Hasta La Ideas

This house in the Dutch city of Almere by Swedish architect Johan Selbing and Swiss landscape architect Anouk Vogel is completely covered in reflective glass to allow it to blend in with its surroundings (+ slideshow).

Selbing and Vogel designed the private house for a plot in an experimental housing development in Almere – a city that was only established in 1976 but now has over 195,000 residents – in response to a competition brief calling for a building that would relate to a site within a forest clearing.

The house’s simple boxy shape is constructed from an aluminium frame that supports panels of toughened mirrored glass, with a mirrored composite panel running around the top and bottom edges of the facade.

“The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior,” explained the architects.

Doors sits flush against the facade and are only noticeable thanks to handles that project from the surface and a change in the ground level that rises to meet the height of the floor inside the building.

An entrance at the the side of the building leads into a compact interior with a home office at one end and master and guest bedrooms at the other.

Sliding partitions between these rooms and the open-plan kitchen and living space can be opened or closed to meet different requirements.

“Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings,” the architects pointed out.

Surfaces are covered in pale birch multiplex panels that compliment the light-filled interior and views of the nearby trees.

Built-in storage covers one wall and is punctuated by a secret window that looks onto the street but is invisible from outside.

Selbing and Vogel were one of twelve winning entrants in the design competition. They were invited to construct their building but had to source a client to pay for it.

“In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration,” the architects added.

Photography is by Jeroen Musch.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Mirror House, Almere

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

After De Realiteit and De Fantasie, the third edition of small experimental housing settlements in Almere has been launched under the title De Eenvoud. The brief of the competition called for an individual house with a strong relation to its surroundings. The twelve winning teams were given the possibility to realise their designs in an open area in the forest of Noorderplassen-West, but had to find the buyers of the houses themselves.

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration.

The original concept with a slightly raised floor (for a better view), sliding doors, built-in cupboards and a single-level layout, has therefore been further refined. Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

Location: De Eenvoud, Almere, The Netherlands
Client: Private
Project team: Johan Selbing, Anouk Vogel
Size: 120 m2
Program: Private house
Process: competition 2006
Start construction: 2012
Completion: 2013
Structural Engineering: Buro voor Bouwadvies BV, Dalfsen
Installation Advice: Earth Energie Advies BV, Boskoop
Contractors: Bouwbedrijf Jadi BV, Genemuiden Slump Fictorie, Hoogeveen (facade)

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camouflages with its surroundings appeared first on Dezeen.

Shiny aluminium-clad walls allow this small house in Almere by Dutch studio MONO to reflect the colours of its setting (+ slideshow).

Named Rebel House, the single-storey residence was designed by MONO to be deliberately alien to the typical brick buildings of the local neighbourhood.

“The house looks like a spaceship which touched ground to mother earth,” said architects Gijs Baks, Jacco van Wengerden and Milda Grabauskaite. “It seems to want to leave any moment again.”

The house was constructed on a tight budget, so low-cost corrugated aluminium was used to clad all four walls. The same material also covers doors, allowing them to blend into the facade.

The interior surfaces of the walls are fronted with timber to give the appearance of warmth to the open-plan living spaces.

A grid of shelves stretches across one of these walls to accommodate a kitchen, storage areas and a large window seat.

The rest of the space is loosely divided up by the presence of a boxy bathroom that integrates extra storage areas and a sliding partition to screen off the bedroom.

Double doors open the house out to the garden, where the architects have added a triangular shed clad with the same aluminium panels.

Photography is by Yvonne Brandwijk.

Here’s a project description from MONO:

Rebel House in Almere

Rebel House liberates itself from existing prejudices, and appears radically unconventional for a house. The house looks like a spaceship which touched ground to mother earth. The corrugated aluminum sheeting reflect the sun and the surroundings, and create an extreme lightness. The house seems to want to leave any moment again.

Both this dream and the raw realities of site parameters and proximity to its boundaries, budget limitations and the desire for low maintenance were crucial in the design development of Rebel House.

In contrast to the exterior the interior is warm and convivial. The timbered walls integrate a kitchen, an open cupboard and a deep windowsill as a ‘hangout’. The detached box houses all services of the house. Living around it is a continuous experience. The hidden, double doors open the house to the garden. The triangular, aluminium shed in the garden seems to provide an anchor for the house and completes the composition.

Client: private
Architect: MONO (www.mono.eu)
Location: Almere – The Netherlands
Area: 77sqm
Team: Gijs Baks, Jacco van Wengerden, Milda Grabauskaite
Stuctural Engineer: On Man
Interior Fit Out: Thomas Meubels

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reflects the colours of its surroundings appeared first on Dezeen.

One pivoting door sits within another to create a rusted steel entrance that can be big or small at this combined house and photography studio in Spain by American firm Olson Kundig Architects (+ slideshow).

