Hasta La Ideas

Dutch studio NL Architects used turquoise-coloured bricks to build this apartment block in Rotterdam, which staggers at the top to make room for sunny balconies on one side (+ slideshow).

NL Architects was one of seven firms invited to design buildings for a new residential development in the Nieuw-Crooswijk neighbourhood. Each architect was encouraged to include “elaborate details” in their designs to give variety to the different facades.

This 15-storey tower is the tallest building within its surroundings, so the architects staggered the five uppermost floors to create south-facing sun decks that aren’t shaded beneath the roof of the floor above.

Each floor is the same size, which means these upper storeys project outwards on the opposite side of the building to create the impression that the building is leaning over.

“We wanted to displace the floors in a way that would create a sunny terrace on one side and an interesting facade on the other,” architect Kamiel Klaasse told Dezeen, describing the overall effect as a “freaky cornice”.

The designers named the building Kuifje, the Dutch name for Tintin, to draw comparisons between the hairstyle of the famous cartoon character and the unusual profile of the tower.

Rather than matching the red brick of its neighbours, the walls of the tower are built from turquoise bricks that were made by a process called engobing.

“The aqua-marine effect is caused by something we call engobe, which includes a coloured clay slip coated in this case with copper oxide,” said Klaasse.

Two apartments are contained on each of the building’s 14 main floors, creating a total of 28 units that each feature one double bedroom, an open-plan kitchen and living room, and a study.

Apartments on the regular floors don’t feature sun decks, but do come with smaller recessed balconies.

Photography is by Luuk Kramer.

Here’s a project description from NL Architects:

B05 “Kuifje” Rotterdam

Nieuw-Crooswijk is a residential area in Rotterdam, strategically located near the city centre and Kralingse Bos, a beautiful park. “Everything within 10 minutes.” Large parts have recently been demolished and will soon be reconstructed.

Seven architecture offices were invited to contribute to a differentiated ‘cityscape’. The objective was to create expressive architecture; the focus on refining the facades by to introducing elaborate details; accentuating entrances, articulating bay windows and balconies, introducing intricate brickwork, pronounced window frames and delicate fences: sculptural on the micro scale.

Each of the invited offices designed several blocks that are sprinkled around the area. In order to manage the resulting complexity an experimental organisational system was invented: one single ‘back office’ would draw up all plans and develop them into coherent architecture. ABT is responsible for what is ‘under the hood’; the selected architects can as such concentrate on detailing the facades…

The developer, Ontwikkelings Combinatie Nieuw Crooswijk/Proper-Stok Groep, asked NL Architects to design several of what were called ‘specials’: seven apartment blocks that presumably will play an important role in the area for their position or height.

B05 is part of a series of 7 designs for Nieuw Crooswijk that all emphasise a building part, mostly the outdoor space, to create a both functional and sculptural quality.

B05, or Kuifje (Tintin), is positioned in the second block along the Boezemlaan that is now under construction. B05 is the tallest structure in this cluster; a 15 stories tower, two apartments per floor. The first 10 floor go up straight, but after reaching the maximum height of the neighbours, the building starts deforming.

The highest floors lean forward, piercing through the building line, creating a distinct silhouette. A kind of super sized cornice comes into being.

The standard floors all feature a loggia facing south west. By pushing the upper floors the penthouses can all feature an additional balcony over the full width of the apartment with a sensational view over the skyline of Rotterdam.

Location: Boezemlaan, Nieuw Crooswijk, Rotterdam
Client: OCNC, Woonstad Rotterdam, Proper-Stok Groep, ERA Contour
Program: housing (28 units), retail space, total 3,600 sqm
Process: design 2008, start construction 2010, completion 2013
NL Architects: Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse
Project Architect: Sarah Möller
Collaborators: Thijs van Bijsterveldt, Wim Sjerps, Stefan Schülecke, Florent Le Corre, Gerbrand van Oostveen, Gen Yamamoto
Structural Engineering and Working Drawings: Adviesbureau voor Bouwtechniek (ABT)
Contractor: ERA Contour

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that leans over towards the top appeared first on Dezeen.

