Hasta La Ideas

Shanghai architects Polifactory have developed a concept for a rammed earth house that generates energy from a lake on its roof.

Designed for a rural site in Vancouver, the self-sustaining HOUS.E+ would use turbines embedded in the walls to produce electricity from water being pumped through a system of pipes.

Additional electricity would come from photovoltaic panels on the rooftops of five blocks that rise above the water and any excess power could be fed back into the national grid.

Rooms would be set 2.5 metres below ground level, where they would be heated in winter and cooled in summer from an underground pump that uses the surrounding earth as a heat source or sink.

Two courtyards at this level would let daylight down onto the sunken floor, while more natural light would filter in through skylights.

Inhabitants would also be able to harvest their own food by cultivating an ecosystem of fish, seafood and plants beneath the surface of the water.

Polifactory developed the concept for a competition organised by The Architecture Foundation of British Columbia for a redesign of the typical regional house.

We also recently featured a self-sustaining house in rural China, which you can see here.

Here’s some text from Polifactory:

Hous.E+ is designed to combine new and old techniques in order to create a not only a resourceful building regarding energy efficiency and sustainability but also well equipped to actively respond to future demands of smart grid systems where energy surplus is distributed and agriculture within the city is a reality.

Above: solar energy and geothermal heat exchange

Designed for a competition in Vancouver, called “100 Mile House”, this project is more than just a concept, but reality with a twist. Therefore, it is based upon existing smart technologies, but goes a step further on solutions that haven’t been explored so far. In this house water is not only stored and re-used but also is part of a cycle that generates power throughout a series of wall embedded micro hydro-turbines. Unnecessary transportation of materials is avoid making a significant difference into the overall carbon foot print emission balance.

Above: hydropower

Hous.E+ is build upon a rammed earth wall technique that is unaffected by rain, fire or pests, plus it doesn’t require any further finishing. The walls act like breathing structures, allowing air exchange without significant heat loss, working naturally as a thermal mass, storing heat in winter and rejecting in the summer, eliminating the need for air conditioning.

Above: aquaponics healthy food growth

Hous.E+ is set to produce more energy than it consumes.

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by Polifactory appeared first on Dezeen.

One storey hangs precariously over the other at this isolated hilltop house in Australia by architects Denton Corker Marshall.

The dramatic cantilever defines the silhouette of View Hill House, which looks out over the Yarra Valley winemaking region of Victoria.

The exterior of the lower storey is clad in pre-rusted steel and the upper storey has walls of black aluminium.

Chunky chipboard lines the interior walls and ceilings of both levels and the floor of the upper storey, while the lower storey features a polished concrete floor.

Denton Corker Marshall also recently unveiled proposals for a visitor centre at Stonehenge in England.

See all our stories about Australian houses »

Photographs are by Tim Griffith.

Here’s some more information from Denton Corker Marshall:

The Yarra Valley was originally settled as a series of farms strung out along the tracks through the valley on either side of the river. Yering Station and Gulf Station, for example, still exist as heritage buildings, but View Hill is identifiable only as an isolated hill abutting the historic Yarra Track with magnificent views of the whole valley.

The 60-hectare site was progressively developed as a premium cool climate vineyard from 1996 to 2004 and now has around 32 hectares of vines. A site for a house was identified at the top of the hill looking north over the vineyard but also taking in view all around.

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Denton Corker Marshall have completed six houses over the last 20 years, a sideline to their larger building work but seen as an important part of their exploration of ideas about architecture. There were also opportunities to consider the isolated building in the landscape as ‘land art’. Here on the top of the hill the house is reduced to two sticks placed one on top of the other ‘dropped’ onto the landscape. It is a counterpoint to their Phillip Island house of 20 years ago where the house is buried in the sand dunes.

