Hasta La Ideas

News: the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced 26 winners for this year’s Institute Honor Awards, including a holocaust museum beneath a hill in Los Angeles, a stone mausoleum in Minneapolis, and a concrete house on a rocky outcrop in Washington (+ slideshow).

The AIA awards, which recognise excellence in the fields of architecture, interior architecture and urban design, awards projects from all around the world by architects licensed in the United States, and this year’s winning firms include SOM, Olson Kundig Architects, KieranTimberlake and WXY Architecture + Urban Design.

Winners in the architecture category include the renovation of a Beaux Arts library in St. Louis, an art college at a former railroad complex in Georgia and a visitor centre with a curving green roof at a botanic garden in Brooklyn.

A bar in a converted warehouse in San Francisco and an overhauled 1970s library in Seattle were among projects recognised in the interior design category, while urban design projects to pick up awards included a vision for Manhattan’s East River waterfront in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and a new zoning code for public spaces in Miami.

A jury of architects and academics selected this year’s winners from over 500 submissions and the awards will be presented at the AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago this June.

See the full list of winning projects below with descriptions from the AIA:

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Architecture

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Centre; Brooklyn, New York
WEISS/MANFREDI

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Centre is an inhabitable topography defining a threshold between the city and the garden, culture and cultivation. Nested into an existing berm, the LEED Gold building is a seamless extension of the garden path system, framing views through the historic garden. As a chameleon-like structure, the visitor centre transitions from an architectural presence at the street into a structured landscape in the botanic garden. The building redefines the physical and philosophical relationship between visitor and garden, introducing new connections between landscape and structure, exhibition and movement.

Centre for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI) Campus; Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
KPMB Architects

This project is located on a 3.9-acre site and is a reinterpretation of a traditional academic quad building based on the Oxford model. The client asked for a campus to last at least 100 years, a “vibrant sanctuary”, to facilitate reflection, collaboration, and discussion. The solution consists of two three-story, interconnected buildings and an auditorium pavilion organised around a courtyard. The scale, proportions and materials of the brick elevations facing the street are a direct response to the 19th-century masonry industrial buildings in the surrounding neighbourhood. A limited palette of local limestone and brick masonry, wood and glass was used to create a serene atmosphere for study and reflection.

New Boathouse for Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI); Boston
Anmahian Winton Architects

This is the first permanent facility for Community Rowing, the largest public rowing organisation in the country. The project is composed of two buildings that form a courtyard that overlays two typically incompatible conditions: a public forecourt to the river and a staging terrace for the boats. The small building, a glass-shingled pavilion for single shells, displays the boats to the adjacent parkway. The large building houses longer boats, offices, and training rooms. The unique kinetic cladding system, which regulates natural ventilation and light, literally transforms the shape of the building and its relationship to the surrounding landscape.

Jackson Hole Airport; Jackson, Wyoming
Gensler

With respect to Teton National Park, The Jackson Hole Airport renovation and expansion considers the building as a simple, understated foreground feature intended to merely reside within the landscape. The queen-post trusses reduced beam depths, increasing the volume, allowing for an expansive glass curtain wall that reinforces the connection between interior and exterior. This LEED Silver Certified airport distinguishes itself from the aesthetics of typical airports because of its regional design approach, materiality, and intimate scale. The airport serves as passenger’s first and last impression to this truly unique region.

King Street Station; Seattle
ZGF Architects LLP

The rehabilitation of King Street Station restores historic 1906 architectural finishes, re-establishes the station as a modern transportation hub and capitalises on materials and energy invested a century ago by reusing materials rather than replacing them. The project enhances public spaces, improves pedestrian and multi-modal connections in and around the station, and has served as a catalyst for additional redevelopment within the neighbourhood. Securing the station for the future, the rehabilitation also included significant seismic and structural updates to improve the building’s safety and durability. The project has achieved LEED Platinum certification.

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum; Minneapolis
HGA Architects and Engineers

Addressing the intimacy of personal grieving and the shared rituals of commemoration, the design for the new Garden Mausoleum at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis revisits an ancient building type whose setting demands contextual sensitivity and attention to materiality. The mausoleum minimises the visual impact on its historic context by nestling more than three-quarters of the building into an existing south-facing hillside. In each crypt and columbarium room, daylight strengthens the relationship between the spiritual and the earth-bound while offering a serene and healing environment. The material palette – stone, bronze, wood and glass – calls upon visual and experiential senses while recalling centuries of memorial tradition.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust; Los Angeles
Belzberg Architects

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is submerged into the surrounding public park space allowing the landscape to continue over the structure. Pathways are morphed onto the building and appropriated as surface patterning. The museum emerges from the landscape as a single, curving concrete wall that splits and carves into the ground to form the entry. Entry to the building entails a gradual deterioration of this visual and auditory connection to the park while descending a long ramp. Inside visitors experience a series of isolated spaces saturated with interactive archival content with diminishing natural light while descending further into the earth.

