Hasta La Ideas

This funeral home in Alicante, Spain, is by Spanish studio Cor.

Called Funeral Home and Garden in Pinoso, the building has been arranged around four courtyard areas and sits in a landscaped garden featuring 29 Japanese maples.

The garden rises up to meet the building’s roof at one end.

Full-height glazing wrapping the courtyards permit sight lines between different areas of the building.

Photographs are by David Frutos.

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Here’s some more information from the architects:

Funeral home and garden in Pinoso (Alicante, Spain)

A public building in a crisis country. The fear of death is considered wise, without being, since it is believed to know about what you do not know.

“Death is perhaps the greatest blessing of human beings, no one knows, and yet everyone is fears as if he knew with absolute certainty that the worst of evils” (Socrates, 470 BC, 399 BC)

Historically we find different definitions of death that we demonstrate how this concept has moved from positions closer to the darkness, pain and fear, into positions related to the concept of sadness, change and light.

Designing a building where you’ll find, perhaps, the least known stage of human existence necessarily involves the assumption of uncertainty as a concept to include in the process of ideation.

We understand this building as a place that will resist being forgotten, left in the retinas of their users, and therefore a place where the sensitive has to be controlled.

Parameters such as sound, temperature, light, humidity, lighting, privacy, relationship with nature take great importance.

The plot is situated on the outskirts of town, at the end of a cul-de-sac, close to the municipal sports centre and behind a cultural centre, both of great activity.

This creates some urban tension, since the building is in the middle of various activities incompatible.

In this situation it is proposed to order the mattress assembly plant generating sufficient identity to establish itself as ‘centre’ of all these public buildings and activities.

We have created a forest of 29 Japanese maples, able to articulate, differentiate and limit the variety of uses.

Additionally, the building is buried in the back, and as if it was a cave, its main facade eaves the field forward, what prevents glances between buildings and various activities.

It is for this reason that the building is set around five holes in the form of courtyard or ‘bitten space’, which allow the relationship with the outside world is controlled and there is no interaction.

From the interior you only can see the sky and the inside.

The interior-exterior permeability becomes very important in this new town site.

A public building in a crisis country.

We must not forget the effort that contains behind this building.

The project has a 495 square meters and a budget of 431,583€, which involves a considerable effort to finding solutions building techniques, systems maintenance to cost reduction, and maximum degree of ecological adaptation and sustainability at the landscape level.

This is an intervention that gives more for less.

Credit Information
Architecture : COR Consulting of Creative Resources

Project Outline
Client – Town Council of Pinoso, Alicante

Location: Alicante, Spain

Principal Use : Public Building, Funeral home

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Floor Area: 495 square meters

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Budget – 431.583 €

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Rennes Métropole Crematorium by Plan01	Ortona Cemetery by Giovani Vaccarini	Family Tomb by Pedro Dias

An LGBT retirement community geared toward open living

What began as an innovative project for LGBT retirees seeking refuge from cookie-cutter approaches to conventional retirement has evolved into something much more ambitious. More than 100 acres in the Mojave Desert will soon be the site of a $250 million idea, bringing together 10 architectural firms from five countries to succeed where so many fail by reclaiming shared community spaces that invite pedestrians and casual interactivity among neighbors.

Located near Palm Springs, California—an area known for perennial sunshine and wide-open spaces—Boom will cater to outdoor living with pedestrian pathways and communal spaces, as well as eateries, wellness centers and shops. Living spaces include private homes, assisted living and a nursing home. Each separate development will differ as the individual architects are being given free reign to realize their ideas of livability, adding diversity to the common goal of functionality and livability.

The first phase envisions 300 homes, but that figure could eventually double after full build-out. To get in on the ground floor, you can request an invite from Boom’s website.

Another exciting facet to the project is that the Boom community already exists in virtual space. Participants can brainstorm and create a shared vision with the developers and architects in these early stages when the buildings are still rendered lines in an AutoCAD program.

Stateside, recruited architectural talent includes Diller Scotidio + Renfro (known for their Blur Building in Switzerland) who have proposed cast waves that oscillate with each dwelling’s highest point, with its lower troughs serving as access points for lush greenery. Reinforcing the sense of community, not all of the effort is reserved for the luxurious homes. Arakawa + Gins, the firm behind Tokyo’s Reversible Destiny Lofts, plan a “Healing Fun House” designed for all ages, a sort of playground for children and adults alike to recreate the body and mind.