The stick sitting on the ground is made of rusting steel whilst the stick sitting on right angles on top and cantilevering impossibly is made from black aluminium. The sticks read as very thin metal tubes with glass inset at each end. The reading of the tubes is reinforced inside by their lining with a grey green stained OSB board – on the upper level its walls, ceilings and even the floor is lined – at ground level the floor is charcoal polished concrete. The ground level tube is 6m x 4m in cross-section so that the ceiling heights are 3.2m, the upper tube is 4m x 3m with 2.4m ceilings.

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Ground floor uses are centred around a living, dining, kitchen space – with bedrooms at either end. Upstairs two offices and another guest bedroom complete the primary spaces. Planning is therefore very simple – presenting controlled views out from each end of the tubes and then by raising three panels on the side of the lower tube so that the living area looks out over the vineyard. The mountains containing the valley on all sides offer a dramatic backdrop.

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Denton Corker Marshall appeared first on Dezeen.

This 4.5 metre-wide house in Los Angeles by Anonymous Architects was inspired by the narrow residences found in Japanese cities.

The three-storey house is named Eel’s Nest – a reference to the unusually narrow proportions of its plot – and is located in the hilly Echo Park neighbourhood in the north of the city.

Another small house had occupied the site before, but all that remained were basement walls which have been incorporated into the new structure.

To save space there are no corridors inside the building, but stairs lead up from the entrance to a first floor living room, second floor bedrooms and a terrace on the roof.

Other Californian houses we’ve featured include a writer’s residence in north Hollywood and a Malibu house with aeroplane wings for a roof.

See more houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Steve King.

Here’s some information from Anonymous Architects:

Eel’s Nest
Echo Park, California

The name Eel’s Nest is often given to very narrow lots in Japan, those typically 5 meters or 15 feet in width. The width of this lot in Echo Park is exactly 15 feet and architect Simon Storey felt it was the perfect site to experiment with compact and efficient urban living.

By building vertically, simply and minimally, he was able to use every square foot of space to create a live-work house.

The lot size is 780 square feet and the original building on site was around 370 square feet. The permit from 1927 shows a small house on it’s own lot, which this rules out the possibility it was a carriage house.

It’s existence was so unique that employees at the building department said they had never seen anything like it.

In order to maximize the site and expand by an additional story special permission was required by the planning department. The original house was completely demolished except a few walls in the basement, which are still visible.

Because the house is built to the property line the code requires that the house be fire rated on the exterior.

To solve this challenge, Simon clad the house cement plaster for fire resistance. The interior space has now doubled to create a Warm wood floors and cabinets run through every level and light penetrates into the living and first level spaces by creating an open stair at the 2nd level.

A roof deck, which rises above the dense urban development, has views that extend as far as the Hollywood sign and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Architect: Anonymous Architects
Size: 960 sq.ft (approx 89 sq.m)
Lot size: 780 sq.ft (approx 72 sq.m)
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 1
Design and Construction complete in March 2011

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Anonymous Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Indoor and outdoor staircases lead from a roof terrace to a sunken courtyard at this house in Portugal by Lisbon studio [i]da Arquitectos.

Located in the town of Carcavelos, the three-storey house has a sheltered entrance on its side so that anyone arriving can also look down on the courtyard below.

Indoor staircases connect the ground floor with levels above and below, while outdoor stairs lead up from a first floor balcony to the large terrace on the roof.

A second balcony is recessed behind the bright white facade, diagonally above a glazed living room that projects towards the street.

The house is named Casa DJ after the initials of its occupants, rather than because a DJ has moved in.

See more houses in Portugal here, including the concrete residence we featured earlier today.

Photography is by Joao Morgado.

Here’s some more text sent by the photographer:

DJ House

A central patio divides the house into two parts and organizes the interior spaces: on the west side, an open horizontal space to the garden receives the dining room and the kitchen; on the east side, a vertical space, located at a lower level in relation to the public route to ensure domestic privacy, receives the living room.

Large apertures establish the contact between interior and exterior.

