Hasta La Ideas

News: the seminal London home designed by British architect Richard Rogers for his parents – and which influenced his later design for the Pompidou Centre – has been put on the market for the first time since it was built in 1968 (+ slideshow).

Rogers House, at Wimbledon in south-west London, was designed to provide a flexible, open interior and is cited by Rogers himself as the precursor to the Pompidou Centre, the groundbreaking 1977 arts centre in Paris he designed with Renzo Piano.

The Grade II*-listed property, regarded as one of the finest and most historically important modern houses in England, has been owned by Rogers’ family since it was built but is now on the market for £3.2 million with estate agent The Modern House.

In their description of the property, the agents describe it as “one of the most important and celebrated houses of the 20th century”.

Talking to Dezeen recently about the house, Rogers said: “If you look at the house in Wimbledon for my parents, which is a single storey house, it’s steel and highly insulated, it’s transparent, the bathroom is very compact and all the partitions can move – you can see a link from that to the Pompidou with the difference being about a thousand times the scale,” Rogers said.

The main house is a single-storey building with a simple yellow-painted steel frame, which is fully glazed at both ends. The internal moveable partitions within the buildings allow residents to utilise and section the spaces as they wish.

The house represented Britain at the 1967 Paris Biennale and was described as “the most technically interesting and visually striking house in Europe” by Richard Einzig in  his book, Classic Modern Houses in Europe.

The building is set in gardens landscaped by Rogers’ mother, Dada Rogers, and faces a second, smaller building with a similar yellow-steel frame that was originally built as a pottery studio. Both buildings retain their original, vibrant colour scheme, which was developed by Rogers’ mother in conjunction with Richard and Su Rogers.

At the rear of the garden there is a third building, designed by Rogers’ son and the house’s most recent occupant, Ab Rogers. This consists of a single open space and kitchenette.

The house was given a grade II* listing earlier this year – a rare accolade for such a recent building.

At the time the listing was announced, culture secretary Ed Vaizey said: “This is an outstanding and innovative example of a high-tech steel frame house that has clearly stood the test of time. Though many will always associate Lord Rogers with iconic works like the Lloyds Building in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the National Assembly of Wales in Cardiff, this much earlier building is highly significant too; a masterpiece from one of the most imaginative and exciting periods in private house building in this country.”

The sale coincides with the opening of the Richard Rogers: Inside Out exhibition at the Royal Academy in London this month.

Ahead of the exhibition, Rogers spoke to Dezeen about how architecture’s civic responsibility has been eroded in “an age of greed”. Read the interview »

See all our stories about Richard Rogers

Photographs are copyright Tim Crocker/The Modern House.

The post Rogers House by Richard Rogers
goes on sale for the first time appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Kazuhiko Kishimoto has combined a doctor’s surgery and a courtyard house in a bulky building with tapered concrete feet (+ slideshow).

Located in Kanagawa, Japan, Lifted-Garden House was designed by Kazuhiko Kishimoto with a two-storey clinic on one side, a first-floor doctor’s apartment opposite and a courtyard and roof terrace inbetween.

“The clinic and dwelling place are placed across from each other with the inner courtyard in the middle, however the direction of the eyes would not meet since they are on different levels,” says the architect.

The exterior walls feature a mixture of bare concrete and timber slats, with the solid concrete pillars supporting the overhanging first floor.

The courtyard beyond is filled with trees and shrubs, while the first-floor terrace is covered in timber decking and features plants that sprout from pockets of gravel.

This deck can be accessed from both the apartment and the clinic, plus its timber surface continues into the building to create a consistent ground plane.

White-painted bars divide up the spaces within the residence, continuing the vertical rhythm of the timber slats on the facade.

The clinic features frosted glass screens that partially cover the windows, creating privacy while allowing views out to the greenery.

“We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients,” says Kishimoto.

We previously featured another house by Kazuhiko Kishimoto, with a rear facade that slides open to reveal a graduated terrace with a sweeping view of the sea.

Earlier this year we published a two-storey house that has been combined with a pet shop, also located in Japan.

See all our stories about Japanese houses »
See more stories about medical architecture »

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

This is the complex building with clinic on the first floor and the doctor’s dwelling place on the second floor. With the tree planting that bring better feeling to patients in the inner courtyard, they can be viewed from the lobby and entrance of the clinic.

