Hasta La Ideas

This house by architect Marlene Uldschmidt has been built into the side of a hill in Portugal and features a vertical light well that links its upper and lower floors (+ slideshow).

Located in the fishing village of Ferragudo, the split-level building was designed by Portuguese studio Marlene Uldschmidt Architects with layers of internal and external glass partitions that allow natural light through each of the rooms.

Interior and exterior staircases link the different levels of the sloping site, leading down from a staggered rear terrace to the two main floors of the house, and then further down to the entrance at street level.

“The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen the visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond,” said architect Marlene Uldschmidt.

Built on a narrow rectangular site, the glass, stone and wooden house is squeezed between a pair of neighbouring buildings on the hillside street.

“The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river,” added the architect.

A small wooden door at street level leads into a long entrance hall on the ground floor, then through to the spacious master bedroom and the only two bathrooms in the house.

A flight of white stairs appears to grow out from the surface of one of the walls, leading to first-floor kitchen, dining and living room spaces.

The upstairs kitchen and dining area opens out to the rear terrace, which steps up to various gardens and patios.

A rectangular swimming pool, wooden sun deck and a private solarium complete this garden.

Other Portuguese houses featured on Dezeen include a weekend retreat created from farm buildings and animal pens, a house with its rooftop extended into the hillside and a home with a long stone wall and a folding timber facade.

See more Portuguese houses »
See more houses »

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Living Behind the Wall 

Our studio were excited to take on such an interesting project in the Fishing Village of Ferragudo, Portugal.

The historic centre of Ferragudo is an extremely sensitive area to work in and we believed that our intervention should be balanced harmonious and above all integrate with the surrounding architecture and history.

The studio decided to explore the concept of “LIVING BEHIND THE WALL” ! connection.

The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river levels.

The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen their visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond.

The concept we chose was to use the changes of level within the site in order to achieve this goal.

Another challenge of this concept was to create a light and airy feeling within the building.

We created a vertical well of light that links all levels to achieve this.

In order to balance the simple white walls natural materials of wood and stone in earthy tones were chosen.

Author: ultramarino |marlene uldschmidt architects; Marlene Uldschmidt, Arq.a
Collaborating: Maurícia Bento, Arq.a
Location: Ferragudo, Algarve, Portugal
Area: 230 m2
Year: 2010-2013
Structure: Protecna Engineering Team
Carpentry: equipa quatro

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Uldschmidt Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Our second recent story from Japanese architects Studio Velocity is a house shaped like a fairytale tower with five different staircases connecting its two floors (+ slideshow).

House in Chiharada was designed by Studio Velocity in the garden of another residence in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, so architects Miho Iwatsuki and Kentaro Kunhura specified a cylindrical volume that would contrast with the rectilinear structure of the existing building.

“To avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square-shaped volume of the main house,” explained Iwatsuki.

The first of the five staircases wraps the curved perimeter of the house, leading up to a first-floor entrance that is sheltered beneath an ultra-thin canopy.

Inside, a large circular room occupies the entire floor and contains a sequence of family spaces that are divided by four box-shaped volumes with various proportions.

Each box contains a staircase down to a different room on the floor below. Arched wooden doors lead inside, while square windows help to draw in extra light.

One staircase descends into the bath and washrooms, while the other three head directly into bedrooms. There are no corridors between these rooms, but extra doors give direct access to the bathroom from the other rooms.

“By intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together,” said Iwatsuki.

To allow this arrangement to work, the architects gave low ceilings to the ground floor so that each staircase needed only ten treads. Meanwhile, the upper level is a double-height space that brings light in through openings in the roof.

Additional doors allow residents to open their bedrooms out to the garden.

Studio Velocity also recently completed a house with a squashed diamond shape designed to maximise space without overlooking the neighbours.

Other Japanese houses on Dezeen lately include a residence where furniture forms sections of staircases and a home with a tunnel-like entrance and faceted interior walls. See more houses in Japan »

Photography is by Kentaro Kurihara.

Here’s a project description from Studio Velocity:

House in Chiharada

Deconstruction of a multi-floored architecture

A site with a two-storey main house is split in half and a new house for a young couple is going to be built on the vacant area.

Although there is enough space within the surrounding environment and there are no approximate buildings, it is inevitable that the new house be built rather close to the main house. In addition, a multi-floor living space was needed due to the limitation of the site area.

Therefore, to avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square shaped volume of the main house. It was arranged so as to create a valley-like space in between the two buildings spreading open towards the outside. The round shape is set on an irregular shaped site, creating various shaped gardens around it that can be shared with the main house. Each room on the first floor in the round-shaped building has a door that opens to the gardens.

