Dans la continuité de la vidéo Synchronized Drops, voici cette formidable installation « Rain Room » réalisé par le studio Random International. Une interaction et une chorégraphie avec l’eau, réagissant aux mouvements du public. Actuellement en exposition à Londres (The Barbican) jusqu’en mars 2013.
A home and studio for a photographer are contained inside this Corten steel bunker that Undercurrent Architects has squeezed beside and beneath the arch of a railway viaduct in south London.
The brick viaduct is typical of the nineteenth century railway architecture that runs through the city’s neighbourhoods and project architect Didier Ryan explained how they wanted to come up with new uses for the vacant spaces under and around them. ”Pocket sites are full of potential,” he said.
Undercurrent Architects designed Archway Studios as an architectural prototype for other similar sites and the building contains living and working spaces that are acoustically protected from the noises of trains rattling by during the day.
The Corten steel cladding gives the building its hard shell-like exterior, but light penetrates the interior through sideways-facing windows and a long skylight at the front.
“The most challenging problem was how to amplify a keyhole site and bring light deep into the railway arch,” said the architect. He explained how they “focused light from all directions” into the deep recesses of the arched structure.
In front of the arch, the building has three storeys that accommodate bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room, while beneath is a workspace with a five-metre-high vaulted ceiling.
“This dual-use building is the first of its kind, but it could be a model for others in the micro-regeneration of London’s arches and viaducts,” added Ryan.
The last project we featured by Undercurrent Architects was a pavilion in Australia with a roof that resembles fallen leaves.
Other Corten steel buildings we’ve published include a sports centre in Portugal and a facilities building for London’s amateur football leagues.
See all our stories about Corten steel »
See more studios for artists, designers and creatives »
Photography is by Candice Lake.
Here’s some more information from Undercurrent Architects:
Archway Studios is a prototype live-workspace built in and around a 19thC rail viaduct. The project works with the constraints of an inner-city, industrial site next to a train line, and the challenges of a fortified design that engages its surroundings.
Above: axonometric diagram
London is crossed by Victorian viaducts. These structures dominate and divide neighbourhoods, creating corridors of conflict, compounded by industrial use of the viaduct arches. Due to de-industrialisation there is an abundance of centrally located, vacant ‘brownfield’ arch spaces. Adapting these to new uses or to social or creative applications is critical to inner-city communities.
Archway Studios occupies part of the viaduct, a vaulted workshop linked to an atrium with residential alcoves. The design works with the contrast between the compressed, cavernous qualities of the arch & the slender, ecclesial spaces of the atrium & alcoves.
The site is severely constrained by its narrow plot and limited access to light, aspect and views. The building subverts its tight site conditions, encapsulating light and lofty interiors that offer release in spite of constraint.
A ring of slender steel foils mould the narrow site, forming a protective acoustic shell cupped around interior spaces. Daylight filters into the building through slits in the segmented foils, acting to scoop light into the deep recesses of the arch.
The site presented unique challenges relating to vibration and noise proofing. To address these, the building is isolated and suspended on a rubber foundation with an independent casing lining the arch. Dense steel walls form a ‘stressed skin’ husk carrying the building loads, with a sandwich of multilayered acoustic blanketing and dampening technologies.
Above: floor plans and roof plan
The building shell is made from weathered and worn materials that blend into the industrial environment. This provides privacy and introspection while maintaining highly open connections with the surroundings. The facade maximises a slim southerly aspect, capturing skyviews & bringing distant tree foliage to the foreground.
The building’s unique design and appearance helps it to stand out even when dwarfed by inner-city neighbours. As one of 10,000 arches that dissect neighbourhoods across London, it is a model that can be adapted for broad community benefit and regeneration.
