The Head Wood

Créé et conçu par Andrea Deppieri, ce projet Head Wood est la première et unique conception en bois, résultant de la combinaison du design industriel de l’architecture et du design de mode. Le concept a pour volonté de façonner un matériau noble comme le bois pour devenir un accessoire confortable de tous les jours.

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1 tete de bois

Beautiful Symmetry of Empty Movie Theaters

Après le projet Swimming Pools, le photographe français Franck Bohbot basé à New York, revient avec sa série « Cinéma » à travers toute la Californie. Les moulures, les fresques, les motifs et les plafonds sont impressionnants. Des effets symétriques forts dans des cinémas vides et calmes à découvrir.

The Crest Westwood II in Los Angeles.

Brava Theatre in San Francisco.

Alameda Theatre I in California.

Alameda Theatre, Lobby.

Orinda Theatre II in California.

Orinda Theatre I.

Orinda Theatre Lobby.

Orinda Theatre, Untitled.

The Crest Westwood Theatre I in Los Angeles.

The Grand Lake Theatre I in Oakland, California.

The Grand Lake Theatre II in Oakland.

The Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

Egyptian Theatre in American Cinematheque in Los Angeles.

The Four Star Theatre II in San Francisco.

The Four Star Theatre I in San Francisco.

The Fox Theatre I in Oakland.

The Paramount in Lobby II in Oakland.

The Paramount Theatre I in Oakland.

The Paramount Theatre II in Oakland.

The Paramount Theatre Lobby I in Oakland.

The Paramount Theatre, Living Room.

The Green Room in Oakland.

Franck Bohbot’s portfolio.

4 Alameda Theater I in California
14 The Four Stars Theatre II
18 The Green Room in Oakland
16 Paramount, Living Room in California
7 Untitled Orinda
16 The Paramount Theatre Lobby I in Oakland in California
16 The Paramount Theatre II in Oakland in California
16 The Paramount Theatre I in Oakland, California
16 The Paramount in Lobby II in Oakland
15 The Fox Theater I in Oakland
14 The Four Star Theatre II in San Francisco
13 Egyptian Theater in American Cinematheque in Los Angeles
12 The Castro Theatre in San Francisco
11 The Grand Lake Theatre II in Oakland, California
10 The Grand Lake Theater I in Oakland
9 The Crest Westwood I in Los Angeles
8 Orinda Theatre Lobby
7 Orinda Theatre I in Orinda
6 Orinda II in California
5 Alameda Theater, Lobby
3 Brava Theatre in San Francisco
10 The Crest Westwood II in LA

Replica of Kitchen Carved from Wood

Avec son projet « Apparatus », l’artiste américain Roxy Paine a créé une cuisine de fast-food appelée « Carcass », qui a la particularité d’être exclusivement faite de bois, de la machine à boissons à la friteuse. Une cuisine originale à découvrir à travers les photos de Joseph Rynkiewicz.

Carcass 16
Carcass 14
Carcass 13
Carcass 12
Carcass 11
Carcass 10
Carcass 9
Carcass 8
Carcass 5
Carcass 4
Carcass 3
Carcass 2
Carcass 1

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam’s Hoogvliet district

Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects has completed an academic campus in Rotterdam‘s Hoogvliet district comprising six concrete and glass buildings with subtle surface patterns designed to resemble ivy (+ slideshow).

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Wiel Arets Architects used fritted glass and textured concrete to suggest traces of climbing plants on the pared-down walls and windows of Campus Hoogvliet – a school and college campus providing housing and teaching for students between the ages of 12 and 27 years.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

All six buildings sit over the asphalt ground surface that defines the limits of the campus. These include a sports centre, an arts school, a safety training academy, a secondary school, a business academy and a housing block for up to 100 residents.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

A glass fence surrounds every building and is fritted with the abstracted ivy pattern to maintain privacy for students. The same motif also embellishes the ground floor windows of each building.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

A scaled-up version of the pattern reoccurs within each of the buildings, where exposed concrete walls are broken up by stripy concrete reliefs.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Each building can be identified by a different colour, which can be spotted on the glass balustrades that run alongside each staircase, but they are otherwise all identical in materials and finishes.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

“Unity defines the campus and its clustered buildings, which are therefore experienced as continuous architecture,” said the architects.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

The largest of the buildings is the sports centre that contains a 300-seat multi-purpose hall. The ground floor of this structure is raised up by a storey to make room for car parking, while an outdoor basketball court is located on the roof.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Custom-designed seating is dotted around the site, including white terrazzo benches and circular planters containing Japanese maple trees. There’s also a running track, bicycle storage areas and a campus-wide lighting system that illuminates outdoor areas after dark.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Photography is by Jan Bitter.

Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:


WAA complete construction on Campus Hoogvliet in Rotterdam

Campus Hoogvliet is a cluster of six buildings that together compose one academic and socially focused campus, located just outside of Rotterdam. These six new buildings – a sports centre, an art studio, a safety academy, 100 residential units within one building, and two schools – have been plugged into a programmed tarmac that communicates the campus’ boundary, and includes custom-designed seating, a running track, and other place-making denotations.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

The campus’ immediate surroundings are characterised by mid-twentieth century housing developments – which were prolifically constructed during its booming period of post-WWII growth – and the campus aims to rectify the social and cultural deterioration that coupled the demolition of this once historic village.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

A glass ‘fence’ – equal in height to each ground floor facade – surrounds every building. Every fence is fritted with an abstracted, pixilated image of ivy, so as to create an exterior terrace that is both private and transparent. The ground floors of each building are fritted with the same pattern, and all exterior glass was made with a kiss print, which introduces texture to each facade.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

A white ring surrounds every building and denotes the transition from public tarmac to private terrace, each programmed with bike parking and play areas. All six buildings share a similar procession of entry: spaces compress in volume when transitioning from the campus’ tarmac toward the glass-fenced terraces; decompress when entering each building’s ground floor communal spaces; and compress again when traversing circulation paths toward upper levels.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

The sports centre’s tribune seats 300 and overlooks its multi-purpose and double height activity space, which functions as an exercise area for students and is also available for local events and sports teams. This sports centre – the largest of the campus’ six buildings – has been raised one level in order to accommodate a 80 space parking garage on its ground floor; this introduces a ‘zero-zero’ level to the campus, which compounds the notion of ‘interiority’. Additional parking for 200 aligns with and compliments the campus’s boundary, so as to not disturb its highly trafficked pedestrian areas. An outdoor basketball court occupies the roof of the sports centre’s ground floor; it is perpendicular to a monumental staircase that allows for views over the sprawling campus below.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Load-bearing facades with open corners – combined with concrete cores for stability, and non-polished concrete floor slabs under tension – structure each building. Cores are notable for their concrete relief, derived from an enlarged pattern of the fritted ivy, adjacent to which are each building’s shifting sets of staircases. Balustrades are finished with coloured glass, and each building has a unique colour, to impart a visual identity within each.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Custom-designed white terrazzo seating dots the campus’ programmed tarmac, and Japanese Maples set in custom-designed black terrazzo planters dot each fenced terrace. The entirety of the programmed tarmac, and every terrace, are illuminated at night to ensure the surrounding community’s cohesiveness. Unity defines the campus and its clustered buildings, which are therefore experienced as continuous architecture.

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Location: Lengweg, 3192 BM Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Typology: Educational, Housing, Retail, School, Sport
Size: 41.100 m2
Date of design: 2007-2009
Date of completion: 2014

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district

Project team: Wiel Arets, Bettina Kraus, Joris van den Hoogen, Jos Beekhuijzen, Mai Henriksen
Collaborators: Jochem Homminga, Joost Korver, Marie Morin, Julius Klatte, Olivier Brinckman, Sjoerd Wilbers, Raymond van Sabben, Benine Dekker, Maron Vondeling, Anne-Marie Diderich
Client: Woonbron
Consultants: ABT BV, Wetering Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV

Wiel Arets completes college campus in Rotterdam's Hoogvliet district
Site plan – click for larger image

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Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Trios of windows and a new lightwell help to bring daylight through the clean white interiors of this renovated townhouse in Porto by local studio Pablo Pita Architects (photos by José Campos + slideshow).

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Pablo Rebelo and Pedro Pita of Pablo Pita Architects added an extra storey to the nineteenth-century residence, known as Casa da Maternidade, to create enough room to house a family.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The architects extended the original staircase, but rather than following its existing back-and-forth arrangement, they wrapped the extra stairs along the edges of two walls to open up a double-height space in between.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

A skylight was then added overhead to transform the space into a generous lightwell.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

“The lack of an expressive skylight in the original structure defines the approach,” said the architects.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

“A new scale is set in the stair core, overlapping this new vertical walkthrough that runs along the existing house, achieving new see-throughs and different spatial relations between all the floors,” they added.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The newly added second floor accommodates a master bedroom and a study, both of which open out to rooftop balconies. There’s also an en suite bathroom encased in glass.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Two smaller bedrooms and a bathroom lined with turquoise mosaic tiles occupy the floor below, while an open-plan living and dining room spans the ground floor and leads out to a terrace and garden.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Photography is by José Campos.