A number of small rooms and a bathroom are located on the first floor, and a single large hall where everyone can gather is arranged on the second floor. Downstairs and upstairs are relatively close by lowering the height of the slab (the upstairs floor) that lies between the two floors, and therefore, the garden grounds can be seen even from the centre of the second floor through the enclosed staircases and downstairs rooms.

Entering through the entrance on the second floor, enclosed staircases are arranged within the living room that is filled with natural light from a high ceiling; the enclosed staircases look like slender structures of various heights. The space seems like being on a street in a town, and makes you feel that it is on the ground level although it is upstairs of the multi-floor building.

Each of the four enclosed staircases connects to an individual room on the first floor. When you look up at the open ceilings from the children’s room or the bedroom (inside of the enclosed staircases) that almost reach the roof, the sky can be seen and natural light pours down from skylights above the openings in the enclosed staircases. It was intended with this house that a person be able to feel the ground and sky throughout, though it is a multi-floored building.

Elimination of the discontinuity between multi-floor stairs that usually exists might result in the unfolding of a united and continuous new living environment. By interrelating with each area, including the outside, and by intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together.

Location: Chiharada, Okazaki-city, Aichi, Japan
Site Area: 144.93 sqm
Built Area: 55.28 sqm
Total Floor Area: 110.56 sqm

The post House in Chiharada
by Studio Velocity appeared first on Dezeen.

An asymmetric tunnel leads through an all-black facade to a bright and spacious interior at this house in Chiba Prefecture, Japan (+ slideshow).

Designed by Tokyo studio Sugawaradaisuke, Kiritoshi House provides the home for a family of four on the rural perimeter of a residential district in Oamishirasato.

While the black-painted front elevation presents a blank face to the street, the rear features a glazed wall that opens the house out to the neighbouring fields.

“The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment,” said architect Daisuke Sugawara.

The interior spaces are arranged to complement this arrangement, with bedrooms grouped together at the front of the house and an open-plan living room and kitchen leading out to a terrace at the rear.

“The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house,” added Sugawara.

A wooden panelled floor runs through the house and is mirrored by a matching ceiling in the living room. Walls between are painted white and feature a series of triangular openings and facets.

Sugawaradaisuke previously completed two studio apartments divided by central twisting forms in a Tokyo apartment block.

Other recently completed Japanese residences include a house shaped like a squashed diamond and a shared occupancy house in Nagoya. See more architecture in Japan »

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here’s more information from Sugawaradaisuke:

Kiritoshi House

This house is designed for a married couple with two children, and is located in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture. The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house, so that the residents enjoy the life in the green ambience.

The building sits on the borderline between the new residential area and the pastoral fields. The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment. The exterior is finished as a simple box, allowing the residence to blend in easily with the rest of the surroundings.

The interior spaces are constructed according to the three-dimensional cellular structure, and in the middle is the largest space for the family members to gather. This maximises the physically sensed largeness and at the same time, each room’s storage capacity.

The relativeness of the scenery, space and body changes dramatically by moving from each space to space. The physical perception experienced in this house is like that in an excavation (=”Kiritoushi”) – the fusion of both natural and artificial dimensions.

Project name: Kiritoshi House
Location: Oamishirasato city, Chiba Pref
Concept design: Sugawaradaisuke
Schematic Design: Sugawaradaisuke
Design Development: Sugawaradaisuke + Osato Sogokanri
Construction: Osato Sogokanri

Principal use: residence
Structure: wooden structure
Site area: 228.72 sqm
Building area: 103.98 sqm
Floor area: 91.89 sqm
Number of stories: 1

The post Kiritoshi House by
Sugawaradaisuke appeared first on Dezeen.

This bright white house in Toyokawa, Japan, was designed by architects Studio Velocity with a squashed diamond shape to maximise space without overlooking the neighbours (+ slideshow).

Named Forest House in the City, the residence appears to have been stretched across its rectangular site in a way that allows space for small gardens filled with trees beside each wall.

“The site is abutted on three sides by houses, all with windows facing the site,” said Studio Velocity architect Miho Iwatsuki. “Responding to this, we created a forest-like outdoor space that radiates from the site’s four corners like ripples on a pond.”

The architect also compares the curving shape of the house to the organic growth of trees: “Plants make decisions about where to unfurl leaves and extend branches according to the presence and position of plants and other objects in their environment,” he said. “We were interested in designing architecture that exhibits a similar quality.”

A hair salon occupies the ground floor of the two-storey building. A simple spiral staircase winds up to the level above, where the rooms of an open-plan family home are arranged around the perimeter of a central bathroom.

Two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen form the four corners of the floor and feature sharply pointing windows. There’s also a circular balony that sticks out over the west-facing garden.

Other houses completed recently in Japan include one where wooden furniture forms sections of staircases and one with a garden snaking between its wooden walls. See more houses in Japan »

Photography is by Kentaro Kurihara.