Tom Kundig of Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects designed Studio Sitges as the home and workplace of a photographer and his family in the coastal town of Sitges, north-eastern Spain.

Eschewing the stuccoed walls and tiled rooftops of the local Tuscan houses, Kundig opted for an industrial material palette that includes pre-weathered Corten steel and raw concrete, some of which was cast against timber formwork to create grainy textures.

The pivoting entrances form part of a large section of Corten steel, which curves around the top of the facade to reveal a row of clerestory windows that are sheltered beneath overhanging eaves.

Other features include a glass lift that ascends between all of the floors and a rooftop study offering views out over the Mediterranean Sea.

The building contains two double-height photography studios, both set below ground level. A ramped entrance allows cars and other large pieces of equipment to be driven straight into the spaces, while a mezzanine balcony with a glass floor offers views into the studios from the level above.

A glass lift ascends to living spaces on the two storeys above. On the ground floor, living and dining spaces can be opened out to the garden using more pivoting doors – this time made on glass – and furniture includes restored teak tables and leather seating.

A master bedroom is housed within a cantilevered block that extends out over a patio in the garden. A bridge connects it with three smaller bedrooms that open out to a terrace on the roof.

Photography is by Nikolas Koenig.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Studio Sitges

Studio Sitges is a live/work space for a photographer and his family. Located three blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, the building captures the casual energy of this cosmopolitan beach town thirty minutes from Barcelona.

The house is zoned vertically, with two large below-grade photography studios anchoring the building, a main floor for entertaining both large and small groups, and private areas above. A glass elevator moves between floors and culminates in an intimate rooftop atelier. Kundig describes the whole house as a studio – a space in which things can happen.

A custom-designed wall and gate of rough concrete and weathered steel pushes the boundaries of the design out to the street. The gate rolls away to reveal a garage and a steeply sloping driveway leading down to the studios. Large panels of Corten steel arch from the ground over the facade to form part of the roof; the entrance to the house is via a tall steel pivot door, inset with a pilot door.

The underground, double-height photography studios are strikingly raw. In both, cycloramas enable the illusion that the studio floor stretches into infinity. Cars and large pieces of equipment can drive directly into the space. Support areas include a glass-floored viewing area on a mezzanine overlooking the studios, as well as separate dressing, makeup, and spa areas. The studios are wired so that in-progress shoots can be viewed around the world.

The design of the ground floor takes advantage of the mild climate, using sliding and pivot doors to maximise indoor/outdoor living. On the second floor, an interior bridge spans the space and connects the master suite with the other bedrooms. The master suite cantilevers over a dining terrace, while a guest suite opens onto a roof deck and planted roof overlooking the lap pool.

Throughout the house, low-maintenance materials such as Corten, concrete (board formed and cast in place), and mild steel give the home a handcrafted feel. At the top of the house, an atelier with indoor and outdoor space offers the home’s only view of the sea. At night, the atelier combines with the glass-topped elevator to appear like a beacon when lit.

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photography studio by Olson Kundig appeared first on Dezeen.

Vienna design collective Mostlikely modelled this Alpine lodge on the wooden agricultural barns of surrounding mountain villages.

Mostlikely wanted to design a building that would be suited to a modern family lifestyle, but that also wouldn’t look out of place amongst the traditional architecture of its locality in Kitzbühel, Austria.

“This coherent architectural landscape allows for a romantic identity as well as regional authenticity and serves as the layer stone of the tourism industry in this area,” said the designers.

Rather than replicating the design of the local houses, they took the form of an old barn as the model for the house’s shape and appearance.

“The typology of the barn with its brick-built, massive socket that contrasts its open hayloft seemed to suit today’s needs better than the traditionally poor-lit farmers house of the old days,” added the designers.

Named The Barn, the three-storey house comprises a base of bare concrete rather than brickwork, and a wooden upper section with a gently sloping roof that helps prevent a large build-up of snow.

The architects collaborated with sculptor Stefan Buxbaum on the design of the concrete, using a corrosive chemical to engrave images of flowers and fishes into the surface to reference the “myths of the mountains”.

Living and dining rooms occupy the middle floor of the building and include double-height spaces with views up to the exposed wooden roof beams. A wood-burning stove sits between the kitchen and dining room, while glass doors lead out a large balcony terrace.

A metal staircase ascends to a top-floor mezzanine and descends to three bedrooms located on the ground floor.

Photography is by Mostlikely and Maik Perfahl.

Here’s a project description from Mostlikely:

The Barn – Edition Kitzbühel 2012. Living like a wild emperor. Staged Authenticity.

To build a one family house in the region of Kitzbühel architect Mark Neuner and the team of mostlikely took a better part of the design process as a research quest on how to build in a contemporary way without neglecting the historic traditions. Questions with great significance in an area where tradition not only weighs heavily on old houses but hardly any new houses that are more daring are to be found at all.

