Hasta La Ideas

Japanese architect Kazuhiko Kishimoto designed the ground floor of this house in Yokohama with barely any walls so it can function as a gallery and seating area for members of the local community (+ slideshow).

Kishimoto, principal of Kanagawa studio acaa, planned the lowest level of the timber-clad Beyond The Hill house as a series of courtyards and wide staircases that stagger downwards to follow the decline of a steeply sloping site.

Wicker cushions encourage people to sit on the staircases, plus there’s also a circular hollow that allows a group to sit together and have lunch.

According to Kishimoto, the client asked for a house that would be open to the community. “My answer to the requirement was to build the house ‘afloat’,” he explained.

“The wood deck, tilted towards the sloped road in front of the house, creates a place where the internal and external areas of the house meet and interact,” he added.

A square courtyard is open to the sky at the centre of the building and sits next to a glazed double-height space that functions as the informal public gallery.

Two staircases within the courtyard lead up to different parts of the building. The first ascends to a small office tucked into the south-east corner of the first floor, while the second leads up into the private spaces of the house.

The kitchen is positioned next to the house’s entrance and is the largest room in the building, as it is used by one of the residents to host cookery classes.

A wide staircase rises up from the kitchen to the second floor, which begins with a dining room. Some stairs curve outwards at the corners to form seats and one extends along the edge of the room to create a worktop.

“In daily life, of course, the space serves as the family’s living room,” said Kishimoto.

Bedrooms are located beyond the dining room. One opens out to a balcony, while the other features a raised platform with storage spaces underneath and a ladder that offers a route up to the roof.

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Kazuhiko Kishimoto:

Beyond The Hill

A gallery in the centre creating communications and connecting the house and community

The house stands on a site facing a narrow, steep slope. Across the street is a wood, which promises a pleasant view with fresh greenery in summer and crimson foliage in autumn.

The client’s request was a residential house containing a small gallery and office. The request suggested that the house must be open to the town community. My answer to the requirement was to build the house “afloat”. To be precise, the gallery is the only grounded room, which is surrounded by a breezy and sunny wood deck raised at about 1m.

Round hollow on the deck floor accommodates a round bench, where people can sit and enjoy meals while watching over the wood view. The space may also serve as the external gallery. The wood deck, tilted towards the sloped road in front of the house, created a place where the internal and external areas of the house meet and interacts.

The residential area and office can be approached via respective staircases. The internal space of the residential area consists of a dining kitchen on the right and facing the wood, and a floor on the left, surrounding the courtyard and spirally ascending.

The dining kitchen has a wide counter table suitable for accommodating cooking classes the madam organises, and the uneven floor provides various corners for different number of guests to sit down. In daily life, of course, the space serves as the family’s living room.

Location: Yokohama, Kanagawa
Date of Completion: January 2013
Principal Use: Residence, Office, Small gallery

Site Area: 132.47m2
Total Floor Area: 158.39m2 (66.32m2/1F, 79.00m2/2F, 13.07m2/garage,)
Architecture: Kazuhiko Kishimoto / acaa
Structural Engineer : Takahiro Suwabe

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Japanese architect Tomohiro Hata planned this suburban house in Hyogo Prefecture as a cluster of three buildings around a courtyard, based on the traditional city residences of farmers, artisans and merchants.

Named House N, the family residence was designed by Tomohiro Hata to reference Japanese minka, a typical vernacular home from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that is often made up of several structures. These can include a main building, a separate cottage, a warehouse and a chicken coop.

“Following the form of traditional Japanese private houses, we considered an arrangement that can let all rooms open to the garden,” said Hata.

The three buildings fold around the generously sized courtyard, but also lead out to two smaller gardens at the corners of the site, which are enclosed behind a high perimeter wall.

“The building and the wall are integrated, so that the arrangement [of the plan] can be designed as freely as possible,” added Hata.

All three buildings have separate entrances, but are connected to one another by glazed corridors that allow views between the three outdoor spaces.

The largest of the three buildings is a two-storey structure with a dining room and kitchen on the lower level and a childrens’ room above.

