Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: our second project this week by Stuttgart architects Werner Sobek Design is a huge cantilevered altar that was temporarily constructed in Freiberg, Germany, for the pope’s visit last year (photographs by Zooey Braun).

The 20-metre-long solid canopy sheltered the leader of the Catholic church during an open-air mass, while the supporting structure behind housed a sacristy and other rooms.

Elements of the steel frame were bolted and clamped together rather than welded so that the structure could be easily disassembled.

Some chairs used to furnish the altar were reused from the pope’s previous visit, while any new furniture was relocated to nearby churches after the event.

See this week’s other story about Werner Sobek here.

The text below is from the architects:

Altar for the Papal visit 2011 in Freiburg/Germany

On the occasion of his third visit to Germany, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass on 25th September 2011.

The Mass was held on a green space at the airfield in Freiburg. As already done for the Papal visit in Munich 2006, Werner Sobek was asked to design a weather protective Altar roof.

The Altar consisted of a sacristy for the Holy Father and various other adjoining rooms for ministrants, etc.

A translucent roof floating 15 m above the Altar protected the area against all weather conditions.

Most parts of the construction material could be reused or recycled after the Mass. During the design phase the focus was put on the materials which do not have to be welded or glued. Joints were only made of bolted, rotating, or clamp joints.

This not only enabled a quick mounting but also served for the quick dismantling and a clear separation of the used materials. Furnishing was also carried out according to reusability.

Most parts of the furniture were made for the Altar for the Papal visit in 2006. Newly designed furniture could be reused in churches.

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The supporting structure of the Altar was a steel framework covered with laminar wood. The rear wall and the roof were made of a structural steelwork which was covered with fabric panels, each of them sized 3.6 x 2m and made of PVC polyester and especially in the roof area of PTFE-coated glass fibre fabric.

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The roof construction did not need a special structure even though it cantilevered 20m. It could be solved with a standardized support system usually carried out on temporary bridges.

Architects: Werner Sobek, Stuttgart/Germany
Planning time: 2011
Construction time: 2011
Services rendered by Werner Sobek: design and overall planning
Client: Erzbischöflisches Ordinariat Freiburg

Slideshow: Rotterdam studio 2by4-architects designed this gabled summer house so the walls of one corner fold open.

Blackened timber lines the walls and roof of the building, while the ends are glazed to create framed views out across the water and surrounding Dutch lake district.

An angled wall inside the building conceals a shower, toilet, kitchen and storage on one side.

A fireplace suspended from the ceiling can be rotated to face out towards the decked jetty beyond, to keep residents warm when they’re sat outdoors.

We’ve also featured a waterside summerhouse in Norway – take a look here.

The text below is from 2by4-architects:

On an island of 5 by 100 meters in the Dutch lake area ‘Loosdrechtse Plas’ 2by4-architects designed a unique recreational house. The house is a subtle frame that captures the view from the inside out and outside in. Completely anticipating on the client’s needs 2by4 has designed the house in such a way that it can customize the interaction with the surrounding nature. One of the glass facades can be completely opened so that the wooden outdoor terrace becomes part of the interior. To even more lift the inside-outside barrier the dark wooden facade can be folded open, creating a panoramic view to nature. The folded facade becomes an abstract perpendicular element that floats above the water. By opening this part of the facade the wooden floor of the living area is now directly connected to the water enabling the inhabitants to access the lake from the living room.

Although the size of the house is limited it still contains all the functions that are needed for comfort. Shower, toilet, kitchen, closets, storage and other functions are all integrated into a double wall. According to the need of a specific function the wall can be modified so that the spatial configuration changes, resulting into different atmospheres. The fire place, that hangs from the ceiling, also contributes to the changing of atmospheres because it can be rotated towards the outdoor terrace for those cozy summer evenings.

The orientation of the house is based on sunrise and sunset. In the morning cold light shines on the east facade, illuminating the white interior. In the evening the warm light flows into the west facade, announcing the end of the day.

Visitors that arrive at the house enter it in a series of sequences. Seen from the main land the house floats above the island. Arriving on the island itself the visitors are guided towards an elevated jetty that brings them to the terrace on the other side. The terrace continues towards the inside of the house where it stops halfway. Here the floor changes material and becomes a raised platform from where the visitors can look back at the nature they just came from.

Eco-Perch est une installation pensée par l’entreprise Blue Forest spécialisée dans les lieux en pleine nature. Pensée et installée en Angleterre, cette structure est un assemblement de matériaux naturels. Plus d’images de ce projet à découvrir dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Paper Architecture
• Cloudy House
• Hopen Place

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Slideshow: none of the elongated rooms inside this curvy apartment block in Osaka are more than two metres wide.

Designed by Japanese architects Spacespace, the three-storey building folds around a narrow courtyard, while external staircases and balconies branch across from above.

These metal staircases provide direct access to four of the five apartments contained within the block.

A small shop is located on the ground floor and faces straight out towards the street.

You can also see another long and narrow building designed by Spacespace here.

Photography is by Koichi Torimura.

