Hasta La Ideas

London firm Tony Fretton has sandwiched two rows of brick houses between a pair of canals in the town of Den Helder in the Netherlands (+ slideshow).

Tony Fretton Architects collaborated with Dutch firm Geurst en Schulze Architecten to design 16 houses for the Molenplein site, as part of a wider masterplan by West 8 that centres around the redevelopment of the town’s former navy base.

Three-storey houses stretch along the front of the site, facing out across the dockyard, while a row of smaller two-storey residences run along behind and are separated by private gardens.

Drawing inspiration from canal houses of the early twentieth century, the houses feature a mixture of linear and gabled profiles, and present both exposed and painted brickwork facades.

Bright yellow doors and ornamental marble panels mark the entrances to each house, plus the windows come with chunky wooden frames.

Each of the 16 houses has one of four standard layouts. There are few internal partitions and finishes, as the architects wanted to give residents the opportunity to design their own interiors.

Tony Fretton Architects is led by Fretton alongside partner James McKinney. Past projects by the firm include a Stirling Prize-nominated museum of fine art in Denmark and the Vassall Road housing project in south London. See more architecture by Tony Fretton Architects.

Photography is by Christian Richters.

Read on for more information from Tony Fretton Architects:

Houses in Molenplein, Den Helder, the Netherlands

Tony Fretton Architects has completed a new development of houses in the Dutch town of Den Helder.

Commissioned by Dutch developer Proper-Stok the development comprises 2 and 3 storey houses designed by Tony Fretton Architects and Dutch practice Geurst en Schulze Architecten configured within a masterplan designed by West 8.

Molenplein occupies a long site between two canals, the Helderskanaal and Werfkanaal, where it looks out onto Den Helder’s former Napoleonic naval yard. The development is part of a regeneration strategy by the municipality to attract middle-income people to the area following the relocation of the Dutch navy base. The Napoleonic dockyard has also been redeveloped, providing places for business and culture.

West 8’s masterplan for Molenplein preserves the character, scale and diversity of the city fabric along each canal; the plan comprises large three-storey houses facing the dockyard and compact two-storey houses to the rear, with private gardens in between, and intersperses designs by Tony Fretton Architects with those of Geurst en Schulze Architecten.

Houses designed by Tony Fretton Architects are distinguished by a simple profile and generously proportioned windows and entrance doors. The designs are abstracted versions of typical canal front and back houses and aim to reproduce the generosity of scale and abstraction seen in Dutch architecture from the Golden Age and early Dutch modernism. Materials comprise wooden window frames in facades of white painted brick or rose coloured brick with white pointing. A measure of ornament is given through the use of discreet panels of Belgian marble at eye level. In contrast the Geurst en Schulze houses have finely elaborated detail and provide punctuation in the terrace.

Inspired by the openness and energy that the practice observed in an earlier development they designed – De Prinsendam in Overhoeks, Amsterdam – where owners radically personalised their interiors, the houses are presented with unplanned interiors and carefully positioned service risers, fenestration and staircases that support a wide range of possible internal configurations.

Location: Den Helder, The Netherlands
Client: Proper-Stok
Gross external area: 2,300 sq m approx
Internal area: 3,200 sq m approx

Architects: Tony Fretton Architects
Design team: Tony Fretton, James McKinney, David Owen, Chris Snow, Chris Neve
Project Associate: David Owen
Project Architect: Chris Snow
Executive Architects: Geurst en Schulze Architecten
Masterplan & landscaping: West 8
Structural Engineers: Ingenieursbureau Dijkhuis bv
Services Engineers: Wolf Dikken adviseurs
Main Contractor: Tuin Den Helder bv

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Tony Fretton Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Pour son 15ème anniversaire, le studio de design turinois Nucleo a décidé de présenter une version d’une de ses oeuvres « The Histogram Table » en utilisant plus de 3 000 réelles briques de Lego à monter en suivant un manuel de 893 pages. Plus d’images de ce projet dans la suite de l’article.

A towering wall of perforated brickwork lets light filter gently into the rooms of this house, cafe and gallery building in Seoul, South Korea (+ slideshow).

Designed by local studio Doojin Hwang Architects, the three-storey-high building is constructed entirely from terracotta-coloured bricks. “We attempted to emphasise the natural quality of the materials and avoided using too many different materials,” say the architects.

The perforated wall spans the southern facade to screen the two residential upper storeys. During the day it lets in light without permitting a view inside, but after dark the positions of windows are revealed behind.

“This unique pattern of bricks produces various shadow patterns by change of the time and the season, and makes the space rich and alive,” explain the architects.