Another two-storey block contains a multi-purpose room and the master bedroom, while the smallest building houses the family living room.

Large windows direct views towards the courtyard, which is made up of wooden platforms at different heights to one another.

The site slopes down at the rear, so the architect has slotted a single-car garage underneath the house.

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here’s a project description from Tomohiro Hata:

House N

Housing that takes advantage of the richness of a private house in the city.

It is found that an architectural form as a main building, a separated cottage, and a warehouse: kura are built within a site surrounded softly by a wall at the suburbs of Sasayama city and Tamba city in Hyogo prefecture where many traditional houses remain.

Surrounding the area softly with walls, each of the rooms faces to the inner courtyard produced by the external space between each building. It is a very simple and rich living space as you can keep it open with feeling at ease.

By focusing on the characteristics of the house that site area is limited at suburbs in the complicated city described above, we aimed to create the environment protected as a residence with opening to the outside of the house.

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This concrete house in Tokyo was designed by Japanese firm Apollo Architects & Associates for a family that regularly accommodates foreign exchange students (+ slideshow).

As well as two bedrooms and a large family living room for the house’s main occupants, Apollo Architects & Associates included a pair of guest bedrooms that open out to a private terrace at the front of the house.

“One of the key design concepts is to respect the privacy of the family and guests to achieve comfortable and relaxing lifestyles,” said studio principal Satoshi Kurosaki.

The terrace is invisible to people passing on the street because it is hidden behind stainless steel louvres, which interrupt the raw concrete that otherwise dominates the house’s exterior walls.

“The authentic and solid materiality of concrete is contrasted by sharp stainless steel louvres and this facade gives a touch of elegance to the streetscape of the neighbourhood,” added Kurosaki.

Named Calm, the three-storey residence is located in Bunkyo, just north of central Tokyo.

Rooms are arranged around a courtyard in the south-east corner of the building. On the ground floor, it sits adjacent to a music room and a traditional Japanese room that can also function as a spare bedroom.

Sliding doors allow all three spaces to open out to one another, as well as to the entrance hall and dining room behind.

“The floor can be used as a large open space welcoming many guests on occasions such as lectures, parties and more,” said the architect.

Balconies overlook the courtyard from the first and second floors above, plus a steel staircase connects it with a terrace on the roof of the building.

The living and dining room occupies the majority of the second floor, creating a space big enough to host a large group. A kitchen lined with mosaic tiles runs alongside and is lit from above by a narrow rectangular skylight.

Guests also have access to a separate bathroom, which is located on the ground floor.

Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

Here’s a project description from Apollo Architects:

Calm

This three-story residence is designed to function not only as a house but as a guesthouse that occasionally accommodates foreign guests and exchange students. It is made of concrete using wood formworks composed of 40mm-wide cedar.

The authentic and solid materiality of concrete is contrasted by sharp stainless steel louvres covering the second floor window, and this facade gives a touch of elegance to the streetscape of the neighbourhood. Louvres effectively provide security and privacy at the same time.

On the first floor, a Japanese-style room, which is used as guest room, is located in the back. It is attached to a courtyard enveloped in exposed concrete walls with inscribed horizontal patterns of cedar formworks. By opening the sliding doors, it is seamlessly connected to open space facing the street.

The first floor can be used as a large open space welcoming many guests on occasions such as lectures, parties and more. Toilets and bathrooms for guests are located next to the entrance hall. A soundproof music studio is located at the end of the entrance hall. It is illuminated with soft natural light from the courtyard filtering through the translucent glass facade.

On the second floor, main bedroom and child’s room are located adjacent to the courtyard. Each room has a private courtyard and individual or common bathroom attached. One of the key design concepts is to respect privacy of the family and guests to achieve comfortable and relaxing life styles.

Spacious family room with an attached bathroom is provided on the third floor. By fully opening up wide stainless steel windows, the interior space is integrated with the courtyard of exposed concrete. One can access the roof balcony by exterior stairs from the third floor.

Our goal is to create an ultimate space for relaxation, like a hotel lobby or a salon, where one can feel free to enjoy himself/herself and appreciate elegant Joseon Dynasty-style furniture and art works that are placed here and there.

