Hasta La Ideas

Matthieu Gafsou est un photographe suisse dont le travail se concentre principalement sur le paysage et l’architecture. Renommé depuis quelques années et notamment pour son Prix HSBC pour la photographie en 2009, une sélection de clichés très réussis est à découvrir dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Jonathan Leijonhufvud
• Kristopher Grunert
• Crochetdermy

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A photo from Karen Knorr’s “India Song” series and a view of the Genesis pavilion designed by David Adjaye for Design Miami.

Few things pack the overstimulating punch of Miami in early December (or late November, depending on the calendar). In the wake of this year’s swirl of fairs, events, and exhibitions, as we packed up our haul of foreign periodicals, flip-flops, and a signed copy of artist Erwin Wurm‘s latest book (mmm, pickles), we asked a handful of highly esteemed fellow fairgoers to share with us some of their highlights— the stunning, interesting, surprising, and/or delightful— from the Art Basel Miami/Design Miami week that was. Miami-based architecture critic and author Beth Dunlop went above and beyond the call of duty. Here are a few of her favorite things:

Art Basel (known to many in Miami as Art Frazzle, or even Art Hassle) has come and gone. What was most compelling? In the end, the places to sit and contemplate are what linger on—David Adjaye’s miraculous pavilion outside of Design Miami, Luis Pons’ personal chapel shown as part of Inventory 2 in the Miami Design District, and to a lesser extent, the Fondation Beyeler homage to Louise Bourgeois at Art Basel proper. I have to admit, however, that there were other highlights. I’m crazy for Jorge Pardo, and though it took some hunting across the giant Miami Beach Convention Center, found two different sets of his light fixtures and a brilliant table and chair set done in wood, glass and synthetic (vinyl?) cording (they were at Petzel and Neugerriemschneider) and if blurring the lines between art and design, they also speak to the magic of the mundane. And though not design (but about the way we inhabit space) were to be found at the Danziger Gallery’s Pulse booth: Karen Knorr’s elegant photographs of Indian palace rooms occupied by exotic animals, almost the exact opposite of Doug Aitken’s mesmerizing video—he called it “Migration (Empire)”—of some few years back in which wild animals rampaged through seedy motel rooms. In a way, the whole Art Basel experience is much more like Aitken, but there’s something deep and profound in Knorr’s work that takes us full circle to the Adjaye pavilion and the Pons chapel, especially—retreats into simplicity and even moments of tranquility amid all the art-buying and social-climbing and frantic partying that is what is now called, in Miami, “Art Week.”
—Beth Dunlop

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This school in Porto by Portuguese studio AVA Architects has lime green walls inside and out, and is filled with green furniture.

Named the Antas Education Centre, the five school buildings are arranged around a series of courtyards and playgrounds.

Black-framed windows of different shapes and sizes are scattered across the facades of each two-storey block.

A canteen is located on the ground floor, while classrooms can be found on both levels.

A lot of the schools we publish have brightly coloured facades – check out one clad in a yellow, green and white patchwork, and another with a bright red courtyard ceiling.

Photography is by José Campos, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more text from AVA Architects:

School Center Antas, Porto, Portugal

Location and Context

The site of action is part of an urban context through the recently redesigned Detailed Plan of Antas. The nearby is not defined by buildings, with only the north to the existence of a huge slope and south of the proposed construction site.

The land is entirely surrounded by streets. The area of the school is approximately 2 967.00 m2.

Idea

The spatial and architectural design of the building of the new Education Center Antas were formalized in several bodies each containing part of the program in accordance with principles of internal organization, functionality, form and image, given the type of building and its specificity.

This conception took into account the morphology of the terrain, solar orientation, access and links to surrounding bodies.

It always took account to the relationship established between spaces, between exterior and interior and between interior spaces.

Click above for larger image

The intension is to formalize and realize the program provided through a drawing of building capable of being fragmented into several bodies interconnected with exterior spaces creating diverse environments.

Click above for larger image

It’s a building consisting of several bodies expressed by a “simple architecture” that will build a close relationship with the exterior spaces.

Click above for larger image

It was intended to create in the spaces between the various bodies the visual relationship between interior and exterior reducing relations with the urban surroundings.

