Hasta La Ideas

London studio Jonathan Tuckey Design has converted a historic chapel in Wiltshire, England, into a house with a blackened-timber extension conceived as the building’s shadow.

The architects were only permitted to build an extension that would be invisible from the street. “The form was generated by the parameters of building something as big as possible within the chapel’s shadow, so that led to the consideration of materials reminiscent of a shadow,” Jonathan Tuckey told Dezeen.

The roof and every wall of the extension is clad in bitumen-stained larch, with flush detailing around the edges of the gable and chimney. It is built over a series of reconstructed dry-stone walls.

“The clients, the planners and us were all keen to create something different to the original building, rather than mimic it,” said Tuckey.

All four of the house’s bedrooms are contained inside the new structure, while the former vestry of the chapel functions as a library and the large hall is converted into an open-plan kitchen and living room with a mezzanine gallery above.

A transparent glass corridor links the extension with the two adjoining buildings of the chapel and can be opened out to the garden in warmer weather.

Other church conversions we’ve featured on Dezeen include a bookstore inside a former Dominican church in Holland and a church converted into an auditorium in Spain.

See more buildings clad with blackened wood, including a weekend house in Japan.

Here’s a short project description from the architect:

Shadow House – Transformation of a Grade 2* listed chapel in Wiltshire into a family home

Our clients were intent on preserving the historic character of this elegant historic chapel but needed to adapt the building to accommodate the needs of their young family and connect it to the garden at the rear of the site.

Complementing the existing chapel’s form and scale the new extension sits on re-built dry stone walls in the garden and is unseen from the street. It is clad in blackened timber, echoing the vernacular tabernacle churches of the West Country; a quiet shadow of the original building.

A glazed transparent passage, which can be opened entirely in warmer weather, links the extension back to the chapel where the mid-19th century spaces have been refurbished.

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Jonathan Tuckey Design appeared first on Dezeen.

This timber-clad house extension in Norway by Oslo studio Rever & Drage features curvy towers that point outwards like periscopes (+ slideshow).

Located on a hillside in the outskirts of Molde, the single-storey house had only a small bedroom and bathroom on its western side, so Rever og Drage Arkitekter was asked to increase the size of both of these rooms.

Two towers with quarter-circle profiles were installed on the roof of the extension to function as lightwells. The first curves west to bring evening sun into the bathroom, while the second is pointed east to let morning sun into the bedroom.

The bedroom extends outwards by just over a metre while the bedroom is now more than three metres wider. Together, the rooms frame a small terrace in the south-east corner of the plot.

The clients asked for views across the water towards a mountain range, so the architect added generous windows to the southern elevations of both rooms.

The exterior of the building is clad with white-painted timber boards to reference both the white-painted brick and brown timber panels of the existing house.

“We initially wanted to make a clear distinction between the extension and the original building,” explain architects Tom Auger, Martin Beverfjord and Eirik Skogen Lilledrange. “At the same time we did not want to create too much contrast in terms of materials and formal means.”

The architects carried out all the construction themselves.

The small city of Molde is best known as the home of an annual jazz festival and Danish architects 3XN recently completed a cultural centre to be used there during the festivities.

See more architecture in Norway, including a wooden house overlooking the sea and a small gabled summerhouse.

Photography is by Tom Auger.

Here’s a project description from Rever og Drage Arkitekter:

Extension of single-family house, Pedervegen 8, Molde

The new owner of a detached house in Molde wanted an extension of an existing bath- and bedroom. The house was still in more or less its original 1962-condition and appeared as a time-typical house from this period. That is Scandinavian functionalism with a flat roof and brown exterior panels contrasted with white brick walls. Furthermore the house had an elegant and somewhat closed composition.

Above: floor plan – click for larger image

The owner wanted to get the evening sun in the bathroom (which was on the east side of the building) and to keep the morning sun in the expansion of the bedroom without being exposed to neighbours. Views of the spectacular mountain range to the south were required from both rooms.

We initially wanted to make a clear distinction between the extension and the original building. At the same time we did not want to create too much contrast in terms of materials and formal means. We chose to use wood cladding, as the existing building, while the colour of the new cladding was taken from the original bright brick walls. We also changed the orientation of the panels. In order to solve the requested light preferences we brought in a new form, the quarter circle, which we held for a type of basic shape that could easily relate to architecture of the early sixties.