Here’s a project description from Pablo Pita Architects:


Maternidade

Maternidade House is a single-family dwelling set in a 19th century refurbished house. An example directly restricted to an existing context where the dwelling return to its basis. Adapted to the contemporary needs and standards, the intervention respects its inner scale and typologic scheme.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Conceptually it reinterprets the nuclear core of this type of model, acknowledging the importance of light. The lack of an expressive skylight in the original structure defines the new approach.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

A new scale is set in the stair core, overlapping this new vertical walkthrough that runs along the existing house, achieving new see-throughs and different spatial relations between all the floors.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The building is a typical late 19th century Porto house set in the city downtown. It is located in one of biggest city blocks, defined by large gardens in its interior, a bourgeois manor and an early last century maternity. The house itself was a two-storey middle-class example, with little ornamentation and highly modified through time.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The intervention aims to adapt this typical Porto dwelling typology to the daily contemporary routines. This is set from a depuration exercise, developing mainly the stair core, in order to achieve a unifying element that could relate all these different spaces.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The stairs and its light were a recurrent theme in such a narrow and long type of housing. The rooms respect its original scale, and a third floor is added considering the block outline.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

The ground floor is the social level, gathering parking, kitchen and living-room, and relating it to the garden located in the interior of the block. In the highest level a guest floor is set with a wide perspective of its surroundings.

Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse

Project name: Casa da Maternidade
Architecture: Pablo Rebelo, Pedro Pita
Consultants: ALFAengenharia, PROQUALITYengenharia, Ricardo Ferreira da Silva
Constructor: F. Moreira da Silva & Filhos, Lda
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 2013

Floor plans of Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse
Floor plans – click for larger image
Section of Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse
Long section – click for larger image
Exploded axonometric diagram of the apartment of Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects is a renovated Porto townhouse
Exploded axonometric diagram of the apartment – click for larger image

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Organic tower grown from agricultural waste wins MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program 2014

News: New York studio The Living has won this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program competition with plans to cultivate bio-bricks from corn stalks and mushrooms, and use them to build a tower in the courtyard of the New York gallery (+ slideshow).

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

The Living principal David Benjamin proposed a cluster of circular towers made entirely from natural materials for his entry to the Young Architects Program (YAP) contest, which each year invites emerging architects to propose a temporary structure that will host the summer events of the MoMA Ps1 gallery in Queens.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

Named Hy-Fi, the structure will be constructed entirely from recyclable materials. The Living will collaborate with sustainable building firm Ecovative to grow the bricks that will form the base of the tower, using a combination of agricultural byproducts and mushroom mycelium –  a kind of natural digestive glue.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

The upper section of the structure will be made from reflective bricks produced using a specially developed mirror film. Initially these will be used as growing trays for the organic bricks, but will later be installed at the top of the tower to help to bounce light down inside.

Gaps in the brickwork will help to naturally ventilate interior spaces using the stack effect, drawing cool air in at the bottom and pushing hot air out at the top.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

MoMA curator Pedro Gadanho said: “This year’s YAP winning project bears no small feat. It is the first sizeable structure to claim near-zero carbon emissions in its construction process and, beyond recycling, it presents itself as being 100 percent compostable.”

“Recurring to the latest developments in biotech, it reinvents the most basic component of architecture – the brick – as both a material of the future and a classic trigger for open-ended design possibilities,” he added.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

Set to open in June, Hy-Fi will be accessible to MoMA Ps1 visitors during the 2014 Warm Up summer music series.

Here’s the full announcement from MoMA:


The Living selected as winner of the 2014 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 in New York

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announce The Living (David Benjamin) as the winner of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York. Now in its 15th edition, the Young Architects Program at MoMA and MoMA PS1 has been committed to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling. The Living, drawn from among five finalists, will design a temporary urban landscape for the 2014 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1’s outdoor courtyard.