The interior and the exterior merge into each other at intermediate zones, and the host and the guests gather in harmony. This very atmosphere represents the warm welcoming hospitality of the Japanese culture.

Architecture: Satoshi Kurosaki/APOLLO Architects & Associates
Location: Bunkyo ward, Tokyo
Date of Completion: April 2013
Principal Use: Private Housing

Structure: Reinforced Concrete
Site Area: 125.81 sqm
Building Area: 88.05 sqm
Total Floor Area: 225.67 sqm (70.55 sqm/1F, 74.53 sqm/2F, 73.67 sqm/3F, 6.92 sqm/PHF)

Structure Engineers: Masaki Structure (Kenta Masaki)
Facility Engineers: Shimada Architects (Zenei Shimada)
Construction: Maekawa Construction
Exterior Finish: Exposed Concrete
Floor: Ash Black Oil Flooring
Wall: Stucco
Ceiling: Stucco

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designed to accommodate exchange students appeared first on Dezeen.

A collection of vintage Aston Martins can be glimpsed through the fritted glass facade of this house in Maastricht, the Netherlands, by Dutch studio Wiel Arets Architects.

Named V House, the three-storey residence is sandwiched between two historic buildings in a part of the city where new structures have to match the scale of their surroundings.

Wiel Arets Architects designed the building with an asymmetric glass facade so that the edge of the roof slopes between the eaves of its neighbours, creating an angular plane facing up towards the sky.

The glazed wall is fritted at the base to maintain some privacy for residents, while thin curtains hang behind.

In contrast, the rear facade is made up concrete frames infilled with windows. A large void opens the ground floor up to the elements, creating a space for storing around seven or eight vintage cars.

“Due to the house’s very narrow site, the intention was to increase the amount of natural daylight that enters it, at both its front and rear,” project architect Alex Kunnen told Dezeen.

“Without the void that has been cut into the maximum volume in the rear, the house would have been far too dark. And so the fully glazed front facade and the back void work in tandem,” added the architect.

Two separate staircases lead up from the parking level to the first floor above. The first is a “fast” stair that ascends to every floor, while the second is a “slow” route that climbs gently towards a living room at the back of the house.

“It was always the intention to have two paths of circulation,” said Kunnen, “foremost for safety reasons due to the house’s large size, but also because the multiple paths of circulation create various cinematographic scenes throughout the house while they are being experienced.”

A fully glazed living room is contained within a suspended structure, hanging from a pair of I-beams that span the site at the rear. A combined kitchen and dining room sit just beyond and features a 3.5-metre cantilevered dining table.

The bedroom occupies the second floor, alongside an office that can be transformed into a guest suite by folding a bed down from the wall.

Glass doors open out to one roof terrace at the rear, plus a staircase leads up to a second terrace at the very top of the building.

Storage is built into the walls to minimise clutter, and heating and cooling systems are built into the floors.

Residents use iPhones to remotely open and close the house’s entrances, so there are no handles or keyholes anywhere around the exterior.

Photography is by Jan Bitter, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:

V House

V House was constructed for a couple that collects vintage cars, and is stitched within the medieval tapestry of historic Maastricht. The city dictates all new structures remain within the envelope of pre-existing buildings, and so a cut was created in the house’s front façade to generate a triangulated surface, which leads from one neighbour’s sloped roof to the opposite neighbour’s vertical bearing wall.

As the house’s site is long and narrow, voids were cut into the maximum permitted volume to ensure that natural light spills throughout the interior. The ground floor is both open to the exterior elements and sunken to the rear of the site, which makes possible the maximum two-story height allowance. A covered portion of this exterior space serves as an outdoor parking garage for the owners’ collection of Aston Martins.

As the house finds refuge between two historical buildings, it is a burst of modernity within this currently gentrifying neighborhood of Maastricht. The house is enormous, totaling 530 m2, and is entered through two oversized sliding glass doors that perforate its front façade. These doors serve as the house’s main entry and open to either their left or right for entry by foot, and both simultaneously retract to allow the entry of automobiles.

