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A concrete tunnel slices through the base of this Tokyo house by Japanese architect Makiko Tsukada, creating a round hole in the facade that reveals the underside of a staircase (+ slideshow).

Makiko Tsukada designed Tunnel House for a site facing a T-junction, so her concept was to produce a form that appears as a continuation of the road. The result is a curving container that cuts through the entire ground floor.

“Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual crossroads,” said Tsukada.

The rest of the house is planned around the tunnel, creating a series of unusual features that include a floating steel floor, a dining table beneath a staircase, a triple-height courtyard and a bedroom without a ceiling.

The architect categorises these spaces as uchi, which means “in the tunnel”, and soto, which means “out of the tunnel”.

“One of the visitors’ comments was that ‘tunnel-uchi’ and ‘tunnel-soto’ betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house,” she explained.

A glazed wall exposes the full outline of the tunnel from the house’s entrance. Inside, the structure is revealed to be wrapping around a pair of lidless boxes that contain the main bedroom and bathroom.

“From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire ‘tunnel-uchi’ space as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop,” said Tsukada.

Two double-height spaces behind the curving concrete accommodate a small study and a toilet. Glass doors lead out from spaces into the simple courtyard, which is sandwiched in between.

A staircase leads up onto the top of the tunnel, which doubles as a mezzanine walkway. Residents can then access a guest bedroom and dining room, located on the suspended steel floor that provides the uppermost storey.

The dining table sits over the stairwell and has a mirrored underside that creates upside-down reflections.

Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.

Read on for a project description from Makiko Tsukada:

Tunnel House

The site is at the end of a T-junction. Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual cross road. The interior space and the exterior space are connected by carving out a part of the volume along the extended axis of the street. The tunnel-like configuration is intended to activate both “uchi” (in the tunnel) and “soto” (out of the tunnel) spaces.

The open side of the quarter cylinder is enclosed by glass. The “tunnel-uchi” comprises two small boxes containing a bedroom and a bathroom respectively. The bedroom is enclosed by screen-like partitions and its ceiling is open. From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire “tunnel-uchi” space from there as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop.

The opening at the side of the tunnel is connected to the “tunnel-soto” space. “Tunnel-soto” space is an interior space where the light that is cascading down along the tunnel surface from the oblong top light and the light coming down from the courtyard intersect each other three-dimensionally.

When going up the stairs, one can see the entire “tunnel-soto” space. From the gap of the floating steel floor, one can see the reflected image of “tunnel-soto” space on the mirrored surface on the rear side of the tabletop on the second floor. The floating steel floor and the super-thin 6mm thick table give the space a surreal atmosphere of floating and expansion, while creating a sharp contrast with the immense volume of the tunnel.

One of the visitors’ comments was that “tunnel-uchi” space and “tunnel-soto” spaces betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house. By experiencing repeated reversals of the interior and the exterior spaces (betrayed feelings), one probably can feel a sense of expansion and openness in this tunnel house.

Location: Suginami-ku, Tokyo
Structure: Reinforced Concrete and Steel
Principal Use: Residence, Office
Site Area: 82.39m2
Total Floor Area: 87.17m2 (43.65m2/1F, 43.52m2/2F)
Structural Engineer: Taizen Nieda and Taizo Komatsu

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Tokyo house by Makiko Tsukada appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: British artist Sarah Lucas presents her debut furniture collection, made from concrete blocks and MDF, in Milan tonight (+ slideshow).

The 14 limited-edition pieces have been created for the Sadie Coles gallery in London in collaboration with the London Art Workshop.

The range includes tables, chairs, benches, a desk, and a free-standing partition wall made from materials previously used as plinths and platforms to display Lucas’ artwork. Each piece is numbered, stamped and signed by the artist.

The concrete breeze blocks used in the pieces are identically sized and have been embedded horizontally or vertically into the pale wooden frames, creating a grid-like appearance.

Lucas said she used the materials because they are “meaningful in terms of their uses in the outside world. They say a lot and are also low key, they don’t overwhelm the sculptures.”

The rough concrete and the smooth but sharp-edged MDF are in stark contrast to one another. Lucas said the result was “surprisingly stylish” and the texture and colour “both seem very real'”.

The largest piece in the collection is the freestanding partition wall, a structure made from 10 by 10 concrete blocks that have been set in a uniform grid.

The smallest is a table made of just one block that can slide in and out of its frame.

Other pieces include a bench and chair, both of which Lucas intended as stand-alone pieces for a gallery.

The bench is made of 16 blocks set vertically in the MDF frame. It uses blocks for both the back and the seat and can seat four people. The chair consists of eight blocks set horizontally into the MDF.

The collection will be shown in a private view from 17.00 – 20.00 today at Via San Gregorio 43 / Via Casati 32
20124 Milano.

Here’s some more information about the collection:

Sadie Coles HQ presents Sarah Lucas Furniture

From 8th to 12th April 2014, Sadie Coles HQ presents 14 limited edition, numbered, stamped and signed new furniture designs by the British artist Sarah Lucas, on display at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano. These limited editions – each numbered, stamped and signed – mark a dramatic new development in Lucas’s practice. Materials that previously acted as plinths and platforms for her artworks have been reconfigured into stand-alone pieces including tables, chairs, benches, a desk, and a freestanding partition wall.

