The Design Museum will host the exhibition of shortlisted projects for its annual Designs of the Year awards, which honour exemplary projects completed in the past year.
A selection of the 76 projects nominated for the Design of the Year title will be displayed, including a mobile phone you can build yourself and a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon.
Dezeen readers can also receive 25 percent off the admission price when booking online and using the code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Competition closes 9 April 2014. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
Lego Calendar designed by Adrian Westaway, Clara Gaggero, Duncan Fitzsimons, Simon Emberton. Photograph by Adrian Westaway
Here’s some more information from the Design Museum:
Five pairs of tickets to see Designs of the Year 2014 at the Design Museum
Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.
Chineasy created by ShaoLan Hsueh with Illustrations by Noma Bar. Photograph by Brave New World
Featuring Kate Moss’s favourite app, a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, friendly lamp posts, a mobile phone you can build yourself and many others, Designs of the Year 2014 include international design stars such as Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada, alongside crowd-funded start ups and student projects.
ME.WE: Forward-Thinking Car designed by Massaud & Toyota ED2. Photograph Small Dots
This not to be missed exhibition is a clear reflection of everything that is current and exciting in the world. Someday the other museums will be showing this stuff.
The Gourmand: A Food and Culture Journal created by David Lane (Creative Director), Marina Tweed and David Lane (Founders/Editors-in-chief). Photograph courtesy of The Gourmand
As a Dezeen reader, you can also receive 25% off regular admission price when pre-booking here and using code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Dita von Tease in A Magazine Curated By Stephan Jones illustrated by David Downton
News: Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has been named as the designer of this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion and is proposing a translucent domed structure of white fibreglass.
The shell-like pavilion will rest on a bed of huge rocks, based on the Castle of the Selfish Giant imagined by nineteenth-century author Oscar Wilde.
“Externally, the visitor will see a fragile shell suspended on large quarry stones,” said Radic. “This shell – white, translucent and made of fibreglass – will house an interior organised around an empty patio, from where the natural setting will appear lower, giving the sensation that the entire volume is floating.”
The translucent fibreglass will allow the structure to glow after dark. “At night, thanks to the semi-transparency of the shell, the amber tinted light will attract the attention of passers-by, like lamps attracting moths,” said the architect.
Smiljan Radic – a 48-year-old architect who before now has built little outside of his native Chile – will be one of the youngest and least-known architects selected by the Serpentine Gallery in the 14-year history of the programme.
“We have been intrigued by his work ever since our first encounter with him at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2011,” said Serpentine Gallery directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
“Radic is a key protagonist of an amazing architectural explosion in Chile. While enigmatically archaic, in the tradition of romantic follies, Radic’s designs for the Pavilion also look excitingly futuristic, appearing like an alien space pod that has come to rest on a Neolithic site. We cannot wait to see his Pavilion installed on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn this summer.”
The pavilion will open to the public on 26 June and will remain in Kensington Gardens until 19 October.
Here’s the full press release from the Serpentine Gallery:
Chilean architect Smiljan Radic to design Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014
The Serpentine has commissioned Chilean architect Smiljan Radic to design the Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014. Radic is the fourteenth architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion outside the entrance to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. The commission is one of the most anticipated events in the cultural calendar, and has become one of London’s leading summer attractions since launching in 2000.
Smiljan Radic’s design follows Sou Fujimoto’s cloud-like structure, which was visited by almost 200,000 people in 2013 and was one of the most visited Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, 2012; Peter Zumthor, 2011; Jean Nouvel, 2010; Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, 2009; Frank Gehry, 2008; Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007; Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup, 2006; Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005; MVRDV with Arup, 2004 (un-realised); Oscar Niemeyer, 2003; Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond – with Arup, 2002; Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001; and Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural Pavillion in 2000.
