Hasta La Ideas

(Photos courtesy Brinca Dada)

The New York International Gift Fair is a biannual showcase of homegoods, trinkets, doohickeys, and gewgaws so terrifically vast and enlightening that we often find ourselves departing the Javits Center—in a deluxe, easterly bound shuttle bus, no less—plotting to give up this whole words business to open an UnBeige Emporium of Swell Things. Unable to decide among a flagship in Manhattan, Milan, Miami, or Bora Bora, however, we content ourselves with highlighting some of our favorite finds from the fair’s Accent on Design division for you (at no charge!) and relaying one top choice to the NYIGF organizers as part of their Bloggers’ Choice Awards. This season, we bestowed the honor for “urgent, odd, and delightful design” on the latest offering from New York-based toymaker Brinca Dada. Best known for its stunning modernist dollhouses and complementary furniture, the New York-based company brings its flair for architectural fun to building blocks with this set of curvy, asymmetric wooden shapes that will inspire kids to think outside of the Lego box. “I wanted a set of blocks that could be rearranged and made to look like a Frank Gehry building,” Brinca Dada founder and CEO Douglas Rollins told us. And once the tots tire of Bilbao building, the blocks can be used for a game of Masochist Jenga! The blocks will be available this fall, along with the new Bennett House (pictured, at left). The De Stijl-flavored mini-townhouse, complete with solar-powered LED lights and rooftop pool, is the perfect home for Rietveld Barbie.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Zaha Hadid Architects have released new renders of a 200-metre-high commercial complex designed for Beijing.

The Wangjing Soho complex will comprise three large pebble-shaped buildings overlooking a road that leads to Beijing Capital Airport.

A three-storey retail podium will occupy the basement, ground and first floors of the buildings, while up to 37 floors of offices will be located above.

Three underground floors will provide car parking.

We recently featured Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympics on Dezeen – see all our stories about Zaha Hadid Architects here.

Here are a few more details from the architects:

Wangjing Soho
Beijing, China

The Wangjing Soho building complex is a beacon along the way to Beijing’s modern gateway, the Capital Airport, and the journey of transition to and from the city.

The project acts as a welcoming post to the city and a gesture of farewell when departing Beijing. The buildings achieve this by reading differently when transitioning in either direction, leaving distinctly different impressions on those who pass by.

Like Chinese Fans, the volumes appear to move around each other in an intricate dance, each embracing the other from a continuously changing angle. This interplay creates a vibrant architectural complex that is enhanced by an equally dynamic external skin, which continuously varies in density creating a shimmering, exciting presence.

Program: Commerical Offi ce & Retail Complex
Client: SOHO China Ltd.
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Director: Satoshi Ohashi
Associate: Cristiano Ceccato
Project Manager: Raymond Lau
Project Architect: Armando Solano
Project Team: Bianca Cheung, Yu Du, Ed Gaskin, Sally Harris, Chao-Ching Wang, Feng Lin, Yikai Lin, Oliver Malm, Rashiq Muhamadali Matthew Richardson, Yichi Zhang, Yan Guangyuan, Ma Xinyue Zhang Zhe
Competition Team: Ceyhun Baskin, Inanc Eray, Chikara Inamura, Michael Grau, Hoda Nobakhati, Michal Treder, Yevgeniya Pozigun

See also:

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Riverside Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects	Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects	Jesolo Magica, Italy by Zaha Hadid Architects

Dezeen Screen: here’s an animation of how the two memorial fountains on the World Trade Centre site in New York will look when they open in three weeks time. Watch the movie »

Continuing our series of stories about security-conscious and bunker-like residences, here’s an Australian holiday home that can be secured with huge sliding steel shutters.

Designed by architects Bourne Blue, the single-storey house in New South Wales surrounds a decked courtyard.

Openings in each of the facades lead to the central courtyard, where entrances to the house are located.

The corrugated metal shutters fasten across the fronts of the corridor openings, as well as around the courtyard-facing elevations.

When the shutters are open these corridors serve as external rooms, filled with hammocks and a dining table.

The openings divide the house into four blocks, separated into living rooms, a set of children’s rooms and two separate en suite bedrooms.

The house is the latest in a string of Australian houses on Dezeen – click here to see more.

Another recent story to feature steel shutters was an apartment block in New York by architect Shigeru Ban – see our earlier story.

See also: more stories about bunkers and other fortified buildings.

Photography is by Simon Whitbread.