The northern facade of the building has a more traditional construction of solid brick walls and rectangular windows, with a glazed shop unit at ground level. Currently this space is used as a cafe, while a small gallery occupies the basement floor below.

A staircase on one side of the cafe leads up to the residential floors. Bedrooms and a bathroom are located on the first floor, while a living room and adjoining kitchen are on the uppermost storey. In the future, these floors could also be adapted to accommodate two individual apartments, each with views of the mountains to the north.

Named the West Village Building, the mixed-use structure is located close to Gyeongbok Palace and was completed in 2011.

Other houses to complete recently in South Korea include The Curving House, a residence clad with silver brickwork, and Pangyo House, which features a curving facade with extruded windows. See more architecture in South Korea.

Photography is by Youngchae Park.

Here’s some more information from Doojin Hwang Architects:

The West Village Building

The West Village building, located in the West Village near Gyeongbok Palace, is a low-rise, high-density, mixed-use building. This area is full of multi-layered beauty of Seoul. To preserve historic and cultural ambience of the area, we proposed a typical ‘rainbow cake’ building, a concept developed by DJHA. This 3-storey building incorporates both residential and commercial functions vertically.

To design an ‘ordinary but not ordinary’ building, we tried to create a building rooted in its location and tried not to disturb the ambience of the historic West Village area, where the building is located. Large northern window commends a panoramic view towards Mt. Bukak and Mt. Inwang. On the southern facade, a unique brick pattern was used as a visual filter to screen the view of the building in front while allowing sunlight in. This unique pattern of bricks produces various shadow patterns by change of the time and the season, and makes the space rich and alive.

Main material of The West Village is bricks. We attempted to emphasise the natural quality of the materials and avoided using too many different materials.

Likewise, the interior was finished with paint rather than expensive, unique finish materials. Residential spaces on the 2nd and 3rd floors are partitioned by built-in furniture, which is integrated with lighting. Lightings were installed at the upper part of the furniture; the indirect light illuminates the ceilings.

Architect: Doojin Hwang (Doojin Hwang Architects)
Design team: Jeongyoon Choi
Location: Seoul
Year of completion: 2011
Floor: 3F + 1BF
Area: 209.83m²

Contractor: Janghak Construction
Structure engineer: Hwan Structural Engineers
Mechanical engineer: Daekyoung Engineering
Electric design: Daekyoung Engineering
Civil engineer: GeoTech Engineering & Consultants

Above: site plan – click for larger image

Above: basement floor plan – click for larger image

Above: intermediate floor plan – click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

Above: second floor plan – click for larger image

Above: cross section – click for larger image

Above: south elevation – click for larger image

Above: west elevation – click for larger image

Above: north elevation – click for larger image

Above: east elevation – click for larger image

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by Doojin Hwang Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Shanghai studio Archi-Union used differently sized bricks to make waves across the exterior of this restaurant and members’ club at a cultural heritage park in Chengdu, China (+ slideshow).

The architects used an algorithm to specify nine different brick types, which were laid by hand to create the wave-like texture across each wall.

Sloping roofs visually divide the longitudinal building into separate blocks and their curving shapes were designed by Archi-Union to reference mountains and rivers, as well as a typical form in Chinese architecture.

“The Lan Xi Curtilage is an interpretation of traditional Chinese architecture through the language of digital fabrication methods,” Archi-Union’s Crisie Yuan told Dezeen.

The restaurant and private club are positioned on opposite sides of a central courtyard, where pathways divide the lawn and dictate routes towards different rooms.

The Lan Xi Curtilage is located at the International Intangible Cultural Heritage Park, which plays host to a biennial festival dedicated to language, music, dance, storytelling, carnivals and rituals.

Earlier this year Archi-Union also completed a teahouse and library with twisted concrete walls.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Other recent stories from China include skyscrapers inspired by spacecraft and a village of towering apartment blocks in the mountains.

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

See more stories about design in China »
See more stories about brick buildings and projects »

Above: roof plan – click above for larger image

Photography is by Shen Zhonghai.

Here’s some more information from Archi-Union:

The Lan Xi Curtilage

The spatial layout of this project represents a new interpretation of a traditional South China Garden. The multiple layouts of the longitudinal residence and courtyard reflect a hierarchical and multi-dimensional spatial pattern of traditional gardens. The silhouettes of the building’s roof embody rolling mountains and rivers, and also function as metaphor of the traditional Chinese sloping roof culture.