Here’s more information from Studio Velocity:

Forest House in the City

Creating architecture shaped by the environment plants

Plants make decisions about where to unfurl leaves and extend branches according to the presence and position of plants and other objects in their environment. We were interested in designing architecture that exhibits a similar quality.

In this project, we carefully investigated the site and its surroundings, allowing these to shape our building. The site is abutted on three sides by houses, all with windows facing the site. Responding to this, we created a forest-like outdoor space that radiates from site’s four corners like ripples on a pond.

The diamond-shaped space remaining at the centre of the site became the house’s interior. Viewed from the street and neighbouring buildings, the house and its outdoor space – both derived from relationships within the site – resemble a forest, suggesting a new architectural ideal.

Location: Toyokawa-city, Aichi
Principal use: private residence, shop
Site area: 245.30 sqm
Building area: 72.00 sqm
Total floor area: 137.80 sqm
Structure: steel frame
Number of storeys: 2 storeys

Architect: Kentaro Kurihara+ Miho Iwatsuki/Studio Velocity
Structural engineer: Atsushi Fujio / Fujio and Associates

The post Forest House in the City
by Studio Velocity appeared first on Dezeen.

Following our interview with Ström Architects about the value of photo-realistic visualisations, the firm sent us a set of images by rendering guru Peter Guthrie showing a house proposed for Suffolk, England (+ slideshow).

Two miles from the coast in the southern English county of Suffolk, the 2.5 hectare site is located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounded by farmland.

British studio Ström Architects designed the house to be built over foundations of a previous structure that burnt down, beside an existing outdoor pool.

It will be orientated at an angle to the ruins, to make a clear distinction between the two and to face the best views.

“The building is set like this so that it can be read on its own and thus touch the existing site lightly,” said the architects.

Flooding is prevalent in the area so the home will be raised 1.5 metres off the ground, with a ramped walkway following the geometry of the old building connecting it to the garden.

The design is long and thin to reference the local vernacular, with glazing along most of the west elevation. Dark wood panels will cover rest of this facade, while Corten steel is to clad the other three sides.

All the rooms are on the ground floor apart from the master bedroom and bathroom, which will fit into the small volume on the roof. Construction is due to start later this year.

The renderings were produced by visualisation artists Peter Guthrie, who is considered one of the leading exponents of photo-realistic architectural imagery. Guthrie is the mentor of UK architect Henry Goss, whose renderings of a proposed house in southern England stunned Dezeen readers earlier this month. Read our interview with Goss.

Check out Goss’s renderings of another English house by Ström Architects and read the interview in which the studio claims that investing in quality computer generated imagery (CGI) is “more effective than advertising”.

We recently published an archive of all the most convincing renders on Dezeen, which includes CGIs of a Norwegian hunting lodge, the new National Gallery of Greenland and Renzo Piano’s The Shard in London.

See more hyper-realistic renderings »
See more buildings in Suffolk »
See more architecture and design in England »

More information from Ström Architects follows.

Private House, Suffolk, UK

The site is located in Suffolk two miles inland the coast, and lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site itself forms part of an overall land ownership of 2.5 hectares surrounded by agricultural land.

The current site has foundations, ruins and some low walls from a house that burned down eight years ago; there is also an existing outdoor pool. Immediately to the west of the pool and ruins, there is a small area of open grass that runs up to the edge of a beautiful copse of mature oak trees. The site is located on the edge of flood zone two and three, and requires a raised floor level 1.5 metres above the old cottage.

The clients’ brief was for a country house – ‘a dream in a wood’, a peaceful place to relax, regenerate, and think of new ideas. The existing site with the pool, ruins and low walls has a very strong presence, and we wanted to keep this as an important part of the site. The design is linear and has picked up on the building form – the ‘long cottage’ found in the locality, and we see the design as an evolution of the longitudinal cottage.

The building sits above the ruins and the edge of the pool, as to respect the current site, but also to deal with the raised floor level that is required, due to the potential flood risk. The building is also set like this so that it can be read on its own, and thus touch the existing site lightly. The building is orientated towards the west-south-west, and sits on an angle above the existing ruins facing the best views as well as creating a clear juxtaposition of geometry to the ruins.

A two-storey element punctures through the roof, and contains a master bedroom suite at the first floor. This is positioned towards the existing coach house, thus minimising the impact of the building on the more open site to the south. This two storey element is recessed from both the west and east facades as to reduce the scale and the appearance of the building.

The building is entered via a bridge that spans from higher ground and above the ruins. This sets up the whole philosophy of the house, even before you actually enter, as well as successfully dealing with safe egress form the house to higher land in case of a flood.

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by Ström Architects appeared first on Dezeen.