Hasta La Ideas

This house in the Dutch city of Almere by Swedish architect Johan Selbing and Swiss landscape architect Anouk Vogel is completely covered in reflective glass to allow it to blend in with its surroundings (+ slideshow).

Selbing and Vogel designed the private house for a plot in an experimental housing development in Almere – a city that was only established in 1976 but now has over 195,000 residents – in response to a competition brief calling for a building that would relate to a site within a forest clearing.

The house’s simple boxy shape is constructed from an aluminium frame that supports panels of toughened mirrored glass, with a mirrored composite panel running around the top and bottom edges of the facade.

“The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior,” explained the architects.

Doors sits flush against the facade and are only noticeable thanks to handles that project from the surface and a change in the ground level that rises to meet the height of the floor inside the building.

An entrance at the the side of the building leads into a compact interior with a home office at one end and master and guest bedrooms at the other.

Sliding partitions between these rooms and the open-plan kitchen and living space can be opened or closed to meet different requirements.

“Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings,” the architects pointed out.

Surfaces are covered in pale birch multiplex panels that compliment the light-filled interior and views of the nearby trees.

Built-in storage covers one wall and is punctuated by a secret window that looks onto the street but is invisible from outside.

Selbing and Vogel were one of twelve winning entrants in the design competition. They were invited to construct their building but had to source a client to pay for it.

“In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration,” the architects added.

Photography is by Jeroen Musch.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Mirror House, Almere

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

After De Realiteit and De Fantasie, the third edition of small experimental housing settlements in Almere has been launched under the title De Eenvoud. The brief of the competition called for an individual house with a strong relation to its surroundings. The twelve winning teams were given the possibility to realise their designs in an open area in the forest of Noorderplassen-West, but had to find the buyers of the houses themselves.

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration.

The original concept with a slightly raised floor (for a better view), sliding doors, built-in cupboards and a single-level layout, has therefore been further refined. Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

Location: De Eenvoud, Almere, The Netherlands
Client: Private
Project team: Johan Selbing, Anouk Vogel
Size: 120 m2
Program: Private house
Process: competition 2006
Start construction: 2012
Completion: 2013
Structural Engineering: Buro voor Bouwadvies BV, Dalfsen
Installation Advice: Earth Energie Advies BV, Boskoop
Contractors: Bouwbedrijf Jadi BV, Genemuiden Slump Fictorie, Hoogeveen (facade)

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camouflages with its surroundings appeared first on Dezeen.

The two parts of this house near Oslo by Schjelderup Trondahl Architects are joined at an angle, with their gabled roofs meeting to form a distorted M-shape (+ slideshow).

Oslo firm Schjelderup Trondahl Architects designed the family home for a site overlooking the city of Holmestrand and the adjacent fjords.

The house’s two wings are angled at 22 degrees to one another, creating a concave facade facing the access road and opening up on the other side to provide different views of the landscape.

“The challenge in sites like this is usually to refine the views rather than exposing everything everywhere, switching between distant and close views, glimpses and different sources of light and reflections,” said the architects.

“Because of its complex form, cantilevered roofs, shifting facades and intersecting spaces, the house offers a spacial experience, a number of different views and randomly occurring reflections” they added.

The topography of the plot influenced the layout of the plan, which rises over a rocky outcrop and is nestled among existing trees.

The exterior of the ground floor is clad in brick and juxtaposed against the angular wooden box above, which cantilevers outwards to create sheltered porches and balconies.

Heartwood fir boards that cover the walls of the upper storey, as well as the roofs, are burnt and brushed in a process that protects them and will cause them to fade to a pale, silvery grey.

Spaces inside the home correspond to the complex angles of the exterior, with gabled ceilings in several of the first floor rooms, and a kink in the wall of the staircase clearly showing where the two wings of the house are joined.

The same brick used for the exterior of the ground floor covers some of the internal walls and forms a breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Walls and ceilings are covered in oiled poplar plywood, with white ash floor boards helping to maintain a bright and airy feeling inside the house.