The Pierre; San Juan Island, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects

A secure and unexpected retreat nestled into a rocky outcropping, The Pierre (French for stone) celebrates the materiality of its Pacific Northwest site. The house – composed of concrete, wood, steel and glass, and topped with a green roof – visually and physically merges with nature. Inside, rugged surfaces of rock periodically emerge into the space, contrasting with the refined textures of the furnishings. While one side of the house is hunkered into the site, the other overlooks the water, balancing the dual desires of prospect and refuge.

Quaker Meeting House and Arts Centre, Sidwell Friends School; Washington; D.C.
KieranTimberlake

With a minimum of means, this project transforms a non-descript 1950s gymnasium into a Quaker Meeting House and Arts Centre serving the entire middle and upper school community at Sidwell Friends School. The building program includes a worship space, visual art and music rooms, and exhibition areas. The essence of Quaker Meeting, and thus the Meeting House itself, is silence and light. Architecturally this is achieved by filtering light and sound through architecture, landscape, structure, and systems arranged in successive concentric layers around a central source of illumination, both literal and spiritual.

SCAD Museum of Art; Savannah, Georgia
Sottile & Sottile and Lord Aeck Sargent in association with Dawson Architects

Resurrecting the ruins of the nation’s only surviving antebellum railroad complex, the Savannah College of Art and Design transformed a National Historic Landmark. The design process emphasised an artistically manual approach, honouring the humanity and integrity of the site’s heritage. Ruins were integrated within a contemporary concrete structure, preserving and highlighting the historic materials as a fundamental part of the new architecture. With its galleries, art studios, classrooms, theater, public gardens, and vibrant streetscape, this new civic landmark stands as a centre of intellectual exchange, artistic discovery, and urban evolution.

St. Louis Public Library, Central Library Transformation and Restoration; St. Louis
Cannon Design

St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library, designed by Cass Gilbert, fills a city block in the centre of downtown St. Louis. The transformation of the 3-story 1912 Beaux Arts structure focused on the north wing, replacing multistorey, non-public book stacks with a new “building within the building” for public use. Now light filled and welcoming to its urban neighbours, the north wing is a new entrance surrounded by upper stories of books visible to all. The original entry and public rooms are restored and revitalised, continuing their active use as a vibrant public resource.

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture

Bar Agricole; San Francisco
Aidlin Darling Design

This project is a 1,400-square-foot restaurant and bar located in San Francisco’s industrial South of Market district. A wooden “hull” -constructed of reclaimed whiskey-barrel oak, milled into thin strips, and suspended from the ceiling – creates a sense of intimacy in the long, tall interior of the former warehouse building. Above the hull, three existing skylights, fitted with delicate glass sculptures formed from warped Pyrex cylinders, filter natural light throughout the space. Designed to complement the restaurant’s seasonal menu, the interior palette balances warm textures with the use of durable, sustainable materials. Two bars, made of board-formed concrete and old barn beams, anchor the space. Inch-thick ribbons of ductal concrete form the high-backed banquettes.

K&L Gates at One New Change; London, United Kingdom
Lehman Smith McLeish

International law firm K&L Gates’ London office is seamlessly integrated into Land Securities’ complex and iconic One New Change, which was designed by Jean Nouvel. Commanding views of St. Paul’s Cathedral are a backdrop to technologically advanced meeting spaces and collaborative work areas that enhance the provision of integrated global services. The design responds directly to the dynamic and irregular building envelope, with enclosures, ceiling treatments, lighting, and site-specific art that define space and reflect K&L Gates’ physical and strategic brand.

