Hasta La Ideas

The overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in Sheffield, England, is another of the six projects nominated for the 2013 Stirling Prize (+ slideshow).

Architects Hawkins\Brown and urban designers Studio Egret West were commissioned by property developer Urban Splash to take on the renovation of the notorious social housing estate, which is one of the most famous examples of the “streets in the sky” typology that typified many post-war UK developments in the 1960s and 70s.

Influenced by projects such as Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, architects at that time thought large housing blocks with communal open-air walkways would foster communities, but they instead became associated with antisocial behaviour, vandalism and crime.

In spite of its problems, the complex was Grade II* listed in 1998 for its architectural significance, as well as for its role as part of the city’s identity. This prompted Urban Splash to embark on a redevelopment to create a mix of social housing and private apartments, alongside offices, shops, restaurants and bars.

The design team began by stripping the building back to its gridded concrete framework. They then added a new facade made of simple glazing and brightly coloured panels.

By reducing the width of the “streets”, the architects were able to extend the size of the apartments, creating new street-facing windows and much-needed additional storage.

Giving residents a sense of ownership was an important part of the project, so patterned floor tiles and stained plywood details were added around the entrances to each home to provide a more domestic appearance. These details also vary between different clusters of homes, helping residents to orientate themselves.

Landscape architecture studio Grant Associates also worked on the project, designing gardens, courtyards and a large public square.

The first phase of 78 apartments is now complete and the first residents began moving in during January. Phase two is currently underway.

Park Hill phase one was named as one of the Stirling Prize nominees last week. Other projects to make the shortlist include an elliptical stone chapel and a museum that mimics volcanic formations.

Property developer Urban Splash has also been responsible for several other interesting projects, including a coastal staircase in a historic naval supply yard and an apartment block designed as “three fat chips stacked on top of each other”. See more projects by Urban Splash »

Other recently completed housing projects include a timber-clad retirement home near Paris and an apartment block with mirrored balconies in Winnipeg. See more housing on Dezeen »

Photography is by Daniel Hopkinson, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Hawkins\Brown:

Park Hill

Working in collaboration with our client, Urban Splash, and design team members Studio Egret West and Grant Associates, we are bringing love, life and pride back to the Sheffield icon to make it a genuinely vibrant and sustainable community for the 21st century.

The first phase of 78 apartments has been completed and has been given a thorough face-lift and remodelled to 21st Century standards. The existing concrete frame has been repaired and a new façade installed and the iconic ‘Streets In The Sky’ have new balustrading. As well as saving an icon, figures compiled show that refurbishing the scheme has prevented 4 football stadia of material being taken to landfill and that the embodied energy in the concrete frame is equivalent to 3 weeks energy output from a power station.

At the lower levels of the building, the essential ingredients of a proper community will be combined with a new ‘high street’ of local shops, bars, pubs and restaurants.

A new landscape will revitalise the public realm for residents and visitors alike and reconnect Park Hill with the city.

This high-profile project hosted the RIBA Stirling Prize “after party” and has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

In January 2013 the first new residents and commercial tenants moved in, and with this defining moment the building started a new phase in its life.

The post Park Hill Phase 1 by Hawkins\Brown
and Studio Egret West appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architect Bastiaan Jongerius was commissioned by six families to design this group of houses around a communal courtyard in Amsterdam (+ slideshow).

The buildings were constructed on a plot of land in the city’s Jordaan district, which the city council had simply handed over due to contaminated soil and a number of buildings yet to be demolished.

Bastiaan Jongerius Architecten decided to retain and renovate two buildings on Elandsstraat to the north, creating a four-storey townhouse and a pair of maisonettes behind the rough brick and blue stone facades.

The architects then constructed a row of three new three-storey houses facing south onto Lijnbaansstraat, each with earth-coloured brick walls and wooden fenestration details.

A narrow alleyway leads from Elandsstraat into the L-shaped courtyard at the centre of the site, which is shared by all six residences.