French studio Perraudin Architecture has completed a social housing complex with solid stone walls near Toulouse as part of a bid to prove that “anything that is built today could be built in stone” (+ slideshow).

Perraudin Architecture, which also recently completed a stone house in Lyon, specified huge 40 centimetre-wide blocks of limestone for the walls of the three-storey building located within a new residential district of Cornebarrieu, north-west of Toulouse.

“Stone is the most abundantly available material on earth,” said architect Marco Lammers. “It is an extremely energy-efficient resource […] and, when used with intelligence, it can be cheaper than concrete.”

The studio treated this project as a case study to test whether stone can be used for buildings that need to adhere to both a tight budget and strict energy-saving requirements, and managed to deliver on both counts.

According to the architect, the load-bearing stone walls will provide a natural air conditioning system that absorbs excess heat and releases it gradually.

“The result is a truly contemporary stone architecture, rooted in the economy of simplicity and the pure tectonic art and pleasure of building,” said Lammers.

No paint or plaster was added to the walls, so the stone surfaces are left bare to display traces of the quarrying process. Projecting courses of stone on the exterior mark the boundaries between floors and help to direct rainwater away from the windows.

A total of 2o apartments are contained within the building. Bedrooms are positioned along the northern facade, allowing living rooms to be south-facing and open out to sunny terraces.

Larch was used for doors, window frames and shutters throughout the complex, and are expected to show signs of ageing over time.

Perraudin Architecture is now working on the next phase of the project, which will involve the construction of a larger housing complex using the same materials palette.

Photography is by Damien Aspe and Serge Demailly.

Here’s more information from Perraudin Architecture:

Massive Stone Social Housing, Cornebarrieu, France

Since its rediscovery of stone Perraudin Architecture has come to believe that anything that is built today could be built in stone.

After realising several massive stone buildings – including wineries, single housing and a school campus – the opportunity to build 20 social housing units in Cornebarrieu provided an excellent test case. Is it possible, to truly build in stone within the strictest of economical and energetic restrictions? With a brief featuring both a very limited budget of 1150 euro/m² and the strict demand to be granted the label ‘Very High Energetic Performance’ within the French standard of High Environmental Quality?

The result is a truly contemporary stone architecture, rooted in the economy of simplicity and the pure tectonic art and pleasure of building. An architecture made to age and made to last, searching to exploit to its maximum the great visual, environmental and structural qualities of its used materials.

The building is entirely built up in load-bearing limestone walls of 40 cm. Precise coursing elevations define each stone, to be extracted, dimensioned and numbered in the quarry and then transported to the site. There, they are assembled like toy blocks using nothing but a thin bed of lime mortar.

Each detail is a true stone detail. Large openings are formed by flat arcs with keys stones. Window sills are dimensioned in limestone. All perforations for ducts and for descending the rainwater from the roof are included in the coursing plan and carried out at the quarry. At the height of the concrete floor slabs ‘cornices’ project rainwater free off the building’s walls all the while doubling as guide rail for the blinds.

The building is located at the outskirts of Cornebarrieu, a town within the metropolitan area of Toulouse. It is part a new residential neighbourhood extending the town towards its forested western edge.

It is based on a series of simple principles, which we have come to apply and refine over time. All materials are left untreated. As much as possible, all materials are left untreated, with no paint, no plaster. The woodwork is in larch, left to age with time. The stone acts as natural air conditioning, its thermal mass absorbing and releasing surplus heat and humidity. For reasons of comfort and ventilation, the housing units are systematically continuous from facade to facade.

The bedrooms are in the north to take advantage of the summer freshness while on the south side a large terrace extends the living room, with nothing but a glass wall as separation. The staircases remain in open air and to enter the apartment one enters by the loggia. Flexible blinds protect this terrace and allow it to be used as a buffer-space softening climatic variations.

Life within this housing unit moves with the weather, one can activate and deactivate its great thermal mass while spaces change dynamically from being inside to outside according to the seasonal comfort.

The project has been nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2013, the Equerre d’Argent 2011, and was winner of the Prix Développement Durable – Concours d’architecture Pierre Naturelle 2011.

Furthermore, the building has been finished within budget with its stone construction finishing well ahead of schedule. Due to this success, we are currently building the second phase of the development – 86 collective and individual housing units, partly social – using the same construction method and a budget below 1000 euro/m².