Windows with chunky oak frames look out on the surrounding forest and across the fjord, while internal glass partitions provide views between some of the rooms.

Photography is by Jonas Adolfsen.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

House Off/Ramberg – Holmestrand, Norway

Location

The city of Holmestrand is divided by a characteristic 120m vertical cliff, separating urban functions at the lower sea side from the housing estate on the upper level. Holmestrand is under constant transformation being a part of suburban Oslo and important for commuting and regional business. The Norwegian State Railways are currently building new tracks to the city with a new elevator shaft between upper and lower levels, thereby improving the connection further.

The single family house is situated on the edge of this prominent cliff edge overlooking Holmestrand and the fjords. The site has a spectacular 180 degree view towards the sea to the east and an open cultural landscape to the west. The challenge in sites like this is usually to refine the views rather than exposing everything everywhere, switching between distant and close views, glimpses and different sources of light and reflections.

Adapting to site

The house was planned merged with the terrain with the least possible intervention, based on extensive analysis of program, strict municipal regulation, landscape characteristics, views (both distant and close) and the vegetation/location. The site was measured down to 10cm accuracy allowing untouched terrain and existing trees to be planned right up next to the building.

The volume has a distinct duality with its compact, west façade facing towards the access road and the more extroverted and fragmented façade opening up to the great eastern view. The two main wings are bent 22 degrees relative to each other to adapt to the terrain and capture different views. Because of its complex form, cantilevered roofs, shifting facades and intersecting spaces the house offers a spacial experience, a number of different views and randomly occurring reflections.

House specifics

The ground floor body is made from site-typical colored tile stone diaphragm walls (two sided) and light concrete floors. The upper part of the house is a wooden box climbing and cantilevering over the heavy base. The walls, external ceilings and roofs are covered with burnt and brushed heartwood fir to make them maintenancefree for generations – a Norwegian style of the Japanese method Shou-Sugi-Ban. The patination process will continue. With time the soft parts of the surface will stay burnt and the harder winter grain will have become silvery gray resulting in a rough but refined expression.

The interior wooden walls and ceilings are clad with white oiled poplar plywood boards and white ash floor boards are used introducing a light softness to the interior. The internal geometry represents necessary constructions for the cantilevered roofs in addition to defining spaces. Integrated furnishings are made on site from white fiber cement boards or bronze colored Glimmerdesign lacquered MDF depending on their placement and function. All windows and doors are made from massive oak.

Location: Holmestrand, Norway
Building type: Single family house
Constructor: Larsen Bygg AS/Lars Arnulf Finden
Consultant: Frederiksen AS / Håkon Bergsrud
Size: 273m2 (gross)
Architect: Schjelderup Trondahl Architects AS
Primary Architects: Stian Schjelderup, Øystein Trondahl, Katrine Skavlan

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fjord by Schjelderup Trondahl Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Untreated copper cladding will gradually change colour from golden brown to vivid turquoise on the walls and roof of this house near Ghent by Belgian studio Graux & Baeyens Architecten (+ slideshow).

Intended by Graux & Baeyens Architecten to give the building “a poetic impermanence”, copper panels with visible seams cover the whole exterior of House VDV and were left untreated to allow the material to oxidise over time.

“We wanted to integrate the house into the woody surroundings as much as possible,” architect Basile Graux told Dezeen. “The copper gave us the opportunity to do that, as it will continuously change colour over the years, from gold in the beginning to blue, than brown and green at the end.”

The two-storey residence is located in Destelbergen, east of the city centre, beside the remaining brick wall of a castle that was destroyed during the second world war.

The architects generated the house’s irregular plan by abstracting a simple rectangle and making cutaways along its length, creating three blocks that angle away from one another.

The roof features a steep gable modelled on the form of traditional farmhouses. “The typical rural pitched roof house is an archetype that has been really common in Belgium and the northern part of Europe for centuries, but strangely enough has never been seen as an modern way of building,” explained Graux.

“When urbanism regulation stipulated that the house needed to have a pitched roof we saw that as an opportunity to experiment and a modern interpretation for it,” he added.