Furthermore, as the trees can also be seen from outside of the building through the deck, people walking by should also be able to feel the seasons change.

The dwelling place on the second floor is placed as if it is floating above the parking space. The dwelling place is L-shaped opposite to the clinic. The clinic and dwelling place are placed across each other with the inner courtyard in the middle however the directions of the eyes would not meet since they are in the different levels.

The roof of the clinic is an open area as the rooftop garden. Various types of plants and trees are established on the stair-like wood deck with different levels. The floor of the dwelling place continuing flat to wood deck is the outcome of the careful consideration into details.

The deep and low canopy top makes the proportion of the beautiful building. It also relates immensely to producing the sense of openness to the rooftop. We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients.

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Kazuhiko Kishimoto/acaa appeared first on Dezeen.

Clean white buildings with identical doors and windows are arranged around a courtyard at this social housing complex in Mallorca by Spanish architects RipollTizon (+ slideshow).

Located on the outskirts of a small town, the three storey development was designed by RipollTizon with 19 units, comprising a mixture of apartments and maisonettes with either two or three bedrooms.

Both shutters and doors have the same wooden finish, intended as a reinterpretation of the fenestration found on other local buildings. “The layout and movement of these shutters by the users creates a changing and vibrant image that reflects the use of the building,” architect Pablo Garcia told Dezeen.

Elsewhere, materials have been kept simple and understated with white plastered walls and exposed concrete finishes. “The white coated surface of the facade provides unity and coherence to the complex,” Garcia continues.

The layout of the development is determined via a modular system, where smaller units for bedrooms, bathrooms and storage areas are added to larger units comprising living, dining and kitchen spaces.

“[The modular arrangement] allows us to create a varied landscape, rich in shades and tailored to its physical context without losing the quality, rigour and standardisation that the social housing development requires.” explain the architects.

Each unit is organised around a central courtyard and connected via a network of ground-level pathways and elevated walkways.

Square openings punch through the walls of the development, framing views both in and out of the complex.

Earlier this year RipollTizon completed a school in Mallorca featuring bold blocks of colour. See more architecture by RipollTizon »

Other social housing schemes we’ve published include a complex in Ibiza comprising two jagged blocks and another in France with a camouflage print on the walls. See more housing on Dezeen »

Photography is by José Hevia.

Here’s some more information from RipollTizon:

Context

The elements with which to develop the project are not far away. They are features that tell us about the climate, the context and the way we live. Simply walking around the place and looking at the courtyards, the filters, the light, the plots configuration, the small scale of the buildings, the singularity of each of the houses and the amazing configurations that emerge when they are grouped, not really knowing where one house ends and the next one begins. The aim is to give significance to the nuances and tangible scale of the domesticity and the details. Search the surprise.

Housing clusters – aggregation rules

We developed a catalogue of houses that were grouped three-dimensionally (aggregation) following rules that were precise and simple, but also open enough to solve a housing complex adapted to the diversity of situations that the programme and the context required.

From an urban point of view, the proposal complies with the street alignment and puts in value the depth of the plot exploiting its land use possibilities. The volume of the housing complex is stretched between the boundaries, playing with the party walls that limit the plot (obliterating some and putting others in value) and wrapping an interior courtyard that organizes the circulations and public areas, like a square.

Housing Catalogue

The housing units are generated from base module of single or double height (module living-dining-kitchen) to which other smaller spaces are added (modules bedroom-bathroom / bedroom-storage). The different possibilities of aggregation result either in different spatial configurations for a similar group of modules or in different house sizes depending on the number of modules added.

This spatial aggregation logic allows a flexible design process in which each house is considered simultaneously as a unit and in relation to the whole group. It allows to create a varied landscape, rich in shades and tailored to its physical context without losing the quality, rigor and standardization that the social housing development requires.

Use of materials in respect of the context

One of the main strategies of the project is to establish a careful dialogue with its context. The mentioned spatial values of the project are implemented throughout the use of raw materials that contribute to anchor the project to its surroundings. The white coated surface of the facade provides unity and coherence to the complex throughout a modest material that puts in value the space.

In contrast, the exposed materials balance these spaces (exposed concrete structure/slotted concrete blocks/perforated ceramic bricks/hydraulic concrete tile paving) creating textures and material qualities that relate he project to the context.