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by Perraudin Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus have unveiled a conceptual skyscraper for Berlin with a twisted figure-of-eight structure that curves around elevated gardens and is held up by cables.

Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus, who are both based in Berlin, developed the design to contribute to a new masterplan being put together for the eastern quarter of the city.

“The state of society in the twenty-first century requires that we develop new visions for living in densely populated inner cities,” Preibisz told Dezeen. “This process inherently triggers an essential confrontation of material and social values, and so there is a nascent yearning for an architecture that offers a high degree of potential for community.”

Describing the building as a “vertical garden city”, the architects have planned a network of gardens and greenhouses that would slot into the two hollows of the figure-of-eight, intended to serve a growing desire among city dwellers for self-sustaining gardening.

Residences would be arranged to encourage neighbours to interact with one another, fostering a sense of community that the architects compare to social networks.

“While in social networking, the border between the public and the private spheres is being renegotiated, architecture and urban planning of cities such as Berlin lags behind these significant social and demographic changes,” they explain.

Named Green8, the tower is designed for a site on Alexanderplatz. The architects are now consulting with an engineering office to assess the viability of the structure.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Green8 Concept

How Do We Want To Live?

While trying to answer the query of how and where to house, many modern families today are torn between the desire for a pulsating urban life and the craving for a lifestyle in harmony with nature.

Our identification with and our desire for a free and urban life style defined by short distances to work, excellent public transportation, and proximity to cultural and commercial amenities, does not need to end with the decision to start a family or with retirement from active professional life.

Current trends towards a ‘sharing-spirit’ and a new participation in the community life counteract the anonymity and isolation in the metropolis. While in social networking, the border between the public and the private spheres is being renegotiated, architecture and urban planning of cities such as Berlin lags behind these significant social and demographic changes.

The unease with the global imperative of continued growth propagated by financial markets, seems to be spreading. Confidence in industrial food production finds itself nowadays significantly eroded. At the same time also the mass production of organic and healthier food has its limits and fails to appease growing groups of customers.

The longing for self-sustaining gardening and for knowing about the origins of what one is eating, are the most important reasons for the current boom in urban gardening.

What do these developments mean for architecture and urban planning? How do we want to live and house in the future?

As an integrative solution to this dilemma, the architects Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus are proposing project Green8 for a vertical garden city on Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

The residential high-rise structure is based on a business model of a cooperative collective. It envisions a self-determined community encompassing all generations. With its generous greenhouse and community spaces Green8 offers to organise not only the food production but also the sport and leisure activities, as well as the care of children and seniors.

Green8 reflects a dream come true: living in the centre of the city with breathtaking panorama views, while having one’s own vegetable garden at one’s doorstep.

Thanks to its cooperative and integrative principles, this housing concept is economically efficient. This form of home ownership is free from many constraints of real estate or land speculation, and the long term costs are lower than those of conventional homes.

Green8 is not a house. It is a life form.

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and Peter Sandhaus appeared first on Dezeen.

Untreated timber cladding and angular dormer windows feature at this small housing development in Amsterdam by Dutch studio M3H Architecten (+ slideshow).

Comprising two narrow houses and a three-storey apartment block, the small development slots into a row of residential buildings in Bellamy, a neighbourhood west of the city centre that has seen a number of renovations and demolitions over the last ten years.

M3H Architecten designed the buildings to fit in with the “unique, diverse and small-scale character” of the suburb, where plot sizes vary and houses are interspersed with commercial buildings.

“The street’s architectural characteristics are defined by its staggered facades, irregular plot sizes and the varying heights of its buildings,” said the architects.

Timber clads the walls and rooftops of the structures, contrasting with the brick facades of neighbouring buildings. Each facade comprise two layers of wooden slats, plus a water-retaining layer of bitumen that helps the buildings dry quickly when wet.

“The slats are double-layered to help with ventilation,” explained the architects. “What is essential when using untreated wood in the Dutch climate is that the wood on the facades be well ventilated so that it can dry quickly after being rained upon.”

The designers used a Brazilian timber that will gradually fade to grey over time, and concealed gutters and roof drains behind the facade’s outer layer.

