Hasta La Ideas

Charred cedar clads the walls of this house in Aichi, Japan, by architecture studio MDS, while exposed wooden beams create a rack-like effect on the underside of the diagonally slanted roof.

Like many houses owned by young families in Japan, Okazaki House was built on the same site as the residence of the client’s parents.

Tokyo-based studio MDS used a traditional charring technique known as Yakisugi to blacken the cedar planks used for the building’s exterior, helping to protect the building from decay.

The site naturally slopes down from one side to the other, so the architects created a single-storey dwelling containing a series of tiered levels.

An entrance leads into the house at the uppermost level, where the living room is located. The floor then steps down to create a dining room in the middle and a kitchen at the lowest level.

“This enables people to maintain the same level of eyesight, and retains an exquisite sense of distance,” said the architects, explaining how they wanted to maintain an open-plan atmosphere.

Pendant lamps hang down from between the ceiling beams to illuminate worktops and seating areas, while a piece of built-in furniture provides shelving and a desk.

A small courtyard with a tree at its centre cuts into the volume of the building, separating living spaces from the master bedroom.

A second bedroom and bathroom are tucked away on one side and residents have to step down again to access them.

Polished oak floorboards run throughout the house, while latticed wooden screens can be used to partition spaces when required.

Photography is by Forward Stroke Inc.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Okazaki House

The generation gap has become a problem in Japan in recent years. There are an increasing number of two-family homes, as well as houses built on the lots of parents’ houses. This house is one of the latter. Although the residents are parents and child, solicitude should be expressed with this not-so-large site.

This house is a one-storey building with a shed roof, which lowers the roof height on the side of the parents’ house, resulting in wide views maintained with open sky from the parents’ house.

For the interior space, the shape of the large shed roof is directly exposed, and two angled walls (canted walls) are placed in this open-space. This simple design creates various interior spaces in both plan and cross-section. The floor levels of the rooms are decided based on the ground height around the building, and are planned to utilise the height differences.

The site is sloped from north to south, and the west side, where the parents’ house stands, is lower. The main bedroom is located at the highest part of the site, the north-east side; across from a central courtyard, the level gradually slopes towards the south, from the living room, to the dining room and to the kitchen. This enables people to maintain the same level of eyesight, and retains an exquisite sense of distance.

For the framework of the roof, standard cedar lumber of 120x120mm, which is commonly sold on the market, is used. Instead of using custom sizes or laminated wood, the lumber is alternately laid over the beams within the maximum standard length of 6m, and is crisscrossed at the upper part of the canted walls that roughly divide the interior. This creates an impressive ceiling surface as well as functioning as the roof framework.

Company name: MDS Co.Ltd
Architecture: Kiyotoshi Mori & Natsuko Kawamura / MDS
Location: Okazaki-City, Aichi
Principal Use: residence

Structure: wood
Site Area: 213.74 sqm
Total Floor Area: 98.17 sqm /1F
Exterior finish: yakisugi / cedar forms exposed concrete
Roof: galvanised colour steel sheet standing-seam roofing
Floor: oak flooring
Wall: plasterer
Ceiling: oregon pine of 120 x 120 mm

The post Charred timber clads walls of
Okazaki House by MDS appeared first on Dezeen.

The three pitched roofs of this bungalow extension in Manchester were designed by Blee Halligan Architects to capture sunlight at different times of the day and frame views of trees in the garden (+ slideshow).

London studio Blee Halligan Architects arranged the extension’s three double-height windows to face east, west and south so that interior spaces receive light at times that are appropriate to their functions.

The kitchen faces east to welcome the morning light and create a bright space for eating breakfast, while the west-facing living room receives sunlight in the evening.

Each of the windows looks out onto the garden and the steeply pitched roofs direct views towards the canopies of the trees bounding the site.

“The brief was to turn a very common low-ceilinged bungalow into a bright, voluminous house,” architect Greg Blee told Dezeen.

“This was the reason we developed the tall pitched-roof composition, which frames views rather than providing expansive views.”

The external walls of the building are clad in dark-stained larch panelling that helps it blend in with the surrounding garden.

“We liked the idea that the extension would be recessive against the house and garden, which is a verdant green with mature trees and planting that accentuates its colour,” explained Blee. “The building does not fight with this garden setting.”

Sliding doors connect a central dining room with a patio that can be used for al fresco dining. The kitchen also leads to a terrace, which is set to be extended to link the house with a proposed garden room.

White-painted timber boards line the interior of the extension to give the space a soft domestic feel that contrasts with the dark external surfaces.

A short set of stairs connects the dining room to the existing house, which contains a reception area, study and the bedrooms and bathrooms.

A new timber porch outside the front entrance incorporates benches sheltered beneath a translucent plastic roof. The slatted aesthetic of this structure is complemented by a chunky wooden fence in front.