Knoll Flagship Showroom, Offices and Shop; New York City
Architecture Research Office

Architecture Research Office’s design of Knoll’s New York showroom, offices, and shop reflects intelligent planning, sensitivity to craft and joyful materiality. A choreographed path draws visitors from the ground floor shop through the showroom and offices. Colourful textile layers define the space, including a vibrant 55-foot wall that showcases 2,400 material samples. Two steel stairs display felt and leather and promote connectivity in the offices, where clients experience open plan, private office and activity spaces in use. This mix of spaces supports a variety of work styles – formal, informal, public and private.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust; Los Angeles
Belzberg Architects

The interior architecture at The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust employs natural light and the morphing of space to open and lift or darken and compress the user’s experience at key points. The lighting of the interior galleries dim as the visitor steps deeper into the earth and subsequent rooms, while limited natural light serves as a companion to each patron’s unique experience. The final ascent up is filled with sights and sounds of unrestricted park land. The exhibition design incorporates educational content that is synthesised with all aspects of the design via innovative technology using integrated interactive design methods.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom; New York City
Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects PC; HLW International

The Marc by Marc Jacobs Showroom is housed within the Manhattan headquarters of the global fashion house Marc Jacobs. The showroom is a reinvention of the client’s original space and addresses the challenge to maximise the use of daylight within the building’s deep floorplate, while simultaneously addressing the need for areas of relative privacy. The design solution employs a central curvilinear glass form as an organising element of the space which is used to filter natural light while creating subtle visual screening to delineate the private zones.

Odegaard Undergraduate Library; Seattle
The Miller Hull Partnership

The interior renovation of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library re-imagines the learning experience for 21st century students through the astonishing transformation of space in an outmoded 1970s building; accomplished in two years by state mandate. Updates to the massive 165,000 square foot library, serving 10,000 students, 24 hours a day, include removal of an imposing atrium stair, and a ‘kit of parts’ approach supporting key learning behaviours in a bright, open setting. New seating, individual and group workstations, and Active Learning Classrooms further enhance the academic experience for a collaborative and tech-savvy student body.

The Pierre; San Juan Island, Washington
Olson Kundig Architects

A secure and unexpected retreat nestled into a rocky outcropping, The Pierre celebrates the materiality of its Pacific Northwest site. The house – composed of concrete, wood, steel and glass, and topped with a planted roof—visually and physically merges with nature. Inside, rugged surfaces of rock periodically emerge into the space, contrasting with the refined textures of the furnishings. Antique and vintage furniture is complemented by custom-designed pieces, while contemporary works of art are displayed inside and outside the house.

SoHo Loft; New York City
Gabellini Sheppard Associates LLP

This 8284 square foot interior renovation enhances the SoHo-Loft typology while creating multi-level garden roof terraces. The design emphasises lightness, openness, spatial fluidity and permeability. Light, considered as a tangible material, is the premise on which the program and spatial organisations are based on, with the creation of light apertures helping to organise the uninterrupted space. Influenced by the client’s requests to blur the lines of separation between public and private, children and adult areas, thresholds are defined by sliding translucent doors, acting as light filters, while providing flexibility of use.

Venture Capital Office Headquarters; Menlo Park, California
Paul Murdoch Architects; Kappe Architects Planners

Gardens, transparency and wood finishes create a warm, intimate work environment for this office headquarters of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. To reduce on-site construction, the two-story office building is made of prefabricated steel modules set by crane on a concrete parking podium. The building interior is designed to temporarily house and incubate young companies, adapting to their changing needs. Strong, accent-coloured glass expresses the company’s reputation for risk taking while fine, wire-brushed wood finishes form an elegant and understated feeling in keeping with the firm’s market sophistication.

2014 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design

The Creative Corridor: A Main Street Revitalisation for Little Rock; Little Rock, Arkansas
University of Arkansas Community Design Centre + Marlon Blackwell Architect

The Creative Corridor retrofits a four-block segment of Little Rock’s historic Main Street based on aggregation of the city’s scattered cultural arts organisations. The project goal is to structure an identity for the Creative Corridor rooted in a mixed-use living environment anchored by the arts, rather than Main Street’s workaday retail base. A townscaping framework reliant on the urbanism of streetscapes—landscape architecture, water management, public space configurations, frontage systems, furniture, and miscellaneous assemblages―ensures a coherent evolution of the street. The street is seen as a platform for capturing value.

Denver Union Station Neighbourhood Transformation; Denver
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The redevelopment of the former rail yards at Denver Union Station is a case study of the power of transit-oriented urban design. The 42-acre master plan knits together light rail, commuter rail, and buses into a 21st-century intermodal transportation hub. Modal connectivity is facilitated by integrating land use and transportation infrastructure to support more than 4 million square feet of mixed-use urban infill. This substantial public investment has catalysed an unprecedented wave of private-sector activity, with over $1 billion in new projects shaping a transit-oriented precinct and new urban neighbourhood.