Ideas from abroad include Berlin-based J Mayer H Architects whose plans call for one- and two-story units with communal gardens. The Israeli duo L2 Tsionov-Vikton of Tel Aviv envision terraced roof gardens in modular dwellings designed to blend in with the desert environs.

But the overarching idea is a space where denizens celebrate life with each other rather than retreat into isolation that so many other modern developments ultimately foster—as lead designer Matthias Hollwich from
HWKN explained to his fellow architects, “Boom has to be about living, not retiring, about inclusion and not seclusion.”

See more images in the gallery below.

Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group have won a competition to design the new National Gallery of Greenland in the country’s capital city, Nuuk.

The building will form a ring round a central glazed courtyard.

Its roofline and internal paths will follow the shape of the sloping site, which overlooks a fjord.

The gallery will display both historical and contemporary art.

BIG won the commission in collaboration with local firms TNT Nuuk, Ramboll Nuuk and Inge Bisgaard of Arkitekti.

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The information that follows is from BIG:

BIG WINS THE COMPETITION TO DESIGN GREENLAND’S NEW NATIONAL GALLERY

BIG + TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti is the winning team to design the new National Gallery of Greenland in the country’s capital Nuuk, among invited proposals totaling 6 Nordic architects.

Located on a steep slope overlooking the most beautiful of Greenland’s fjords, the 3000 m2 National Gallery will serve as a cultural and architectural icon for the people of Greenland.

The new museum will combine historical and contemporary art of the country in one dynamic institution.

The winning proposal was selected by a unanimous museum board among 6 proposals, including Norwegian Snøhetta, Finnish Heikkinen‐Komonen, Islandic Studio Granda and Greenlandic Tegnestuen Nuuk.

“The Board has a clear vision: to work for the establishment of an internationally oriented highly professional institution that communicates the continuous project of documenting and developing the Greenlandic national identity through art and culture.

Our dream is a national gallery where historic and contemporary art meets circumpolar pieces, Nordic and world art in general.

Our dream is an institution that stimulates our curiosity, awake our excitement with its thought‐provoking design and where we all feel at home.

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Selecting a prominent architect as BIG, I am sure that our chances of realizing that dream are good”, Tuusi Josef Motzfeldt, Greenland’s National Gallery of Art.

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As a projection of a geometrically perfect circle on to the steep slope, the new gallery is conceived as a courtyard building that combines a pure geometrical layout with a sensitive adaption to the landscape.

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The three‐dimensional imprint of the landscape creates a protective ring around the museum’s focal point, the sculpture garden where visitors, personnel, exhibition merge with culture and nature, inside and outside.

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“The Danish functionalistic architecture in Nuuk is typically square boxes which ignore the unique nature of Greenland.

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We therefore propose a national gallery which is both physically and visually in harmony with the dramatic nature, just like life in Greenland is a symbiosis of the nature.

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We have created a simple, functional and symbolic shape, where the perfect circle is supplied by the local topography which creates a unique hybrid between the abstract shape and the specific location”, Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Partner, BIG.

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The slope opens up the sculpture garden towards the city and the view, framing both the sculpture garden and museum functions.

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A rough looking external façade of white concrete will patinate over time and adjust to the local weather, while the circular inner glass façade will consist of a simple and refined frame which contrasts the rough nature and compliments the beautiful view.

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” The building will with its simplistic coarseness and harmony with the landscape become a symbol of the current independent Greenlandic artistic and architectural expression.”, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner & Project Leader, BIG.

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The circular shape of the gallery enables a flexible division of the exhibition into different shapes and sizes, creating a unique framework for the museum’s art.

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Visitor access to the exhibition happens through a covered opening created by a slight lift in the façade into a lobby with a 180 degree panorama view towards the sculpture garden and the fjord as well as access to the common museum functions, including ticket counters, wardrobe, boutique and a café.

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The new gallery will create more activity at the waterfront by attracting the whole area is interconnected by a path which like the museum, forms after the shifting inclinations of the terrain.

The locals and visitors will be able to admire the clear shape of the gallery which appears as a sculpture or a piece of land‐art.