This coherent architectural landscape allows for a romantic identity as well as regional authenticity and serves as the layer stone of the tourism industry in this area. To respect and preserve the substance of the idyllic mountain village Going am Wilden Kaiser (the name of the mountain which literally translates to “Wild Emperor”) mostlikely chose to stage the well-known and proven in a new way.

The ideal model

Numerous walks through the environment and a deep dive into the history as well as the cliches associated with the area helped to analyse, measure and document the surroundings. These physical and mental excursions would then lead to a visualised outline of the plan that was full of variety and complexity. This way of “working in pictures” at the beginning of the design process enabled us to get a stronger connection with the space. This approach eventually led mostlikely to the barn instead of the traditional house to play the model for the further development. The typology of the barn with its brick-built, massive socket that contrasts its open hayloft seemed to suit today’s needs better than the traditionally poor-lit farmers house of the old days.

Concrete Flowers (or Fable and Flora)

The point of culmination for the idea of the barn was the socket. Instead of brick, concrete was the material of choice and the magic could take place: flowers and creatures that would slightly remind the myths of the mountains would grow – thanks to a corrosion technique – on the especially designed and each separately cast concrete panels. Moreover in an almost manic cooperation with the sculptor Stefan Buxbaum mostlikely was able to create panels of concrete almost as light as a feather so that even the automatic garage door would open and thus be integrated invisibly in the facade of the building.

Proven but progressive

In the living areas of the house especially designed furniture, walls made from exposed concrete and most prominently the wooden roof timbering that would dominate the shape and feel of the upper floors would connect the shapes of the past with modern living styles just naturally without insinuating.

Unpretentious and natural as a barn should be, a new typology of housing in the mountains was born: “Scheune Edition Kitzbühel 2012” its name.

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based on an agricultural barn appeared first on Dezeen.

A geometric pattern of skylights frames views of the sky from inside this angular white residence in Tokyo by Japanese firm Atelier Tekuto (+ slideshow).

Named Monoclinic House, the building was designed by Atelier Tekuto to accommodate a small three-level home for the client as well as a pair of compact studio apartments for rent.

When viewed from the street, the house appears to have no perpendicular edges. The skylights, which comprise a square and four triangles, are positioned on a diagonal surface that could be described as a wall or a ceiling.

“We have designed a few polyhedron houses, as they are often effective solutions in small and congested lots in urban residential districts,” said the architects, explaining how the angular surfaces also help rainwater to drain off the walls.

The main residence is positioned at the front of the building. The living room is on the first floor and benefits from a five metre-high ceiling at the front, allowing the skylights to bring daylight through both this space and a mezzanine bedroom above.

“One of the key concepts was to ‘design the sky’, because when designing a house in an urban context surrounded by buildings, the sky is the most important natural element in direct contact with architecture,” added the architects. “The top plane of this polyhedron form becomes a large top light, connecting the living space with the sky.”

A spiralling staircase with cantilevered metal treads leads down to another room that can be used as a garage or workshop, while the two single-room apartments are tucked away behind.

Entrances are positioned at different points around the perimeter, including one that is recessed into a narrow front wall.

All of the outer walls are covered with white render, while concrete surfaces are left exposed throughout the building’s interior.

Photography is by Toshihiro Sobajima.

Here are some more details from Atelier Tekuto:

Monoclinic

This house consists of a garage and two studio-type apartments for rent. Our client asked me to design architecture similar to “Reflection of Mineral” that we completed in 2006. Therefore basic concepts of ‘Mineral’ are taken into consideration. In order to further evolve from our previous design we focus on the following three issues:

1. Form should be carefully considered to protect white walls from dirt from rainwater.
2. Design and detailing of large skylight
3. Selection of materials to minimise cost.

The living room provides a unique and impressive space; it is narrow (15.8 m2 in floor area), its highest ceiling height is 5.5 metres, and a large quadrilateral skylight (18.2m2) connects the space to the sky. Square panel, punctured with smaller square in the middle, is inscribed in the quadrilateral shape, and dramatic contrast of light and shadow provides a new perceptive experience.

I have been exploring possibilities of polyhedron architecture in small lots of Tokyo for ten years. Moreover it is my long-time challenge to liberate one’s five senses with eye-opening spatial. This project is one of such successful cases.

Date of completion: September 2013
Location: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Program: Private house + apartments for rent
Site area: 85.92 sqm
Building area: 42.61 sqm
Total floor area: 90.82 sqm
Structure: Reinforced concrete
Architectural design: Yasuhiro Yamashita and Azusa Ishii/Atelier Tekuto
Structural engineer: Jun Sato and Yoshihiro Fukushima/Sato Structural Engineers
Construction: Yoshiya Uchida and Masaru Shibasaki/Uchida Sangyo

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with a pattern of pointy skylights appeared first on Dezeen.