Five homes have french windows that open out to wooden patio decks around the edge of the courtyard, while wooden balconies overlook it from both sides.

Interiors feature exposed concrete ceilings, white-painted timber walls and wooden staircases.

Another Dutch housing development completed earlier this year featured two rows of brick houses sandwiched between a pair of canals in the town of Den Helder. See more houses in the Netherlands »

Photography is by Milad Pallesh.

Here’s some text from Bastiaan Jongerius Architecten:

Six courtyard houses in Amsterdam

In 2004, three couples with children who were looking for suitable housing in the city centre decided to join forces in order to commission their own construction project. They set their sights on a plot of land between Elandsstraat and Lijnbaansstraat.

In order to avoid open tendering, the city council sold the plot complete with contaminated soil and buildings that had yet to be demolished. There was space for six housing units, enabling a further three families to join the project, and the six households then formed a ‘collective private commissioning body’.

The land was divided into six condominium units, each of which also included a one sixth portion of the communal garden courtyard. The design process was an intensive trajectory of endless discussions, structuring responsibilities and monitoring costs.

Architect and resident Bastiaan Jongerius designed a plan in which the edges of the plot are built on, giving rise to a central private courtyard.

Two buildings on Elandsstraat have been carefully incorporated in the existing facade frontage. The dwelling at number 133 is characterised by an abundant use of glass and wood, while the adjacent building, which houses an upstairs and a ground-floor dwelling (numbers 135 and 137), has a bluestone facade.

Behind the door, above which are the names of all the children who live in the complex, is an alleyway that leads to the garden courtyard.

Three pavilion-like dwellings, which are accessed via wooden steps, are situated here. The front doors and facade gardens of these dwellings are on Lijnbaansstraat.

The housing scheme has injected new life into this narrow cul-de-sac.

The post Housing Elandsstraat by
Bastiaan Jongerius Architecten appeared first on Dezeen.

Metal trellises offer a framework for climbing plants and vines around these recently completed houses in Poitiers, France, by Bordeaux studio Lanoire & Courrian (+ slideshow).

Lanoire & Courrian has added 32 residences in the suburban district of Bel Air, including 22 rental properties and 10 houses for sale. Arranged in two rows, the houses create new streets that branch off a realigned Rue des Frères Morane.

Each of the houses is clad with corrugated metal, which has been powder-coated in shades of grey and lilac. Timber fencing lines the base of the walls and marks the borders of each property.

Rather than position the houses evenly, the architects used a staggered arrangement to break up the facades and create natural recesses. Narrow passageways were added between houses to offer visual corridors.

“We imagined the project as a series of strips on a plot,” say the architects. “The idea is to have an overall geometry of buildings and vegetation.”

A secondary road scoops in through the centre of the site, leading to some entrances and allowing access to driveways. Houses without driveways can make use of an underground car park with its entrance on Rue des Frères Morane.

“We wanted to create an island that is both an intimate space and a porous and fluid space, allowing different modes of travel with respect to both the outside and inside,” add the architects.

The houses follow a standard layout, with living rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. Each residence also comes with a garden and a small shed.

Other housing projects we’ve featured in France include a timber-clad retirement home near Paris and a social housing complex in Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie with camouflage print on its walls.

See more housing projects »
See more architecture in France »

Photography is by Stephane Chalmeau.

The post 32 houses in Poitiers
by Lanoire & Courrian appeared first on Dezeen.

Two commercial buildings in Winnipeg have been converted into an apartment block with mirrored balconies that stick out like open drawers.

Constructed at the start of the twentieth century, the Hample and Avenue Buildings occupy a prominent position on Portage Avenue. They once housed shops and offices but had stood empty since the 1990s.

The renovation by 5468796 Architecture involved upgrading the ground floor of both buildings for commercial use and adapting the upper floors to accommodate 75 rental apartments. At just three storeys, the Hample Building was half as tall as the Avenue Building, so the architects also added extra storeys to bring the two buildings into line.

Steel balconies cantilever through existing window openings for 20 of the apartments. Each one is clad in mirrored aluminium and has a see-through gridded base.