Due to safety and privacy concerns, these glass entry doors have no handles or keyholes and are instead are remotely opened from any iPhone, from anywhere in the world. For further privacy the house’s front façade was fritted with a gradient pattern of dots, which disperse in placement as the house rises towards the sky and focus at a distance to compose an image of curtains fluttering in the wind. Actual curtains align the interior of the front façade to afford additional privacy.

Circulation throughout the house occurs via two paths. A ‘slow’ stair leads from the ground floor to the expansive living room, which is connected to the partially raised kitchen and dining areas by a small ramp. A ‘fast’ stairwell traverses the entire height of the house and, together with the platform elevator, allows for direct vertical shortcuts to all levels of living.

Thus this house, with its multiple circulation interventions, such as its living room ramp and ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ paths, is organised not around the traditional notion of stacked floors and is instead organised around its circulatory section. At the apex of this ‘fast’ route is the entrance to an expansive roof terrace that’s also the most public space of the house, as it offers panoramic views over the spired roofline of Maastricht.

The living room has been suspended from two I-beams that span two masonry bearing walls that surround the rear of the site. Steel tension rods measuring 5×10 cm extend from these I-beams into the almost fully glazed façade of the living room, which allows its volume to float above the Aston Martins below. For privacy reasons, this glazing was treated with a highly reflective coating that casts a hue of chartreuse or amber depending on the season and angle of the sun. Only when inhabiting the master bedroom is this hanging of the living room apparent, as the I-beams are visible from the master bedroom, which opens onto the living room’s roof, which functions as a private terrace for the owners.

Heating and cooling is provided via a concrete core activation system concealed within the floors and ceilings of the house, while all storage is built into the circulatory areas in order to divide spaces and define rooms. These custom designed storage units also outfit the office space, where they conceal a bed that can be lowered to accommodate temporary visitors, such as the owners’ now grown children. All storage areas recede in prominence due to their fluid integration, which allows the house’s interior to remain flexible and open for ephemeral definition.

The one-piece custom designed kitchen was constructed in stainless steel, and the dining table, which is connected to it, cantilevers 3.5 m toward the front façade. The custom furnishings and storage spaces, together with the in-situ concrete and multiple roof terraces, make the V’ house an expression of free space in a regulated heritage context.

Program: Housing
Size: 530 m2
Date of design: 2006-2010
Date of completion: 2013
Project team: Wiel Arets, Alex Kunnen, Joris Lens, Breg Horemans, Felix Thies, Daniel Meier
Collaborators: Francois Steul
Client: Private
Consultants: Palte BV, Wetering Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV, Permasteelisa BV

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for a vintage car collector appeared first on Dezeen.

A bridge over a stream connects the two sides of this concrete house in India by Mumbai firm Architecture Brio (+ slideshow).

House on a Stream was designed by Architecture Brio as a weekend retreat near the town of Alibag, on a site with a stream meandering through it.

The architects chose to separate the master bedroom from the main part of the house containing the kitchen, dining room, living room and guest bedroom by arranging them on either side of the stream.

Monolithic concrete boxes containing the various rooms rest on the uneven ground and cantilever over the water, while trees grow in the gaps between.

“Like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings, the house with its several limbs reaches out into the landscape, making full use of the views within the site and dramatises special moments: a beautiful tree, a view of the mountains beyond or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains,” said the architects.

A walkway covered by a pergola links the bridge with the entrance to the larger part of the house. Next to it, a narrow swimming pool follows the course of the stream and adjoins a sheltered verandah that becomes an extension of the dining room when sliding doors are pulled back.

The living room and both bedrooms also feature doors that can be slid or folded back to open these spaces onto outdoor decks that bring the occupants closer to the surrounding nature.

The kitchen is located at the centre of the house, with a high ceiling containing a skylight contributing to the bright space, around which the other rooms are arranged.

By offsetting these surrounding rooms and raising the level of the living area, the architects intended to give each space a sense of autonomy, while strategically positioned windows create views from one part of the building to another.