Above: courtyard concept diagram – click above for larger image

The design of the ripple wall derived from a digital interpretation of water, a flexible yet natural conception. We developed an algorithm that mimicked the transient behavior of water, which could be frozen in time allowing a literal architectural expression of its transient behavior. We adapted this algorithm to process a traditional building material, blue bricks, in a staggered joint pattern, in the same way as it produced a surface before, creating a bonded brick pattern with the intrinsic dynamics of water, and providing a light and transparent effect as well as structural walls.

Above: brickwork pattern diagram – click above for larger image

The design focuses on developing an artistic pattern as well as on creating a feasible fabrication pattern. As a robotic arm was not available to lay the bricks automatically due to financial constraints, the masonry had to be completed manually in order to match the rigorous schedule of the three month construction period. Five kinds of brick joint template were devised and the joint gradient was achieved through the permutation and classification of the five template values, which were translated to a simple brick-laying schedule. The finished building is testament that light and shadow playing across the façade embody the dynamic effects of water. A careful combination of digital design and lo-tec fabrication to actualize digital fabrication exactly reflects the combination of digital technologies and local materials and fabrication.

Above: roof structure diagram – click above for larger image

Location: International Intangible Cultural Heritage Park, Chengdu, China
Client: Chengdu Qingyang Suburb Construction & Development Co., Ltd.
Area: Approx 4000m2
Design: June, 2008 – March, 2009
Construction: April, 2010 – October, 2011
Architect: Philip F. Yuan / Archi-Union Architect

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by Archi-Union appeared first on Dezeen.

Turkish studio Yerce Architecture have transformed the headquarters of a furniture company in Izmir into an indoor garden with an olive tree, a pergola, a parrot and a wavy wall of perforated bricks (+ slideshow).

The wall separates the office from a new corridor, which leads beneath a row of timber beams towards meeting rooms and toilets.

In the office, chairs and desks are surrounded by plants on a floor of unpolished travertine, which architect Nail Egemen Yerce explains was ”inspired by the piazzas of Italy”.

Four glass doors in the exposed blockwork side wall open up the room to a row of cypress trees just outside.

See more stories about office interiors on Dezeen »

Photography is by Emin Emrah Yerce.

Here’s some more information from Yerce Architecture:

OrfiSera

Looking at the design and realization process of the project one can notice that the challenge was to build up the perception of a firm through the ‘atmosphere’ it has and the ‘activities’ it hosts; instead of adopting a design approach which focused only on product display and aimed for a space with only showroom function.

Concept of ‘street’, ‘garden’ and ‘square’ were the key elements of the design. One was entering a luminous hall thanks to the light coming from its roof from a dimly lit existing showroom space. Naturally this was causing one’s eyes to be dazzled. We thought about connecting these two spaces with a buffer zone. In this way one could have entered to the luminous space with ‘slow’ but ‘balanced’ change of light after a curiousity awakening trip in a curvilinear path. This has become the expression of the ‘street’ idea. On one side our street we designed a brick wall in which the holes of the bricks were laid horizontally. This wall, as seen from the holes of the bricks forming it, gave mysterious information about the space lying behind it. Moreover the street was illuminated with the light passing through the holes of the bricks and thus its ground was showing the lacework created by light.

One full façade was facing amazing cypresses. We wanted to make this facade more transparent so that the exterior landscape could integrate with the inner space. Together with the transparency concept; a sculptural olive tree in the space, few bambu’s, ceiling ventilators circulating the air and a parrot reminding the tropical forests became the expression of the ‘garden’ idea.

Moreover we imagined a central space where various activities such as meetings, presentations, celebrations, plays, exhibitions, speeches can take place. We were inspired by the piazza’s of Italy made up of unpolished natural travertine. We chose the same material and used unpolished natural travertine in this central space which became the expression of ‘square’.

Last but not least, we realized that the abundant light which the space was receiving and the green plants it was containing made the space look like a greenhouse. This became the inspiration for the name of it, ORFISERA; ‘Orfis’, the name of the firm and ‘Sera’, greenhouse in Turkish.

Project name: OrfiSera
Client: Orfis Orçelik Office Furniture
Location: Izmir, TURKEY
Project year: 2011
Architect: YERce Architecture, Nail Egemen YERCE
Lighting design: YERce Architecture, Nail Egemen YERCE
Electrical engineer: Orfis Orçelik Office Furniture
Mechanical engineer: Orfis Orçelik Office Furniture
Construction: Nano Buildings, Hilmi Aydın NİĞDELİ
Landscape design: Nesil Landscape, Hakan ERDOĞAN

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Yerce Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.