The winning project, Hy-Fi, opens at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City in late June. Using biological technologies combined with cutting-edge computation and engineering to create new building materials, The Living will use a new method of bio-design, resulting in a structure that is 100% organic material. The structure temporarily diverts the natural carbon cycle to produce a building that grows out of nothing but earth and returns to nothing but earth – with almost no waste, no energy needs, and no carbon emissions. This approach offers a new vision for society’s approach to physical objects and the built environment. It also offers a new definition of local materials, and a direct relationship to New York State agriculture and innovation culture, New York City artists and non-profits, and Queens community gardens.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

Hy-Fi is a circular tower of organic and reflective bricks, which were designed to combine the unique properties of two new materials. The organic bricks are produced through an innovative combination of corn stalks (that otherwise have no value) and specially-developed living root structures, a process that was invented by Ecovative, an innovative company that The Living is collaborating with. The reflective bricks are produced through the custom-forming of a new daylighting mirror film invented by 3M. The reflective bricks are used as growing trays for the organic bricks, and then they are incorporated into the final construction before being shipped back to 3M for use in further research.

The organic bricks are arranged at the bottom of the structure and the reflective bricks are arranged at the top to bounce light down on the towers and the ground. The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect – instead of being thick and dense at the bottom, it is thin and porous at the bottom. The structure is calibrated to create a cool micro-climate in the summer by drawing in cool air at the bottom and pushing out hot air at the top. The structure creates mesmerising light effects on its interior walls through reflected caustic patterns. Hy-Fi offers a familiar – yet completely new – structure in the context of the glass towers of the New York City skyline and the brick construction of the MoMA PS1 building. And overall, the structure offers shade, colour, light, views, and a future-oriented experience that is designed to be refreshing, thought-provoking, and full of wonder and optimism.

Hy-Fi by The Living at MoMA PS1

“This year’s YAP winning project bears no small feat. It is the first sizeable structure to claim near-zero carbon emissions in its construction process and, beyond recycling, it presents itself as being 100% compostable,” said Pedro Gadanho, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “Recurring to the latest developments in biotech, it reinvents the most basic component of architecture – the brick – as both a material of the future and a classic trigger for open-ended design possibilities. At MoMA PS1, The Living’s project will be showcased as a sensuous, primeval background for the Warm-Up sessions; the ideas and research behind it, however, will live on to fulfil ever new uses and purposes.”

Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1 Director and MoMA Chief Curator at Large, adds, “After dedicating the whole building and satellite programs of MoMA PS1 to ecological awareness and climate change last year with EXPO 1: New York, we continue in 2014 with Hy-Fi, a nearly zero carbon footprint construction by The Living.”

The other finalists for this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program were Collective-LOK (Jon Lott, William O’Brien Jr., and Michael Kubo), LAMAS (Wei-Han Vivian Lee and James Macgillivray), Pita + Bloom (Florencia Pita and Jackilin Hah Bloom), and Fake Industries Architectural Agonism (Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau). An exhibition of the five finalists’ proposed projects will be on view at MoMA over the summer, organized by Pedro Gadanho, Curator, with Leah Barreras, Department Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.

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David Adjaye’s Yorkshire market hall faces demolition

News: the David Adjaye-designed Wakefield Market Hall in Yorkshire, England, is facing demolition just six years after opening, following news the local council wants to sell the building to a developer and replace it with a cinema.

The 4000-square-metre market hall was the first public project by high-profile London architect David Adjaye, but since opening in 2008 it has struggled to attract enough visitors and has been heavily subsidised by the council.

Property firm Sovereign Land, owner of the nearby Trinity Walk shopping centre, has now put in a bid to redevelop the site and create a new multi-screen cinema complex including restaurants and cafes.

A report recommending the proposals will be voted on by council members early next week. If approved, £100,000 will be set aside to relocate market traders to a new site in the city centre.

David Adjaye's Wakefield Market Hall faces demolition
Detail of roof at Wakefield Market Hall

“We have to accept that the market hall has not worked as well as we would have liked,” said councillor Denise Jeffery, the cabinet member for regeneration and economic growth. “But we now have an exciting opportunity to inject something new into our city centre, which we believe will boost the night-time as well as the daytime economy, bringing more jobs and investment into the district.”

She continued: “This also gives us the chance to deliver our market offer in a different way and we want to work with traders to help relocate their businesses to other premises should they so wish. The proposed relocation of the outdoor market to the precinct will enhance it, make sure it is sustainable and create a vibrant link between the Ridings and Trinity Walk.”