Project Details:
Archway Studios, London, UK
Area: Southwark
Year: 2010 – 2012
Team:
Architect: Undercurrent Architects
– Project Architect: Didier Ryan
– Assistant: Alessandra Giannotti
Engineer: Eckersley O’Callaghan Engineers
The post Archway Studios by
Undercurrent Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
« By the Bus Stop » vient de l’idée du photographe anglais Richard Hooker, passionné par l’arrêt de bus en tant que lieu de transition et de mélange social. Il a donc immortalisé à travers Londres les passagers de bus entre les années 2001 et 2005. Une idée simple mais très réussie à découvrir dans la suite.
L’explorateur et photographe Steve Duncan a enquêté sur le monde souterrain composé d’égouts, tunnels et métros depuis des années aux 4 coins du monde. Voici des clichés dans les souterrains des villes de New York, Londres, Moscou ou encore Paris. A découvrir dans notre galerie disponible dans la suite.
by Cajsa Carlson Though Brick Lane may no longer be as cutting edge as it once was, the iconic East London street still hosts some of the most interesting art and collaborations in the city. Considering the area’s reputation as a go-to food and drink destination, what better place to…
Continue Reading…
On the corner of a quiet street in a neighborhood surrounded by foliage-filled 19th-century squares, stylish lingerie shops and swanky cigar bars sits Belgraves, Thompson Hotels’ latest project and one of London’s newest designer digs. Aptly named, the hotel is located in Belgravia—an affluent area home to many of…
Continue Reading…
Hackney studio Levitt Bernstein has won a housing design competition with a proposal to turn disused parking garages into tiny pop-up homes.
Organised by architecture charity the Building Trust, the competition asked entrants to come up with proposals for any urban area of a developed country, to offer a solution to the shortages of affordable single-occupancy housing.
Levitt Bernstein suggests inserting prefabricated structures into redundant garages on housing estates in the London borough of Hackney. “The proposal targets under-used spaces in high density areas where land value is high and rising,” said architect Georgie Revell.
The structures would use parts that are both quick to assemble and easy to dismantle, so the architects are also recommending an accompanying apprenticeship initiative to teach the construction techniques to homeless people.
“This is a great opportunity to begin to deal with homelessness in an innovative and holistic manner,” said architect Sarah Jenkinson. ”We are excited about developing our proposals into real solutions especially in our local borough where housing is an asset that can be so difficult to obtain.”
The architects are now working with the Building Trust to work up detailed plans to take the project forward.
Hackney is also Dezeen’s home borough and this year we launched our own initiative to showcase world-class design and architecture in the area.
See more architecture and design from Hackney »
Here’s some more information from Levitt Bernstein:
Levitt Bernstein have recently been announced as winners from over 400 entries of the open international HOME competition run by Building Trust International.
The winning proposal uses temporary ‘pop-up’ structures to occupy redundant garages on existing housing estates in east London. HAWSE (Homes through Apprenticeships With Skills for Employment) was designed by Georgie Revell and Sarah Jenkinson in collaboration with a homeless charity and training academy. The intention is for the project to be delivered through an apprenticeship scheme with components manufactured off-site as a kit-of parts. The structures are quick to assemble and can be inhabited immediately with the components being demountable and reusable. The proposals not only offer a home but education opportunities in construction techniques, a way of regenerating street frontage and a practical interim solution between other development possibilities.
The competition brief asked for proposals to focus on low cost, single occupancy housing solutions in urban areas to respond to the deficit of affordable housing options. The competition had over 400 entries for both the professional and student categories and the judging panel was chaired by Building Trust, YMCA, Habitat for Humanity and Crash. Building Trust International launch their next humanitarian design competition on the 15th Oct focusing flood resistant housing in Cambodia.
The post Pop-up housing in garages
by Levitt Bernstein appeared first on Dezeen.
News: the company that makes London’s famous taxis, Manganese Bronze Holdings, is going into administration having failed to make a profit since 2007.
The Coventry-based firm made the announcement on Monday when it became clear it couldn’t secure a loan from Chinese shareholder Geely. The news follows the suspension of the firm’s shares and the recall of 400 vehicles earlier this month due to a fault with the steering box.
