four bedroom, single family mews

Above: floor plans – click above for larger image

Architect: LOHA (Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects)
Lorcan O’Herlihy, Principal-In-Charge, Donnie Schmidt (PD), Alex Morassut (PM), Po-Wen Shaw

Above: long section through tunnel – click above for larger image

Client: Ella Flynn
Executive Architect: ODOS Architects
Structural Engineer: Casey O’Rourke & Associates Contractor: Oikos Builders
Landscape Architect: James Doyle & Associates
Completion Date: Spring 2011

Above: long section though courtyard – click above for larger image

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