Adjaye designed the hall to replace a run-down indoor market from the 1960s, but it struggled to attract the same footfall, losing out to rival markets in nearby Pontefract and Castleford.

Just a year after opening, a council committee was hired solve “design flaws” that included substandard paving and inadequate drainage in the food hall. Committee member Janice Haigh criticised the layout and said “a crane with one of those demolition balls” would be the best solution.

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AOR’s floating Viewpoint offers glimpses of London’s canal-side wildlife

Amidst the fast-paced construction of King’s Cross in London, young Finnish studio AOR has installed an angular canal-side platform where visitors can make contact with some of the local wildlife (+ slideshow).

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR

Named Viewpoint, the floating structure sits over the Regent’s Canal on the edge of the Camley Street nature reserve. It provides a habitat for birds and bats, as well as an outdoor classroom where people can learn about the surrounding flora and fauna.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR

AOR architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila and Mikki Ristola based the structure on traditional Finnish Laavus, which are shelters used during hunting and fishing trips. It comprises a small cluster of triangular volumes that form hideaways and seating areas.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR

“Basically it’s a floating platform where people can go and have a view along the river, and just have a small break from the hectic life of the city of London,” said Aarti.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR

Outer surfaces are clad with rusty Corten steel, as a reference to weather-beaten canal boats, while interior surfaces are lined with timber to soften acoustics.

The concrete ground surface is imprinted with pretend animal tracks that help to prevent slips, plus triangular peepholes at the eye levels of both children and adults offer private glimpses of birds such as swans and kingfishers.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR
Installation process

“We hope that Viewpoint will have resonance beyond its modest footprint and allow the many visitors to Camley Street Natural Park to discover this natural environment – a rarity in a metropolitan city such as London,” added the architects.

AOR won a competition organised by non-profit organisations The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation to design the structure. It will be operated by the London Wildlife Trust.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR
Installation process

Photography is by Max Creasy.

Here’s some additional information from the design team:


The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation announce the launch of Viewpoint – a floating platform for Camley Street Natural Park

The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation are delighted to announce the launch date for their new floating platform Viewpoint, produced for London Wildlife Trust. The joint commission designed by emerging Finnish architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila & Mikki Ristola (AOR) will open to the public on 10 February 2014 at Camley Street Natural Park, located in King’s Cross. The permanent structure will bring visitors to Camley Street Natural Park, London Wildlife Trust’s most central nature reserve, connecting them with the wildlife of the park and the Regent’s Canal. It will also provide the Park with an additional workshop space and learning facility and become an architectural focal point of King’s Cross.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR
Competition visualisation

The inspiration for Viewpoint comes from the rocky islets and islands of the Nordic. For Finns these islands are places of sanctuary, to relax the mind and get away from hectic city life. Viewpoint offers Londoners a chance to experience this escape on a secluded islet in the heart of the city.

For the final design the architects were inspired by the traditional Finnish structures of Laavus, traditional shelters intended for temporary residence during fishing and hunting trips. These simple, primitive, triangular constructions are made using available raw materials such as tree branches, moss and leaves.

Camley Street Viewpoint by AOR
Competition visualisation

Viewpoint offers a contemporary take on the Laavu made from materials that represent the industrial history and robust character of London’s King’s Cross. Old brick buildings, canal boats and the untamed Natural Park act as a palette of materials for the designers. The exterior surfaces of Viewpoint will be clad in dark Corten steel inspired by canal barges, changing in colour and appearance with exposure to the elements. A warm wooden interior will generate soft acoustics and comfortable surfaces to sit on, and graphic concrete with an animal track pattern will form the base of the structure, acting as both a decorative tool and slip prevention.

Viewpoint will be an ideal location for visitors to reconnect with nature in the heart of London. London Wildlife Trust will also utilise the space in their educational programmes for schools as an outdoor classroom, a destination for nature walks around the park and for viewing the rich abundance of wildlife of the Regent’s Canal including daubenton’s bats, whooper swans and the elusive Kingfisher. To offer a sense of adventure for school children the architects have incorporated small triangular openings at different heights giving new and unique views of the canal and its wildlife.