“A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original facades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark,” say the architects.

At ground floor level, a mirrored canopy gives shelter to two different entrances. Stretching across the facade of both buildings, the volume is intended to unite the two structures.

The first entrance leads though the glazed shopfront facade into the large ground floor unit, which is currently occupied by a charity organisation.

The second entrance is dedicated to residents, who are led through a V-shaped recess into a stairwell at the centre of the building.

Similar renovation projects on Dezeen include the overhaul of a crumbling tower block in Paris and an upgrade of an office block in Milan. See more architectural renovations.

Photography is by James Brittain.

Here’s some more text from 5468796 Architecture:

The Avenue on Portage by 5468796 Architecture

The Avenue on Portage revives two historic commercial buildings from the turn of the century located one block west of Winnipeg’s most famous corner, Portage and Main. Once major retail destinations in the city, the Avenue and Hample Buildings experienced a slow decline, becoming blights to the street and downtown. In 2010 the client purchased the site to develop the derelict properties into 75 rental apartments and 22,500 square feet of commercial space.

A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original facades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark. Hovering above the sidewalk, steel balconies cantilever from existing window openings and provide outdoor access for apartment dwellers. Clad in mirror-finish aluminium, the balconies become camouflaged against their surroundings, reflecting at turns the sky, the façade and the street below.

While the balconies push residents out beyond the façade, the main floor pulls pedestrians in, softening the boundary between the public streetscape and the private interiors. Inside, apartments sized between 430 and 1020 s.f. fill the upper four floors of the Avenue, as well as a new, three-storey addition to the Hample.

In order to address the deep building footprint and provide windows for interior units, two existing light wells are carried down through all residential floors, while a third is extended into the new addition.

The main floor is occupied by Manitoba Start, a non-profit organisation that provides services for new immigrants in Winnipeg. At street level a wall of glass folds back into the building to create a deep, V shaped entrance that broadens the width of the sidewalk.

Overhead, a faceted, mirror-finish canopy angles outward 13 feet from the face of the Hample before returning to meet the edge of the Avenue, unifying the two facades. Together, these elements draw the city into the building’s expression, making it an active participant in the life of the street.

The post The Avenue on Portage
by 5468796 Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

Doors, windows and recesses are picked out in yellow ochre on the timber facade of this retirement home near Paris by French studio Vous Êtes Ici Architectes (+ slideshow).

The four-storey Morangis Retirement Home was designed by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes with a Y-shaped plan that divides the interiors into three wings.

Siberian larch is arranged in vertical strips over the exterior of the building and also forms canopies across the various entrances.

The primary entrance is located at the junction of two wings and leads into the centre of the building. Additional entry points are positioned along the northern facade for service access.

The ground floor of the building is taken up by communal rooms, health facilities and staff areas. Shared dining rooms, living rooms and other social areas are grouped together around the south-east elevation and open to a private residents’ garden.

Bedrooms occupy the three upper floors of the building. The first and second floors accommodate typical residents and are divided into clusters of 13 bedrooms, each with their own dining and activity room. Meanwhile, the third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Central corridors provide clear routes between the different sections of each floor. Rather than relying on artificial lighting, they each feature windows to bring in as much daylight as possible.

The third floor also features two roof terraces with direct access to ground level via a pair of outdoor staircases.

We’ve previously featured a nursing home in Portugal on Dezeen, which was this year shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe Award.

See more housing developments on Dezeen, or see more architecture in Paris.

Photography is by 11H45.

Read on for more details from Vous Êtes Ici Architectes:

Ehpad de Morangis – Vous Êtes Ici Architectes

How could we build a socially orientated retirement home and never neglect comfort and sensorial fulfillment?

A retirement home for all

Based on an off-plan concept led by AXENTIA as a social contractor and IMMODIEZE as a private developer, the Morangis Retirement Home was constructed with financial support from the Conseil Général de l’Essone, Regional support as well as the Regional Health Agency and the town of Morangis.

