Hasta La Ideas

French artists Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus have converted an old house in France into a visitor centre by giving it a ghostly cloak of polystyrene and paint.

The building, which was formerly used as a prison house, a school and a funeral home, is located in the grounds of the Synagogue de Delme contemporary art centre, a gallery inside a 19th century synagogue.

Blocks of polystyrene create the chunky shapes on the facade, and are covered with resin and a layer of white paint.

The artists imagine the building as a ”ghost-house” and have named it Gue(ho)st House, in reference to the phrase invented by Marcel Duchamp “A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST”.

Above: photograph is by Marie Le Fort

“Duchamp’s wordplay ended up being a trigger, a base line for drawing up the project,” said Berdaguer and Péjus. “Guest is the common denominator, the sharing space that we imagined. Ghost is a metaphor, a phantasmagoria.”

The completion of the Gue(ho)st House marks the 20th anniversary of the arts centre and provides new reception spaces for visitors, as well as studios for resident artists.

Above: photograph is by Marie Le Fort

Other projects inspired by ghosts include a collection of laser-cut chairs and a series of mesh screens around a Tokyo house.

Photographs are by Olivier-Henri Dancy, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the Synagogue de Delme contemporary art centre:

The art project and the context of the commission

Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus are creating a remarkable work of architecture-sculpture in the area surrounding the Synagogue de Delme contemporary art centre: by enhancing the art centre’s visibility, by creating new reception spaces for visitors and artists, this work makes it possible to use the public space for new purposes.

The heart of the project is the transformation of an existing building that was once a prison, then a school and then a funeral home. Keeping this context in mind, the artists used the memory of the place and transformed the building into a ghost house, a veritable architectural phantasmagoria, which the title echoes. Gue(ho)st House borrows Marcel Duchamp’s wordplay: a Guest + A Host = A Ghost. This served as a trigger for the project, which offers an interface between hosts (art centre, commune) and guests (visitors, artists).

Berdaguer and Péjus are covering the original house in a white veil that drips onto the surrounding area and creates a living body, a moving form that looks to the past as well as to the future. As the spatial projection of a collective psyche, the house becomes not only a place of emotions, perceptions and memories, but also a great mediation tool for the art centre.

This public commission constitutes a major milestone in the history of the Synagogue de Delme, which has always presented itself as a place where artists can work and research, open to all members of the public, in a spirit of dialogue and proximity. In 2013 the art centre will be celebrating it’s 20th year of operation and will then be able to offer everyone a very a high quality experience.

Future uses

The ground floor of the building will contain a reception centre (for groups and schoolchildren, and for the art centre’s educational events), an information office and a documentation centre. The upper floor will be transformed into a studio that will occasionally provide accommodation to artists, students, interns and other art world professionals.

The post Gue(ho)st House by
Berdaguer & Péjus appeared first on Dezeen.

Designer Morag Myerscough used the tweets of a poet to create the bold graphics surrounding this temporary cafe in London.

Located close to the Olympic Park in Greenwich, the cafe was constructed in just 16 days to coincide with the start of the games.

The brightly painted words on the facade spell out phrases such as ‘this is the gate’ and ‘this is eye contact’, which originate from one of many creatively written tweets by poet Lemn Sissay.

“I had worked with Lemn Sissay on a previous project and wanted to collaborate with him on this project,” Myerscough told Dezeen. “So we met up, and he mentioned these tweets he does everyday and I liked the idea of somehow incorporating them into this project.”

The structure of the building is made from plywood, scaffolding and shipping containers. ”I have used containers before for projects,” she said, “but this time it was important to me that the containers were used only as a base and not as the main feature.” She also explained how her studio will re-use most of the materials when the building is deconstructed in a few months time.

Myerscough collaborated with artist Luke Morgan to design the colourfully painted furniture, which includes stools and tables made from reclaimed wood.

Amphitheatre-style wooden steps climb up around the edge of the cafe’s outdoor seating area and are covered with cushions made from kite fabric.

Morag Myerscough previously created another cafe in south-east London, inside a 1960s commuter train carriage in Deptford.

See more stories about cafes on Dezeen »

Here’s a longer description from the organisers:

New Temporary Café in Greenwich is a Triumph of Design and Speed

The Movement Café is a new temporary café and performance space next to the DLR station in Greenwich, South East London, designed by British designer and artist Morag Myerscough. It sits in a corner of the site of the former Greenwich Industrial Estate that is currently being regenerated by developers, Cathedral Group.

Built from scratch in just sixteen days to coincide with the opening of The Olympics (the developers thought it important that the gateway to the Olympic borough was not an unattractive construction site), The Movement Café is an explosion of colour and type and sits at the centre of an amphitheatre-like space created from the natural level of the site, post-demolition, being 2m below street level. It’s the result of a public art collaboration between Myerscough and Olympic Poet and prolific tweeter Lemn Sissay. Sissay has been commissioned by Cathedral to write a poem about Greenwich, which will eventually be set permanently into the road that cuts through the site when it is completed. In the short term, the poem, Shipping Good, is painted on the hoarding that wraps the site.