Photography is by Mike Black.

Here’s a short description from Blee Halligan Architects:

A dilapidated bungalow is the site for a new rear addition

Three interconnected, pitched volumes, face in three directions – east, west and south, capturing sunlight at different times of the day, appropriate to function – the kitchen faces east for a light-bathed breakfast and the living room faces west to catch the last of the sunlight. They each pitch up to a large double-height window, capturing views of the garden and trees.

The building is clad in black stained larch, so it appears recessive in the context of the garden and possesses an abstract geometric quality at night.

The post Blee Halligan’s Triptych house extension
catches sunlight from three directions appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian studio Naturehumaine inserted a glass floor and skylight to draw sunlight through the interior of this two-storey house in Montreal, and reintroduced wooden boards to make a feature of the staircase.

Naturehumaine renovated and extended the narrow house on 8th Avenue, Rosemount, for a family of four. An extra family room was added on the ground floor with a new master bedroom above, while the rear facade was replaced with a patterned surface of bright yellow and green panels.

The glass floor provides a visual connection between the ground-floor dining room and a hallway above. A skylight of the same size sits directly above – a feature that architect Stéphane Rasselet says the studio often adds to the centre of houses.

“In this case the clients needs didn’t allow us to give up the valuable floor area that would be lost with a double-height space, so we added the glass floor below the skylight,” he told Dezeen.

The architects retained original structural beams and boards, using them to create a wooden wall flanking the staircase. They also inserted a few into the ceiling void below the skylight.

“Back when this building was built, structural walls were built out of interlocking pieces of solid wood, similar to a log cabin, but with flat faces,” said Rasselet. “We like to expose these walls like you would expose an existing brick wall.

“We find our clients like the warmth of the wood, as well as exposing the history of their house, which contrasts with the new contemporary elements,” he added.

The existing interior was completely reorganised. The ground floor entrance leads in through a living room to the kitchen and dining area at the centre of the plan, while the new room at the rear opens out to the terrace and garden.

Upstairs, a pair of bedrooms overlook the street in front of the property, while the master bedroom occupies the rear behind the bathroom.

Walls of black bricks extend through the facade, forming both interior and exterior surfaces, while floors feature a mixture of white-painted wooden boards and dark slate tiles.

Photography by Adrien Williams.

Here’s a project description from Naturehumaine:

8th Ave.

This intervention transformed a residential two storey duplex in Rosemount into a single dwelling unit by completely reorganising the interior and constructing a 430 sqft extension in the rear.

The extension includes a master bedroom on the second floor and a family room that gives onto an intimate garden at ground level. Standing proud on a typical Montreal laneway, the extension acts as a beacon of novelty and dynamism. While little work was done to the front facade, this extension was designed in contrast, with bright colours, an angled form, and generous glazing.

Work on the interior centred on exposing and highlighting the beauty of existing wooden structural walls and beams and supporting them with a more subtle pallet of materials. Natural daylight is brought into the core with a large skylight and glass floor placed at the centre of the house.

Type: Single family house
Intervention: Interior re-organisation and extension
Location: 8th Ave. Montreal, Canada
Area: 1630 sqft

The post Montreal house by Naturehumaine features
a glass floor with a skylight overhead appeared first on Dezeen.

This conceptual design for a family home by postgraduate architecture student Gonzalo Vaíllo Martínez features a fluid structural frame, a skeletal staircase and a skin incorporating blinds that open and close like gills (+ movie).

Starting with the standard functional spaces required by a single family residence, Vaíllo Martínez based the form of the house on scientific advances in fields such as microcellular systems and biogenetics.

“Everyone has in mind what the standards of a normal house are today,” Vaíllo Martínez told Dezeen. “They are the principles established in Modernism, where spaces were separated by function and the aim was how to relate these spaces to one other and the surroundings.”

“This project is based on this distribution of the program in a very simple but strict way,” he continued. “The house is an exercise in blending a much more complex, multiple and emotive architectural language with a common single family house program.”

Designed as a modular system that can be adapted to any site, this version of the house was developed for a sloping plot at 2217 Neutra Place in California, which is located between two houses designed by Modernist architect Richard Neutra. Vaíllo Martínez feels these houses represent the outmoded typologies of twentieth century architecture.

“When the system is moved into a real location it evolves and mutates according to the constraints defined by the surroundings,” he explained. “It can be placed anywhere and the specific conditions of each location will modify the house in one way or another.”

The house comprises three interconnected units, with an entrance leading to pods containing various services which are partially submerged in the hillside and connected to the main living areas below by a fluid staircase.

A third unit housing the bedrooms and a terrace is detached from the main structure and raised above the ground at the bottom of the site.

Using 3D computer modelling processes that enable surfaces to expand, contract and respond to different parameters, the shape of the house was animated and deformed to match the topography of the site.