Above: cross section through bedroom – click for larger image

The bathroom has a clear everyday zone in the innermost part with shower, toilet and sink, while the outer section provides the more time-spending bathroom artifacts; a bathtub, a wide window sill with a view and a door to the garden. The latter part has a skylight in the shape of a curve facing west. The room bathes in the late evening sun when the west-coast weather allows it. Tiles are sober in the inner part, whilst the outer part has a more festive consortium. The contrast between the inner and outer zones of the bathroom was in danger of being too hard. The relaxing ambiguity is that the outer zone suggests peace of mind in its use, yet at the same the form here is intense. While the inner zone, which reflects more efficiency, has a calmer expression in terms of colours and patterns.

The bedroom is long and has three different zones. First, a dressing-section with a large mirror and a backstage-like atmosphere. In the middle a lounge area with a fireplace and a generous window facing the green to the north. At the end of the bedroom is the bed with a large window and its view to the south. Over the bed a vaulted ceiling with a window heralding the morning sun as well as giving a view of the stars at night.

Above: cross section through bathroom – click for larger image

In retrospect, we were surprised at the modest exterior contrast between the extension and the original building. To a large extent we believe this is due to the fact that the selected wood panels have about the same size as the bonds in the original brick wall, so that these two surfaces relate. This is particularly evident in the north facade. Also, the quarter circles seem to work as form and at the same time they provide the building with a touch of relieving humour.

Architects: Rever og Drage
Location: Bjorset, Molde, Norway
Design Team: Eirik Lilledrange, Martin Beverfjord, Tom Auger
Area: 20 sqm

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Rever & Drage appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian architects DAP Studio added a perforated aluminium tower to this former chapel in the Italian town of Lonate Ceppino, converting the entire building into a public library.

The Else Morente Library, which opened in 2009, was first constructed as the Oratory of San Michele: a two-storey chapel with an ornamental facade of symmetrical pilasters and intricate detailing. For the renovation, DAP Studio decided to restore these features, then replace an existing stair tower with another that would be more sympathetic.

The architects designed a two-storey extension clad with perforated panels to match the light render of the old building. The upper storey of the volume is tapered inward, so that it pulls away from the overhanging eaves of the restored roof.

“The challenge was to respect the historical building but also to [show] its new public role with a contemporary element,” architect Elena Sacco told Dezeen. “The new volume has not only an architectural value, but it also allowed us to clear the historical building of the functional and potentially invading elements.”

An entrance corridor with a glass roof connects the two structures on the ground floor, while an enclosed wooden bridge branches across at first floor level.

“The relationship between the two volumes has a subtle nature, made of alignments and visual connections,” added Sacco.

Toilets and archival areas are located in the extension, allowing the library shelves and reading areas to take up the entire ground floor of the renovated building.

The library is divided into four sections and includes a reading room, a study area, a newspaper library and a children’s section. High ceilings allow room for tall shelving systems, comprising a stack of modular wooden containers. These containers are also piled up to make desks.

A multi-purpose room occupies the first floor and can be used as an exhibition room or a conference hall.

Milan-based DAP Studio more recently completed an office interior inside a former factory in Turin. See more architecture and interior design in Italy.

Other libraries we’ve featured include one that appears to float over a shallow pool and one that appears to be clad in translucent marble. See more libraries on Dezeen.

Photography is by Luigi Filetici.

Here are a few words from DAP Studio:

Elsa Morante Library

The pre-existing building for the new Lonate Ceppino Public Library already belonged to Lonate Ceppino’s historical heritage. On a rectangular plan, the two levelled buildings housed the civic library on the ground floor, while the first floor had been left unused. From the outside, the main entrance façade has a higher decorative part which is independent from the roof structure. This façade stands out further on the building gutter line and laterally its design suggests the idea of an unfinished bell tower. In this case, neither the bidimensional outline has a counterpart in the interiors. A few ornamental elements mark the façade hierarchies. The design of the fronts is organized in horizontal bands at different heights while on the north, south and west fronts a system of vertical pilasters apportions the windows on both floors. The east front lacks any decoration and, before the intervention, it was badly compromised by a recently built volume for the service rooms.

The intervention aimed to restore the historical pre-existing building and to adapt the new building to its re-gained functional use. Being inadequate, the previous service’s volume extension was removed together with the internal stairs, which were damaged and not according to laws. The project restored many areas injured by dampness, plasters, floorings and roofing.