Occupying a footprint of some 350 square metres on the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery, plans depict a semi-translucent, cylindrical structure, designed to resemble a shell, resting on large quarry stones. Radic’s Pavilion has its roots in his earlier work, particularly The Castle of the Selfish Giant, inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, and the Restaurant Mestizo, part of which is supported by large boulders. Design as a flexible, multi-purpose social space with a café sited inside, the Pavilion will entice visitors to enter and interact with it in different ways throughout its four-month tenure in the Park. On selected Friday nights, between July and September, the Pavilion will become the stage for the Serpentine’s Park Nights series, sponsored by COS: eight site-specific events bring together art, poetry, music, film, literature and theory and include three new commissions by emerging artists Lina Lapelyte, Hannah Perry and Heather Phillipson. Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014 launces during the London Festival of Architecture 2014,  Smiljan Radic has completed the majority of his structures in Chile. His commissions range from public buildings, such as the Civic Neighbourhoods, Concepción, Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, Restaurant Mestizo, Santiago, and the Vik Winery, Millahue, and domestic buildings, such as Copper House 2, Talca, Pite House, Papudo, and the House for the Poem of the Right Angle, Vilches, to small and seemingly fragile buildings, such as the Extension to Charcoal Burner’s House, Santa Rosa, The Wardrobe and the Mattress, Tokyo, Japan, and The Bus Stop Commission, Kumbranch, Austria. Considerate of social conditions, environments and materials, Smiljan Radic moves freely across boundaries with his work, avoiding any specific categorisation within one field of architecture. This versatility enables him to respond to the demands of each setting, whether spatial constraints of an urban site or extreme challenges presented by a remote rural setting, mountainous terrain or the rocky coastline of his native Chile.
AECOM will again provide engineering and technical design services, as it did for the first time in 2013. In addition, AECOM will also be acting as cost and project manager for the 2014 Pavilion. While this is the second Serpentine Pavilion for AECOM, its global chief executive for building engineering, David Glover, has worked on the designs for a majority of the Pavilions to date. The Serpentine is delighted that J.P. Morgan Private Bank is the co-headline sponsor of this year’s Pavilion.
News: residents of a Brutalist housing development in London have persuaded Channel 4 to screen a home-made version of the broadcaster’s ident after a lengthy campaign against its “inaccurate” portrayal of life on the estate.
The offending ident is used by Channel 4 as programs are introduced and depicts a desolate concrete urban environment strewn with rubbish, washing lines and satellite dishes.
“The ident includes embellishments such as bin bags, discarded shopping trolleys and graffiti — all added in post production,” explained community worker Charlotte Benstead. “The Aylesbury has had a long and undeserved reputation. Channel 4 is just emphasising the negatives.”
“It’s a bad thing,” Benstead added. “It points a finger at anyone living on a 1970’s estate and makes a statement about how people there live.”
Still from the original Channel 4 ident
Attention has focused on the ten-year-old ident following a recent campaign by tenants to force it off the air. As part of the battle, Aylesbury’s residents teamed up with filmmaker Nick Street to create a new version of Channel 4’s original.
“Residents are fed up with seeing their homes on Channel 4 shown to be dirty and messy,” said Benstead. “We wanted to remake it showing how the estate really is.”
Following continued pressure from the community and widespread media coverage, Channel 4 has offered to showcase the community’s version “based on liking the creative, not on a belief that the original is wrong and needs to be replaced.”
Still from the original Channel 4 ident
Channel 4 refutes all claims that they have created negative perceptions of the community and vows to continue broadcasting the ident.
In an email to campaign organisers, Channel 4’s Charlie Palmer stated that the ident is “a conceptual creative which doesn’t claim to represent a specific place and is never identified as the Aylesbury estate.”
Channel 4 will broadcast the ident created by Nick Street on Friday 14 March at 9pm after it’s introduced by an announcer. Residents have been promised a preview of the script but are yet to see it.
The Aylesbury estate was designed in 1963 to house 10,000 people in response to the chronic housing shortage of the day by Austrian architect Hans Peter Trenton. The project was the largest, most ambitious postwar public housing scheme in Europe at the time.
