Hasta La Ideas

D’ici 2016, la marque Apple va s’offrir un énorme campus à Cupertino en Californie. Projet déjà défendu par Steve Jobs en 2011, cet ensemble pourra accueillir 12 000 salariés, sera autonome en énergies et disposera en prime d’un amphithéâtre. Une maquette du chantier fini est à découvrir dans la suite.

A combined car park and terrace covers the roof of this hillside house in Los Angeles by Californian studio Anonymous Architects (+ slideshow).

Anonymous Architects designed the single-storey home for an actor. It is situated on the edge of a steep slope, so the floors are arranged from top to bottom, with an entrance on the roof and rooms on the level below.

“The added benefit of providing the parking and the house as the same structure is to eliminate the need for additional foundations and walls for a garage,” said architect Simon Storey.

“The inversion moves the typical ground floor of the house up on the roof, and makes the simple act of arriving home and driving onto the roof of the house a surprise every time,” he added.

Supported by chunky concrete columns, the house appears to be thrusting away from the edge of the slope. A recessed balcony offers views of the San Gabriel Mountains to the north east of the city.

A kitchen sits at the centre of the plan and forms the corner of an open-plan living room, while three bedrooms and two bathrooms are positioned around the other side of the house.

A bridge connects the roof with the street, providing an entrance for both cars and pedestrians.

Other projects by Anonymous Architects include a tiny house with only three rooms lifted off the hillside by a set of concrete pilotis and a 4.5 metre-wide house inspired by narrow homes in Japan.

See more projects by Anonymous Architects »
See more concrete architecture and design »

Photography is by Steve King.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Car Park House

Starting with a vacant lot with a very steep down-slope from the street, the design of the house places the carport on the roof with the residence below. In addition to being a dramatic shift of expectations, it is also a logical response to the building code which requires parking for two vehicles.

This inversion moves the typical ground floor of the house up on the roof and makes the simple act of arriving home – and driving onto the roof of the house – a surprise every time. The roof is also usable as deck space and has unobstructed views of the San Gabriel Mountains, which are to the Northeast of Los Angeles.

Because of the steep terrain the house is designed to float over the hillside. This reduces the amount of foundation required and also means that the only way to access the house is over the bridge – so it is truly a floating structure.

The added benefit of providing the parking and the house as the same structure is to eliminate the need for additional foundations and walls for a garage.

Date of completion: August 2013
Location: Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Clients: Hal Ozsan/ Judson Williams
Architect: Simon Storey/ Anonymous Architects, Los Angeles
Lot Area: 8,477 sq.ft
Building Area: 1,405 sq.ft
Building footprint: 1,405 sq.ft – single level dwelling with roof deck/ parking. 3 bedroom & 2 bathrooms.
Method of construction: Concrete pile foundation with concrete pilasters above grade; steel (primary floor structure – cantilevers); wood floor, walls and roof

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Anonymous Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Tadao Ando has added an auditorium with a curving concrete interior to the Palazzo Grassi – a contemporary arts centre inside an eighteenth-century palace in Venice (+ slideshow).

The Teatrino is the third phase of Tadao Ando’s renovation of the Palazzo Grassi, which is now owned by luxury goods tycoon François Pinault. After converting both the main building and the accompanying Punta della Dogana into contemporary art galleries, Ando added this extra building as a venue for conferences and performances.

Curving concrete walls separate the 220-seat auditorium from reception areas, dressing rooms and storage areas, providing a blank canvas for hanging artwork or film projection.

Lighting fixtures are tucked around the edges of a suspended ceiling in the main lobby, while triangular skylights offer a source of daylight.

The Teatrino occupies a space that once served as the palace’s garden. More recently it had functioned as a theatre, but has been closed to the public since 1983.

Only the facade of the original building remains, with the new structure erected behind.

Another designer to have worked on spaces at the Palazzo Grassi is Philippe Starck, who completed the adjacent Palazzina Grassi hotel in 2010. See more stories about Venice »

Other recent projects by Tadao Ando include a school of art, design and architecture at the University of Monterrey in Mexico. See more architecture by Tadao Ando »

Photography is by Orsenigo Chemollo.

Here’s a project description from the design team:

The Teatrino of Palazzo Grassi

The François Pinault Foundation is strengthening its implementation within the artistic and cultural life of Venice. A new site, created for conferences, meetings, projections, concerts, etc., will be added to the ensemble of Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana-François Pinault Foundation: the Teatrino, which will open its doors to the public in June 2013.

After the restoration of Palazzo Grassi in 2006, followed by that of Punta della Dogana, inaugurated in 2009, the rehabilitation of the Teatrino in 2013 constitutes the third step of François Pinault’s broad cultural project for Venice. Conceived and conducted by Tadao Ando in close collaboration with the Municipality of Venice and the competent authorities and services (including the Superintendent of Architectural Assets and Landscapes of Venice), this restoration will maintain the spirit of architectural continuity of the preceding renovations. Work will begin in summer 2012 and last ten months.

