Hasta La Ideas

British architect Alex Graef has combined two art deco apartments in Vienna to create a home with clean white walls, restored oak floors and a row of artificial skylights (+ slideshow).

Alex Graef renovated the two nineteenth century apartments to create an occasional home for an art collector. The architect designed a series of bright spaces with large open walls and built-in shelves to create places for hanging paintings and displaying small sculptures.

One side of the residence contains the bedroom, library and kitchen, while the other side accommodates the living room, dining room and study.

A series of pre-Columbian sculptures are dotted throughout the apartment to tie the spaces together and are highlighted by new lighting fixtures.

“A layer of directional spotlights highlight the sculptures, each of which is visible from another, and thereby directs the flow through the space,” Graef told Dezeen.

More lighting sits within three slices in the ceiling above the kitchen, creating the effect of a row of skylights.

“The artificial skylights and deep-recessed dimmable ceiling spots provide basic uniform light levels to the space,” added the architect.

Original oak parquet floors were restored on one side of the apartment, while the other side features new terrazzo flooring.

Sliding doors between rooms are upholstered in a textured white fabric.

The bathroom is contained behind newly added partitions and features dark tiled walls that contrast with the bright white of the rest of the residence.

Photography is by Michael Nagl.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

Beletage Apartment in Vienna

London architect Alex Graef remodelled and furnished a large apartment in a 19th century building in Vienna for a non-resident client.

A deep plan, created by combining two adjacent apartments, was unlocked by demolishing all central partitions and inserting a series of gently rotated volumes containing bathrooms and ancillary spaces. An existing collection of pre-columbian miniature sculptures was used as a narrative device and installed as permanent client to host their often absent occupiers.

This created fictional views and axial relationships, which helped to determine and communicate a geometry that meets and transports often sparse but ever changing daylight deep into a large central space.

There it is met by a layered system of artificial lighting which looks to augment, complement and play, starting with a dominant central artificial skylight and using brightly lit wall faces and suspended lighting objects to mark moments and give structure to an otherwise free flowing spatial sequence.

The subtlety of light colour and intensity is enhanced by white as the dominant for all visible surfaces, helped by an interplay of different textures, reflections and refractions. Gaps between hard white volumes are filled by soft upholstered, white textured sliding doors, while inside surfaces of bathrooms and visible furniture use dark heavy materials and moments of bright colour.

Through large openings to an outer rim of existing rooms which are restored with their original wooden floors and traditional stucco, colour enters the white central space and further adds to its complexity and ever changing atmosphere.

Architects: Alex Graef Associated Architects Ltd (Alex Graef, Marek Dziubas, Christoph Eppacher, Natascha Madeiski, Heidi Lee, Thomas Dunning)
Consultant Engineers: Hollinsky and Partners, Vienna

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skylights by Alex Graef appeared first on Dezeen.

Le plongeur et photographe amateur Marc Henauer a récemment publié de superbes photographies d’un parc, situé près d’un lac à Tragoess en Autriche, inondé par la fonte d’un glacier. Avec près de 4 mètres de profondeur, ces clichés nous invitent à découvrir ce lieu insolite et d’une grande beauté.

Here are the first photographs of Zaha Hadid’s Library and Learning Centre at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, which opened last week in the city’s second district.

The library and learning centre is one of seven buildings that make up a new campus at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), designed to accommodate 24,000 students and 1800 staff.

The most distinctive feature of Zaha Hadid’s 28,000-square-metre building is a large black volume that is perched over the roof and cantilevers out across a public square at the main entrance.

This structure houses the main library, as well as function rooms and an elevated cafe, and is clad externally in Rieder glass fibre-reinforced concrete panels.

To contrast, the rest of the building is finished in white panels and accommodates the non-public areas, including classrooms, an auditorium, workspaces and offices.

The facade is inclined at an angle of 35 degrees, allowing floorplates to increase in size towards the top of the building.

Zaha Hadid Architects won a competition to design the library and learning centre in 2008. We recently featured an animation by London visualisation firm Neutral giving a tour of the building.

The architect has also recently completed the Innovation Tower at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong and is finishing off an undulating cultural centre in Azerbaijan.

See all our stories about Zaha Hadid »
See more stories about architecture for education »

Photography is courtesy of Rieder.

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by Zaha Hadid 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.

A spinning oven shaped like a giant disco ball is the centrepiece of this pizzeria in Vienna by Austrian architect Lukas Galehr (+ slideshow).

Covered in hundreds of tiny mirrored tiles, the spherical pizza oven is positioned amidst the dining area and is anchored to a central chimney that allows it pivot from its centre.

The restaurant lights are dimmed for the evenings and various coloured spotlights are directed onto the oven, causing scores of pink, green and blue dots to flood across the white walls and ceilings.

Named Disco Volante, which loosely translates as flying disc, the restaurant is otherwise modelled on an authentic Napoli pizzeria with a vaulted ceiling, smooth tiled floors and clean white walls.

Black mosaic tiles lines the walls of the pizza-making area and also cover the floor surrounding the service counter and bar.

Simple wooden chairs and benches provide rows of seating, giving most diners a clear view of the glittering central feature.

Lukas Galehr is a member of design collective MadameMohr, which includes five architects and one industrial designer.

Other pizzerias to feature on Dezeen include one surrounded by tin cans and one modelled on an Italian courtyard.

See more pizzerias on Dezeen »
See more restaurant interiors »

Here’s a short movie showing the spinning oven in action:

Photography is by Lukas Schaller.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

Disco Volante

The recently opened Pizzeria is the second of its kind hosted by Maria Fuchs, a vanguard in the recent “genuine pizza” hype in Vienna. The name “Disco Volante” brings back memories of the James Bond villain Emilio Largo’s escape vessel. Also a famous car designed in the early 50ies carried this name (there has recently been a relaunch by Alfa Romeo). But in fact does the name of the pizzeria simply refer to its original meaning “flying disc”.

According to the clients wish the restaurant should not only carry the atmosphere of a southern Italian pizzeria but also transport the lightness of the “Italo-Disco” era of the 1970s and 80s.

The heart of every pizzeria is the wood fired oven which in this case is a giant disco ball with a rotating mechanism. After the dough is run out the Pizzaioli start the engine and the oven begins to slowly turn with about 1 revolution per minute.

In charge of the design as well for most of the production of the oven was Vienna based madamemohr, a young architects and designers collaborative. Their goal is not to just design but also to fabricate where possible. In this case, the outer shell of the oven which is made from heat resistant concrete, was produced utilizing CNC-milling technology to build the spherical formwork.

The mechanism allowing the oven to rotate is hidden underneath the baking surface where the heat does not damage sensitive parts. The shell is covered with approximately 7500 special cut mirror tiles which were glued on site.

The ceiling of the former grocery store revealed an extra meter of height when removed. This additional space contributes to the canteen like feeling known from the overcrowded places in Naples drowned in neon light. Adding up to this harsh and rather uncomfortable environment are the former church benches as well as the chairs, typically found in Vienna’s city departments and the tables only leaving space for a pizza and a beverage each. These attributes might sound unusual for a restaurant but are key elements of the success of “Disco Volante”.

The waiters and waitresses are all wearing special designed overalls by fashion designer Milena Heussler & Luciano Raimondi and recall a mechanics outfit.

Responsible for the design of the Neon Sign as well as all print media are grafisches Büro, Vienna.

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Lukas Galehr appeared first on Dezeen.