In 1971 the first tenants moved in and the estate’s architecture quickly came under attack. As architect and city planner Oscar Newman toured the estate for BBC’s Horizon program in 1974, his conclusion was that modern architecture actually encouraged people to commit crime.
Victim of cost-cutting and poor construction, the Aylesbury became emblematic of the shortcomings of postwar public housing and a byword for crime and poverty. Incoming prime minister Tony Blair used the Aylesbury estate in 1997 to deliver a message that there would be “no more forgotten people” in Britain. Despite the setbacks, in 2001 the majority of residents voted against its demolition.
British architect Richard Overs has converted a deserted bakery in Cambridge, England, into a modern home for his family (+ slideshow).
Overs, a director at NRAP Architects, renovated both the bakery and a small accompanying house to create the two-storey residence called The Nook, then tied the two buildings together by adding a black-painted timber structure in between.
The architect said the two separate structures lent themselves perfectly to the arrangement of a home: “The large space within the bakery provides flexible living space, whilst the smaller rooms within the baker’s house are ideally suited to bedrooms.”
Accessed via a private lane, the house’s facade is a wall made from a combination of light and dark bricks. An entrance leads through the wall into the new wooden structure, which contains a lobby and staircase.
The hallway leads through to the large room formerly used as bakery. With high ceilings and white-painted wooden trusses, the space creates a flexible living, dining and kitchen space.
A wall of glazing opens the kitchen out to a secluded courtyard located behind the facade, while a series of glass doors also lead out to a second courtyard at the rear.
Skylights bring additional daylight into the living space, while floors are covered with painted plywood boards. The kitchen worktops are salvaged from the architect’s previous kitchen.
“Our attitude to the fabric of the building was quite relaxed; elements of value were retained, others were removed,” explained Overs.
The hallway features a wall of exposed clay bricks, revealing the former facade of the small detached house, which contains a pair of bedrooms on each floor.
Here’s a project description from architect Richard Owers:
From Bakehouse to our House
Richard Owers, director of NRAP Architects, describes the process of converting a disused bakery in Cambridge into a home for his family.
The Nook …….. is where the hearth is!
“Converting The Nook was an important moment in my architectural career, the significance of which was increased by the death of my father the previous year. He had inspired me at a very early age to become an architect and throughout my career suggested it was important to live in ones own creation. Finally firing up the hearth at The Nook was therefore rather poignant.”
Rescue Operation
“An often overlooked challenge for architects interested in sustainability is how to adapt existing buildings in a creative and cost effective manner. This project demonstrates how a building with little apparent architectural value can be rescued through good design. It also illustrates that demanding physical and budgetary constraints require creative solutions, and that calculated risk-taking can overcome the difficulties of a cautious mortgage market.”
Dereliction
In October 2010 Richard Owers of NRAP Architects spotted a ramshackle bakery and detached house in south Cambridge. The bakery, more recently used as a launderette, was disused and boarded up. The baker’s house had been privately rented and was in very poor condition. The two buildings were stranded behind a parade of shops, within a sea of car parking, at the end of a tarmac drive. As a place to live it had little going for it – or that was the general perception.
The existing two-up-two-down house was entered off a forecourt, directly into a central room that doubled as entrance hall and dining room. A living room and kitchen were accessed off opposing corners of the dining room. The same pattern was repeated at first floor, with entry to the bathroom via a bedroom.
The Solution
A walled garden in front of the bakery provides privacy to the living spaces and definition to the forecourt. A black-stained, timber-clad structure was added to the house to link it to the bakery and provide a new entrance hall and staircase. The existing staircase was removed to provide storage space in bedrooms. A right of way, passing along the north edge of the bakery, presented a privacy and security problem that was overcome by blocking-up all but one of the existing openings on the north façade. In the remaining opening translucent glass replaces a timber door. Large windows in the south facade were introduced to re-orientate the living spaces to the back garden.
