Hasta La Ideas

This apartment building by Austrian architects LOVE architecture is part of the ongoing redevelopment of the port of Hamburg, Germany.

The development is part of the HafenCity project, which is turning 157 hectares of once derelict waterfront into an extension of the city centre.

Baufeld 10 was completed in 2008 and is next to Herzog & de Meuron’s nearly complete Elbphilharmonie concert hall.

Photos are by Anke Muellerklein.

Here’s some info from the architects:

Baufeld 10 – HafenCity Hamburg

International, invitational architect-selection process / 1st prize / Harbour City Hamburg – Kaiser Kai
24 apartments, 2 commercial spaces, 1 restaurant

Living with a direct view of the port

With the HafenCity Hamburg, a new district covering 157 hectares is being developed directly at the port. In addition to the mixed utilization, the relevant urban development concept calls for high-quality architecture. For this reason, there was a separate tendering process for each individual building site.

LOVE architecture and urbanism from Graz won the competition for “Baufeld 10.” The site is situated in an area within the Dallmannkai, directly on the water and in direct proximity to the “Elbphilharmonie” – a concert hall currently being developed by the Swiss Office of Herzog & de Meuron. In total, 26 architectural offices were awarded projects at the Kaiserkai.

Click above for larger image

LOVE’s special challenge: The Baufeld 10 project was developed in a joint building venture. This means that the various future residents worked together to create a real community for the new building. Within this model, individualists connected with each other with the goal of building THEIR communal house. The building typology had to meet this expectation. This is why the building houses many different building typologies with all kinds of furnishing standards: from very large apartments (up to approx. 225m2) to smaller units (approx. 50m2), which feature entirely different designs – from one-storey apartments to maisonettes that stretch across four storeys.

Click above for larger image

For Baufeld 10, individualisation was the top priority. Each of the 28 new residents can now enjoy his or her unique lifestyle within his or her apartment – whether horizontal or vertical – whether in a small or a big apartment. These different visions were blended into one building – to everyone’s satisfaction.

Viewed from the outside, the residential building presents a gleaming white structure formed of slightly bevelled cubes and with generously proportioned, slightly bevelled window openings. The configuration of these window openings matches the layout of the apartments behind them. Each apartment has a balcony and/or bay which protrude from the building. Within the rigid row of buildings, this configuration provides maximum views in an “exciting direction” – namely, the harbour.

Structural design and facade

The support system consists of a supporting building envelope with stiffening apartment partitions and storey ceilings and was calculated as a spacial static system. This made it possible to place the quite large window openings freely in the exterior walls of the building and to minimize the concrete and steel volume used, which also reduced the construction costs. More structurally demanding parts of the building, such as the roundings of the facade, the balconies and the bays, were executed as prefabricated elements.

Click above for larger image

The facade, which serves as an outside composite thermal insulation system, was provided with a “natural stone plaster” surface. This is composed of natural stone grains with an admixture of mica, which causes the facade to sparkle slightly in the sun, a valuable visual effect. The window roundings and the bevelled window reveals were modelled into the composite thermal insulation system with thermal insulation moulding.

Click above for larger image

Energy savings and climate protection

From the planning stages of the new district, the Municipal Development Company already emphasized energy savings and climate protection with a series of sustainable ecological measures for the emerging new buildings.

Click above for larger image

Regarding the building’s technical characteristics, the apartment building was planned and built according to the latest Energy Conservation Regulations (EnEV). The building features a very light construction mass and a building shell that provides excellent air sealing. One definite cornerstone of the building’s energy concept is its connection to the local heat and power plant, which combines the production of heat and power.

Click above for larger image

Outfitting the apartment building with a solar thermal system of ten vacuum-tube collectors for the central domestic water supply is an additional energy efficiency measure. The solar thermal energy system and the heating connection to the local energy provider combine to cover the heating requirement of about 30 kwh/(m2a).

