Hasta La Ideas

The latest project to complete in Toyo Ito‘s Home For All community rebuilding initiative is this timber and concrete pavilion in a Japanese fishing village, designed by Kazuyo Sejima‘s protégé Yang Zhao (+ slideshow).

Home For All in Kesennuma is the ninth building in the Home For All project, which was initiated by Japanese architect Toyo Ito just days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, and involves the construction of new community buildings in the worst-hit areas.

Under the supervision of SANAA principal Kazuyo Sejima, Japanese Chinese architect Yang Zhao designed his building for the coastline of the Kesennuma fishing community in north-west Japan, creating a structure that can be used as a market hall, a meeting place or a performance area.

“It’s a shelter in which fishermen can take a rest, a place where the wives would wait for their husbands to return with the catch and sometimes a marketplace,” explained Zhao.

The structure was built with a hexagonal plan. Concrete walls support a large pitched roof and also frame a trio of wooden platforms that accommodate different activities.

The first platform accommodates a kitchen and can be enclosed behind sliding glass doors. The second is based on the engawa, a traditional Japanese veranda, while the third includes both toilet facilities and a seating area.

A multi-purpose space at the centre of the pavilion is exposed to the elements and features a timber-lined ceiling punctured by a large triangular skylight.

“At night, the building glows warmly from within, like a lighthouse, waiting for fishermen to come back from the sea,” said Zhao.

The floor inside the pavilion is set at the same level as the surrounding pavement so that forklift trucks can drive into the building on market days.

Photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s more information from Yang Zhao:

Home For All in Kesennuma

The home-for-all in Kesennuma is designed and built as a gathering space for a fishing community that severely suffered from the Tsunami in 2011. It is located at Kesennuma’s Oya fishing harbour that serves as a centre for the local fishing activities and community life. It’s a shelter in which fishermen can take a rest, a place where the wives would wait for their husbands to return with the catch and sometimes a marketplace.

Most part of the space opens to the exterior. A roof, supported by 3 “rooms”, covers an area of 117 square metres. At the centre is a triangular-shaped hole in the ceiling that allows people to gaze directly at the sky. The “rooms” with lifted benches are oriented toward the centre and, at the same time, towards views of the surrounding landscape through the three entrances from different sides. The kitchen room is glazed by glass sliding doors and can be slide open in pleasant weathers. The room nearest to the water can be enjoyed as an engawa (a space underneath the eaves, an important space for Japanese architecture and daily life). The toilets are accessed and ventilated from the outside, while oriented towards the centre and the sky through the slanted glazing. The surrounding ground will be paved to the same level as the space inside, allowing forklifts to enter in market hours.

The elemental geometry of the roof creates a dome-like space underneath. Together with the plywood (Japanese cypress) materiality, it generates a warm and protective atmosphere. At the same time, the transparency of the supporting structure creates an open and welcoming character. At night, the building glows warmly from within, like a lighthouse, waiting for fishermen to come back from the sea.

The project was the collaboration between architect Yang Zhao and his mentor Kazuyo Sejima during the 6th cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Art Initiative. The architects had three workshops with the local community to discuss about the design and get their approval to build. The completion and transfer ceremony took place on Oct. 27, 2013. The photos were taken on the ceremony day.

Architect: Yang Zhao
Advisor: Kazuyo Sejima
Local Architect: Masanori Watase
Design team: Ruofan Chen, Zhou Wu
Structural engineering: Hideaki Hamada
Site supervision: Takezou Murakoshi

Client: People of Ohya district in Kesennuma-city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan
Site area: 419.21m2
Built area or Total floor area: 93.45m2
Cost: 10,0000 euros
Design phase: Dec 2012 – Jun 2013
Construction phase: Jul 2013 – Oct 2013

Roof: galvanised steel sheet
Ceiling: plywood + protective coating
Exterior wall: concrete + protective coating
Interior wall: concrete + protective coating

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Toyo Ito’s post-tsunami reconstruction project appeared first on Dezeen.

This tiny seaside home in Kanagawa by Japanese office Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects is contained within little more than a pair of oversized windows raised up on stilts (+ slideshow).

Yasutaka Yoshimura designed the small building as a weekend house for a single resident and positioned it on a site measuring just three by eight metres on the edge of Sagami Bay.

Named Window House, the residence holds all its living spaces in the narrow gap between two framed windows, which offer views west towards the distant Mount Fuji from both inside the house and behind it.

“It seemed too difficult to avoid blocking the view of the neighbourhood behind. So I designed a large opening of the same size as the sea side on the road side in order to keep the view passing through the building in the absence of the owner,” said Yoshimura.

“It stands between land and sea and became a house as a window to see through,” he added.

The house is raised off the ground on concrete pilotis to protect it from high tides. This creates a sheltered patio underneath with a view of the shoreline.

Concrete blocks with triangular profiles lead up into the house, arriving at a dining room and kitchen on the first floor. An indoor staircase ascends to a living room and then on to a tiny bedroom.