The East River Blueway Plan; New York City
WXY architecture + urban design

The East River Blueway Plan, led by WXY architecture + planning, provides a new vision for Manhattan’s East River waterfront from the Brooklyn Bridge to 38th Street. It addresses issues that were overlooked for the last half century, including waterfront access from the land and water, environmental goals, climate change adaptation and storm resiliency for the waterfront and adjacent neighbourhoods. Completed shortly before Hurricane Sandy, the planning process offered innovations such as structures for storm water capture, saltwater marshes for wave attenuation and water quality, bridges supporting movement along the waterfront, and water recreation including boat launches, pools and fishing.

Miami 21: a New Zoning Code for the City; Miami
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. LLC

Miami 21 is a form-based zoning code that replaced Miami’s Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and land-use based regulations. Using the Transect and the SmartCode as its basis, the new code focuses on the control of building to assure pedestrian-oriented public space, and provide physical predictability for developers and residents alike. Multiple use and density types are consolidated, and the translation from FAR to FLR (floor lot ratio that includes parking) simplifies building capacity measure and reduces parking. A public benefits program encourages the provision of affordable housing, public open space and historic preservation.

The Pearl Brewery Redevelopment Master Plan; San Antonio
Lake|Flato Architects

The Pearl Brewery Redevelopment Master Plan is serving as a transformative model and catalyst for green urban revitalisation in a long neglected portion of San Antonio’s inner city. Established in 1883, the Pearl Brewing Company once had the largest brewery in Texas but eventually closed their operation in 1985. After 15 years lying derelict, the creative reuse of this 26-acre brownfield site and its abandoned structures are drawing in a rich mix of new residents, small businesses, retail, and non-profits while emphasising community, conservation, and local economic development.

Son Tra Peninsula Strategic Vision Plan; Vietnam
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Son Tra is connected with Da Nang via the longest suspension cable bridge in Vietnam, the Thuan Phuoc Bridge, which was opened in 2009. This connection to the city has improved accessibility, but it has also brought development interest that threatens the environmental health of the area. The plan champions this territory as one to be enhanced, rather than exploited; it calls for the creation of a protected status for the “mountain-island”, and it establishes clear “no build” zones at altitudes above 100 meters while suggesting locations where development may enhance economic opportunities without affecting the environment and natural beauty.

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Western Canada’s largest art gallery—and with a permanent collection of more than 10,000 artworks, it’s firmly in art museum territory—is in expansion mode. Planning is underway for a bigger (310,000 square feet), better Vancouver Art Gallery, which will be located on a city-owned site in downtown Vancouver. The aim of the project is “to create an architecturally significant visual art museum that places prominence on artists and art and that celebrates the rich cultural context of Vancouver.” But who will design it? The gallery has narrowed a pool of 75 architectural firms from 16 countries to an all-star shortlist of five: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Herzog & de Meuron, KPMB Architects, SANAA, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Will KPMB convert on the home-country advantage? Will Herzog & de Meuron ride their recent art-smart triumphs in Watermill and Miami to another commission? Will a field trip to Philly’s Barnes Foundation seal the deal for team TWBT? Stay tuned, art and design fans, the announcement of the winning firm is expected this spring.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

London architecture firm Studio Octopi has designed a concept for swimming pools that would enable Londoners to enjoy views of the city centre while bathing in the tidal waters of the River Thames.

Studio Octopi developed the proposal in response to plans from the city’s water supplier Thames Water to upgrade London’s 150-year-old sewage system, which would result in a huge improvement in water purity.

“A lot of people screw their noses up at the thought of swimming in the Thames but it already occurs within very controlled conditions, such as at Hampton Court and the Docklands,” Studio Octopi director Chris Romer-Lee told Dezeen.

Thames Water plans to construct a new tunnel, dubbed the Super Sewer, which will remove 96 percent of the sewage currently entering the river and is scheduled for completion in 2023, if planning permission is granted.

Studio Octopi proposes building pools at two of the Super Sewer construction sites; Shadwell in the east of the city and Blackfriars Bridge in central London.

“Imagine the views from the waterline, downstream to the London Eye, upstream to the City,” said Romer-Lee of the Blackfriars location. “Whether it’s for sport or leisure, bringing these alternative uses to the heart of cities unites diverse communities, encourages physical activity and invigorates the flora and fauna of our much overlooked river.”

