London architecture studio ShedKM used walls of locally quarried red sandstone to help this concrete house in north-west England fit in with its coastal surroundings (+ slideshow).
Located in an elevated position overlooking an estuary, the Welsh hills and the Irish Sea, Rockmount provides a two-storey home for a family with four children, and features a large garden and an adjoining swimming pool.
“The house aimed to suit a family with progressive views on design, give fantastic views from the living areas and make the most of the topography of the site,” said ShedKM associate Greg Blee.
“In addition, it had to limit its visual impact when viewed from the coastline,” he added.
The house’s upper level stretches west to east, projecting out from the peak of the slope into the garden, while the lower level is slotted underneath and nestles up against the landscape.
Red sandstone walls form the base of the building, referencing the site’s past use as a quarry and functioning as retaining walls to support the tiered levels of the garden.
“Outcrops of red sandstone jut out of the garden in various locations,” said Blee. “This stone became part of the material palette of the new house, as it provided a connection with the local geology.”
The long narrow swimming pool thrusts out from the southern facade, while a garage and master bedroom are contained within a small wing that extends out from the north, giving the house a cross-shaped plan.
A glass bridge connects the master bedroom with the rest of the house, including a large living and dining room with a circular seating area, a piano corner and a surrounding balcony.
Evenly sized children’s bedrooms are arranged in sequence at the eastern end of the floor, and stairs lead down to a playroom and guest bedroom below.
Photography is by Jack Hobhouse, apart from where otherwise indicated.
Here’s more information from ShedKM:
Rockmount
Rockmount is built in an abandoned quarry at the summit of Caldy Hill, a protected landscape of forest and heathland owned by the National Trust. The house straddles the quarry rock face and at one end projects out from the hillside above the estuary of the River Dee.
Photograph by Chris Brink
Local sandstone walls enclose ground floor spaces, but the majority of the living and sleeping areas are at first floor, taking advantage of the spectacular views. The house has a linear plan, with a more private annexe connected by a glazed bridge.
The glazed, open plan living area, containing kitchen, dining and sunken snug contrasts with a massive concrete chimney sitting alongside the house. Upper and lower levels are linked by a double-height void containing a steel and concrete staircase.
Spaces are arranged to allow long views along two axes, the length and breadth of the house, constantly connecting the user with the surrounding landscape. Walls and level changes merge the geometry of the house with the gardens, which have been left predominantly natural to blend into the Caldy Hill landscape.
The house is uncompromisingly modern and striking in form, yet uses a materials pallet of local stone and black painted timber, both found in the local vernacular. This acts to bed the house successfully into the site and its context.
News: the owners of an observation deck on the 94th storey of Chicago’s John Hancock Center are considering adding a glass box into which visitors would be strapped and tilted forward to experience a bird’s eye view of the city below.
According to local business newspaper Crain’s Chicago Business, the observatory’s owner hopes the attraction, called the Tilt, could compete with the popular glass-floored observation boxes called the Ledge that were added to the 103rd floor of the nearby Willis Tower in 2009.
“It’s no secret that observation decks as a business are very profitable, as opposed to leasing square footage in the building,” Daniel Thomas, executive director of the World Federation of Great Towers and a former general manager of the Hancock Observatory told Crain’s.
Birds eye view from The Ledge at the nearby Willis Tower
Thomas added that he estimates the John Hancock Observatory currently makes over $10 million annually from tickets that cost $18, while the Willis Tower’s income from ticket sales starting at $19 could be as much as $25 million.
Developers of tall buildings are increasingly seeking to add or include observation decks in response to evidence of their popularity and profitability, such as figures released by the owners of New York’s Empire State Building during its IPO proceedings. Empire State Realty Trust declared that its rooftop viewing area generates $92 million annually – approximately 40 percent of its total revenue. Adult tickets for the main observation deck on the 86th storey of the Empire State Building cost $27, while a combined ticket for the main deck and the top deck on the 102nd storey is $44.
If the Tilt is approved, it would join other extreme observation experiences such as the thrill rides located at the top of the 350 metre Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, a harnessed outdoor walkway on the 61st floor of the Macau Tower in Hong Kong, and a similar attraction 356 metres above Toronto at the CN Tower.