Myerscough’s design for The Movement Café was inspired by one of Sissay’s tweets:

This is the House.
This is the Path.
This is the Gate.
This is the Opening.
This is the Morning.
This is a Person Passing. This is Eye Contact.
Lemn Sissay, June 27th 2012

The designer has used words and phrases from this tweet and painted them by hand on large wooden panels, positioned over the core structure of the building which is covered in an original hand-painted Myerscough multi-coloured geometric pattern. Sissay’s tweets will be written daily on a blackboard in the cafe.

The outdoor amphitheatre seating area provides a lovely, contemplative, sheltered place of respite for commuters and visitors to Greenwich and several times a week plays host to storytelling, poetry reading and acoustic performances. All furniture is made by Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan from reclaimed laboratory tops. Cushions are hand sewn from kite fabric.

The cafe’s prominent position at the gateway to one of the most important sites during the Olympic games, presented a unique opportunity to showcase the best of British design talent and creative collaboration.

The post MVMNT Cafe by
Morag Myerscough appeared first on Dezeen.

If this comes to fruition, this may be the sweetest, or at least largest-scale design gig we’ve ever heard of: Dror Benshetrit designs an island for 300,000 inhabitants. Not just the structures they’ll live in, but the entire island.

The Canal Istanbul project is the current Turkish Prime Minister’s plan to bisect Istanbul on the European side, connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. The resultant waterway would create a new shipping lane, reportedly creating a more safe way for 56,000 vessels a year to traverse the two bodies of water. Dredging the canal would produce a reported one billion cubic meters of earth.

What to do with all that soil? Turkish developer Serdar Inan contracted a commission, led by Dror Benshetrit, to investigate an environmentally positive application. Benshetrit’s plan, unveiled today at Istanbul Design Week, is to use the soil to create a massive, sustainably-designed island off the coast of Istanbul that will house 300,000 souls.

Called HavvAda, Benshetrit’s jaw-dropping plan involves building an island housing six massive geodesic domes, of varying sizes, that will each be incorporated into their own hill. The hills will be arranged in a circle, with the valley in between serving as “downtown.” Buildings will stretch from each hill not vertically, but horizontally, wrapping around the hills at different heights. And the hills/domes would be hollow—each would house residences as well as one of six different arenas of community life: A museum, a business district, a stadium theater, a health and sports center, a entertainment complex, and an educational facility.

It all sounds compelling, awesome, and crazy. Read the details here and/or peep the explanatory video below.

(more…)

This factory-like building by architects Haworth Tompkins is the new home for print-making and photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Named after British industrial designer and entrepreneur James Dyson, the Dyson Building also contains an innovation wing where start-up designers can launch their businesses.

At the heart of the building is a factory-like production room, referred to as the ‘machine hall’, which is filled with large printing machines and layout spaces.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

All the departments are arranged around this triple-height space and glass walls let students look across to see what’s going on in other studios.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

“What’s most successful is the way you can see everywhere,” architect Graham Haworth told Dezeen at the opening party.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

He went on describe the contrast between this building and the RCA’s 1960s Darwin Building, where “all the floors are stacked up on top of each other” and explained how Haworth Tompkins had tried to avoid this. ”We pushed the idea of a creative factory,” he said. “Just like Andy Warhol’s factory, a place of visible art production.”

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

Raw concrete walls and surfaces recur throughout the building, which the architects hope will become gradually marked with traces of paint, glue, and other materials used by students.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

An exhibition room lines the building’s street-facing facade and a 220-seat lecture hall is located on the first floor.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

Now the project is complete, the architects are working on another building for the RCA, which will eventually link up with the Dyson Building and extend the length of the central hall.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

Haworth Tompkins also designed the Sackler Building, which accommodates the RCA’s painting school and is located next door.

Above: photograph is by Helene Binet

See more stories about the Royal College of Art here, including a series of movies we filmed at this year’s degree show.

Photography is by Philip Vile, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the Royal College of Art:

Royal College of Art officially opens The Dyson Building in Battersea

The Royal College of Art, the world’s leading postgraduate art and design university and now in its 175th year, has opened a new academic building as part of a £61 million masterplan.

The Dyson building is named in honour of the British industrial designer, inventor and entrepreneur whose educational charity, the James Dyson Foundation, donated £5 million to support the development.

Designed by award-winning architects Haworth Tompkins, it is the most significant new development for the College since it moved to Kensington Gore in 1962 and will form the centre-piece of the RCA’s Battersea campus alongside the RCA’s existing Painting and Sculpture buildings.

It will connect with and provide a huge boost for ‘Creative Battersea’, which currently boasts the headquarters of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, architects Will Alsop, Foster + Partners and the re-development of the Battersea power station site.

