Hasta La Ideas

This maritime museum in the Netherlands by Dutch studio Mecanoo features reclaimed wooden cladding and a zig-zagging roof that reference the gabled houses of the surrounding hamlet (+ slideshow).

Mecanoo completed the Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers Museum in Oudeschild, on the island of Texel. The angular roof profile was designed to match the rhythms of a group of harbour-side buildings, while the louvred wooden facade relates to the driftwood used by locals to build their homes.

Sheets of recycled hardwood were sawn into strips to create the louvres, which allow daylight to filter through to a ground-floor cafe and a first-floor gallery.

“The wooden slats used in the facades come from tropical hardwood piling from the North Holland Canal,” said the architects. “The un-sawed edges have been deliberately placed on the visible side of the facade. After forty years of residence under water the white, grey, rust-red, purple and brown colours are beautifully weathered.”

The large upper gallery is dedicated to underwater archaeology. There’s also a second exhibition space in the basement to present the history of Reede van Texel – a historic offshore anchorage used by the fleet of the Dutch East India Company.

“The entrance and the museum cafe form a natural frontier between the world of the Reede van Texel in the basement and that of the underwater archaeology on the first floor,” explained the architects.

The museum was completed in 2011 and is nominated for an award at this year’s World Architecture Festival, which takes place in Singapore next month.

Mecanoo most recently completed Europe’s largest public library in Birmingham, England, where studio founder Francine Houben told Dezeen: “Libraries are the most important public buildings”. See more architecture by Mecanoo »

Other maritime museums published on Dezeen include one in Portugal dedicated to cod fishing and one in England housing the remains of a sixteenth century warship. See more museums »

Photography is by Christian Richters, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from Mecanoo:

Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers Museum, Texel, the Netherlands

Tourist Attraction

The island of Texel is situated in the Waddenzee and is the largest of the Dutch Wadden Islands. Every year a million or so tourists visit the island, which is only accessible by plane, boat or ferry. Few however will be familiar with the glorious history of Texel and its links with the Dutch East India Company. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Company’s fleet used the anchorage of Texel as its departure point for expeditions to the Far East. The ships waited there for a favourable wind before weighing anchor and sailing off to the ‘Orient’. While they waited, maintenance work and small repairs were carried out, victuals and water were brought on board and family could see their loved ones one last time.

Many painters visited the ‘Reede van Texel’ (the offshore anchorage of Texel) to depict on canvas the fleet of the Dutch Republic. In the new entrance building of the maritime and beachcombers museum, Kaap Skil, in the hamlet of Oudeschild, the public is taken back in time to the Dutch Golden Age. The showpiece of the museum is an eighteen-metre long, four-metre deep model of the Reede van Texel, displaying in great detail the impressive spectacle of the dozens of ships anchored off the coast of the Wadden Island.

Typical gable roofs

The museum is designed with four playfully linked gabled roofs which are a play on the rhythm of the surrounding rooftops which, seen from the sea, resemble waves rising out above the dyke.

‘The sea takes away and the sea provides’ – this is a saying that the people of Texel know so well. For hundreds of years they have made grateful use of driftwood from stranded ships or wrecks to build their houses and barns. The wooden façade of Kaap Skil is a good example of this time-hallowed tradition of recycling. The vertical wooden boards are made of sawn hardwood sheet-piling from the North Holland Canal and have been given a new life just like the objects in the museum collection.

From within, the glass facade in front of the wooden boards allows an inviting view of the outdoor museum terrain and of the famous North Holland skies to visitors of the museum café. Inside the building the boards cast a linear pattern of daylight and shadow creating an atmosphere infused with light and shelter.

Daylight and artificial light

The entrance and the museum café form a natural frontier between the world of the Reede van Texel in the basement and that of the underwater archaeology on the first floor. The contrast between the two worlds is reinforced by the different experiences of light and space. In the basement visitors are drawn around the exhibition by projections and animations, creating an intimate space that harbours a sense of mystery. On the first floor the North Holland sky floods the objects on display with light. The movable showcases of robust steel frames and glass create a transparent effect so that the objects in the collection seem to float within the space. Under the high gabled roofs the visitor gets a generous sense of being able to survey the sizable collection, the museum grounds and the village of Oudeschild at a glance.