Photographs of John Hancock Centre and Willis Tower are courtesy of Shutterstock.
French studio TVK has overhauled the Place de la République in Paris to create an even larger pedestrian plaza that includes a new cafe pavilion, water features and over 150 trees (+ slideshow).
TVK‘s largest intervention was to adapt the surrounding road layout to make more pedestrian-priority areas. This increased the size of the square to 280 metres wide by 120 metres long, making it the largest pedestrian space in the city.
“The redevelopment of the Place de la République is based on the concept of an open space with multiple urban uses,” said the architects.
“The elimination of the traffic circle frees the site from the dominating constraint of motor vehicle traffic. The creation of the concourse marks the return of calm in an airy, uncluttered two hectare space,” they added.
The new cafe has been added to the south-west side of the square. Named Monde & Médias Pavilion, which translates as World and Media Pavilion, it was designed to host different public activities.
All four sides of the building are glazed to allow views through. A solid canopy cantilevers from one side to create a sheltered seating area and its underside is clad with reflective aluminium.
French studio NP2F Architectes designed the interior of the cafe, which features a fluted marble bar, wooden chairs and an assortment of plants.
Three different kinds of concrete slabs were used to create the surface of the square and are interspersed with plane trees, honey locust trees and lighting columns.
A circular water basin has been added around the nineteenth century statue at the centre of the square, while the a second water feature comprises a plane of water covering a small area outside the cafe.
Monde & Medias Pavilion and Place de la République, Paris
TVK hand over the redevelopment of the Place de la République, inaugurated by the mayor of Paris on June 2013.
Due to its exceptional size (120m by nearly 300m), its symbolic dimension as a representative public statement and its location in the city, the Place de la République occupies a special place in the international hub that is Paris.
The redevelopment of the Place de la République is based on the concept of an open space with multiple urban uses. The elimination of the traffic circle frees the site from the dominating constraint of motor vehicle traffic. The creation of the concourse marks the return of calm in an airy, uncluttered two hectare space. The new square, now skirted by motor traffic, creates a large-scale landscape and becomes an urban resource, available and adaptable for different uses. Clear connections with the large boulevards promote a new balance centred on soft transport for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.
The statue of Marianne, the reflective pool, the pavilion and the rows of the trees form a strong axis. This harmony is amplified by the serene balance of the mineral element and a very gentle slope of 1%. All these elements contribute to both the interpretation of unitary materials in a perennial and contemporary manner and multiple explorations (colours, water, lights) creating different urban ambiances. The Place de la République is now the largest pedestrian square in Paris.
The south-west part of the square houses a 162 m² pavilion, a unique building, glazed throughout to retain a continuous impression of this singular space. The pavilion was conceived and designed by TVK Architectes Urbanistes. It’s interior layout has been designed by NP2F architectes.
The articulation of public and pedestrian areas
Abandoning the traffic circle model
The redevelopment of the Place de la République is based on a decision to create the largest possible public pedestrian area. Paris was in need of an exceptionally large and versatile public place, like an open field in the heart of the city, a feature found in many other large cities. Also, it was essential to move away from the traffic circle model.
Functional & environmental dissymmetry
Two-fold dissymmetry, both functional and environmental, is used along the long axis of the square to blend it into the general urban setting.
Motor traffic has been reorganised. It now runs along the southern edge and two smaller sides of the square only. Now that the traffic runs in both directions and the pavements have been widened, the road is much more similar to the large Parisian boulevards.
Unity and balance
The Place de la République is also open to varied groups participating in a very wide range of activities. The aim of the project was to cater for these users by changing the balance between the roadway and the concourse. The most important challenge was to reunify and harmonise the attributes of a city with those of a local neighbourhood.
The pavilion’s design
In line with the principles adopted in the redevelopment of the Place de la République, the “Monde & Médias” Pavilion is a perennial building, designed to last. It is scalable and adaptable, but also is a strong presence, opening onto the square. It is the only edifice in the new square. The Pavilion is sited on the southwest part, in line with the reflective pool and the statue de la Republique. It is fully glazed so as not to obscure the view and provides a continuous vista of the square. The pavilion houses a “World & Media” themed café and its entirely modular interior can host a wide variety of festive, social and cultural events and uses in all seasons and all weathers.