The two gable ends are both fully glazed, as are the two triangular recesses along the sides of the building, one of which accommodates the main entrance.

Family rooms such as the lounge and dining room are all located on the house’s ground floor, and feature a mixture of oak and marble flooring.

A spiral staircase leads up to first-floor bedrooms, where angular ceilings reveal the slope of the roof overhead.

Photography is by Filip Dujardin.

Here’s a project description from Graux & Baeyens Architecten:

House VDV

This single family house is located just outside the town of Ghent. The plot is part of a domain where used to be a castle destroyed in WWII. Parts of the surrounding wall is still standing and is a silent reminder of this history.

House VDV appears simultaneously familiar and strange. The volume, consisting of one level with a pitched roof, alludes to familiar archetypes such as the rural homestead or barn.

But at the same time the volume is broken up by large glass facades, so that the relationship is established with the surrounding trees and the listed castle wall.

The mandatory implantation in the back of the plot ensures that the house is conceived as a pavilion. A garden-house with no front or rear, but with two identical facades and a 360 degree experience of the entire plot.

The (non-treated copper) cladding gives the project a poetic impermanence, which is echoed in the reflection of the surrounding trees in the glass facades.

Architecture & Interior design: Graux & Baeyens Architecten
Function: dwelling
Location: Destelbergen, Belgium
Design year: 2011
Construction year 2012-2013
Square metres: 410 sqm + 73 sqm basement

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will change colour over time appeared first on Dezeen.

A geometric pattern of skylights frames views of the sky from inside this angular white residence in Tokyo by Japanese firm Atelier Tekuto (+ slideshow).

Named Monoclinic House, the building was designed by Atelier Tekuto to accommodate a small three-level home for the client as well as a pair of compact studio apartments for rent.

When viewed from the street, the house appears to have no perpendicular edges. The skylights, which comprise a square and four triangles, are positioned on a diagonal surface that could be described as a wall or a ceiling.

“We have designed a few polyhedron houses, as they are often effective solutions in small and congested lots in urban residential districts,” said the architects, explaining how the angular surfaces also help rainwater to drain off the walls.

The main residence is positioned at the front of the building. The living room is on the first floor and benefits from a five metre-high ceiling at the front, allowing the skylights to bring daylight through both this space and a mezzanine bedroom above.

“One of the key concepts was to ‘design the sky’, because when designing a house in an urban context surrounded by buildings, the sky is the most important natural element in direct contact with architecture,” added the architects. “The top plane of this polyhedron form becomes a large top light, connecting the living space with the sky.”

A spiralling staircase with cantilevered metal treads leads down to another room that can be used as a garage or workshop, while the two single-room apartments are tucked away behind.

Entrances are positioned at different points around the perimeter, including one that is recessed into a narrow front wall.

All of the outer walls are covered with white render, while concrete surfaces are left exposed throughout the building’s interior.

Photography is by Toshihiro Sobajima.

Here are some more details from Atelier Tekuto:

Monoclinic

This house consists of a garage and two studio-type apartments for rent. Our client asked me to design architecture similar to “Reflection of Mineral” that we completed in 2006. Therefore basic concepts of ‘Mineral’ are taken into consideration. In order to further evolve from our previous design we focus on the following three issues:

1. Form should be carefully considered to protect white walls from dirt from rainwater.
2. Design and detailing of large skylight
3. Selection of materials to minimise cost.

The living room provides a unique and impressive space; it is narrow (15.8 m2 in floor area), its highest ceiling height is 5.5 metres, and a large quadrilateral skylight (18.2m2) connects the space to the sky. Square panel, punctured with smaller square in the middle, is inscribed in the quadrilateral shape, and dramatic contrast of light and shadow provides a new perceptive experience.

I have been exploring possibilities of polyhedron architecture in small lots of Tokyo for ten years. Moreover it is my long-time challenge to liberate one’s five senses with eye-opening spatial. This project is one of such successful cases.