Client: Maritiem & Jutters Museum, Oudeschild
Architect: Mecanoo architecten, bv
Museum design: Kossmann.dejong, Amsterdam
Project management: ABC Management Groep, Assen
Builders: Pieters Bouwtechniek, Utrecht
Installations consultant: Peter Prins, Woerden
Contractors: Bouwcombinatie De Geus & Duin Bouwbedrijf, Broek op Langedijk
Installations: ITBB, Heerenveen
Sawmills for wooden cladding of façades: Pieter Dros, Texel

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Museum by Mecanoo appeared first on Dezeen.

Skyscrapers have always been symbols of architectural, economic and national might, the taller the better. They are meant to be seen from miles around. But a new tower slated to go up outside of Seoul, South Korea, has been designed with a twist: It is meant to be seen–and then not seen. The Tower Infinity, designed by the multinational GDS Architects, uses technology to render itself “invisible,” or at the very least, optically camouflaged.

Clad in a surface of both cameras and image-producing LEDs, the 450-meter-tall tower will visually capture its surrounding environment and transmit those images to the opposite face of the building from which they were shot. With a building manager’s finger on a dimmer switch, the opacity of the building could be adjusted.

(more…)

Braving a late summer heatwave in Southern California, the international team of Hermès gathered on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to reveal their newest boutique. Architect Denis Montel of Continue Reading…

This north London house extension by Lipton Plant Architects features a walk-on glass roof that can be accessed by climbing through a window (+ slideshow).

Local studio Lipton Plant Architects added a two-storey extension to the rear of the Victorian townhouse, transforming the kitchen into an open-plan living space and adding a small office and utility room.

The architects used blue slate bricks to build the new structure, contrasting against the original brown brickwork of the existing house.

“The extension has provided a wonderfully modern addition to a beautiful Victorian property and through the dark brick and subtle refined detail, has helped maintain much of the original character of this historic Islington building,” said Lipton Plant Architects.

“We decided to present our client with the blue brick as it was an appropriate material to use in relation to the host building and provided a contrasting natural colour match to the weathered yellow stock,” they added.

The upper and lower levels are separated into two distinct halves by a band of horizontal brickwork, usually referred to as a soldier course.

A small glazed office is positioned above the utility room and can be accessed from the house’s main staircase.

The roof terrace sits above the living room and can be accessed via a window leading out from one of two existing living rooms.

“Providing an abundance of light, the glass roof creates the connection between the upper and ground floor formal living room, and then a less formal dining and lounge space below,” said the architects.

Other London house extensions we’ve featured include an addition to a Chelsea townhouse, a narrow studio with a sloping roof, and a space where a wall of books folds around a staircase.

See more residential extensions »
See more architecture and design in London »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Alwyne Place, Islington

Alwyne Place lies within the Canonbury Conservation Area in the heart of Islington, London. The property is a large semi detached, locally listed Victorian villa. The house is of an impressive scale located on a quiet tree-lined street.

Our clients fell in love with the building’s proportions and location. The building did however require extensive modernisation including the addition of a full width lower ground and part width upper ground floor extension.
The brief was simple, to bring light into the building and restore some of its former historic elegance.

Sitting a little wider than the average similar-sized property in Islington provided the opportunity to introduce large format, thin framed sliding doors across part of the new rear extension elevation. Located above the doors is a large walk-on glass roof with access from the upper ground floor. Providing an abundance of light, the glass roof creates the connection between the upper ground floor formal living room and the less formal dining and lounge space below.

The rear extension works for a number of reasons, the most visually obvious being the choice of material, the Staffordshire Slate Blue Smooth brick. We looked at a number of choices including render, which all too often stains and marks and timber, which would require regular maintenance and is prone to fade with time.

We decided to present our client with the blue brick as it was an appropriate material to use in relation to the host building and providing a contrasting natural colour match to the weathered yellow stock. The slate blue brick was chosen for its colour, crisp straight edges and smooth elevation, creating a strikingly beautiful addition to the property.

The elevation has been broken into distinct halves, the lower and the upper ground separated by a deep soldier course band. The upper floor office comprises a wrap of frameless glass to the wall and roof flanked by two monolithic brick walls framing the view to the landscaped garden beyond.

To the side, overlooking the roof terrace, sits a long thin window providing natural ventilation to the office. The continuous soldier course above the doors is formed from brick slips fixed to a GRP board fixed back to the structural steel. The underside of the lintel has been clad in the same brick concealing the lintel and reinforcing the overall affect. The brickwork has been sealed with linseed oil to provide further protection and lustre.