Besides the east front a new well balanced volume has been built, including bathrooms, archives and technical systems. This last choice allowed to clear the historical building out of the functional and potentially invading elements, minimizing any demolition and making the facility rooms easier to share.

The new volume’s architecture is marked by a narrower profile on its top, with a sloping side that restrains to give more space to the historical building pitches. The dialogue between the volumes is the key and main theme leading the whole intervention. The relationship between the two is nourished by juxtaposition between matterness and lightness, solidity and instability, opaque and reflecting materials.

Above: site plan

The highlighting of differences underlines the peculiarities of both volumes, in a mutual figure-background relationship. The two buildings are connected through a glazed roofed little volume. The entrance is on the left side and a further wooden connection goes to the first floor.

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

The library hall is divided into 4 specific areas: a conference area with a little newspaper library, the children’s area, the bookcases’ and the reading tables. On the first floor there’s a flexible room for exhibitions or conventions.

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

Inside the new volume space reduces while climbing upstairs. After the first floor a platform drives you to a little space lit up by a window on a corner. This spot is the zenit of the specific spatial sequence developing inside the building.

Above: section one – click for larger image

The interiors are monochrome, with a resin floor and enamel walls. The stairs and the white metal platform have durmast steps. Lighting is provided by a pattern of incandescent lamps.

Above: section two – click for larger image

Inside the historical building the floor is in durmast too and the original roof has been restored. The wooden bookcases are designed as modular aggregations, able to be assembled at different heights and exhanged.

Above: section three – click for larger image

Client: Lonate Ceppino Municipality
Project: Dap studio Elena Sacco Paolo Danelli – www.dapstudio.com
Structures: GB. Scolari
Facilities: M. Piantoni, A. Bronzoni
Contractor: Gruppo Edilia
Interior Furniture: Habitat Italiana

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by DAP Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

More from architect Hironaka Ogawa: the two trees felled to make way for this house extension in Kagawa, Japan, were reinstalled inside the living room (+ slideshow).

The two-storey extension branches out into the garden of the 35-year-old family house to provide a residence for the client’s daughter and her husband.

The two trees stood in the way of construction and had to be removed beforehand, but Hironaka Ogawa was concerned about the connection they had to the family’s history. “These trees looked over the family for 35 years,” he explains.

The architect decided to keep the trees intact, dry them out and insert them into a double-height living and dining room. The floor was sunken just below ground level to ensure enough height to fit them in.

“Utilising these trees and creating a new place for the client became the main theme for the design,” says Ogawa, and explains that the family asked a Shinto priest to perform an exorcism on the trees as they were cut down.

Entitled Garden Tree House, the residence also contains a mezzanine loft that squeezes in alongside the trees. Bathrooms are tucked away below it.

Walls and ceilings are painted white, allowing the yellow and brown shades of the trees to stand out.

Trees were also the centrepiece of a wedding chapel that Hironaka Ogawa designed, which we featured on Dezeen this week. See more architecture from Japan on Dezeen.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Here’s a full project description from Hironaka Ogawa:

Garden Tree House

This is an extension project on a thirty-five year-old house for a daughter and her husband. A Zelkova tree and a Camphor tree stood on the site since the time the main house was build thirty-five years ago.

Removing these trees was one of the design requirements because the new additional building could not be built if these trees remained. When I received the offer for the project, I thought of various designs before I visited the site for the first time. However, all my thoughts were blown away as soon as I saw the site in person. The two trees stood there quite strongly.

I listen to the stories in detail; the daughter has memories of climbing these trees when she was little. These trees looked over the family for thirty-five years. They coloured the garden and grew up with the family. Therefore, utilising these trees and creating a new place for the client became the main theme for the design.

In detail, I cut the two trees with their branches intact. Then I reduced the water content by smoking and drying them for two weeks. Thereafter, I placed the trees where they used to stand and used them as main structural columns in the center of the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

In order to mimic the way the trees used to stand, I sunk the building an additional 70 centimetres down in the ground. I kept the height of the addition lower than the main house while still maintaining 4 metre ceiling height.

By the way, the smoking and drying process was done at a kiln within Kagawa prefecture. These two trees returned to the site without ever leaving the prefecture.

The client asked a Shinto priest at the nearby shrine to remove evil when the trees were cut. Nobody would go that far without a love and attachment to these trees.