The operator and tenant of the new building is an Autonomous Public Establishment that offers stays as low as €60 per day. This low and democratic offer was attained without sacrificing the quality of service or the finish of the construction.

An orientated building

The building is constructed on 4 levels and is based on a Y-shaped plan. The building occupies the site as follows:
1) The main public entrance is located where the “Y’ strands connect
2) The north façade is dedicated to service, deliveries and employee’s entrance
3) The south façade is generously opened towards the residents private park

The plan is organized according to a few constraints: compact, rational and open towards the outside.

The living areas as well as the main activities areas (restaurant, salon) are developed around the private gardens. These areas benefit from the view and easy dedicated access to the gardens. The gardens include therapeutically themed spaces as well as more traditional paths around flower beds and a rose garden.

The rooms on floor one and two are dedicated to classical geriatric residents, the rooms are disposed into 6 units of 13 rooms each.

The third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other similar neurological disorders. The floor includes vast dedicated spaces for specialized activities, rest and well-being.

All the floors are accessible from the central node intersecting all of the buildings functions and patient units.

Views and light for all

One of the base lines of this project is to offer, all through the construction and all its sleeping units, framed views. Each unit has a main gathering area for activities or meals as well as a smaller area placed in front of loggia or suspended gardens. All these small areas include large windows and quality framed views.

The corridors, usually blind and suffocating spaces, always include wider spaces with outside views, this allows our elders to move around at their pace towards lights and rest areas in the buildings circulations, they may easily meet and chat with fellow residents without having a difficult and stressing path to do so.

The third floor has two large terraces easily accessible to the residents. These terraces, widely orientated towards the park, are treated as a prolongation of the inner spaces.

On an individual’s point of view, the building rooms were designed differently with windows offering distant views of the countryside and treated as hotel rooms more than hospital rooms. The windows all designed with a glass panel to the floor allowing bedded residents to have a view.

Materials and Volumes

A unique volume with different spaces: unity is not uniformity.

On the outer skin wrapping the building, openings are pierced following no specific symmetry; the sculpted facades offer various views and volumes behind the outer skin.

This envelope covering the building is made out of Siberian larch wood; these wooden boards are warm and comforting. The outer skin vibrates according to the sun and time of the day. The larch boards are top quality solid wood, they are butted together to prevent deformation and to remove defaults.

Wooden awnings extend the facades skin away from the building creating shelter from the sun and rain and protecting the ground floor’s salons and restaurants.

Every time the outer skin is punched in to form a dent in the global volume this corresponds to a specific socializing space: inner rest areas widely opened towards the park or the third floors terraces. The “dents” allow the sun and the light to reach in deeply into the building for those whom have difficulties moving about. As soon as the outer skin is breached to create a volume a different material and color is used to outline these inner volumes. A warm orange to yellow coating has been applied on the outer walls exaggerating the warmth of the light. The ambiance is friendly and warm and the yellow resonates nicely with the natural warmth of wood. As a result the dynamic spaces we offer are worth the effort needed to reach by elderly people.

This bright and lively color, stimulating without being aggressive, is also the one used for the window and door frames of the facades found under the awnings and in the bedrooms. As one approaches the building and passes below the awnings towards the yellow coating, as he is welcomed, will feel and understand the building’s harmony. One will easily understand how the building works and how it is connected to its natural and urban surroundings.

Developer: Immodieze and AXENTIA for the Conseil General du 91
Architects: Vous Êtes Ici Architectes
Location: Morangis southern Parisian suburb
Program: Retirement home with 91 rooms
Cost: 9.4 million euros
Calendar: First building permit 2010, final delivery 2013
Area: 5315 sqm, 46 parking spaces, total plot area 9950 sqm
Partners and collaborators: Dumez IDF (general contractor), FACEA (fluids engineering) LECARPENTIER (exteriors and landscaping) SPOOMS (kitchen engineering) CAP HORN (Acoustics engineering) LAPOINTE (roads and water engineering)

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by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.