The building is home to the Printmaking and Photography programmes, providing state of the art facilities and studios for nearly 100 Master’s, Mphil and PhD students, as well as new offices for InnovationRCA, the College’s business incubator unit.

There is also a 220-seat lecture theatre and a gallery space which will be open to the public for talks and exhibitions, including the hugely popular RCA Secret postcard exhibition and sale which will re-locate to the Dyson building in March 2013.

For the first time in the College’s history all four fine art programmes will be based on one site, leading to a dynamic new synergy between the disciplines, and an exciting new chapter in the furtherance of the College’s fine art research.

Exploded block drawing – click above for larger image

The building is conceived as a creative ‘factory’ both in the industrial sense (as a place of industry), and through the reference to Andy Warhol’s Factory as a place of art production. An open, central ‘machine hall’ forms the heart of the building, designed to house the large printing machines used by students and technical staff to make work.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Centred around this space are the studios, offices and workshop facilities.

Section model – click above for larger image

A key characteristic of the RCA’s success is the fluid relationship between programmes. The building has been designed to create ‘horizontal drift’ between disciplines, and the creative processes take place in highly visible proximity to one another.

Section – click above for larger image

The cross-fertilisation of ideas that is present and encouraged on the programmes is also enhanced through the additional inclusion of InnovationRCA within the main building, blurring the boundary between the academic and the commercial.

Section – click above for larger image

InnovationRCA provides business support and incubation services to help students and graduates protect and commercialise pioneering design-led technologies successfully.

The post The Dyson Building by
Haworth Tompkins appeared first on Dezeen.

Planks of translucent glass provide the walls for this house in south London designed by architect Carl Turner for himself and his partner (+ slideshow).

Positioned amongst a row of traditional Victorian houses, Slip House is a three-storey residence with staggered upper floors that cantilever towards the street.

“We set out with a simple sculptural form of three cantilevered, or slipped, boxes,” explained Turner. “The upper box houses our living space, the middle box houses sleeping and bathing, and the ground box is given over to a multi-purpose space, currently housing our studio.”

The translucent glass walls extend up to form a parapet around a terrace on the roof, and also surround a set of photovoltaic panels that generate electricity.

Other sustainable features include a wildflower roof above the ground floor, a rain-water-harvesting system and a ground-sourced heat pump that generates energy.

Inside the house, the ground floor studio features a moveable study area, comprising a combined desk and shelving unit attached to wheels.

On the first and second floors, rooms are equipped with inbuilt storage walls, so residents can hide their belongings away behind plywood screens.

Floors throughout the house are concrete and sit flush against all the walls and fittings.

Another project we’ve featured by Carl Turner Architects is the extension to the couple’s former home in Norfolk – see it here.

See more houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

Here’s a project description from Carl Turner Architects:

Slip House, Brixton.

Occupying one of four plots forming a gap in a typical Brixton terrace, Slip House constitutes a new prototype for adaptable terraced housing.

Three simple ‘slipped’ orthogonal box forms break up the bulk of the building and give it its striking sculptural quality. The top floor is clad in milky, translucent glass planks, which continue past the roof deck to create a high level ‘sky garden’.

Designed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5, it features ‘energy piles’ utilising a solar assisted ground source heat pump creating a thermal store beneath the building. PV’s, a wildflower roof, rain water harvesting, reduced water consumption, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery within an airtight envelope with massive levels of insulation make this one of the most energy efficient houses built in the UK.

A prototype brownfield development offering dense, flexible, urban living – the house is a vehicle for in-house research into sustainable design, seamlessly integrating the often conflicting aesthetic requirements of architecture and alternative low energy systems. We are working to develop this model for multiple developments and as affordable housing.

Living and working (‘Living over the shop’) is something that really interests us. We see a prototype new ‘terraced’ house, squeezed into under-utilised city (Brownfield) sites. This flexible type of home can allow for the artisan or home-worker to sub-let or downsize. This can enliven local communities and produce ‘homes’ which create opportunities rather than be dormitories or financial assets. Slip House is flexible and can be used as a single home, studio workspace and apartment, or two apartments.

The perimeter walls are load bearing, freeing up the internal areas of supporting columns or additional load bearing walls. The house’s open-plan layout ensures that walls / dividers are simple to erect and require minimal construction effort. This aspect of Slip House is not only financially sustainable but also environmentally so, as it helps to ensure the permanence of the overall structure, as minimal modifications can allow the house to adapt to changing lives and living situations indefinitely.

Our approach was to model the building as a series of simple orthogonal box forms that use the full width of the site. This allows future buildings to simply adjoin the flank walls.

The house takes the idea of three slipped boxes. The boxes are carefully placed to maximise light and outlook from inside while not intruding on neighbour’s outlook. The shifting planes also break up the bulk of the building and give it its sculptural quality.

Axonometric diagram

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Second floor plan

Roof plan

Section – click above for larger image

The post Slip House by
Carl Turner Architects appeared first on Dezeen.