The extension has provided a wonderfully modern addition to a beautiful Victorian property and through the dark brick and subtle refined detail has helped retain much of the original character of this historic Islington building.

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Lipton Plant Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This steel and glass restaurant extension by Austrian studio Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner juts out over the edge of Karren Mountain in the Austrian Alps (+ slideshow).

Local studio Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner added the new hollow structure to increase the size of the dining room at a timber-clad restaurant and cable-car facility.

Elevated above a paved terrace, the new restaurant is held in place by long steel columns rooted into the mountain and connected to the main building by a glass passageway.

It is located 956 metres above sea level, allowing panoramic views towards Switzerland, Germany, Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley.

“The aim of the design, in addition to functional requirements, was to bring a sense of calm to the ensemble and create a more holistic appearance for the Karren cable-car station,” said the studio.

The architects also renovated the existing building. Parts of the timber structure were prefabricated before being flown to the site by helicopter, along with the pre-assembled steel parts for the restaurant, and both were erected on site.

Other mountain-top architecture we’ve featured includes a concrete mountain cabin also in the Austrian Alps, a seesaw-shaped lookout along a Mexican pilgrimage route and  a hunting lodge and hotel on Sognefjorden in Norway.

See more restaurants »
See more Austrian architecture and design »

Photography is by Zooey Braun.

Here’s some information from the architects:

Panoramarestaurant Karren, Austria

Dornbirns’ ‘house mountain’ The Karren, is the most popular destination in the city. Due to the steady growth of domestic and foreign visitors, the capacity of the restaurant slowly became overwhelmed.

Jointly developed with the client, the owners, the business manager and the Architects Rüf Stasi Partners (ARSP), a sustainable concept for the expansion and renovation of the new panoramic restaurant Karren, was developed. The concept not only doubles the seating within the panoramic dining room and increases the outdoor terrace area; it also provides an optimisation of internal service processes, completely reconfiguring the restaurant kitchen and the storage areas.

The analysis of the existing building revealed a diverse mixture of renovations and extensions added over generations. As a consequence the existing construction and style had become chaotic. The aim of the design was therefore, in addition to the functional requirements, to bring a sense of calm of the ensemble and create a more holistic appearance for the Karren cable-car station.

A new steel and glass structure was attached to the front end of the existing panoramic restaurant (built in 1996) on the first floor. This component was rotated through 90 ° and then connected via a second glass passageway to the main building. Together this glass ring creates an open sided atrium which floats over the guests as they arrive from the cable-car or from the mountain path.

Inside the glass structure provides diners with an uninterrupted view of the Swiss and Austrian Alps in all directions. The advantageous cliff position also provides stunning views of Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley. At the same time, a harmonious appearance of steel and glass in the construction is achieved.The old south-facing wooden construction has been completely dismantled and replaced by a new, larger floor plan.

Through the extension of the building to the South, the required area for the kitchen extension is achieved and the previously hectic façade is calmed by removing many of the volume jumps creating a smoother outer shell. The new timber façade continues over the concrete construction of the cable car station in the east and over the services area, cladding almost all of the building in the same material to enhance the calming effect. The guests can also enjoy new views in the east (the ‘Staufenblick’) and north (the view of Dornbirn along the cable car route) which were previously not possible.

All building work had to be completed within a 10 week period during the winter months and at 956m above sea level. The main site entrance was only accessible through an extremely steep and narrow forest path.

Only through meticulous logistical planning was the perfect interaction of all counterparts on this tight construction schedule possible.

From the outset, planning was optimised through the extensive use of prefabrication. This allowed all timber construction to be made in an assembly hall before being flown to the site in less than 4 hours by helicopter. This allowed the entire wooden structure to be erected within two days on site. The pre-assembled steel parts were individually transported via the mountain road and fully assembled on the terrace.

Using the most powerful crane in the foothills of the Alps, the entire steel construction was lifted into place on the 11th of April 2013, and the end result was accurate to within 1mm. In parallel, the interior work and the technical installations were pushed hard to meet the deadline, which were completed three days early on the 8th of May. With the kitchens in full operation the new Karren Restaurant was proudly opened on time with a full festival.

Structure: Panoramic restaurant Karren
Planning and site supervision: Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner – Albert Rüf and Frank Stasi
Additional personnel: DI Arch Rike Kress
Construction time: 10 weeks
Altitude: 956m above sea level
Extension: 180 seat panoramic restaurant and 120 seats on the terrace

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Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner appeared first on Dezeen.