Click above for larger image

Facts and Figures of Baufeld 10

Completion: November 2005
Planning Period: January to July 2006
Start of construction: January 2007
Completion: May 2008
Area: approx. 810 m2
Gross floor area: approx. 3150 m2
Residential floor area: 2688 m2
Commercial floor area: 272 m2

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

See also:

.

PUU-BO by BIG	One Hyde Park by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners	100 11th Avenue by Jean Nouvel

Architectural photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us some images of a house and studio in Oporto, Portugal that architect Álvaro Siza Álvaro Leite Siza designed and built for himself.

The house was completed earlier this summer by Siza.

Siza spent 12 years assembling the site, designing the house and building it.

The long, narrow, rectilinear ground level is capped by an oversailing, faceted white carapace.

Photographs are by Fernando & Sérgio Guerra.

Siza is the son of Pritzker-prize winning architect Álvaro Siza.

More photography stories »

The following statement is from Siza:

To do architecture it’s necessary a client, a promoter. When I realized, in certain moment of my career that to continue my path I would need to occupy that role too, I didn’t hesitate.

Was needed a lot of courage.

I conciliated objectives, interests, goals, I pursued an ideal and I achieved a dream.

I also had the need to be, in this work, supervisor, coordinator and project director, in an organization in direct administration.

I started this work in 2004 and I finished it in early of 2005. The construction begins in February of 2006 and was concluded in July of 2010.

The project of personal house-atelier is the first where is present touching figures in their own atmosphere, exalting pieces, personalities that derive from history, versus the sensibility, recreating individually realities, with no intention previously defined.

They appear in the middle of delivery to ones believe beyond what we need (specific program and functional), sublimation underlying to authentic communication of the creative process.

When the modern is old, a pass appears in the most eloquent and distant expression.

The affirmation of a new Romantism, of a Classic Renaissance, came directly of the origins, with the interior load not less important.

The home like laboratory of ones dream that represent the drives, ideas, tensions and strength behind de matter.

The stories and its emotions that condense the symbolism that represent. The figures and humans relations.

In this project, borned from free drawings of harlequin – laughing about the problems, the tensions, the conflicts, the mismatches, between other dramas that surround this activity – that transforms in a geometric abstraction, where there’s no place for frames or glasses, I rehearse the affirmation of a new Classicism.

Transitional spaces, the porticos, the lamps, the light, the doorknobs, the doors, the hand rails, even some paintings and the furniture was designed for me, but also other of XIX century (timeless pieces) that came from my family that fit the environment perfectly, beyond other elements, complement the creation of environments that exalt Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, Miguel Angelo and surrounded by a lot of extraordinary Art works, that aren’t limited to the atmosphere of purely imaginary architectural.

The conclusion of this ideal was possible due to a personal characteristic of obstinated stubbornness and dissatisfaction non less expressive.

It’s started 12 years ago, with an acquisition of a lot without access to the street and for that a lot more financially favourable.

In the next 6 years I tried to find a connection that would make this possible.

I was lucky that a promoter of one unoccupied lot was a direct cousin of my mother that finally would sell it to me.

I was forced to buy another lot next to this one to make the business feasible, that I sold with a personal approved project.

In this way, I capitalized, investing all the money in this business.

During the necessary operation of regrouping of the lands, appears the project, result of one discourse of paradoxical intentions.

Home/Atelier; Interior area/Exterior area; Social area/ Cultural area; Private/Public; Leisure/work.

Their volumetry organized themselves by vertical and horizontal sections.

One programme built by one atelier facing to the street, garages and service areas working with a hinge and finally the House related with the garden.

One of underground storey corresponds to the foundations, another ground storey in granite, corresponding to the public and social areas, and even the top storey.

If In one hand, the ground floor expressed them self of inside to outside, of the intimacy to the exterior in an explosive manifesting, creating the necessary openings, the porticos of transition and the respective skylights of natural light; for other hand, the upper storey implode.

The aggression of exterior create symbolic tensions, pressures that recognize themselves of outside to inside, reducing their volumetry, giving rise to one figurative image.