The pavilion is assertively simple in design, comprising a closed volume, 9.29m by 18.20m and 3m high, and a 0.75m-thick roof with an 8.70m cantilever.
The pavilion’s envelope is entirely glazed. The visual impact of its structural assembly is minimal, so as not to perturb the prismatic appearance of the overall volume: the metallic elements are integrated to a maximum and the opening zones are concentrated to create an image of large glazed planes jointed together.
The supporting structure also participates in this self-effacement to achieve transparency: reduced to four small-diameter metallic posts at the corners, it is similar in design to the metallic elements. The roof band is composed of aluminium sheeting whose assemblage is invisible, with its horizontal and vertical aluminium rigidifying elements following the same rhythm as that of the glazed panels.
The cantilever’s underside is clad with large sheets of perforated aluminium. Echoing the large symmetrical composition of the Place de la République, the space’s interior organisation is dictated by a partition dividing it lengthways into two distinct and symmetrical areas.
Composition of the area and surface
The surface
The surface consists of paving slabs of different colours and sizes. The shady areas of the square are paved mostly in darker colours, while the open areas are generally paler.
The choice of prefabricated concrete ensures good performance in all weather, offering maximum resistance to the greatest variety of uses. This material also enables the use of monochrome colours, creating continuity with the surrounding surfaces of roads and roofs.
Three types of concrete paving slabs have been used in the square, reflecting its overall layout: – “large module” prefabricated slabs in the centre of the concourse, to give a wide perspective and cater for large-scale uses, – “medium module” prefabricated slabs for the rest of the esplanade along the concourse, – and lastly, “small module” prefabricated slabs (on a more ordinary scale) for the north and south pavements. The bus lane to the north of the square is made of poured concrete.
Before and after photographs
Levels
The density of the networks present under the Place de la République mean it also serves as a “roof”: the site is home to five Metro lines, sewers, telecom tunnels, etc. The levels create a main movement of great simplicity, vital to the spatial comprehension of the square and an understanding of its vastness. The simple 1% incline of the central concourse reveals two wide terraces at the back of the esplanade, in keeping with the scale of the surrounding area. The terraces continue the concourse but are edged to the north with steps. Between these terraces, the ground drops consistently towards the two large palace buildings and the shared trafficked area (pedestrians, cycles, buses, taxis), providing continuity of traffic flow and excellent accessibility.
Design diagram
A large garden, a large concourse
The square is unified by the single grand compositional movement and the one inorganic surface treatment. This unity helps to indicate three distinct sections: the urban garden of over 2,000 m2, planted and organised into several sub-areas; the central concourse of almost 12,000 m2 and 35 metres wide with the statue de la Republique as the focal point; the continuity of all the boulevards, with the road system on three of its sides and the widened pavement (13 metres on the longer side to the south west, which is the busiest side).
The terraces on the Place de la République
At the rear end of the esplanade, two flat terraces are each marked by a single step on three of their sides, which conducive to sitting and socialising. The new tree planting establishes a specific ambiance. The terraces will be equipped with movable structures expressing day-to-day and local themes, and changing with the seasons (roundabout, toy library etc.).
The playground is now located on the east terrace.
Water – in various forms and with a myriad of uses (climatic, social, recreational, aesthetic) – is a key feature of the central esplanade.
The monument basin
The statue de la Republique dominates the centre of the new pedestrian esplanade. The new base takes the form of a large circular basin, at the edge of which visitors can sit, walk, play, or examine the bas-reliefs.
During the summer months, it is filled with water, adding to the number of uses. The base also houses a new lighting system for the statue. Spotlights, sunk under the sheet of water, project moving reflections over the entire monument.