Expanding Space
In a tight urban context the balance between privacy, light, and views is hard won. An increased sense of space, achieved through large openings with strong connections to the outside, is often at odds with privacy requirements. The following images show how this was achieved.
Image showing the original bakery and detached house
Inside Outside
The walled garden has the feeling of a living room, carpeted in white pebbles with a planted edge and a Tibetan Cherry tree for shade. A large sliding-folding door allows the living spaces to extend into the garden, and the garden to extend into the living space.
Views through the building and of external spaces are carefully controlled. The walled garden is first glimpsed from the front doormat and again at the foot of the staircase. It is not until one enters the living space that uninterrupted views of both front and back gardens are possible. Natural light plays on the different materials and surfaces to create an ethereal atmosphere that changes throughout the day and with the seasons.
The space within the entrance hall expands vertically up to the first floor as you penetrate the building. A roof light above brings natural light into the heart of the space.
A compelling architectural diagram for contemporary living combines a compact arrangement of bedrooms with open-plan living spaces. The contrasting form and geometries of the two existing buildings lent itself perfectly to this arrangement. The large space within the bakery provides flexible living space, divided by free-standing storage and island units, whilst the smaller rooms within the baker’s house are ideally suited to bedrooms.
The staircase is an exciting place to stop. In recognition of this we created an extended landing at the top, overlooking the entrance hall. The landing is large enough for a writing desk and chair.
Rescuing a dilapidated building is an intrinsically sustainable thing to do. Our attitude to the fabric of the building was quite relaxed; elements of value were retained, others were removed. The lintel over the original front door for example was reused above the fire place as a focus to the living space.
Brickwork to the original external wall of the house is exposed in the hallway, in contrast with the smooth plaster used elsewhere. Painted plywood, usually used as a sub-floor, has been laid directly on rigid insulation over the original concrete floor. Low energy florescent lights are discretely hidden behind a timber pelmet, and kitchen worktops and units were salvaged from my previous kitchen.
As soon as our offer on the property was accepted I commenced the design to enable a planning application to be lodged immediately after ‘exchange’ of contracts. A period of six weeks between exchange and completion was agreed, to parallel the statutory planning period and allow just enough time to prepare construction information. Unfortunately the council took three weeks to merely validate the application, so construction was commenced, at some risk, prior to receiving planning permission. The pressure of paying two mortgages made it essential to compress the construction program. A contract was negotiated with a local builder prepared to wait until we had re-mortgaged to get the majority of his money. Construction was completed in three months and the property re-mortgaged immediately after.
London studio PATALAB Architecture made the most of the space inside this awkward-shaped residence in the north of the city by running a staircase along the entire rear wall and adding a door that folds around a corner (+ slideshow).
PATALAB Architecture inserted the two-storey apartment into the converted upper levels of a historic shop building in Hampstead Village. The team planned the interior as a series of tiers, hence the name Cascade House.
The first step in the renovation was to add an extra storey at the rear of the building. The architects then created a long route that leads directly from the entrance all the way up to this new top level, allowing it to function as both corridor and stairwell.
Skylights bring natural light into the stairwell, while inside walls are lined with pine panels that have been sand-blasted and stained black.
“This was one of our most challenging design projects in terms of creating a sense of space at a very confined site in a listed building,” said studio founder Uwe Schmidt-Hess. “By introducing the internal timber panelled staircase facade and creating a very intense spatial sequence, the apartment feels much bigger than it actually is.”
The timber staircase treads are also stained black, as are floors throughout the apartment, helping to create a sense of unity through each of the spaces.
Upon entering, the first room to arrive at is the combined living room and kitchen. The unusual door sits at one of the corners of this space, comprising two halves that concertina into the wall so that they don’t get in the way when open.
There’s also a window between this room and the stairwell to help light filter between the two spaces.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Cascade House
‘Cascade’ staircase and right-angled door boost the sense of living space at a listed building conversion in Hampstead Village, London.