The text below was provided by the architects:

D-Apartment (Casa Kojiro)

Smooth configuration

This collective housing’s scale is intermediate position between detached housing and building.

This project site is situated on the west side of small station, a big 700-year-old camphor tree passing through the platform and the canopy.

The west side being mixed multiplicity of environmental-elements (bicycle-parking space, shrine, shops under the elevated, small street stand, etc) is more congested and lively than the east side being developed small station plaza and roundabout in order.

This project site having 5 borders is enclosed in too many elements, but the front road on the west side of this site facing 1st floor office and the elevated platform viewing to north, the sun to south are particularly important things.

So, I thought to design the building connecting these 3 elements smoothly.

Shapes and environment

Ordinarily collective housing for single family is 20-30㎡ in Japan.

This plan is composed of 4m×8m grid, and bathroom, lavatory, corridor and entrance occupy it’s large area.

So, living space is very small. Dwelling variation is made by only changing the wallpaper.

If dwelling unit is 2m×16m, this plan widen to only one side and become corridor like room.

Bathroom and bedroom is allocated on the end. This privacy area is hidden by bending the room shape, not getting the walls up.

Whole volume is consist of 2 rooms fit in 1floor×3layers. Allocating 2m wide wall-like volume along the border line of lot, and controlling the position of open-air stairs, generate the method of dwelling variation by it’s shapes and relation to environment.

Very thin courtyard generated by these process and open-air stairs are very comfortable space compared to ordinary open-air stairs of collective housing enclosed in neighbor buildings.

Windows are aligned by a pair (symmetrical to room center line) for ventilating and daylighting the courtyard through 2m volume.

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Imaginative power of anonymous plans

Many people will have some experience in apartment-hunting. We often encounter diversified plans. Some apartment has strangely huge balcony, and is labyrinthine, is extremely long.

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These fascinating aspects in particular to anonymous apartment plans are only discovering things for architects. I make an attempt to using imaginative power of anonymous plans for designing method. The possibility of generating new architecture is already in existence.

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Architects: SPACESPACE /Takanori Kagawa + Junko Kishigami
Structural design: OHNO JAPAN

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Constructor: PanaHome
Location: Osaka, Japan

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Program: collective housing + shop
Area: site161.72m2・floor240.16m2

Structure: steel・3stories
Date: December, 2011

Shiny corrugated metal clads the two cascading stacks of apartments that make up this block in Paris by architect Stephane Maupin.

The two symmetrical sides of the M Building slope down at 45-degree angles towards a small central courtyard.

Some of the 20 apartments have gabled roofs, while some open onto balconies that face one another rather than the neighbouring school and adjacent cemetery.

You may also want to take a look at another housing block in Paris we recently featured, or see all our stories about France here.

Photography is by Cecile Septet.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The project takes place in the north Pierre Rebiere Street is a 600 meters long and 25 meters wide straight line.

It is surrounded by the Batignoles’ cemetery on one side and by the back entrance of the international high school Honoré de Balzac on the other. The transformation of this narrow abandoned street allows the establishment of whole string of new buildings.

The local rules for urbanism and the scope statements associated to this neighborhood minimizes plastic expressions. As a result it is not allowed to open any views on the cemetery. Thus directly implying a blind front for the future building and making it impossible to have normal front to front flats. The project impressively manages to get around those constraints: each of the flat benefits from both multiple sights and light sources at any time of day and year.

This climatic mechanism suggested the shape of the building.

Those solar templates sculpted internal slopes getting to the very heart of the construction. The 45° symmetrical slopes establish a triangular quadrant relieving the whole block from its compactness. As a result a central void appears where the dwellers can share a continually illuminated unique space. Hence as the light hits one side in the morning the opposite side will benefit from it in the afternoon.

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The shape of this new space is favorable to the composition of an unusual landscape.
It is made from a cascade of Parisian roofs with its respective proportions and rhythm, as well as its apparent disorder. The whole is included in a succession of terraces which represent genuine extra room for the flats. Those terraces are so wide and comfortable that they become like private suspended gardens. In modern Babylonia, the Parisian Barbie rediscovers the joys of barbecue in the open air.

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The staging withdraws itself from the urban stranglehold.

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By refusing the frontal facing towards the street, the building creates a residential intimacy. The residents can communicate freely and develop the relations they desire. The unique vis-à-vis brings the dwellers together. Each resident is within reach of the other and that, without any road to cross. The building works as an inside village, within the town but still open towards the others.

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Materials contribute to the staging of this unique ship. The body of the building is treated as a white hull. The homogeneous coating on the street fronts creates a casual relation to the rest of the agglomeration. The inside is a metallic and shining sheathing. The flats are revealed in a play of light and reflect. The building even possesses a central space dedicated to sharing.

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Once the hall crossed, a simple staircase brings to an inside square at the heart of the building. The setting here is sympathetic. We wander on a wooden deck. We are surrounded by flowers and trees. Our sight gets lost in the foliage of the great neighboring trees.

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Client: Paris Habitat
Team: SM
Project: 20 housings
Location: Rue Rebière, Paris
Date: January 2012
Surface: 1800m²
Cost: 2 500 000 €