Hasta La Ideas

This six-sided wooden cabin by Estonian designer Jaanus Orgusaar has walls that zigzag up and down and two circular windows resembling fisheye camera lenses (+ slideshow).

Designer Jaanus Orgusaar based the wooden house, called Noa, on the shape of a rhombic dodecahedron – a convex polyhedron with twelve identical rhombic faces. This creates a modular structure that can be extended with extra rooms, but that also feels like a round space from inside.

“The floor plan of the house is a hexagon, the walls and roof are compiled of identical rhombuses, therefore it is easy to continue the structure in space by adding the next module,” Orgusaar said. “The house lacks acute angles, therefore giving an impression of a round space.”

The 25-square-metre house is located in Estonia,

can be easily assembled or taken apart, meaning it can be transported elsewhere if needed.

It is built entirely from wood and its exterior cladding boards were soaked with iron oxide to give them a grey, weathered appearance intended to help the cabin blend into its surroundings.

Insulated wooden boards cover the roof to keep the interior warm, and the base of the structure is raised up from the ground to prevent damp.

“The building stands on three feet, not needing a foundation on the ground and is therefore also more cold-resistant than a usual dwelling,” explained Orgusaar.

Walls inside the cabin are plastered walls and painted yellow, and the space is furnished with a small kitchen and a dining table and chairs.

A terrace can be attached and used as a dining area in warm weather.

Orgusaar built the first house as a summer cottage for his family, and plans to add two more modules. The design is also being manufactured by prefabricated building company Katus and will be available for sale soon.

Here’s a project description from Jaanus Orgusaar:

Aiamaja Noa

Noa is an easily mountable sustainable living space, adaptable to a variety of landscapes and environments. The advantage is that one can always add a module to extend the housing step by step, with each module, ones “saves” a wall.

It is an invention by Jaanus Orgusaar, an Estonian designer-inventor. He built the first one for his own family, and plans to add two more modules. One module is 25 square metres.

The small house was brought to life from the need for a practical, sustainable and economical living space which would be easily mountable compiled from identical elements. The base element is a specific rhombus. The base for the structure is the rhombic dodecahedron.

The rhombic dodecahedron can be used to tessellate three-dimensional space. It can be stacked to fill a space much like hexagons fill a plane. Some minerals such as garnet form a rhombic dodecahedral crystal habit. Honeybees use the geometry of rhombic dodecahedra to form honeycomb from a tessellation of cells each of which is a hexagonal prism capped with half a rhombic dodecahedron. The rhombic dodecahedron also appears in the unit cells of diamond and diamondoids.

While looking for the perfect structure that would fill the space without void, Jaanus chose this unique structure for it is stable standing on three feet, stiff and because it spreads the tension evenly, and offers a synergy in space apprehension, having almost sacral feeling to its round space.

Jaanus is an inventor diving into the very bases of geometry. Many of his creations starting from shoes and fashion, product design and now architecture takes its inspiration from the sacred geometry, the five platonic solids and their inter-relations.

The building stands on three feet, not needing a foundation on the ground, therefore also more cold resistant than a usual dwelling. The house lacks acute angles, therefore giving an impression of a round space. The floor plan of the house is a hexagon, walls and roof compiled of identical rhombuses, therefore it is easy to continue the structure in space by adding the next module.

This kind of structure is simple and economical, yet strong, offering a great, almost timeless, sacral space experience. The little house is currently in use as a summer cottage for the designer’s family, the insides continue without interruption to the summer terrace that is used as a dining area. The house is situated at the brink of a forest in the very vicinity of a 200 year old pine tree and fur tree, therefore guests from the forest, as owls and squirrels are commonplace.

Materials used are all sustainable- wooden construction, floor and outside boarding, even roof- covered with thermo boards. The walls are plastered with limestone paste and painted with cottage cheese paint. The outside wall boards are soaked with iron-oxide to make the house grey fitting into the surrounding nature almost inconspicuously.

The round windows frame the view to the open space of endless fields. In the dark the windows reflect the space so that it creates an illusion of additional rooms in the dark.

Noa widens the concept of space offering a different space experience.

Author: designer Jaanus Orgusaar
Producer of first prototype: Jaanus Orgusaar
Producer: Woodland Homes
Photos: Jaanus Orgusaar and Terje Ugandi

The post Six-sided modular cabin by Jaanus Orgusaar
with wooden walls and fisheye windows appeared first on Dezeen.

Estonian architects KAMP have completed a timber house outside Tallinn that’s cranked around an oak tree.

One side of the larch-clad house is single-storey to allow longer periods of sunlight to reach the rear deck.

On the other side of the building, where bedrooms are located, the roof slopes up to create a first-floor room beneath the eaves.

Inside the house, plywood wall surfaces are coated with a smooth covering of clay.

Capital city Tallinn was also the location of our last two architecture stories from Estonia, which were a suspended woodland pathway and a theatre made of straw.

Photography is by Terje Ugandi.

Here’s some more information from KAMP:

Private house is situated in the suburban area of Tallinn, capital of Estonia.

The plot is covered with old oak trees, looking almost like little park. One of these oak trees is combined with the house, inserted to the terrace.

The sun direction is from the street, so the house is made 1-storey high to receive sun the backyard also.

House is taking L-shape to bend around the oak tree. In the wing of the house, there is a living area with a sauna, at the other – sleeping.