Under the name London Taxi Company, Manganese Bronze Holdings still designs taxis using a similar basic structure to the first black cab from 1948 but has recently faced competition from the Vito by Mercedes-Benz and the NV200 London Taxi by Nissan that’s due to be available to London taxi drivers soon. Read more in our earlier story.
Read more about transport on Dezeen.
The post Maker of London cabs goes
into administration appeared first on Dezeen.
This terrace of eight houses by Peter Barber Architects is clad with timber shingles to match the neighbouring fences and sheds of a housing estate in east London (+ slideshow).
“The building sits at the rear of a 1960s council estate, where there are little rear gardens, rickety sheds and a patchwork of wooden fences,” Peter Barber told Dezeen. “Our building shares a similar aesthetic.”
The timber shingles also create an analogous pattern and texture to the brick walls of the surrounding residences, which face onto the same community garden as the new houses.
Each house has at least two small terraces, whether on the roof or at ground level, and Barber hopes over time these will “get planted and personalised by the people that live there”.
The largest residence has seven bedrooms, while one has six and the others have either three or four.
Half of the houses will be allocated to social housing tenants, while the other half will be sold.
Isometric diagram – click above for larger image
Other housing projects on Dezeen by Peter Barber Architects include 25 new houses elsewhere in east London and a new urban quarter in west London.
Site plan – click above for larger image
See more projects by Peter Barber Architects »
Floor plans – click above for larger image
Photography is by Morley von Sternberg
Here’s a few details from Peter Barber Architects:
Hannibal Road Gardens/Beveridge Mews
Hannibal Road Gardens is a social housing project set around a community garden in Stepney.
The proposal replaces a problematic strip of garages and creates a fourth side to a square within an existing housing estate with 3 slab blocks forming the other sides.
Typical ground floor plan – click above for larger image
The newly landscaped and densely planted community garden created in the centre of the square will be overlooked by a delightful new terrace of eight contemporary family houses.
The new row of houses is conceived as a continuation of the timber garden fences of the existing housing blocks, being constructed from timber and configured as a series of stepped and notched south east facing garden terraces.
Typical first floor plan – click above for larger image
The accommodation is predominantly made up of large family houses (3, 4, 6 bedrooms). These will be 100% affordable, 50% of which are to be socially rented.
Typical second floor plan – click above for larger image
Key features:
» High density, large houses created on a difficult, single-aspect site;
» Innovative notched terrace typology, creating a variety of amenity spaces and outlooks;
» All courtyard houses have their own front door and a minimum of two large courtyards / roof terraces;
» Great example of collaborative approach to planning, working closely with Tower Hamlets Planners and Highways Officers.
Typical roof plan – click above for larger image
Client: Southern Housing Group
Contract Value: c£1.5 million
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The post Hannibal Road Gardens
by Peter Barber Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Alison Brooks Architects has extended a nineteenth century house in north London by adding two tapered volumes that project into the garden (+ slideshow).
The first volume wraps around the brick walls at the side and rear of the house to create a small office, while the second volume extends out at the back to increase the size of the first floor living room.
“The extensions were designed to draw in light from the sky, embrace the garden, and capture a precise view of the massive walnut tree near the house,” explained architect Alison Brooks.
The ends of each block are entirely glazed, while the sides are clad in dark grey Corian panels.
“Each trapezoidal plane of the scheme is either fully glazed or fully solid, there are no punched windows,” said Brooks. “Both roof and wall planes are one material. This approach creates an architecture without mass and weight. It is more like the folded surfaces of origami.”
Beneath the first floor block, a new wall of glass slides open to link the dining room with a small patio outside.
From here, a concealed door creates a second entrance to the office, which also has a terrace on its roof.
Rainwater downpipes are concealed behind the ventilated facade.
Update: more photographs and plans to follow soon.
Other London house extensions on Dezeen include a glazed addition in Hackney and a barrel-vaulted conservatory.
See more residential extensions »
See more projects by Alison Brooks »
Photography is by Jake Fitzjones.
The post Residential Extension by
Alison Brooks Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