On the west concourse of the esplanade, facing the Monde & Médias Pavilion, the theme of water is repeated in a minimal, contemporary version. In summer, a fine sheet of water runs down the 1% slope, covering an area of more than 270m2 (23mx12m). Sprays are connected to this sheet of water. When switched off, they affect neither the topography nor the uses of the concourse, so are almost imperceptible.
Alors que nous avions déjà pu vous parler de ce projet sur Fubiz, voici de nouvelles images de la plus grande cabane au monde. Pensée et réalisée par l’américain Horace Burgess, cette maison située à Crossville (Tennessee) a coûté seulement 12 000 $, mais a demandé un énorme investissement de temps.
Inspiré par l’excellent projet Skywalk du Grand Canyon, le designer français Pierre-Yves Chays a imaginé à Chamonix un sol en verre permettant une vue à 360° impressionnante sur les Alpes. Un cube de verre du plus bel effet, à découvrir en détails et en images dans la suite de l’article.
A rooftop swimming pool with a glass floor cantilevers out beside the entrance to this house in Marbella, Spain, by Dutch office Wiel Arets Architects (+ slideshow).
Named Jellyfish House, the three-storey concrete residence was designed by Wiel Arets Architects with a rooftop terrace and swimming pool to allow residents to swim and sunbathe with a view of the Mediterranean sea over neighbouring houses.
The swimming pool projects out across a semi-enclosed terrace beside the house’s main ground-floor entrance, projecting ripples of light onto the ground below.
The rear wall of the pool also features a large interior window, allowing residents in the first-floor kitchen to look out at friends and family taking a swim.
“The searing Spanish sun constantly filters through the pool’s glass wall and floor, creating ripples of iridescent turquoise reflections throughout the entire house,” explained the design team.
Another indoor window creates a view through from the kitchen to a living room below the pool, where glass walls slide back to open the space out to the elements.
The gently inclined slow route spans the length the house, connecting all three floors with the roof terrace, while the adjacent fast stair offers direct access from the exterior to the roof.
Five bedrooms are shared out between the ground and first floor of the building. On the ground floor, two single bedrooms share a central en suite bathroom, while a master bedroom sits beyond.
Two guest bedrooms can be found on the partially submerged basement level, which emerges from the ground at the south-eastern end of the site to offer a secluded extra terrace.
“Taking full advantage of the ever-present Spanish sun, the Jellyfish House is an avant-garde expression of luxurious living,” said the designers. “As most of its facades can be opened and as its staircases are mainly outdoor, the house’s ever shifting boundaries between inside and outside are curiously blurred.”
Other unusual details include a service elevator that allows food and drink to be sent up from the kitchen to the roof, televisions and audio devices that are recessed into the walls, and a first-floor sauna and steam room.
Located in Marbella, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the Jellyfish House’s neighbouring buildings block its view onto the nearby sea. Appropriately, it was chosen to cantilever the house’s pool from its roof, so that the beach and sea can always be seen while sunbathing or swimming.
The house is organised around two paths of circulation: a ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ set of stairs, which intertwine and traverse the house’s four levels of living. The ‘fast’ stair leads from the exterior directly to the roof; it is enclosed in glass, which physically separates it from the house’s interior, yet it is simultaneously open to the exterior elements, so that sand is not brought into the house when returning from the beach. The ‘slow’ stair – whose long treads and short risers lend it its name – spans the entire length of the house, from ground floor main-entry to roof; it is indoors yet also open to the exterior elements, further amplifying the house’s capacity for ‘interiority’.
The house’s rooftop pool is cantilevered 9 m southwest – toward the Sierra Blanca mountain range in the distance – and weighs nearly 60,000 kg. Equipped with an infinity-edge, its water merges with the sea in the distance. This pool has a glass-bottom floor and a panoramic window at its interior facing edge, both of which are 6 cm thick; the latter allows those in the kitchen to voyeuristically view those swimming, while a third window affords those in the kitchen a glimpse of the living room, whose terrace extends under the cantilevered pool.
The searing Spanish sun constantly filters through the pool’s glass wall and floor, creating ripples of iridescent turquoise reflections throughout the entire house. As such, the pool can be seen and experienced from nearly all areas of the house. Integrated within the pool is an underwater bench, which traces its length and also integrates a pool cover, so that it is out of sight when the pool is in use.