Both houses are identical in plan, each with two storeys that open out to rear gardens and first-floor balconies. The apartments also come with private patios, including a large roof terrace that belongs to the top-floor residence.

“Even though these are very small homes, their generous amount of daylight, wide views and large outdoor spaces give each a unique quality and one never has a feeling of being confined,” added the architects.

Photography is by Tobias Bader, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Wooden Houses

For the past decade, Wenslauer Street in the Bellamy neighbourhood of Amsterdam has been undergoing a metamorphosis. In collaboration with the city council, the Stadgenoot housing corporation and various individuals, architects and small developers, a dozen dwellings have been renovated, and more than ten old houses have been demolished and replaced by new buildings.

The Bellamy neighbourhood is a neighbourhood where living and working have always been mixed, leading to a wide variety of buildings in the area. In 2011, M3H restored a house and built a new ‘steel’ house. Since then, five M3H-designed dwellings have been built: an ensemble of two houses with gardens and three small apartments.

The development plan for Wenslauer Street and its existing buildings was moulded and altered to suit Bellamy’s unique, diverse and small-scale character. In this way, the highly valued historical aspect of the neighbourhood was preserved: because the properties were run-down, they were not eligible for ‘protected face’, or historical protection status. The street’s architectural characteristics are defined by its staggered façades, irregular plot sizes and the varying heights of its buildings. Business lots alternate with smaller and larger residential plots.

The front yards and trees that lined Wenslauer Street at the beginning of the 20th century have disappeared, unlike the adjacent Bellamy Street, where these have been largely preserved. The street’s architectural characteristics follow from the irregular plot sizes, which often are determined by commercial or residential zoning. The varying heights of the buildings in the area find their roots in the neighbourhood’s village-like character, but Amsterdam contractors and carpenters have also built larger housing blocks next to the original polder development.

In order to make the houses more economically viable for residents, and to encourage home improvement, it’s possible to build extensions on the houses. This was recommended in a spatial study created in 2005 by Marina Roosebeek. Using the study as a model, zoning exemptions can be requested for extensions on existing spaces. The spatial study is founded on an analysis of insolation (sunlight) on Wenslauer Street, which is narrow, and also addresses the maintenance of the existing variety and irregular subdivisions of the street, as well as the visual impact of the staggered heights of the buildings.

The building space for M3H’s ensemble was determined by the boundaries set forth in the spatial study. For houses 65 and 67, that meant a single-story building on the street side, with a sloped roof. Two single-family dwellings with gardens were built in that space. The sloped roof permits a great deal of sun to fall on the narrow street. A window in the ridge of the roof lets sun into the north-facing kitchen and bedroom.

Wenslauer Street 69 is next to a four-storey building, and was permitted to be three storeys high. It consists of three small apartments, each having its own spatial quality and outdoor space. The residence on the ground floor has a south-facing patio with access to both the living room and bedroom. From the patio a long sightline through the entire residence is visible, from front to back. The apartment on the first floor has a south-facing roof terrace, and the apartment on the second floor has the option for a terrace on its roof.

On the front side of this apartment there is a special corner window that provides a wide view of the whole street. On the rear side, both upper residences have another corner window with views over houses 65 and 67’s patios and enclosed yards. Even though these are very small homes, their generous amount of daylight, wide views and large outdoor spaces give each a unique quality, and one never has a feeling of being confined.

The façades, dormer windows and sloping roof surfaces were all constructed with the same material. This serves to create a sculptural dimension with a unique look that suits the diversity of homes on Wenslauer Street. The sculptural quality is strengthened through simple and abstract detailing. The type of wood used is untreated FSC certified Sucupira Amarela, which will, within two years, become uniformly grey.

What is essential when using untreated wood in the Dutch climate is that the wood on the façades be well ventilated so that it can dry quickly after being rained upon. For this, a double layer of slats is placed within the timber framing of the houses, and has a water-retaining layer of bitumen. The slats are double-layered to help with ventilation. The gutters and roof drains are thus easy to hide behind the wooden façade. This also compliments the sculptural aspect of the construction.