Building a luxury two-bedroom apartment as an extension to the modestly sized dimensions of an existing retail premises in this Georgian building in the very heart of London’s Hampstead village, while providing occupants with a heightened sense of living space, was the design challenge for PATALAB Architecture.
The Grade II listed building, on the corner of Hampstead High Street and Perrin’s Court, consists of three storeys of floor space. The rear of the building extends to two floors. The design solution for creating a two-storey dwelling and giving it a feeling of enhanced space was to create a new mansard-roofed third storey at the rear of the building. This has maximised the headroom in the new living room/kitchen area inside while minimising visual mass externally, thereby satisfying the listed building requirements of the local planning authority.
A new access staircase for the apartment runs for most of the building’s depth, at the back of the new accommodation, adding to the sense of space. There is a short, right angled turn at the foot of it, leading to the street entrance door. The visual effect of the continuous fall of black-stained timber staircase treads, together with the double storey living space, has given the new dwelling its name, Cascade House.
The staircase is well lit by roof skylights and has a grain textured facade of pine panels one side of it which has been sandblasted to enhance the surface texture and stained black to increase the graphic effect. This gives an impressive, continuous, feature-like quality to the entrance space.
The sense of space has been further enhanced by the creation of a right-angled entrance door to the living room/kitchen area, an unique design feature. An internal window in the living room wall provides extra daylight exposure to the stairwell, as well as providing a double light aspect to the living space.
British studio Hugh Strange Architects has transformed an agricultural barn in Somerset, England, into a family archive building by inserting a new timber structure within the dilapidated brick and stone shell.
Located on a working farm amongst a mixture of barns and sheds dating from the nineteenth century through to the present day, the building was designed by Hugh Strange Architects to store the architectural archives of the client and farm.
The architects stabilised and repaired the walls and roof of the old stone and brick barn, before inserting two new timber structures inside.
Both of these new structures were constructed from a single layer of cross-laminated timber panels, which required no insulation, external cladding or internal lining. They are identical in volume, but subtly differentiated in their fenestration and fit-out.
“We choose timber because it provides a stable environment for the drawings in the collection – both thermally and in terms of relative humidity,” Hugh Strange told Dezeen. “It is also a wonderfully warm material and has many sustainability benefits.”
The south building provides a drawing archive and display space and is light from above by a skylight.
The north building provides an office space and features large French windows that offer views to the woods outside.
In contrast to the engineered spruce construction, the buildings are fitted out with hardwood floor mats made from timber felled from the surrounding woodlands and dried in the neighbouring wood store.
Inside, wall-mounted timber display cases are used to display drawings from the archive. “The edges are detailed with hessian and the stitches are deliberately not cut off on the back side to reveal the process,” said Strange.
Here’s a project description from Hugh Strange Architects:
Architecture Archive, Somerset
Site & Brief
Located within the context of a working Somerset farmyard, the new building provides an office and store that houses the client’s architectural and family archives.
The project sits within an agricultural valley in a mix of buildings that includes a large farmhouse, a converted Dairy Cottage, a traditional wood store and a mix of barns and sheds that date from the 19th Century, through the 1970’s, to a recently completed cow shed.
Layout & Form
The dilapidated walls and roof of an old stone and brick barn have been removed and the remaining walls carefully stabilised and repaired.
Within these walls two timber structures have been inserted with a single new roof over-sailing the whole composition and providing a covered entrance. The two new timber buildings are identical in their volumes but subtly differentiated in their fenestration and fit-out.
The south building provides a drawing archive and display space and is predominantly top lit by a generous roof light.
The north building provides an office space and is characterised by large French windows that offer views to the woods outside. To the rear of the building a modest external space is provided, enclosed by the retaining wall to the sloping side of the valley, with a generous external stair providing access up to the surrounding woodlands.
Construction & Environment
The new building shell is constructed of a single layer of solid wood without insulation, external cladding or internal lining. The Cross-Laminated Timber panels range from 300mm to 420mm in thickness and simultaneously provide insulation and thermal mass, creating a stable internal environment for the archive in terms of its temperature and relative humidity.