In the sleeping part, the house rises to 2-storeys high.

The whole house is made of wood – from the construction frame to the larch siding. The higher part of the roof is also covered with larch siding.

In interior there is no gypsum board used. All inner walls are made of plywood and covered with natural clays. Outer walls and roof contain more insulation wool than normally is provided to achieve better insulation and lower heating costs.

In interior there is lot of natural oak wood used – supporting construction of the windows etc. In living room there is 2 roof windows to give more natural light.

The owner of the house is a pilot, so in the car garage, there is airplane parking lot painted.

Total area: 225m2
Project: 2007
Completed: 2011

See also:

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Wooden house by Schlyter/Gezelius	House in Tróia by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	Potasze House by Neostudio Architekci

Estonian studio Salto Architects have completed a temporary summer theatre in Tallinn made of black spray-painted straw bales.

Visitors climb stairs inside a stepped tunnel to access the Straw Theatre’s rectangular hall.

A system of trusses holds the stacked straw bales in place.

Located on a fortified hilltop, the site used to host regular summer theatre for Soviet Troops but has been abandoned for over twenty years.

The stage will be in place for six months to celebrate Tallinn’s status as a 2011 European Capital of Culture.

Temporary theatres and cinemas have been popular on Dezeen lately – see our earlier stories about a timber theatre elsewhere in Estonia and an English cinema under a motorway flyover.

Photography is by Martin Siplane and Karli Luik.

The following information is provided by the architects:

Location: Skoone Bastion, Tallinn, Estonia
Credits: Maarja Kask, Karli Luik, Ralf Lõoke, Pelle-Sten Viiburg
Project year: 2010-2011

NO99 Straw Theatre is an object standing on the verge of being a pure functional container on one hand, and an art installation on the other.

The Straw Theatre is built on the occasion of Tallinn being the European Capital of Culture, to house a special summer season programme of theatre NO99, lasting from May to October 2011. Thus it is a temporary building, operating for half a year, built for a specific purpose, programme and location.

The Straw Theatre is built in central Tallinn, on top of the former Skoone bastion, one of the best preserved baroque fortifications of Tallinn. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bastion worked as a public garden, and during the Soviet era it was more or less restricted recreational area for the Soviet navy with a wooden summer theatre and a park on top.

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With the summer theatre having burnt down and the Soviet troops gone, for the last 20 years the bastion has remained a closed and neglected spot in the centre of town with real estate controversies and several failed large-scale development plans. In such a context, the Straw Theatre is an attempt to acknowledge and temporarily reactivate the location, test its potential and bring it back to use, doing all this with equally due respect to all historical layers of the site.

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The rectangular main volume of the theatre is situated exactly on the same spot as the navy summer theatre, and one descending flight of stairs of the latter is used as a covered walkway and entrance area to the Straw Theatre. The building is surrounded by various outdoor recreational functions including an oversized chess board, table tennis, swings, and a baking oven, all with a non-commercial and pleasantly low-key feel.

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The dramatic appeal of the building stems from its contextual setting on the site and its black, uncompromisingly mute main volume contrasting with a descending „tail“ with an articulate angular roof. And of course one cannot escape the effect of the material – uncovered straw bales, spraypainted black.

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The Straw Theatre is a unique occasion where straw has been used for a large public building and adjusted to a refined architectural form. For reinforcement purposes, the straw walls have been secured with trusses, which is a type of construction previously unused. As the building is temporary, it has not been insulated as normal straw construction would require but has been kept open to experience the raw tactile qualities of the material and accentuate the symbolic level of the life cycle of this sustainable material.

Click above for larger image

See also:

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Summer Theatre by Kadarik Tüür	Folly for a Flyover by Assemble	Mobile performance venue by Various Architects

This temporary outdoor stage in Estonia by local studio Kadarik Tüür Arhitektid is made entirely from timber batons.

The 420-seat Summer Theatre incorporates the surrounding trees and lake, creating an adaptable backdrop for 12 performances.

At the end of the summer it will be completely dismantled and the timber rods recycled.

More set design on Dezeen »

Photography is by Ott Kadarik.

The following text is from Ott Kadarik:

The outdoor theatre stage is built especially for 12 plays during the summer.

Its main architectural goal is to create a closed, comfortable and intimate space that creates an immediate connection with the audience and the actors.

The architecture frames the landscape in a way that the park, trees and the pond become an integral part of the stage-set.

The light wooden construction gives space and allows for changing stage lighting dynamically.

We have tried to avoid a concrete narrative in this solution. The stage is an abstraction, which sets the mood.

We have approached the era and theme of the theatre project (beginning of the 20th century, futurism, young poets) from a different angle to visualize a complicated moment in European history.

The material we chose for the stage is 50 x 50mm timber, which is a good natural material and easy to dismantle, so it gives the theater a possibility to re-use it for any new constructions within upcoming plays.

The audience podium has 420 seats and stage area is 280m ².

After 12 performances the stage will be dismantled and the timber and boards used for other things.

There is no need to use complicated materials, wood is a nice material that architects can easily understand and work with, it is also weather-proof.

See also:

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Multi Mill by NL Architects	Table Cloth by Ball-Nogues	Punk Don Quixote by Torafu Architects

Estonian architects Muru & Pere have designed an outdoor kitchen in Tabasalu, near Tallinn in Estonia. (more…)