Romer-Lee pointed out that the concept doesn’t rely on the Super Sewer, but does require the UK government to take steps to improve the current sewage system and water quality in The Thames, which currently falls below European standards.

The architects worked with structural engineering specialist Civic Engineers to develop the design, which includes a pair of pools supported by a concrete slab and raised to the height of the high water mark on a series of steel columns. The pools would be replenished with fresh river water at high tides.

A further pool made from concrete waffle slabs anchored to fixed posts would float on the surface of the river, rising and falling with the tide while protecting swimmers from the tidal currents.

Concrete decks with cast-in air pockets would surround the pools, providing places for swimmers to rest and counterbalancing heavy gabion cages filled with rocks and plants.

Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects contributed ideas for planting to enhance the natural look of the pools, including reeds to fringe the floating pool and perennials and ferns along the wharf edge. Over time, algae, ferns and saline plants would cover the supporting structure as it gradually weathers, while native plants would colonise the planted areas.

Studio Octopi’s design was one of five proposals created by teams chosen to submit ideas for a project called London As It Could Be Now, developed by The Architecture Foundation with architecture firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

The concepts for new ways to make the most of the River Thames were presented last autumn as part of the exhibition Richard Rogers RA: Inside Out, at London’s Royal Academy.

Images are by Picture Plane.

The architects sent us the following details:

London-based architects Studio Octopi propose reintroducing swimming in the tidal River Thames

As a result of the collaborative London As It Could Be Now project, developed by The Architecture Foundation with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and the Royal Academy of Arts, Studio Octopi were selected as one of five teams to work up new visions for the Thames. The teams were encouraged to explore ideas that increased interaction with the waterway and raised awareness of this important artery running through the Capital. Thames Baths Project is collaboration between architects Studio Octopi, Civic Engineers and Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects.

In 1865, Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s London sewage system was opened. 150 years later the sewers are at the limits of their capacity. In 2012, 57 combined sewer overflows discharged 39 million tonnes of sewage into the River Thames.

Thames Water is planning the Thames Tideway Tunnel, or ‘Super Sewer’, for completion in 2023. This tunnel will remove 96% of the sewage currently entering the river. Instead of a weekly discharge into the river, the Super Sewer will overflow a maximum of 4 times a year.

When Sir Joseph Baselgette’s sewer system was finally completed in 1875 swimming in the River became a common occurence. In the same year a floating swimming baths opened on the foreshore at Charing Cross. Heated river water was pumped around an iron and glass structure. Then in 1878 Agnes Beckwith ‘the greatest lady swimmer in the world’ safely swam 20 miles from Richmond to Westminster and back again. The improvements in water quality open the possibility for once again swimming in the tidal Thames. The Thames Baths Project looks to re-establish an intimate and playful link between Londoners and the historic lifeblood of the city, the River Thames. Here is an opportunity for Londoner’s to reclaim ownership of their largest outdoor public space.

Studio Octopi’s proposals are focused on two of the Super Sewer construction sites: Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore and King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore. These sites were chosen for their contrasting London contexts. As well as creating a community resource and tourist attraction, its proposed that these floating and fixed aquatic landscapes should also continue to improve the ecology of the River Thames. Growing from planted rock cages (gabions) an array of native planting forms enclosure and frames views to the surrounding city. The fixed pools, lifted high on timber and steel piles, are replenished at high tide like coastal rockpools. The floating pools rise and fall with the tide offering a unique experience with the river. The sunken structure protects the swimmers from currents, whilst the planting offers tantalising views to the city beyond.

Intertidal Flora by Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects

Imagine swimming in the tidal river, surrounded by reeds that frame tantalising views of the city around you. The pools are not just for swimmers, but provide refuge and habitat for fish, birds and a wide range of flora.

Here in the heart of London is the upstream limit of saline plants on the Thames, and a series of layered habitats. From the algal slime at the base of the structure to the gabion-protected surface planting, the stages mimic salt marshes to freshwater wetlands.

As the supporting timbers weather they will be colonised by algae, ferns and saline plants such as sea beet and sea aster. The extensive planting of reeds around the pools will frame viewpoints edged with low sedums, and surface beds of yellow flag iris. The flooded pool will feature salt marsh species such as rushes and water plantains, while the wharf edge planting will be a relaxed mix of colourful perennials (red valerian) and ferns. All planted areas will soon be accompanied by naturally colonising plants, some native, others typical of London’s introduced alien flora.