The simple timber forms sit on a rough in-situ cast concrete base and are protected by a profiled cement roof similar to those of the surrounding barns. The vented space between the timber and the roof cladding prevents overheating during hot summer months.
In contrast to the engineered Spruce construction, the buildings are fit-out with hardwood floor ‘mats’ using timber felled from the surrounding woodlands and dried in the neighbouring wood store.
Rough-sawn cedar floorboards to the office and smooth-sanded and oiled ash and beech to the archive distinguish the different characters of the spaces.
Architect: Hugh Strange Architects Structural Timber: Eurban / Stora Enso Structural Engineer: Price & Myers Joinery: Andrew Balls Display Panels: Jude Dennis / Lars Wagner Construction Manager: Paul Rawson Budget: £250,000
Nicknamed “the cheesegrater”, the 224-metre office tower was designed by Richard Rogers’ firm for a site beside the architect’s celebrated Lloyds Building and features one sloping facade to maintain views towards St Paul’s Cathedral.
The exterior of the 50-structure is expressed as a series of constituent parts. A glazed curtain wall sits over the criss-crossing steel grid fronting the office floors, while a ladder frame encases the fire-fighting cores, and a circulation tower runs up the northern side of the building.
Scheduled for completion later this year, The Leadenhall will house offices in its upper levels, but the base will accommodate a seven-storey-high public space filled with shops and restaurants.
Here’s a description of the building from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners:
The Leadenhall Building
The building comprises a number of distinct architectural elements that provide clarity to the composition both as a whole and as a legible expression of its constituent parts. These elements include the primary stability structure, the ladder frame, the office floor plates, the northern support core, the external envelope and the public realm.
The structure aims to reinforce the geometry defined by the development envelope, which in turn creates the distinctive tapering form, and takes the form of a perimeter braced ‘tube’ that defines the extent of the floor plates. The ladder frame contributes to the vertical emphasis of the building, and encloses the fire-fighting cores that serve the office floors. The frame also visually anchors the building to the ground.
The office floors take the form of simple rectangular floor plates which progressively diminish in depth by 750 millimetres towards the apex. Office floors are connected to the structural ‘tube’ at every floor level without the need for secondary vertical columns at the perimeter.
The northern support core is conceived as a detached tower containing all passenger and goods lifts, service risers, on-floor plant and WCs. Three groups of passenger lifts serve the low, mid and high rise sections of the building, and are connected by two transfer lobbies at levels ten and 24.
The position of the northern support core relative to the office areas means that the structure is not required to be over-clad with fire protection, allowing the whole to be designed and expressed as visible steelwork. This articulated steel frame provides clarity to the whole assemblage.
The highly transparent glazed enclosure makes manifest the structure and movement systems within; its physical presence is a striking and dynamic addition to the City and a unique spectacle for the enjoyment for passers-by.
The building is designed to express all the constituent elements behind a single glazed envelope. Facades to the office areas require the highest comfort criteria in relation to heat loss, daylight, glare control and solar gain. Here, the facade is supplemented with an internal layer of double-glazing, forming a cavity which incorporates the structural frame.
The external glazing incorporates vents at node levels to allow outside air to enter and discharge from the cavity. Controlled blinds in the cavity automatically adjust to limit unwanted solar gain and glare.
The lower levels of the building are recessed on a raking diagonal to create a large public space that opens up to the south. The spectacular scale of the semi-enclosed, cathedral-like space is without precedent in London and will create a major new meeting place and a unique destination in itself.
Overlooking the space are generous terrace areas within a bar and restaurant that provide animation and views into the public space and beyond. This enclosure is open at ground level to give access from all directions. The public space is fully accessible by means of a large, gently raked surface connecting St Helen’s Square with Leadenhall Street.
London studio Levitate have reinstated access to a sixteenth-century English castle by repairing stonework and slotting a continuous oak walkway into the ruined shell.