The use of window shutters in the houses, so characteristic in the area, is reinterpreted in the project using high-pressure compact laminate panels with colourful wooden finish. The layout and movement of these shutters by the users creates an changing and vibrant image that reflects the use of the building.

The post Social Housing in Sa Pobla
by RipollTizon appeared first on Dezeen.

This family house in Nara, Japan, is raised up on pilotis and residents have to enter using a staircase beneath the floor (+ slideshow).

Named 4n, the residence was designed by Osaka studio Ninkipen! to house a couple and their two children.

The site had previously been split into two levels with a retaining wall in between. Rather than levelling the ground, the architects decided to create a hill and position the house above it.

“We removed the wall, connecting the two levels with a gentle slope, and floated the house above it,” said architect Imazu Yasuo. “By elevating the house on pilotis we created good views and an all-weather outdoor space.”

The cantilevered front end of the building forms the shelter for an entrance porch, leading through to the staircase and up into the house.

Inside, the lower level of the house is divided up into different living areas. A concrete kitchen counter runs along one side, while a dining table is positioned centrally and the front end is a living room with partitioning glass screens.

A second staircase leads up to an attic floor, where exposed timber ceiling beams frame a pair of bedrooms.

Ninkipen! previously designed a house made up of a set of rectangular volumes. Other projects by the studio include a bakery in Osaka and a clothing shop with fake doors.

See more design by Ninkipen! »
See more houses in Japan »

Photography is by Hiroki Kawata.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

This is a house for a family of four in Ikoma city.

The site had been divided into two levels with a retaining wall, and vehicle access was to the lower level only. We removed the wall, connecting the two levels with a gentle slope, and floated the house above it.

By elevating the house on piloti we created good views and an all weather outdoor space which is also a children’s playground and the entrance porch.

The window rail on the second floor is cantilevered to allow wind flow inside. The kitchen counter is a thin concrete slab on a timber frame and maybe it is suitable to call it just a flower stand.

The third floor is a cramped but has free flowing atmosphere like an attic. Children are running around these three floors now.

We hope that this family of four can have a house for their family in the wake of the 3.11 earthquake and live comfortably in their own way.

Project name: 4n
Architect: Yasuo Imazu / ninkipen!
Structural engineer: Masaichi Taguchi / TAPS
Contractor: Kimura Koumuten

Use: house
Location: Ikoma city, Nara
Completion: 2013.3
Total floor area: 118.98m2

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Ninkipen! appeared first on Dezeen.

The facade of this black and white house by British architect Matthew Heywood is sliced up into irregular shapes to mimic the crooked angles of tree branches (+ slideshow).

Matthew Heywood wanted to create an affinity with the surrounding woodland when designing the five-bedroom property, located in a small village in Kent, England.

The architect used slanted columns – known as raking columns – to form the structure of the building, referencing criss-crossing branches and twigs.

“Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees,” explained Heywood.

The residence is clad in a mixture of black-stained and white-painted clapboard, which is commonly found on houses in this part of England. “The weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within,” Heywood said.

The monochrome colour palette continues inside the house with dark flooring, white walls and furnishings in shades of grey.

The ground floor of the property includes a large reception area with a suspended fireplace and sliding doors that open out onto the garden.

A staircase with a glass balustrade leads to the first floor, which accommodates five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a dressing room.

Matthew Heywood doesn’t just work on buildings – the London-based architect previously tried his hand at redesigning London’s buses.

Other British houses we’ve recently featured include a small wooden house on the Isle of Skye and a house with a mirrored facade that slides across to cover the windows. See all our stories about British houses »

Photography is by Jefferson Smith.

Engineer – Fothergill & Company
Main Contractor – Ecolibrium Solutions

Here’s a description from the architect:

Trish House Yalding

The design of the house developed in direct response to the site and its location within the beautiful village of Yalding in Kent.

The building’s structure is composed to reflect the surrounding woodland with the raking columns representing the irregular angles of tree trunks and branches.

Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees.

The traditional Kentish black and white weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within. In contrast to the surrounding nature, the form and lines of the house are intentionally very geometric and crisp, creating a dialogue between the organic woodland and the modernist box.

The post Trish House Yalding
by Matthew Heywood appeared first on Dezeen.