“Greenland National Gallery for Art will play a significant role for the citizens of Greenland and the inhabitants of Nuuk as a cultural, social, political, urban and architectural focal point that opens towards the city and the world through its perfect circular geometry and shape”, Bjarke Ingels, Stifter & Partner, BIG.

PROJECT: Greenland National Gallery
CLIENT: Nunatta Eqqumiitsulianik Saqqummersitsivia

SIZE: 3000 m2
LOCATION: Nuuk, Greenland

COLLABORATION: TNT Nuuk, Rambøll Nuuk, Arkitekti, MIR, Glessner Group
PARTNER IN CHARGE: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Pedersen

PROJECT LEADER: Jakob Henke
TEAM: Daniel Selensky, Ji –young Yoon, Gul Ertekin, Aleksander Tokarz, Alessio Zenaro, Johan Cool Nicklas Antoni Rasch

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Waste-to-Energy Plant by BIG	West 57th by BIG	Danish Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 by BIG

Japanese studio Hidehiro Fukuda Architects have completed this house lined with oriented strand board in Hakodate, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan.

Called Duplex House in Tokito, the project was designed to house two families.

The two adjacent faceted rectangular structures are connected by a central corridor.

Little square windows are arranged irregularly.

See also: Double House by Tsuyoshi Kawata.

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Photographs are by Hidehiro Fukuda.

Here’s a bit of text from the architects:

duplex house in tokito

”duplex house in tokito” was designed to function as both a two-family home and an atelier, in a quiet residential area in Hakodate City, Hokkaido.

”Paper crane” was employed as our design concept, because we wanted to express the two generation’s long, happy life together. In Japan there is a tradition to give ”origami cranes” to loved ones, wishing them a long life.

We allocated two layers of space on the park side, and one layer on the neighbor’s house side, leaving a narrow space in the center. This narrow interspace became a path which connects the entrance hall and the terrace.

Even though it was inside of the house, we chose the same materials as the house exterior for the walls, and a transparent material for the roof, so that the parents who have a difficulty going out the door could feel as if they were outside.

The space architecture is constructed in order to represent the same philosophy as the room appearance. At the area appearing like a bird, opening her wings, an atelier and the Buddhist altar rooms are settled.

Where the area looks like a bird resting, a living room and a bed room are settled. Structural design, done by Ryouzo Umezawa, is created only by the periphery. So, the partition wall can be placed freely.

The wall is entirely represented in white. All rooms are connected with white space and passages. Diagonal lines joining roofs represent orientation of the interior landscape transforming gradually.

Architects: Hidehiro Fukuda architects
Location: hakodate, hokkaido,japan
Project architect: Hidehiro Fukuda , Hajime Kagoshima
Structural engineer: Ryozo Umezawa
Project area: 152.28sqm

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The Cubby House by Edwards Moore	Shelf-Pod by Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio	Fiat Lux by Label Architecture

A retrospective book of Masamichi Katayama’s beautiful design “experiences”

From A.P.C.’s bungalow-style boutique in Tokyo to Hong Kong’s freezer-like Ice Cream store, Wonderwall, the interior design firm founded in 2000 by Masamichi Katayama, has made its name by creating a diverse range of spaces throughout Asia, the U.S. and Europe. A monograph of the studio’s work to date, Wonderwall Archives 01, is now available from Parco Publishing.

Containing some 50 examples of Wonderwall’s commercial projects, from Uniqlo shops in New York and Paris to Nike’s Harajuku, Tokyo outpost (check out our 2009 video on the project here), the volume showcases Katayama’s fresh take on contemporary architecture and design. The featured spaces represent his vision of places that foster an exchange between the consumer and their respective brands, based on his notion that such locations are “only complete with people and products inside.” With no set expectations on that which a final product should consist or a standard process for his design, Katayama takes each project individually, with “no rules that bind him.”

“Interior design,” Katayama says, “needs to be something that can be communicated without words.” As such, he bears responsibility for producing an experience—rather than just a physical atmosphere—in his designs, ranging from retail spaces to restaurants/bars to offices and building complexes. He finds inspiration in his own experience as a consumer, and tends to blend traditional and modern styles as well as luxury and “cheap chic.”

Wonderwall Archives 01, which includes descriptions of Katayama’s projects in both English and Japanese, is available now from Colette or in Japan from Wonderwall’s online store.