Built on a cliff edge in Dorset, Sandsfoot Castle is under constant attack from coastal erosion and as a result had been unsafe for visitors since the 1930s. Levitate was commissioned to carry out a conservation project so the castle could be reopened to the public.
Levitate designed a lightweight walkway that slots into the internal space of the ruin. It traces the ruined walls, touching the fabric of the castle in as few places as possible.
“It is versatile; providing a backdrop to performances, concerts, re-enactments and a meeting place,” the architects told Dezeen.
The walkway is installed at what used to be ground level, providing a gallery-like space that allows visitors to occupy the castle as it had been historically.
“Setting the walkway at this level makes it possible to step off the new surface and into the deep window reveals, allowing the castle to be better appreciated,” added the architects.
On the coastal side, the walkway juts out into a doorway to create a balcony with views across the harbour.
The walkway is constructed of oak boards that sit on top of a galvanised steel frame. These materials were chosen for their low maintenance and ability to withstand the harsh coastal environment.
A continuous oiled-oak handrail runs around the inside of the walkway, designed as a place to lean.
Sandsfoot Castle is one of 24 projects shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects 2014. The winner will be announced next month.
Here’s a project description from Levitate:
Sandsfoot Castle
Sandsfoot Castle was built by Henry VIII between 1539 and 1541 to work with Portland Castle to protect the waters of the Portland Roads against the threat of foreign invasion. Standing on the cliff edge the castle has been under attack from coastal erosion since it was built. Most of the ashlar stone has been lost to local building projects and thieves. The castle has been closed to the public since the 1930s.
The project was part funded by the HLF with Weymouth & Portland Borough Council providing match funding, and consisted of conservation treatment to the castle stonework and the insertion of a new lightweight walkway to open the castle up to the public once more. The work was completed on time and on budget, opening in the summer of 2012 to be enjoyed as part of the Olympic events being held in the town, the location of the sailing and windsurfing events.
Addressing the historic problems of cliff erosion and stone theft, the stone conservation work was carried out in lime mortars, with small scale reinforcement and supporting interventions to conserve the castle as found. Soft cappings were installed on the wall tops as an alternative to the existing cement cappings.
The new walkway allows public access to the castle and encourages local ownership of the site. It was designed to be a lightweight element sitting elegantly within the ruined castle at the level of the former floor. It touches the castle fabric in as few places as possible. Peeping out through a doorway on the seaward side it allows a view of Portland Harbour that the castle was built to protect, and its sister castle, Portland. The continuous timber handrail provides a comfortable place to lean and is supported by two continuous rows of balusters.
Galvanised steel was chosen as a robust and economic material for both the structure of the walkway and to form barriers to accessing the interior of the castle walls. It is accompanied by sawn oak boards and an oiled oak handrail. The simple palette complements the rough castle walls in a functional but pleasingly tactile way.
Interpretation panels telling the history of the castle were also prepared by Levitate.
Project name: Sandsfoot Castle Location: Weymouth, Somerset Client: The Friends of Sandsfoot Castle and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council Conservation Architect and Architect: Levitate Structural Engineer: Paul Carpenter Associates Contractor: Sally Strachey Historic Conservation (castle conservation) Bridmet (walkway and balustrades) Value: £165,000 Date of Completion: June 2012 Shortlisted for the 2013 Galvanizers Awards and the 2014 AJ Small projects Award
Hidden at the bottom of a London garden, this glowing shed by British studio Weston, Surman & Deane was designed as a writing retreat for an author (+ slideshow).
Weston, Surman & Dean was asked to build a studio that reflected the client’s passion for children’s literature and mythology, and responded by creating a whimsical cabin that features a back-lit facade.
The inner facade of the Writer’s Shed is shingle-clad with a glazed sliding door that opens out to a covered veranda facing back towards the house. A cedar screen fronts the veranda and gaps between the narrow slats allow light to shine out at night.
The architects said that the wood was chosen for its reliance and sensitivity to ageing, “complimenting the role of the shed as a place of changing ideas and production.”