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Prefabricated modular home by MAPA delivered to the Brazilian countryside

Architecture collective MAPA of Brazil and Uruguay has built a prefabricated modular home and transported it by lorry to a picturesque spot in the countryside outside Porto Alegre (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

MAPA, which was formed by the merging of separate studios MAAM and StudioParalelo, built the mobile residence as the prototype for Minimod, a business creating bespoke modular structures that can be used as homes, remote hotels, pop-up shops or temporary showrooms.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

The residential retreat comprises four modules, creating separate areas for sleeping, lounging, dining and bathing within a simple steel-framed structure.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

The two end walls of the building are entirely glazed. At one end, this frames views out from the bedroom area, while at the other it creates a shower room that can be treated as both an inside or outside space, depending on which doors have been opened.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

Huge shutters also hinge away from the side walls to reveal floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing residents to open their living space out to the surroundings.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

The base of the building is raised off the ground to protect it from rising damp and the roof is covered with plants that integrate a natural system of rainwater harvesting and filtration.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

The structure was entirely prefabricated before being delivered to its rural location, but MAPA says the buildings can also be transported in pieces and assembled onsite.

Photography is by Leonardo Finotti.

Here’s some extra text from the design team:


MINIMOD proposes an innovative, intelligent and sustainable alternative of dwelling

Starting from a minimal module, MINIMOD invests in customisation, design and sustainability. The production is carried out in a prefabricated manner and enjoys the steel frame system technology, which lets the client adapt the space to his needs, choosing among different finishes, as well as automation options.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

Depending on the composition of the modules, MINIMOD can vary the uses ranging from a compact refuge for weekends, a small showroom for events, up to hotels and inns, combining a larger number of modules. The modules are 100% prefabricated and elevated to a determined place by truck or disassembled into smaller pieces and taken to the ground for final assembly.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects

The expansion and addition of new modules can be performed either at initial installation or in the middle of the process, according to the needs and budgets of the client. MINIMOD is more than a product of design, is more than a house. It’s practicality combined with comfort, it’s economy allied to nature, it’s a unique experience of housing and contemporary living.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects
Floor plan – click for larger image

MAPA Architects it’s a binational collective that works on architectural projects in Brazil and Uruguay. From this double geographical condition, MAPA explores the limits of non-conventional production formats. The studio has originally established itself from professional and academic grounds: two complementary fields that create and shape its work.

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects
Long section – click for larger image

Project: MINIMOD
Year: 2013
Prototype area: 27m2
Prototype volume: 81m3
Prototype location: Maquiné, RS, Brazil

Minimod modular mobile home by MAPA Architects
Elevation – click for larger image

Authors: MAPA Architects
Luciano Andrades, Matías Carballal, Rochelle Castro, Andrés Gobba, Mauricio López, Silvio Machado, Camilla Pereira, Jaqueline Lessa, Alexis Arbelo, Pamela Davyt, Emiliano Etchegaray, Camila Thiesen, Pablo Courreges, Diego Morera, Isabella Madureira, Aldo Lanzi, Emiliano Lago.

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delivered to the Brazilian countryside
appeared first on Dezeen.

Cool Tower: The Living’s ‘Hy-Fi,’ a Nearly-Carbon-Neutral Bio-Brick Structure, Selected for MoMA PS1’s 2014 Young Architects Program

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The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 are pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Young Architects Program (YAP), an annual call for proposals for a temporary outdoor installation for the converted schoolyard space in Long Island City. In keeping with the institution’s mission to support contemporary art, architecture and design practice, the entries invariably err on the side of experimental even as they meet a brief to 1.) provide shade, seating and water, and 2.) address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling. New Yorkers and well-heeled visitors alike have probably encountered one of these structures during MoMA PS1’s weekly Warm-Up summer concert series, when these spectacular projects serve to elevate the courtyard (literally, at times) from a humble outdoor venue to a visionary social space.

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The winner of the 15th YAP is The Living, an architectural practice led by principal David Benjamin, whose “Hy-Fi” is billed as a “100% organic” structure. Designed using “biological technologies combined with cutting-edge computation and engineering,” the ambitious eco-edifice comes in at roughly three stories tall, with its lower portions constructed from organic bricks developed in conjunction with bio-material specialists Ecovative. Its upper extremities are made from hollow reflective bricks—”produced through the custom-forming of a new daylighting mirror film”—by 3M, which will first be used as the “growing trays” for the corn+’shroom bricks.

The organic bricks are arranged at the bottom of the structure and the reflective bricks are arranged at the top to bounce light down on the towers and the ground. The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect—instead of being thick and dense at the bottom, it is thin and porous at the bottom.

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