There’s also a small storage loft slotted beneath a floor, which can be accessed using a ladder that is fixed in a vertical position.

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slotted between two huge windows appeared first on Dezeen.

Seven-metre high doors fold open to reveal a courtyard and tree at the centre of this house in Nonthaburi, Thailand, by local studio TACHA_Design (+ slideshow).

Built with a steel frame, concrete walls and timber cladding, Baan Yoo Yen is a modern two-storey residence that takes its cues from the old courtyard houses that are typically found in many Asian countries.

TACHA_Design placed the courtyard in the central section of the house and added a pair of folding glass doors in front to allow it open out to a narrow garden slotted between the building and the street.

Rooms on both floors overlook the courtyard and the large tree at its centre. There’s also a skylight overhead to bring extra daylight into the space.

Using the Thai word for terrace, architects Waranyu Makarabhirom and Sonthad Srisang explain: “Chan connects people with people, links people with nature and joins people with their surroundings.”

This layout also enables natural ventilation using the stack effect, drawing cool air in at the base and allowing warmer air to escape at the upper level.

The house’s staircase is positioned behind the south-facing rear elevation, intended to act as a barrier against solar heat gain.

Living and dining rooms occupy the ground level, where they open out to the surroundings as well the central courtyard. A guest bedroom is also located on this floor, while the four main family bedrooms can be found on the storey above.

Photography is by BeerSingnoi.

Here’s a project description from

Baan Yoo Yen

In relation to a lot of research especially interview with the owner, our design intent has been interpreted as a simple but powerful word in Thai ‘Chan’ (literally meaning terrace) However, ‘Chan’ back to history of Thailand is incredibly meaningful as connection. As stated, ‘Chan’ connects people with people (three generations living in the same house) ‘Chan’ links people with nature (friend of nature) ‘Chan’ joins people with their surroundings (internal space interact with adjacent neighbour while maintaining privacy.)

Space planning has been adapted from traditional Thai residential architecture. The advantages of the spirit of traditional Thai house are to be retained to suit modern lifestyle such as sustainable strategies – the stack effect to move hot air up and out of the home by drawing cool air in through the ground floor (centre of the house) – daylighting through a skylight in the middle of the house. This makes an indirect connection with environment.

In order to eliminate the heat gain from south, a main staircase in the back of the house acts as the heat barrier as well as the exterior enclosure using double wall system with insulation to prevent heat entering to the living space.

The lower floor holds living room; semi-open to the environment, dining room, kitchen and guest bedroom. Again, there is ‘Chan’ connecting each area altogether with big tree in the middle.

The upper floor holds four bedrooms linking by the upper ‘Chan’ and sensing top of tree movement. One of the key elements is the main steel seven-metre-high entry door connecting and dividing up internal and external spaces with proper natural ventilation and daylighting.

Architects: TA-CHA Design
Location: Nonthaburi, Thailand
Design Team: Waranyu Makarabhirom, Sonthad Srisang
Contractor: Thaweemongkol2000 (Main contractor), Pichan (Interior contractor)
Area: 450sq.m.
Year: 2013

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TACHA_Design’s Baan Yo Yen house appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish firm Nook Architects has renovated a Barcelona apartment by adding patterned floor tiles plus a combined step and window seat leading out onto the terrace (+ slideshow).

The Casa Sal apartment in the Poble Sec district of the city is only three metres wide and 19 metres long.

Nook Architects covered the kitchen, bathroom and study with patterned ceramics to divide up the space visually. They then used wooden flooring for a softer look and feel in the rest of the home.

The kitchen acts as the hub of the apartment by linking the living room and the bedroom areas. Nook said they placed extra emphasis on the kitchen.

“For our client, the most important part was the kitchen which had to be the heart of the home; functional, resistant, lively, and very much on the lead in regards to the rest of the room.”

The brightly tiled kitchen leads on to the living room and a slightly raised terrace. Before work started the terrace was in poor condition and could only be accessed through a narrow, opaque door.

To make it feel more connected to the rest of the home, Nook fitted a window seat that doubles as a step with storage space underneath. By using the same material for the top of the bench and floor of the terrace they managed to integrate the terrace with the rest of the apartment. The sliding window doors also allow far more natural light into the room.

Like the kitchen and living room, the client’s bedroom is separated from the study by using floor tiles. Again, Nook used the eye-catching tiles to divide up the relatively small space.

It is becoming increasingly popular to use encaustic floor tiles in Barcelona, with many architects uncovering original flooring from the 1960s. In this case, with no original tiles to unearth, Nook’s client chose the tiles herself – a floral theme for the study, a checkerboard tile for the bathroom and geometrical patterns for the kitchen.

Photography is by nieve.