Tucked away behind the cedar frame are logs to be used in the wood burning stove that heats the shed, which sits on concrete paving slabs and leans against the gable wall. Oiled chipboard bookcases for the writer’s library fill the space around it and painted pine boards cover the floor.
A reclaimed sink with garden taps and a brass splash back sits on one of the shelves.
A large skylight in the asymmetric pitch roof above fills the workspace with natural light.
Weston, Surman & Deane, also known as WSD Architecture, was launched by three Royal College of Art architecture graduates after they completed their first project, the Royal College of Art Student Union Cafe.
The Writer’s Shed is one of 24 projects shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects Award 2014. The winner will be announced next month.
Here’s a project description from Weston, Surman & Deane:
Writer’s Shed
WSD Architecture were commissioned by an author and illustrator to design & build a ‘writer’s shed’. Capitalising on their multi-disciplinary backgrounds WSD acted as designers, project managers, and lead contractors.
The design responds to the client’s passion for children’s literature and mythologies.The space is conceived as a haven in the city; a fairy-tale hut at the bottom of the garden where the client can retreat and immerse himself in his work.
Externally, the glowing cedar facade, shingle cladding, log store and chimney all play a part in creating this world. Inside, a large north-facing skylight floods the workspace with natural light. On the gable wall, a bookcase meanders around the wood burning stove, providing a centre piece for the client to store his library of books. Looking back out over the garden, the glazed sliding door gives onto a covered verandah – a space perfect to enjoy the very worst of the British weather.
Pale bricks are arranged in a herringbone pattern on the outer walls of this compact house in north-east London that local architect Zoe Chan designed and built for herself (+ slideshow).
The Atelier ChanChan principal wanted the house to relate to the Victorian terraces that characterise London’s housing stock but to also have its own character, so she chose a steel frame infilled with a non-load-bearing herringbone brickwork, instead of the typical English and Flemish brick bonds.
“The choice to use brick creates a visual reference to the masonry construction of this particular street,” Chan told Dezeen. “However this isn’t a terrace, it’s quite different in character, so I chose to create my own personal expression using brickwork as the basis.”
Named Herringbone House, the two-storey structure slots into a non-linear plot that previously accommodated a series of derelict buildings, all of which had to be demolished beforehand. “It was in such bad repair, so everything needed to come down,” said Chan.
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that light would be able to reach all parts of the 30-metre-long plot. As such, the house takes on an L-shaped plan that wraps around private courtyards at the front and back to allow light to permeate both floors.
Two skylights puncture the gabled roof to draw extra light in from above. One sits directly above the stairwell, where Chan has added a steel staircase with open risers to allow more light through.
For the interior, white-washed timber floors and surfaces are complemented by Scandinavian furniture, and a variety of soft grey and pinkish hues.
“I wanted to use materials that are very natural but also warm,” said Chan. “The idea was to maximise light, but I didn’t want it to be sterile, so I drew inspiration from Scandinavian architecture and its light natural palettes.”
An open-plan layout on the ground floor brings the living room and kitchen alongside one another, while a small study sits to one side and opens out to the front courtyard through a wall of glazing.
Three bedrooms are located beneath the sloping ceilings of the top floor and feature built-in storage units designed to add to the thickness of the walls.
Photography is by Mike Tsang.
Here’s a short description from Zoe Chan:
Herringbone House
The house aims to relate to its context by taking the syntax of the local vernacular: namely gable ended roofs and the brick material of the Victorian terraces. However, the open plan interiors with ceiling to floor windows, skylights and courtyards are supported by a modern steel structure.
The combination making for a modern vernacular house inspired by the old to create something new. The ornamental herringbone brickwork was used to create personal expression and to articulate the picture windows and volumes by using framing, pattern and variety in the laying of the bricks.
Practice name: Atelier ChanChan Team: Zoe Chan (lead designer), Bob Chan and Joao Neves Location: Islington, London
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