Concrete cast against wooden planks gives the building’s exterior a textured finish, which will be enhanced as it gains additional patina over time. The natural aesthetic is enhanced by timber screens that cast delicate shadows on the floors and walls.

Photography is by Sebastian Zachariah.

The following project description is from the architects:

House on a stream

Landscape

With a stream running through the house, this retreat in Alibag is delicately woven into the landscape, alternately opening up and closing itself to the different characteristics of the site.

A multitude of medicinal and fruit bearing trees provide for an intimate ambiance and comfortable microclimate. Though seasonal, the stream bed allows for an interesting landscape feature throughout the year. The house is placed on the banks of the stream where it makes a sudden S-curve. A short walk along the stream before entering the house builds up an element of anticipation.

Like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings, the house with its several limbs reaches out into the landscape making full use of the views within the site and dramatises special moments: a beautiful tree, a view of the mountains beyond or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains. What started out as a Cartesian response to the site became deformed, stretched and pushed in.

Program

The house consists of two parts: the day areas of the house such as the dining/kitchen, the living room and entrance verandah are separated from the master bedroom by a bridge that spans across the stream.

Since the owners are passionate about cooking, the kitchen is made the heart and centre of the house, a large, inviting volume with a high ceiling and a skylight that floods the space with light.

This space forms the anchor of the house from where its various limbs branch out into the landscape around existing components of the site. The living room on the left is lifted off the ground to have a panoramic view of the mountain range in the distance. The guest room embraces an existing tree to create a courtyard and just peeks across the dining room to have a view over the length of the stream. The pool is aligned along the stream acting as a celebration of it during the monsoons, and a memory of it during the dry season.

Orientation

The orientation of the program is based on climatic considerations. The bedrooms are mostly west facing with large verandahs and get the evening sun.

The living rooms faces east once again with a large verandah. The kitchen, dining, and pool areas all look towards the north and are shaded by large trees. The south façade of the house is predominately closed and more solid with the exception of a picture window that frames the view out from the pantry to the fields beyond.

Monolithic character

While the external structural concrete shell contracts and expands in plan in section it does so as well. The external form of the house responds to site and its orientation and flows from high to low in accordance with the monolithic fluidity of its form. Internally, however, it responds to the creation of space, and directs the eye to frame a particular view.

The outside and inside are therefore apart and internal spaces are defined with volumes created by the changing thickness of the internal ceiling.

The heaviness of this mass however is reversed by the lightness of the white washed walls and ceilings. A central skylight and large sliding doors, which span from floor to ceiling and wall to wall bring in the outside into the interiors. The cantilevered ‘limbs’ of the living room and two bedrooms defy the heaviness of the concrete volumes. By not resting it on the ground the relationship with the landscape paradoxically is strengthened.

Internal relationships

A series of asymmetrical axis create a path of discovery through the house. The arrival path is aligned with the axis of the pergola, which embracing the pool enters the dining room on the left side. One corner of the dining room overlaps with the conically shaped volume of the kitchen. By shifting the axis of the dining room off the axis of the kitchen and raising the level of the living room, this becomes a more secluded space.

Furthermore it allows a glazed door in the kitchen to open up to the outside and view along the external living room wall. At strategic positions in the house steel framed box windows protrude through the concrete walls. Placed symmetrically on the interior walls they highlight specific elements of the site, such as the bark of a tree, or peek from the master pavilion to the main house.

Materialisation

The house is cast in plank-finished concrete with a vertical grain. The homogenous materialisation emphasises the sculptural quality of the house that is moulding itself about the site. Concrete being left exposed in the humid Indian climate, attracts a patina that becomes more rich and alive over time. More so the grey textured surface provides a muted surface against the vibrant green surrounding.

Elegant timber screens further soften the greyness of the con- crete. They not only form a buffer between the interior space and the exteriors, but also create an intensive play of shadow and light on the floors and walls.

Description: Weekend house
Location: Jirad, Alibaug, Mumbai, India
Size: 300 m2
Design: Architecture BRIO, Robert Verrijt + Shefali Balwani
Structural design: Vijay K. Patil & Associates
Realisation: September 2013

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that straddles a stream in India appeared first on Dezeen.