Produced in collaboration with specialist fabricators the London Art Workshop, Sarah Lucas Furniture (2013) comprises mass-produced, basic construction materials – concrete breeze blocks and MDF – that have pervaded Lucas’ art for several years. For each of the pieces, identically sized and exactingly arranged breeze blocks have been embedded into hard edged, minimalist MDF frameworks, creating a brutalist kind of inlay or ‘intarsia’, the antique practice of setting wood or stone within a surface.

Lucas describes the concrete and MDF materials as “surprisingly stylish”, pinpointing their appeal through their “texture, colour – both of which seem very ‘real'”. To Lucas, using these versatile materials is “meaningful in terms of their uses in the outside world. They say a lot and are also low key, they don’t overwhelm the sculptures.”

In Lucas’ furniture, concrete fulfils both a functional and aesthetic role, serving as durable readymade building blocks while investing the furniture with a uniform utilitarian appearance. Indeed the grid-like appearance of the breeze blocks in the objects call to mind the modular compositions of Minimalist artists such as Donald Judd and Carl Andre.

This can be witnessed especially in the monumentalism of the free standing wall from the series. Certain of the works have been specifically designed by Lucas as gallery furniture – as seats to be placed within a larger exhibition of the artist’s work.

Sarah Lucas Furniture also echoes the artist’s long-term use of furniture as anthropomorphic sculptural apparatus. Chairs especially have often featured in sculptures as stand-ins for the human body. In the series, Bunny (1997 – onwards), the chair was a key component of the work – stuffed tights clamped to chair legs implied splayed legs in an ambiguous expression of either sexual availability or vulnerability. One implication of this new body of work is that real human bodies have assumed the place, or status, of sculptures.

Overt and often comic literalism has long been a hallmark of Lucas’ work, above all in her use of found real-life objects such as toilets, cigarettes and furniture. That literalist quality is extended in these functioning pieces: their radical blurring of art and life recalls earlier conflations of sculpture and useable furniture by artists such as Franz West, with whom Lucas collaborated on several occasions, and the American artist Scott Burton.

The post Sarah Lucas uses concrete breeze blocks
to create first furniture range appeared first on Dezeen.

This movie by Mexican film agency Nation tours the school of art, design and architecture that Japanese architect Tadao Ando completed last year at the University of Monterrey in Mexico.

The Centro Roberto Garza Sada, also known as the Gate of Creation, is a chunky concrete block designed by Tadao Ando with triangular slices across its two sides to create the appearance of a twisted structure.

Rectangular voids at each end expose stairwells and an open-air amphitheatre, while entrances are located beneath the shelter of the building’s raised underside.

The six-storey interior is organised so that each floor accommodates different departments, encompassing digital facilities, visual arts, textiles, photography, model-making and fashion. Overall, the building accommodates studios and teaching rooms for 300 students.

See more photographs of the Centro Roberto Garza Sada in an earlier story on Dezeen.

Photography is by Roberto Ortiz. Movie is by Nation.

The post Movie: Tadao Ando’s art and design school
for University of Monterrey appeared first on Dezeen.

Chunky concrete slabs alternate with deeply recessed windows on the exterior of this Sydney house extension by Australian firm Nobbs Radford Architects (+ slideshow).

Named Glebe House, the two-storey annex was designed by Nobbs Radford Architects to provide the family residence with a new open-plan living and dining space, as well as extra bedroom and bathroom spaces.

The structure is located at the rear of the existing property, creating a new elevation facing the garden. Doors and windows are set right back from the facade, creating the illusion that walls are almost a metre thick.

“The depth of the rear facade creates an interstitial threshold, which is a space in itself to be occupied and provides a sense of enclosure,” said studio founders Alison Nobbs and Sean Radford.

Bare concrete surfaces continue into the interior, but are contrasted with warmer elements that include oak furniture and joinery, as well as pine floors.

A double-height space sits behind the facade, while a series of alcoves are created by the stepped arrangement of the walls.

“The project is primarily focused on the interconnections of cloistered spaces and selected framed openings,” said the architects.

The ground floor space is left open-plan. A breakfast counter divides the kitchen from the lounge area, while a family dining table fits into a space at the rear.

A wooden staircase with shelves slotted into the sides of its treads leads upstairs, arriving at a mezzanine study that overlooks the room below.

A new bedroom is tucked away on one side and opens out to a rooftop balcony.

Photography is by Murray Fredericks.

Here’s a project description from Nobbs Radford Architects:

Glebe House – a family home in Sydney, Australia

The project is primarily focused on the interconnections of cloistered spaces and selected framed openings. The outer concrete elements contrast with the timber elements that further define the various internal zones and functions within the house.

The depth of the rear facade creates an interstitial threshold, which is a space in itself to be occupied and provide a sense of enclosure.

The idea is to create intermediating spaces that ground the house in relation to both its interior and exterior. Within the house the void acts as a centralising space via which other areas of the house interconnect.

The stacking of the elements of the facade are contrasted by the seeming point loading at the exterior. The interior reveals the alternate nature where the structural loads are revealed. This duality through the facade re-emphasises the nature of the threshold space itself.

Complimenting materials of near raw continuous length floorboards and a restrained palette of black aluminium, black steel, stainless steel and oak appear throughout the house and create a cohesive connection between original and new. These materials were selected, partially, so as not to compete with the ornate patterning of the original house along with their own inherent qualities.

The project’s fundamental rationale is to create a family home that recognised the various needs of the occupiers, spaces for children and adults with a flexibility for both retreat and engagement.

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extends a Sydney residence appeared first on Dezeen.