There was an intention to turn into how the building relates to the exterior. However there are some links to the outside also.

The settlement found answers to a matrix that structuralize a functional organization of the school as a function of the planned program and constraint imposed by various land levels.

A wooden bridge and a glazed garden room connect the two halves of this house in Matsuyama, Japan, by architect Hayato Komatsu.

Located in the countryside, the two-storey House in Masaki has a white rectangular body with the enclosed garden at its centre and a sheltered terrace behind the facade at one end.

Stepping-stones allow residents to walk barefoot from the reception room to the living and dining area across the pebble-covered garden.

A spiral staircase leads up to the bridge above, which connects the first floor bedrooms and bathroom.

Hayato Komatsu Architects also completed a timber-covered clinic earlier this year – see the story here.

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here’s some more text about the project from Hayato Komatsu:

The housing, planned with couples and children in mind, is located a slight distance away from Matsuyama’s urban area in the quiet, sprawling countryside.

Compared to the countryside of the north, the south side has a lot of traffic volume due to roadside shop access, and a mixture of housing. Furthermore, each site has been converted from what was originally farmland into residential space.

The buyer’s desires are the same as they always have been – creating a lifestyle where one can live in a place comfortably located where one can feel a sense of nature and spending time with their families, while limiting dependence on facilities as much as possible.

While the northern countryside is rich and beautiful, there is an element of uncertainty regarding the sustainability of this beauty.

Therefore it is believed the houses should not completely depend upon the scenery, but should themselves coexist with and nurture the scenery around them.

Because the wind in the area blows east and west throughout the year, yards are placed on the east and west sides of each site, which maintains the flow of air.

The arrangement is such that instead of closing off the north and south sides of the residence, the east and west sides are opened up, interposing the living room, where one spends long periods of time, in between the two yards.

The yard on the west side has a calm and cool feeling, surrounded by an outer wall which introduces gentle, indirect light. The yard on the east side features the warmth of a courtyard, with walls and ceilings surrounded by glass.

As a result, both yards create gravity ventilation with their difference in temperatures, leading to pleasant air circulation throughout the interior of the home.

Moreover, the outdoor-like courtyard serves two roles. During the summer, movable joists and tent allow residents to control incoming sunlight, while in the winter, the courtyard can become a sunroom, gathering warmth from the sunlight to warm the interior air.

Furthermore, due to being surrounded by glass, the northern countryside is cropped, creating a new kind of scenery, much like a collage created from two landscapes. Add to that stairs and hallways, and you have a space where one can truly enjoy the scenery.

In the future, we look forward to further nurturing the pleasant and diverse relationship between the surrounding scenery, and at the same time coordinating the peaceful and warm environments created by both yards.

Location: Ehime,Japan
Use: Private house
Completion: November.2011
Structure: Wooden

Site Area: 494.98㎡
Total Floor Area: 122.58㎡
Architects: Hayato Komatsu Architects
Structural Engineers: Munehiro Minakawa/Nawaken gym

Dezeen Wire: Dutch architects MVRDV have received threatening emails and angry phone calls after revealing proposals for skyscrapers that resemble the exploding World Trade Centre on 9/11.

We published the project first on Dezeen, prompting outrage from many of our readers. One declared the images “insensitive and offensive” while another claimed “this is like 9/11 freeze framed”.

Above: The Cloud by MVRDV – see more images in our earlier story

In an article titled “Do These Skyscrapers Remind You Of The 9/11 Attacks?” online magazine Fast Co. Design used Dezeen’s reader comments to explain the story, while gadget blog Gizmodo Australia led a piece with the question “What The Hell Were These Architects Thinking?”

In an official statement on their Facebook page, MVRDV apologise for any upset cause and explain that they did not see the resemblance during the design process. However, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad claims that MVRDV representative Jan Knikker admitted that they in fact did notice, fuelling the debate further.

Most recently, American magazine the New York Post have picked up the story, blasting the towers as “sick” and “a spectacular case of architectural tastelessness” and the BBC reported the story in their televised news program.

You can see all the original images here, or contribute to the debate by adding a comment here.

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