When this house is demolished and another new building constructed by a descendant of the client hundreds of years from now, surely these two trees will be reused in some kind of form.

Above: site plan – click for larger image

Above: floor plan – click for larger image

Above: cross section – click for larger image

Above: long section – click for larger image

Above: exploded isometric – click for larger image

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by Hironaka Ogawa appeared first on Dezeen.

British architect David Chipperfield has completed a new gallery building at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri (+ slideshow).

With walls of dark polished concrete, stone and glass, the East Building was designed as a contemporary counterpart to the Italian-inspired museum designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

David Chipperfield‘s design features a grand staircase that connects the old building with the extension. Visitors can choose to enter the museum through Gilbert’s original portico or though the glazed frontage of the new wing.

The polished dark concrete walls are speckled with aggregates from the Missouri River, while inside a coffered concrete ceiling runs through the building and integrates a grid of skylights that let daylight filter down onto an oak floor.

Above: photograph is c/o the Saint Louis Art Museum

Set to open on 29 June, the East Building will accommodate both permanent collections and special exhibitions, giving the museum around 30 percent more gallery space. Temporary exhibitions will no longer be held in the main building, which will now be dedicated to static exhibits.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

Additional spaces include a 100-seat restaurant, a 60-seat cafe and an underground parking zone.

David Chipperfield first revealed designs for the structure in 2005, but the project had been delayed by funding issues. Architecture firm HOK worked alongside Chipperfield to deliver the building.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

The London-based architect has worked on a number of museum projects over the years. In 2007 he won the Stirling Prize for the Museum of Modern Literature in Germany and he also designed the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in the UK. Recent projects include designs for a museum of fine arts in Reims, France. See more architecture by David Chipperfield.

Photography is by Jacob Sharp, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the press release:

Expanded and Renovated Saint Louis Art Museum to Open its New East Building by Sir David Chipperfield on June 29-30, 2013

Brent R. Benjamin, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, today announced details of the grand opening of the Museum’s more than 200,000-square-foot East Building, designed by renowned British architect Sir David Chipperfield with technical assistance from HOK. A weekend celebration, held on June 29 and 30, will welcome the public to the monumental new structure of dark polished concrete-and-stone panels and floor-to-ceiling windows, set in historic Forest Park as a contemporary counterpart to the scale and dignity of the original building, designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

All inaugural exhibitions in the East Building will be drawn from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, revealing as never before the riches of one of America’s premier encyclopedic art museums. The expansion adds 82,452 square feet of galleries and public space – an increase of about 30 percent – while linking the Museum more closely with Forest Park through a design by the celebrated French landscape architect Michel Desvigne. The project also adds a host of new visitor amenities to the Museum, all in support of a civic institution that is always open free to the public.

“The ideal of a democratic Palace of the Arts, which Cass Gilbert so powerfully embodied in our original building, now finds beautiful, modern-day expression, at once rigorous and elegant, in the adjoining masterwork by Sir David Chipperfield,” Brent R. Benjamin stated. “Celebrating the Forest Park site, harmonizing with the 1904 building, and creating a distinctive architectural work for our own time, the East Building will offer the people of St. Louis, and our visitors from around the world, a remarkable new view of the outstanding collections of this Museum and of the vital role that an art museum can play in public life.”

Barbara B. Taylor, president of the Saint Louis Art Museum, stated, “The unprecedented success of the East Building capital campaign, which to date has secured commitments of more than $160 million, surpassing its $145 million public goal, is a testament to the importance of the Saint Louis Art Museum in the life of our city, and a statement of confidence in this Museum’s position among national institutions.”

Inaugural exhibitions to celebrate the collections

The Museum’s collections span some 5,000 years and feature masterpieces from the ancient Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, the Islamic world, Europe and the Americas. All aspects of the collections will be celebrated at the time of the opening.

In the East Building, the inaugural installation in the new special exhibitions galleries will be Postwar German Art in the Collection, an extensive re-examination of this major aspect of the Museum’s holdings. The exhibition will address themes and groupings such as the legacy of Joseph Beuys; the large-scale works of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer; and the influence of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Drawing from impressive strengths in the Museum’s collections, these galleries will feature works by artists including Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer.