Five bedrooms are located throughout the house, with two guest bedrooms situated on the basement level that face outward and onto an extensive private terrace for the exclusive use of guests. As the ‘slow’ stair leads from the main entry to the guest bedrooms below, this area of the house is able to function as a separate entity.
The kitchen is strung along the southern facade of the house’s first floor, with all secondary appliances built into an adjacent and perpendicular hallway. The first floor is also the location of the sauna and steam bath. A small service elevator also allows, for instance, food and drink to be brought from the kitchen, or any other floor, up to the rooftop pool and terrace. This roof terrace features an oversized and custom-designed concrete table with an adjoining bench, which is contiguous to an angular chair for reclining while sunbathing.
The house’s structure is composed of poured in place white-concrete, supported by one column at the right-rear edge of its pool, and several smaller columns near the rear-dining terrace. All non-concrete walls were constructed with glazing, which allows sunlight to permeate the house. Multiple bedroom closets, whose obverse faces the ground floor hallway, are finished in translucent glazing to compound this sunlight diffusing strategy. Oversized and accordion-like folding panels of translucent glazing adjoin each dining or entertaining space, which, when opened, essentially expands the house’s numerous areas of living by nearly doubling their size.
All of the house’s audio-video equipment – such as its countless Bose speakers – are recessed into its ceilings and walls, which allows them to disappear within their context little noticed. Lighting illuminates all corridors and staircases, as well as underwater within the pool, ensuring the rippling effects of its reflections that shimmer through its glass floor and wall can also be experienced throughout the house at night.
Taking full advantage of the ever-present Spanish sun, the Jellyfish House is an avant-garde expression of luxurious living; as most of its facades can be opened, and as its staircases are mainly outdoor, the house’s ever shifting boundaries between inside and outside are curiously blurred.
Location: Los Monteros, 29600 Marbella, Spain Program: Housing Size: 650 m2 Date of design: 1998-2001 Date of completion: Winter 2013 Project team: Wiel Arets, Bettina Kraus, Lars Dreessen, Dennis Villanueva, Carlos Ballesteros Collaborators: Paul Draaijer, William Fung, Johannes Kappler Client: Private Consultants: West 8, ABT BV, Cauberg-Huygen Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV, Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos S.L.
News: architect Santiago Calatrava is facing legal action from his home city of Valencia because parts of the opera house roof at his City of Arts and Sciences complex are falling off just eight years after completion.
Regional government spokesman Maximo Buch announced on Friday that Valencia would sue Calatrava and his architectural firm for the cost of repairs, and said that the building will remain closed until it can be made safe again. A technical report on the state of the building is due next week.
The opera house is one of seven buildings that comprise the City of Arts and Sciences complex, opened in October 2005 and constructed on reclaimed land in the city’s former port. The white concrete opera house features a feather-like roof sailing over two outer shells that curl round the sides. These are clad in a layer of ceramic mosaic tiles or “trencadis”, which first showed signs of ageing a year ago when wrinkles appeared in the smooth white surface and is now coming away in chunks.
Calatrava has been heavily criticised for the cost of the City of Arts and Sciences complex and was accused of “bleeding Valencia dry” over alleged fees of €100 million for the showpiece cultural centre, despite it coming in four times over budget at over €1 billion.
The starchitect is no stranger to legal disputes over his buildings and had to pay €3.3 million to settle a dispute last June after a conference centre he designed in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo suffered structural collapse.
His footbridge to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao has also caused controversy, with the city having to pay compensation to dozens of pedestrians who slipped on the glass surface in wet weather, while Calatrava is also being taken to court due to his footbridge over the Grand Canal in Venice coming in three times over budget and requiring what the city sees as excessive repairs.
This black house by German studios Fabian Evers Architecture and Wezel Architektur is raised up over a translucent base where the client’s truck can be stored (+ slideshow).
Located on a busy street near Tübingen, Germany, the building needed to accommodate both a residence and a workshop, so Fabian Evers Architecture and Wezel Architektur decided to lift all the living spaces off the ground and create a garage underneath with a parking space for the client’s Unimog – a cult four-wheel drive vehicle produced by Mercedes Benz.