Spread over a surface of 1,000 square meters, the Teatrino will be equipped with an auditorium of 220 seats, completed by reception areas and spaces for technical equipment (boxes, equipment for stage management and simultaneous translation, etc.). Thus, it will provide Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana-François Pinault Foundation with optimal technical conditions (including acoustics) in a comfortable setting, in order to develop more fully the cultural dimension of its activities: meetings, conferences, workshops, lectures, concerts, performances, research, … with an emphasis on the moving image (cinema, artist, films, video, video installations, …). It will also reinforce the Foundation’s role as a forum of exchange, meeting, and openness towards the city.

Located on the Calle delle Carrozze, alongside Palazzo Grassi, the Teatrino was conceived in 1857 to serve as the palace’s garden. A century later, it was transformed into an open-air theatre, which was renovated and covered in 1961. It was abandoned in 1983 and has been closed to the public ever since.

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by Tadao Ando appeared first on Dezeen.

An OMA-designed housing complex comprising 31 apartment blocks stacked diagonally across one another is nearing completion in Singapore (+ slideshow).

The Interlace was designed by former OMA partner Ole Scheeren, who has since moved on to set up his own studio. It is made up of a series of near-identical six-storey blocks, which have been arranged in a honeycomb pattern around six hexagonal courtyards.

Set to complete in 2014, the 170,000 square-metre complex will offer 1040 apartments and is located at the intersection of Ayer Rajah Expressway and Alexandra Road in the south west of the city.

The stacked arrangement of the structure creates numerous cantilevers and bridges around the exterior spaces. Gardens are located over the rooftops, while staircases are positioned at the overlaps between blocks.

Other communal features include a lotus pond, a waterfall, an open-air theatre and a rock garden.

Dezeen visited the building last week during a visit to Singapore, as part of the Dezeen and Mini World Tour. The trip included a tour of the city with Colin Seah of local architecture studio Ministry of Design, who also took us to his studio’s New Majestic Hotel.

OMA unveiled its design for The Interlace in 2009, but the delivery has been carried out under the direction of property developer CapitaLand Residential.

OMA has also recently completed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China and renovated the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations buildings in New York in collaboration with Hella Jongerius. See more architecture by OMA »

Other new buildings from Singapore include a hotel featuring balconies covered in tropical plants and contoured surfaces based on rock formations. See more architecture in Singapore »

Photos are copyright Dezeen.

The post The Interlace by OMA and Ole Scheeren
nears completion appeared first on Dezeen.

This house near Mexico City by local office MMX Studio comprises an assortment of exposed concrete buildings arranged around small gardens and courtyards (+ slideshow).

Located west of the city in an area known as La Herradura, Cap House was designed by MMX Studio as an ensemble of one-, two- and three-storey blocks, which open out to gardens on two different levels.

“The dwelling should not be the result of fragmenting a larger envelope, on the contrary, it should be the outcome of adding multiple rooms, each one with its own scale, proportions and identity,” said architect Emmanuel Ramirez.

An entrance punctures the perimeter wall of the front courtyard, leading through to spacious living and dining areas on the ground floor, as well as a single-car garage.

The first floor contains additional living rooms, which open out to a plant-covered roof terrace, while the uppermost floor accommodates a bedroom and adjoining bathroom.

The concrete walls remain exposed inside the house as well as outside, contrasting with wooden doors and window frames.

Alongside the traditional architectural photography, photographer Yoshihiro Koitani composed one image showing the same woman in eight different positions.

“We have always been interested in exploring all the ways in which the spaces can be used,” Ramirez told Dezeen. “We gave the photographer total freedom to decide how the space can be inhabited beyond the obvious, and it is through this image that we can understand a sense of scale and flexibility.”

Other houses we’ve featured from Mexico City includes a house with a slate facade and a three-storey wall of plants, a black house with a high-walled courtyard and a house with overlapping rectilinear blocks of glass and concrete. See more architecture in Mexico City »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

CAP House

Located in a residential neighbourhood at the west of Mexico City, the house responds to a fragmented urban environment where the volumetric configuration of the buildings creates an uneven landscape of colours and volumes.

The proposal adopts the logic of its context, and applies it within the plot by subdividing the program into its diverse parts.

Each space takes shape as a response to the specific needs of the program and gets added onto a larger cluster of articulated volumes.

Thus, the formal manifestation of the idea gets away from the more traditional operation of subdividing a larger envelope and instead, works with a logic of adding units of varying characteristics to create an ensemble rather than a standalone piece.

This project explores the idea of the room as the basic unit of the house. The dwelling should not be the result of fragmenting a larger envelope, on the contrary, it should be the outcome of adding multiple rooms, each one with its own scale, proportions and identity.

The scale of each room and the openings of the volumes are determined by the needs of the interior spaces, thus they manifest through the façade as a relaxed and non-committed gesture.

Nodes of vertical movement, courtyards and gardens create a balance within the sequential progression of rooms across the site.

The geometric outcome of this operation creates an articulated pattern of interlocked volumes and voids that complement one another within the scheme.

Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Client: JAR & MCSV
Date: 2013

Status: Built
Type: Residental
Credits: Jorge Arvizu, Ignacio Del Rio, Emmanuel Ramirez, Diego Ricalde Team: Javier Moctezuma, Erendira Tranquilino

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MMX Studio appeared first on Dezeen.