Through a geometric rigorous abstraction to make possible the constructive system, built by lozenges associated in different angles that confer higher tridimensionality, I found the proportion that I wanted, the horizontality I wished, the orientation predefined, the objectified and determined direction.

The symbolism of the figure that sublime the oppression of one system.

Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira
Porto, Julho de 2010

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

See also:

.

Selected projects by Álvaro Siza	Casa Orquidea by Andrés Remy Architects	More photography stories on Dezeen

Japanese studio Epitaph have remodelled the interior of this bungalow in Iwate, Japan, by removing internal walls and exposing the roof truss structure.

Called Mint, the 35-year-old, steel-framed building has been transformed into an open-plan home.

Exposing the roof structure creates height, opening up the space even more.

A sliding door partitions the bedroom from the rest of the space.

A strip of wooden cupboards and flooring on one side of the space provides a contrast to the predominantly white interior.

Here’s a bit of text from the designers:

“　mint　”

This project is a reform of the house of 35 years old. This house is an one-storied house. The structure is a light gauge steel.

The owner hoped to us for removing the partition wall that became unnecessary by the change in the family structure, and making one big room.

We secured a bigger space by exposing the truss of the ceiling with the removal of the partition wall.

The finish material of the space that became one was changed according to the layout of old times.

However, neither the structure nor the window have been changed. Because we tried to tie the past of the owner and a new space.

Sunlight from the window and the light of the lighting obscure the boundary. It help the connection of time and the connection of the space.

Toilet and lavatory and bathroom and hall are walled. All other spaces are connecting but the bedroom can be partitioned with the sliding door.

Above: plan before renovation

Project name：mint
Architect:：epitaph （naoki horiike and norihisa asanuma）
Use:：Private house
Area:：77sqm
Location:：Iwate, Japan

Above: plan after renovation

See also:

.

AZB by Geneto	Fiat Lux by Label Architecture	More interior stories on Dezeen

Japanese firm Takeshi Yamagata Architects have squeezed four  buildings containing nine apartments onto a small suburban site in Tokyo.

Apartment in Kamitakada sits on a 300 square-metre site with apartments ranging from thirty to sixty square metres.

Curved, perforated steel fences meander across the site to enclose a private garden and entrance for each flat.

The apartment blocks are a steel-frame construction and range from two to four storeys.

Here’s some more from the architects:

Apartment in crowded area of Tokyo

This is a rental apartment for single and young couple in Tokyo.

The site is in the residential area where the atmosphere of downtown remains.

A lot of old wooden houses have been overcrowded in the surrounding.

In crowded area of Tokyo, we planned the bright and comfortable apartment where charm of living in downtown is felt.

Open atmosphere like private house

This building is 4 stories high, and is composed of the first floor part build on a full site and the upper floor part divided into four houses.

There are 9 units, from 30 sq m to 60 sq m. In the first floor, the curved walls divide the full site into each units including outside space.

The units have private approach and garden. Although each unit is very compact, but can get bright and open atmosphere like private house.

The curved wall in the garden is made from the steel fence, and shows a clear boundary, yet very open. So, all of the private gardens are independent space, but are also slightly connected to a large garden network.

By this reason, the first floor has open and comfortable space compared with general apartment.

In the upper floor, the building is separated into four houses, accordingly light and the wind reach the garden ground.

From the top floor, we can look over the surrounding towns, and enjoy the atmosphere of downtown.

Click above for larger image

Our attempt is to create living spaces with new charm by utilizing the typical living environment in Tokyo.

Click above for larger image

Combined structure

The structure is a steel-frame building.

Click above for larger image

Four simple box-shaped houses transmit an earthquake power to the outdoor wall through a horizontal brace in the second floor level.

Click above for larger image

The basics of structure that cropped out outdoors are united and, as a whole, become one stable building.

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

See also:

.

Near House by Mount Fuji Architects Studio	Residence in Kurakuen by NRM-Architects Office	More architecture stories