Here’s a project description from Nook Architects:

CASA SAL, Apartment in Poble Sec, Barcelona

For nook there are two different types of projects from the client’s point of view: that of an owner who will live on the dwelling, and those focused for an unknown user (for example, a rental apartment). On commissions for the first example, we try get to know the client’s day to day customs and habits as thoroughly as possible- anything that could have an effect on their way of life. This was the case of CASA SAL, where the refurbishment of a dwelling was shaped around personality of its owner.

On the other hand, we had to face de difficulties of the original geometry, a very compartmentalised rectangle, only 3 metres wide, and 19 metres long. On one of its ends lay a terrace in very poor conditions, elevated in regards to the dwellings floor level, which could only be accessed through a narrow, opaque door.

These were the premises we worked around in order to solve the architectural problems of the property and the functional requirements of our client. From the start, it involved teamwork, between the architects and the client.

For the client, the most important part was the kitchen, which had to be the heart of the home; functional, resistant, lively, and very much on the lead in regards to the rest of the room. The kitchen therefore articulates the rest of the spaces: on one side there’s the living room with Access to the terrace, and on the other the most private areas, her bedroom and study, a bathroom and a guest room.

To counter the sensation of the narrow proportions of the dwelling, we treated the pavement with fringes of different types of very eye-catching finishes, placing more resistant materials in the kitchen, bathroom, and study, and combining them with Wood for a softer look and feel on the rest of the home. Our client participated by choosing the different tiles used: a hydraulic mosaic for the kitchen with geometrical shapes, a floral theme for the study, and a checker board for the bathroom.

For the terrace, we had a double objective: to solve the deficient connection between it and the living room and to transform into source of natural light, giving it a purpose all year long. This is why we decided to open a large hole on the facade and placed a seating bench that doubles as a stair and storage area with bookcases and drawers. The same pavement was used to finish the terrace on the outside, and the bench on the inside, making the terrace part of the living room itself.

We understood from the beginning that even though our intervention was over, the client’s intervention had only begun. She now has a starting point based on a very familiar architecture to her past, her tastes, and way of live, which will evolve naturally and alongside herself.

Architects: nook architects
Location: Barcelona, España
Year: 2013

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window seat to Barcelona apartment renovation appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish architects Josemaria de Churtichaga and Cayetana de la Quadra-Salcedo have built themselves a rural retreat with wooden walls, projecting terraces, and a brilliant yellow door and chimney (+ slideshow).

Churtichaga + Quadra-Salcedo designed Four Seasons House for a gently sloping meadow approximately 100 kilometres north of Madrid, which had sat dormant since the architects purchased it 12 years earlier.

“After 12 years of contemplation, we decided to build a tiny house there, a refuge, a piece of landscape as a frame, a small inhabited threshold with two views, east and west,” they explained.

The architects developed the design around a yellow colour palette in response to the hues of flowers, leaves, bark and lichen that they’ve spotted in the landscape across the changing seasons.

“This is a humanised landscape of meadows, walls, ash, streams – a small-scale landscape, minimal, almost domestic, and where absolutely everything happens in yellow,” they said.

Part-buried in the hillside, the two-storey house was built from chunky wooden beams that slot around one another to create alternating corner joints.

The family living room sits at the centre of the upper-ground floor and opens out to terraces on two sides. The first cantilevers out to face distant mountains to the east, while the second projects westward towards a landscape of rocks and brambles.

Timber-lined bedrooms and study areas are located at the two ends and feature built-in desks and cupboards.

Wooden stairs lead down to the partially submerged lower floor, where an open-plan layout creates a space that can be used as a separate guesthouse.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from Churtichaga + Quadra-Salcedo:

Four Seasons House

This is a humanised landscape of meadows, walls, ash, streams, a small-scale landscape, minimal, almost domestic, and where absolutely everything happens in yellow.

In spring poke all yellow flowers. In the summer, yellow cereal is yellow harvested in a yellow Castilian heat. Fall only comes here in yellow, millions of tiny ash leaves that die in a lingering and dry yellow. In winter, yellow insists in glowing flashes of yellow lichen on the gray trunks of ash trees. And here every machine is yellow, the signs are yellow, everywhere yellows…

We bought a meadow in this landscape 15 years ago, and after 12 years of yellow contemplation, we decided to build a tiny house there, a refuge, a piece of landscape as a frame, a small inhabited threshold with two views, east and west.

To the west, a nearby view of rocks, moss, brambles and ancient ash. And to the east, the distant dawn over the yellow mountains.

This double view and the thinking body finished to draw the house. Everything is small, everything is short, everything has a tiny scale. From outside, the view slides over the house.

The eye only stops at a yellow gate guarding the doorway, and a yellow chimney that warms it, the rest is invisible. And when sitting, stopping in the doorway, the house disappears and the world continues in yellow.

Location: Berrocal, Segovia, Castilla y León (España)
Architects: Josemaria de Churtichaga, Cayetana de la Quadra-Salcedo
Collaborator: Nathanael Lopez
Contractor: Pablo Campoverde
Area: 150 sqm

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Four Seasons House in an idyllic meadow appeared first on Dezeen.