Here are some more details from Bourne Blue Architecture:

Project Description

This site, just behind the sand dunes of Diamond Beach on the mid north coast of NSW, is very flat and has a modest view over wetlands. The proximity of the ocean would enable a beachside lifestyle, however the house couldn’t access ocean views to provide the amenity.

The design therefore needed to work in this context and provide the amenity from within. This is a holiday house for a large family, who frequently travel away with other families, so facilities for 10 – 15 people were required.

A covenant on the land dictated that the house was to built using brick and tile.

The design is comprised of four components, wrapping around a central court. Living space, two different adult sleeping areas and a kids area.

The living space has a slab for thermal mass and faces North. The two adult sleeping areas are identical parental retreats at opposite corners, while the kids area has a boys and girls bunkroom and a TV area.

Each of the four components is separated by a roofed deck, which either houses hammocks, a dining space or the entry. A monopitch roof wraps around the courtyard, over all these spaces, simplifying roof drainage and providing unity.

Click above for larger image

Sliding screens of perforated mini orb close off the roofed decks at the edge of the building, so that they are secure when the house is not in use. They also screen the undesirable sun and weather. A second set of screens wrap around the internal courtyard which also protect against inclement weather and cater for prolonged absences.

Architect – Bourne Blue Architecture
Engineer – Izzat Consulting Engineers
Builder – Sugar Creek Building Co.
Completion – 2010
Cost – $520,000 incl tax
Area – 169m2

See also:

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Beach House by Alexander Gorlin	Star House by AGi Architects	Wategos Beach House by Mackay + Partners

Herringbone brickwork and fretted screens decorate the facade of two apartment blocks in Prague.

The five-storey buildings, designed by Czech architect Znamení Čtyř, provide 20 apartments.

The fretted metal handrails and sun breakers cast patterned shadows onto the white-rendered upper floors of the blocks.

Terraces and lawns separate the two buildings, while additional gardens are located on the rooftops.

Beneath the apartments, a basement car park is set into the sloping ground.

Another project from the Dezeen archive to feature herringbone patterns is a timber-clad house in London – see our earlier story here.

Here are some more details from the architects:

Apartment building

Architectural concept of the project

New construction of the apartment building is situated on the site, which is typical Prague city quarter – on the edge of building blocks and park and sport area named Strahov.

The street space has a medium slope. The apartment house consists of simple and traditional mass following the street line, set back from neighboring building. Concept is based on cutting out of volume from basic block – characterized by dark brick facing. Dark brick facades have minimalist urban appearance with groups of freely spaced white windows. Arcades and terraces are created by partial removal of original mass. As a contrast to dark brick facades the cut out areas of the facades are completely white.

Green terraces facing the park act as a transitional element between the open space and the residential space. Main principles in the relationship to urban space are:

• traditional scale
• traditional placement of the building along the street line
• arcade entrance on the ground floor
• small inner courtyard that opens into the park area in the back

The form of the building is a transition between a compact and open development. Important principle of the design is the use of traditional building crafts elements with the “zig-zag” motif – i.e. pattern of brick faces, handrail on terraces, horizontal sun-breaker.

The pattern of craft elements casts a sun shadow upon the light surfaces.

Description

Two volumes with residential stories are situated above one story underground area, which is partially below grade and containing parking places. Each of residential volumes has its own vertical circulation. The typical size of flats is about 100m2. On the ground floor flats are placed just on the park side with their private gardens.

The part of the ground floor facing the street has appearance of covered spaces reminiscent of “arcade” around entrances. The main entrance with a gate is situated together with a car entrance at a lower elevation of the site. Behind the entrance gate begins a staircase covered by cantilevered volume. This staircase leads onto the ground floor. The ground is separated from the streets space by hedge. This level contains partially covered circulation space “arcade” with entrances to both buildings, inner courtyard with a double oak tree and a little gate into south orientated private back garden. On the opposite side of main entrance gate is another entrance right from street level – barrier free. Apartments on the upper most floor have access to roof terraces with greenery.

Cost of the buildings: 4 mil Euros HT

Number of flats : 20
Flats area: 1588 m²
Other area: 450 m2
Parking : 40 places on 700 m2
Realization: July 2009 – July 2011

Project team: Znamení Čtyř – architekti
Architect leaders : Martin Tycar, Richard Sidej, Juraj Matula
Architekt : Ondřej Rys, Klára Viceníková
Location: Residental area – Brevnov, Prague 6, Czech Republic

Program: 20 flats with terrace and parking capacity
Client: Nad Malovankou s.r.o.

See also:

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Herringbone Houses by Alison Brooks Architects	King’s Grove by Duggan Morris Architects	Roomburg housing by Snitker/Borst