The East Building galleries dedicated to the permanent collection will explore developments in American art after World War II. Beginning with American responses to Surrealism and the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, the presentation will proceed to movements including Minimalism, Pop and Process art. Galleries also will address themes such as the return to figuration and contemporary modes of abstraction. Artists represented in the installation will include earlier figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella,Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol and more recent artists such as Leonardo Drew, Teresita Fernández, Kerry James Marshall and Julie Mehretu. Thirty percent of the works in the installation will not have been on view for approximately a decade.

The Museum’s former temporary exhibition galleries in the 1904 building will now be devoted to the permanent collection, and more than 50 galleries in the Cass Gilbert-designed Main Building recently have been reinstalled as part of a renovation project complementing the East Building expansion. Notable reinstallations in the original building include the galleries for 18th century European art, with works by Canaletto, Tiepolo, Chardin, Reynolds and Gainsborough presented within the context of the Grand Tour; the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries, with works by masters from Manet, Monet and Renoir through van Gogh and Gauguin installed thematically; and a dedicated gallery to house the Museum’s collection of the work of Max Beckmann, the largest of its kind in the world.

Among the major reinstallations to be revealed at the time of the grand opening will be A New View: Surrealism, Abstraction and the Modern City. Exploring three great themes in the art of the first half of the 20th century, the installation will examine Surrealism as reflected in the work of Giorgio di Chirico and Max Ernst and the abstract approaches evident in works by Paul Klee, Roberto Matta, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. A second section of the installation will focus on the pivotal role of Piet Mondrian in European abstraction. The third section will explore the importance of urban imagery in the work of artists including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Amedeo Modigliani and Robert Delaunay.

Another major reinstallation in the 1904 building will be A New View: Ancient American Art, presenting some 300 works from the ancient cultures of the WesternHemisphere. Constituting the first reconfiguration since 1981 of the Museum’s esteemed collection of ancient American art, the installation will include works from the Inca and Moche of South America, the Maya and Aztec of Mexico and the Mississippian cultures of the Midwest.

The opening of the East Building will also mark the inauguration of Stone Sea, a major new outdoor work commissioned by the Museum from the celebrated British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Using stone from the Earthworks Quarry in Perryville, Mo., Goldsworthy has built 25 10-foot arches, each weighing approximately 13 tons, arranged in a dense composition that evokes the texture and movement of theancient shallow seas that once covered the Midwest.

Highlights of the East Building design

Visitors to the Saint Louis Art Museum may use the existing Sculpture Hall entrance in the 1904 building, where Cass Gilbert’s original main-floor layout has been restored as part of the expansion project, or may use the fully accessible new entrance to the East Building. Either way, the contrast is immediately apparent between the neo-classical 1904 building and the East Building, with its facade of floor-to-ceiling windows and twenty-three monumental panels of dark polished concrete gleaming with highlights of Missouri river aggregates.

David Chipperfield’s design joins the two buildings seamlessly with a new Grand Stair, which also establishes clear and organic connections among primary circulation axes. The new circulation path leads directly from the Grand Stair to lower-level galleries and a concourse with a new 60-seat cafe, a renovated museum shop and auditorium, and access to a new below-grade parking garage.

The outstanding design feature of the galleries of the East Building is an innovative coffered ceiling made of white concrete. The ceiling houses 698 coffers, most with scrimmed skylights to provide abundant but controlled natural light to the galleries. The lighting system is designed in collaboration with Arup.

Floors in the East Building are made of six-inch-wide planks of white oak, and the floor vents are stainless steel, both chosen to minimize distraction from the works of art.

The landscape design by Michel Desvigne features the installation of outdoor sculptures by artists including Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and George Rickey; as well as new plantings – including approximately 300 trees – in accordance with St. Louis’s existing Forest Park Master Plan. The landscape design will be executed in phases, with much of the most significant work to be completed after the June 2013 opening.

New visitor amenities

The outstanding new amenity in the East Building will be a new 2,500-square-foot restaurant, offering seating for 100 patrons with dramatic views overlooking Forest Park’s Art Hill. A private dining room in the restaurant will accommodate as many as 40 guests. Operating the restaurant and the new Museum cafe will be the Bon Appétit Management Company, which is known for its restaurant service at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and the Getty Center.

Among the other significant amenities offered as part of the expansion project are a renovated museum shop, a renovation and upgrade of the 480-seat auditorium, the provision of three new classrooms, a dedicated art-study space and a school-group entrance in the existing buildings and the development of a new 129,000-square-foot below-grade parking garage in the East Building, accommodating 300 vehicles.

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by David Chipperfield appeared first on Dezeen.