In the horizontal space the relationship is made by the continuity with the garden while in the vertical space is the blue sky that dominates the entire landscape.

The private areas, one suite and two bedrooms, are located in the upper level as well as the access to the roof terrace.

The simplicity of the facades contrasts with the complexity of the different spaces of the house.

The white wall surfaces and the gray shades of the floors give a unit character to the entire construction.

Architecture: [i]da Arquitectos – Ivan de Sousa + Inês Antunes
Location: Carcavelos, Portugal
Area: 283.81 sqm

Project date: 2009
Finished: 04.2012

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[i]da Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

A dozen layers of concrete planters create a vertical garden on the facade of this house in Ho Chi Minh City by Vietnamese architects Vo Trong Nghia.

Built for a couple and one of their mothers, the building is 20m deep but just 4m wide, typical of the narrow but long ‘tube houses’ common in Vietnam.

Concrete planters span between the side walls to cover the front and back facades, and are spaced according to the height of the plants.

At the rear of the house, an exterior staircase is positioned between the planters and the back wall, while glazing separates the front of the house from the plants.

Automatic irrigation pipes fitted inside the planters allow for easy watering and maintenance.

A rooftop garden provides shelter from the noise and pollution of the streets below.

Inside the house, there are few partition walls in order to maximise views of the green facades and encourage ventilation. The rooflights also allow natural light to penetrate.

Sunlight pokes through the leaves of the plants to cast dappled shadows on the granite walls.

Photographs are by Hiroyuki Oki.

See more stories from Vietnam »

Here’s some more text from the architects:

Project Name: Stacking Green
Location: Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
Completion: 2011

Architect’s Name: Vo Trong Nghia + Daisuke Sanuki + Shunri Nishizawa
Contractor: Thuan Viet Company + Wind and water House JSC.
Floor area: 250m2 (4 floors)

Whoever wanders around Saigon, a chaotic city with the highest density of population in the world, can easily find flower-pots cramped and displayed here and there all around the streets.

This interesting custom has formed the character of Saigon over a long period of time and Saigonese love their life with a large variety of tropical plants and flowers in their balconies, courtyards and streets.

The house, designed for a thirty-year-old couple and their mother, is a typical tube house constructed on the plot 4m wide and 20m deep.

The front and back facades are entirely composed of layers of concrete planters cantilevered from two side walls.

The distance between the planters and the height of the planters are adjusted according to the height of the plants, which varies from 25 cm to 40 cm.

To water plants and for easy maintenance, we use the automatic irrigation pipes inside the planters.

We named this tropical, unique and green house “Stacking Green” because its façades filled with vigorous and vital greenery.

Click above for larger image

The house structure is an RC frame structure widely used in Vietnam. The partition walls are very few in order to keep interior fluency and view of green façades from every point of the house.

During the day we get the varying light with the time of day trimmed by the top-light in the centre.

In the morning and the afternoon, the sunlight enters through the amount of leafs on both façades, creating beautiful shadow effects on the granite walls, which are composed of strictly stacked 2cm stones.

The green façade and roof top garden protect its inhabitants from the direct sunlight, street noise and pollution. Furthermore, natural ventilation through the façades and 2 top-lights allow this house to save a big energy in a harsh climate in Saigon.

Concerning these ecological approaches, we referred a lot to the bioclimatic principles of traditional Vietnamese courtyard house.

In this chaotic city, we defined the full variety of surrounding greenery as a context of Saigon and applied to the main concept of this house.

Although the Saigon townscape is getting uniformed and boring under the influence of the furious urban sprawl of recent years, we intended this house to inspire people to re-define and re-increase the greenery as the character of this city.

“Stacking Green” is just one small house, but it is generated from the context of Saigon. We hope that “Stacking Green” makes Saigon become more distinguished and fascinating with much more tropical greenery in the future.

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by Vo Trong Nghia appeared first on Dezeen.