This prompted the architects to name the project House Unimog.
“The concept was to stack the two different uses on top of each other in order to minimise the footprint on the site and to orient the living rooms from the street towards the landscape,” said Fabian Evers.
Opaque corrugated cladding covers the first-floor walls and roof, while the lower level is surrounded by translucent polycarbonate with matching ridges, allowing daylight to permeate the workshop.
“The workspace is filled with filtered natural light during the daytime, and turns at night into a light box which glows into the neighbourhood,” said Evers.
A staircase extends up along one of the outer walls, leading through to the domestic spaces via a sheltered south-facing terrace that can be used for various activities, from al fresco dining to chopping wood for the fire.
Glass doors connect the terrace with an open-plan living and dining area, with a bathroom and bedroom positioned beyond.
Oriented strand board lines the walls and ceilings of all three rooms, and a wood-burning stove provides heating.
Here’s some more information from Fabian Evers:
House Unimog
The unusual task and the difficult building site was at one hand a big challenge but on the other a big potential. The owner requested a workshop for his Unimog and a small residential unit.
The site is located directly next to a street with heavy traffic and is surrounded by small private houses and farm buildings. A crucial parameter was the very tight cost frame.
The concept was to stack the two different uses on top of each other in order to minimise the footprint on the site and to orient the living rooms from the street towards the landscape. The result is a vertically developed house. The variation of the two different uses reflects itself through the facade: The lower part of the workshop is clad with translucent polycarbonate elements.
The workspace is filled with filtered natural light during the daytime, and turns at night into a light box which glows into the neighbourhood. The living space presents itself with its anthracite facade as a monolithic volume. Precise set windows and a generous south-oriented loggia enables beautiful views into the surrounding landscape.
The chosen materials for the facade and inside the building underlines the pragmatic and reduced design concept: a house which is rather located in the typology of a rational farmhouse or of a workshop than a classical residential house.
Project: low budget house – private house with mit workshop Client: private Period: 2011 – 2012 Floor area: 120 m2 Costs: 170.000 Euros
Site planGround floor planFirst floor planCross section
It’s no a secret that China hasn’t exactly been a champion of preserving architectural traces of its historical identity. Most Chinese cities are parades of copycat projects that seldom tell a story about the region or the country. In the last few years…
News: architect David Adjaye has designed an office campus featuring ten conical towers as the centrepiece of a new 65-hectare urban development under construction in Kampala, Uganda.
British architect David Adjaye, who was born in Tanzania and grew up in Uganda, proposes offices accommodating thousands of employees as part of a larger proposal by charitable organisation the Made in Africa Foundation to redevelop the Naguru and Nakawa areas of Uganda’s capital city.
The architect presented his concept to the government of Uganda alongside fashion designer and Made in Africa Foundation co-founder Ozwald Boateng, and foundation CEO Chris Cleverly. The design features ten tapered towers that will be positioned in a ring to create a circular public square at the heart of the campus.
“So many projects in Africa get stuck at the first hurdle, but the Naguru-Nakawa project has now achieved major milestones, including attracting the talents of world-renowned architect, David Adjaye, who has proposed an iconic office campus employing thousands of Ugandans which will form the centrepiece of the New Kampala,” said Boateng.
Naguru-Nakawa phase one residential development by Plus Architecture
The Naguru-Nakawa project is Africa’s largest urban redevelopment project in history and is intended as a model that can be replicated on other sites across Africa. Once complete, it will also include 3500 homes, a church, a school, shopping centres, restaurants and leisure facilities.
The Made in Africa Foundation raised funds for the project’s masterplans and feasibility studies, allowing it to gain momentum and attract investment from property developer Comer Group. The first phase is now underway and includes the construction of 1000 affordable homes designed by Irish firm Plus Architecture.
“For the Made in Africa Foundation to have made such a significant contribution to a project of this importance is a remarkable achievement and is a testament to our belief in making things happen, rather than just talking about them,” said co-founder Kola Aluko.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