Structural Principles by Civic Engineers

The fixed structure consists of a randomly ordered grillage of small sectioned steel channels founded in the river bed and extending to a height just below the high water mark. Embedded within the frame will be non-structural timber members to encourage the colonisation by flora. The fixed pools are split across two levels and sit on a concrete slab suspended on the steel frame.

The second adjoining floating structure is free to rise and fall with the tide. This is restrained with a series of substantial fixed posts which allow the open concrete waffle slab to rise and fall. Surrounding the pools, a concrete deck with cast-in air pockets counterbalances the weight of the planted rock gabion cages. The concrete deck can be precast off site and floated up the river into position.

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Septembre Architecture a pensé Ermitage, cette cabane en bois situé sur l’île de Trossö en Suède. Proposant une chambre mais aussi un sauna avec de superbes fenêtres avec des vues imprenables, cette création minimaliste invite à l’évasion. A découvrir en images dans la suite.

This rectilinear wooden cabin in Hungary by young studio Béres Architects nestles up against the exposed rock face of a former quarry (+ slideshow).

Hungarian architects Attila Béres and Jusztina Balázs of Béres Architects designed Hideg House as the holiday home for a couple and located it on the outskirts of historic town Kőszeg.

A geometric black frame encases the two sections that make up the house, while a sheltered terrace sandwiched between offers view out over the landscape as well as back towards the jagged rock face.

“Natural light and views to the surrounding nature were the most important factors in the arrangement of spaces,” said the architects.

The owner and his wife spent three years building the house themselves. The outer frame was constructed from roughly sawn larch, while the two contained volumes also use larch, but were sanded smooth and left with their natural colour.

“The contrast between the rough sawn larch cladding stained black on the exterior surfaces and the same material with natural finish and smooth surface on the inside leads visitors towards the interior spaces,” said the architects.

The largest side of the house contains the main living spaces, including a combined living room, dining area and kitchen, as well as a bedroom with an adjoining sauna and bathroom.

The smaller western end of the house is a self-contained guest suite. Like the rest of the interiors, it has a plain interior with white walls, plain furnishings and timber-panelled flooring.

Photography is by Tamás Bujnovszky.

Here’s a project description from Béres Architects:

Hideg-ház – Kőszeg, Hungary

Focusing on sculptural cliffs and friendly hillside woods, Hideg-ház is an unusual object in the landscape of the outskirts of Kőszeg, a charming historical town in Hungary.

The site had been used as a quarry a few centuries ago so the exposed rock face was one of the strongest elements of the environment. In order to get enough direct sunlight all-year-long and to stay close to the sculptural cliffs, the building had been placed about 10 meters above the road that runs along the bottom of the valley.

“An abstract footprint of a family’s lifestyle – perhaps these are the best words to describe the floor plan” architect Attila Béres says. The wooden cabin is floating a few steps above the natural terrain. The two parts are tied together with a thick black frame. These units taken apart create space for the covered outside terrace which became the central space of the cabin with its perfect views towards the colourful forms of the exposed rocks and the woods on the south side.

Natural light and views to the surrounding nature were the most important factors in the arrangement of spaces. The solid and open surfaces of the 110 sqm building react to these elements as well – large but shaded openings towards the best views on the south side, glimpses of the rock from accentuated spots on the north.

The contrast between the rough sawn larch cladding stained black on the exterior surfaces and the same material with natural finish and smooth surface on the inside leads visitors towards the interior spaces. The clear white walls in the interior pick up the random colours of the sky and the surroundings.

The building is located in a country with very diverse climate. Hot summers and cold winters desire a smart mix of architectural decisions to keep the cabin comfortable and easy to run in all four seasons. The clients had a clear concept about what they wanted to achieve in terms of building services and comfort. A combination of high-tec and simple ecological solutions resulted in extremely low energy consumption and moderate building cost.

Hideg-ház is the first project realised by Attila Béres and Jusztina Balázs. Their young architecture firm started the design of this building in 2009 when Mr. Hideg noticed Attila Béres in Wallpaper magazine’s Graduate Directory – an annual list of talented young architects. Detailed design and construction of the cabin finished in 2013.

Mr. Hideg and his wife spent 3 years on site to build this precisely detailed and custom-tailored house by hand. They carried out almost every phase of construction from cleaning the cliffs to building custom furniture. Their devotion and insistent enthusiasm had key importance along the process of design and construction of the holiday home.

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