Date of completion: September 2013
Location: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Program: Private house + apartments for rent
Site area: 85.92 sqm
Building area: 42.61 sqm
Total floor area: 90.82 sqm
Structure: Reinforced concrete
Architectural design: Yasuhiro Yamashita and Azusa Ishii/Atelier Tekuto
Structural engineer: Jun Sato and Yoshihiro Fukushima/Sato Structural Engineers
Construction: Yoshiya Uchida and Masaru Shibasaki/Uchida Sangyo

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with a pattern of pointy skylights appeared first on Dezeen.

Seattle firm Olson Kundig Architects used dynamite, chippers and saws to bore through the huge boulders of a rocky outcrop on a North American island to make room for this raw concrete house (+ slideshow).

Named after the French word for stone, the Pierre is a single-storey residence designed to cut into the protruding bedrock of the client’s existing property, located on one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Seattle.

“Putting the house in the rock follows a tradition of building on the least productive part of a site, leaving the best parts free for cultivation,” said Tom Kundig, a director at Olson Kundig Architects and the lead architect on the project.

The house is slotted between two sections of rock. Its walls are made from exposed concrete, with a smooth surface that opposes the rough stone, while the roof is covered with grassy plants to allow the building to merge into the landscape.

Traces of the stone continue through the house’s interior, where a cave-like bathroom tunnels through one of the boulders and features a mirror that hangs down from a hole in the ceiling.

A large living and dining room spans the length of the building and features a fireplace hearth comprising a carved rock with a levelled surface.

The master bedroom sits off to one side and includes a sink with a basin made from another huge lump of stone, where polished sections allow water to cascade down three separate pools.

All rooms of the house are furnished with a selection of antique pieces, artworks and custom-designed lighting fixtures.

Leftover rock from the site excavation was turned into crushed aggregate for use during the construction.

The Pierre was completed in 2010 but was named as one of 26 winners of the American Institute of Architects’ Institute Honor Awards earlier this week.

Photography is by Benjamin Benschneider, unless otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Olson Kundig Architects:

 The Pierre

The owner’s affection for a stone outcropping on her property inspired the design of this house. Conceived as a retreat nestled into the rock, the Pierre (the French word for stone) celebrates the materiality of the site. From certain angles, the house – with its rough materials, encompassing stone, green roof, and surrounding foliage – almost disappears into nature.

To set the house deep into the site, portions of the rock outcropping were excavated through a combination of machine work and handwork. The contractor used large drills to set the outline of the building, then used dynamite, hydraulic chippers, and wire saws and other hand tools, working with finer and finer implements as construction progressed. Excavated rock was reused as crushed aggregate in the on all the stonework, a reminder of the building process, while huge pieces of rock were employed for the carport structure.

With the exception of a separate guest suite, the house functions on one main level, with an open-plan kitchen, dining, and living space. A wood-clad storage box (made with siding reclaimed from a Lionel Pries-designed house) transitions from outside to inside. Its two large bookcases open to provide concealed access to laundry and kitchen storage. A large pivoting steel and glass door provides access to a terrace.

Set at a right angle to the main space, a master suite features a custom-designed bed with a leather headboard and footboard set in the middle of floor-to ceiling bookshelves.

Throughout the house, the rock protrudes into the space, contrasting with the luxurious textures of the furnishings. Interior and exterior fireplace hearths are carved out of existing stone; levelled on top, they are otherwise left raw. In the master bathroom, water cascades through three polished pools, natural sinks in the existing stone. Off the main space, a powder room is carved out of the rock; a mirror set within a skytube reflects natural light into the space.

The materiality of the built structure – mild steel, smooth concrete, and drywall – create a neutral backdrop for the interior furnishings and artwork and the exterior views to the bay and surrounding landscape. Contemporary works of art by Cameron Martin, Jesse Paul Miller, Andres Serrano, Franz West, and Claude Zervas are mounted inside and outside the house. Antique furniture and art objects are complemented by custom pieces. The custom light fixtures are based on the designs of Irene McGowan, a Seattle artist and lighting designer best known for her work with noted Northwest architect Roland Terry.

Design Firm: Olson Kundig Architects
Lead Architect: Tom Kundig

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cuts into a rocky outcrop appeared first on Dezeen.