The ensemble was built as a hybrid construction. The structural shell was made in a way common in The Netherlands: with sand lime brick walls and wide slab concrete flooring. The façades, dormer windows and sloping roofs were timber-framed. Despite a limited budget, M3H tried to include wood in as many elements as possible. The Wenslauer Street houses demonstrate a shift in the application of wood for construction and components of the façade not often seen in The Netherlands. In the brick city of Amsterdam, it’s uncommon to use wood. In fitting wood into our plan for this project, we hope to contribute to a wider acceptance of wooden buildings made by commissioning parties, contractors and residents.

Project Title: Wooden Houses, Wenslauer Street 65-69
Client: Sticks & Stones Developments Ltd.
Architect: M3H architecten
Site area: 323m2
Gross Floor area: 440m2
Location: Wenslauer Street 65-69, Amsterdam (NL)
Status: Built march 2013
Cost: 400.000 euro
Collaborators: Tobias Bader, Wouter Kroeze, Marc Reniers, Machiel Spaan

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by M3H Architecten appeared first on Dezeen.

Compact balconies puncture the solid white facade of this social housing block in Mallorca by Spanish architects RipollTizon (+ slideshow).

RipollTizon designed the building for low income families in Palma de Mallorca’s Pere Garau neighbourhood. It contains 18 apartments, ranging between 35 and 68 square metres, and includes a mixture of one, two and three bedroom apartments.

The corner block forms a six-storey tower, but drops down to three storeys on one side to meet the height of surrounding buildings.

“The result is a solid column with excavated voids where the openings are presented as scenes stacked upon each other,” said architect Pablo Garcia.

The building is divided into two different halves – separating apartments for rent from those for sale. Each side have its own entrance, with separate elevators and staircases with perforated brickwork screens.

The apartments have simple interiors, with white walls and tiled floors, plus each one has its own private balcony.

“The excavated terraces are the intermediate elements that relate interior and exterior while offering a private scenery that is built-in the facade of each dwelling,” added Garcia.

The building replaces a former block of courtyard houses. It sits on a base of grey blockwork and gently projects out towards the street.

Other residential projects by RipollTizon include another social housing project with identical doors and windows and an extension to a traditional family house in Mallorca. See more RipollTizon projects »

Other social housing projects on Dezeen include an apartment with balconies shapes like greenhouses, tower blocks referencing the 1960s and an apartment block clad in green plastic panels.

See more social housing »
See more Spanish architecture and design »

Photography is by José Hevia.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Social Housing in Palma

The project is located in ‘Pere Garau’ neighbourhood. The area was formerly characterised by blocks of single family houses with inner courtyards that followed a typical grid plan. Once the district became central in the city, amendments to the urban planning increased the building volumes significantly and changed the typology to collective housing.

The project takes part of this transformation by redefining a corner plot, resulting from the addition of two former houses, into a new public housing building. The building is conceived according to the new volume specified by the urban planning and playing within its established rules: building depth and cantilevers to the street (of which half of its total permitted area can be enclosed by walls).

The proposal takes advantage of this situation to generate the mechanisms needed to link the housing with their immediate surroundings through controlled openings ‘excavated’ in the building mass. The result is a solid volume with ‘excavated’ voids, where the openings are presented as scenes stacked upon each other.

A small universe of stories organised under no apparent order, and whose arrangement emerges from the dialogue that the building establishes with its urban context. The different rooms of the houses are arranged along a central stripe containing the service areas. The excavated terraces are the intermediate elements that relate interior and exterior while offering a private scenery that is built-in the facade of each dwelling.

Client: Institut Balear de l’Habitatge – IBAVI (Balearic Public Housing Institute)
Location: Capità Vila St. – Can Curt St. Palma de Mallorca
Architects: Pep Ripoll – Juan Miguel Tizón
Project area:2.816,55 metres squared
Budget: 1.156.320,90 EUR
Start of design: 2008
Year of completion: 2012
Collaborators: Pablo García (architect) and Luis Sánchez (architect)
Quantity surveyor: Toni Arqué
Structural engineer: Jorge Martin
Building services: David Mulet
Contractors: Contratas y Obras S.A.

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by RipollTizon appeared first on Dezeen.