The fluid skeleton is intended to be constructed from structural concrete, with the complex facade panels and tangled supporting framework produced using 3D printing processes.

Organic louvred panels incorporated into the building’s skin open and close like gills, while other openings stretch and widen to adjust the amount of light entering the interior.

Vaíllo Martínez suggested that, although the building may appear unrealistic, it could be constructed today using contemporary technologies and manufacturing methods.

“We have more than enough technology not only to design projects such as this one, but also to materialise them,” he claimed. “This is not science fiction or something possible in the near future, it is possible today if we push the boundaries of the resources we have now. Budget is another issue.”

The project was developed by Vaíllo Martínez during his postgraduate studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and follows his proposal for a cave-like auditorium for the Tate Modern gallery which he designed as an undergraduate at Spain’s Universidad de Alcalá.

Here’s some more information from Vaíllo Martínez:

2217NPL House,  Gonzalo Vaíllo Martínez

Located in the outskirts of Los Angeles, the starting point of the design is based on the standards of a single family house. The exuberance of the form is the tool that develops an aesthetic able to corrupt the original principles and establish a negotiation with the contemporary way of life in a day-by-day house.

The project is thought as a continuous mixture of conventional elements that create an emotional empathy with something that is familiar for everyone (social memory), combined with external contaminations that brings new behaviors and perceptions of the spaces.

The house is divided into three units. The first one is a half-underground piece, which contains the main entrance and the services of the house. The public areas are located in the second one (on the ground) and in the last one appears the private rooms, which detach from the ground. In this way, the three units are positioned in the same height and it is the relationship with the sloped topography that defines each piece structurally.

The aggressive exterior made out of the combination of a wire-linework, mobile facade panels and metallic surfaces, creates a contrast with the soft and continuous interiors.

The post Futuristic family home by Gonzalo Vaíllo Martínez
based on biogenetic forms appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio AOC has renovated a four-storey townhouse in north London, adding wall-hung vintage bicycles and timber mouldings based on the faces of the resident family.

Named Bonhôte House, the nineteenth-century property was remodelled by London-based AOC to create a contemporary family home for a boutique owner, a film producer and their young children.

The house now features an open-plan interior designed to meet the family’s need for space, with a two-storey-high gallery added for displaying vintage bicycles and artwork.

A large portion of the original ground floor was removed, enabling the architects to create the double-height gallery at the front of the house.

The new entrance hall allows natural light to fill the room through an original Victorian window with folding shutters. Two bicycles hang on hooks from an adjacent wall, ensuring that they can be seen from various angles.

Shelving built into the walls provides a space for displaying the family’s large collection of books and objects.

“The family had a fascinating collection of artefacts they wished to display, from Dan Holdsworth prints to Paris flea market nicknacks,” architect Geoff Shearcroft told Dezeen.

To add character, the architects used the facial profiles of each family member to produce a series of bespoke timber mouldings, which are dotted throughout the interior.

These create a ripple effect when joined together and act as a contemporary counterpoint to the original Victorian skirting boards and architraves.

“Much ornament in architecture has the human form as its basis and we continued this tradition with a very literal translation of facial profile into moulding,” said Shearcroft.

Across the lower ground floor, a tiled floor with a basket-weave pattern connects the living space with the kitchen and provides a hard-wearing surface for the growing family.

“We explored a variety of patterns but the basket weave offered the right combination of rich associations, closed openness and playful variation,” said the architect.

In the kitchen, mirrored laminate surfaces create an extension of the pattern and reflect light back into the room.

A slumped concrete sofa sits at the foot of a brass decorative staircase, which leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor.

Continuing up through the property, the original floor plan has been altered to connect the master bedroom to an en suite that overlooks the park.

“We re-configured the plan to create a series of different character spaces that were visually and vertically connected,” added Shearcroft.

The house is located in Stoke Newington, just a stone’s throw away from Dezeen’s offices. AOC Architecture previously remodelled an Edwardian property in Golders Green, north-west London.

Photography is by Tim Soar.

Here’s a description of Bonhôte House from the architects:

Bonhôte House, Stoke Newington, London

The Bonhôte House is a four storey townhouse in Stoke Newington, home to a film producer, a boutique owner and their young children. The couple needed more room for a growing family, and for their contemporary art and vintage bicycle collections, than their previous Shoreditch, East London mews house offered. They asked AOC to design a home that felt big yet intimate, luxurious yet useful, sophisticated yet playful, beautiful yet cosy.

The original 19th century property was narrow, dark and unwelcoming, and had been stripped bare by its previous owners. A key architectural move has been to remove a large area of floor, merging basement and ground levels at the front of the house to create a generous double height gallery, into which a new decorative stair descends from the entrance hall. This act of opening-up brings natural light into the basement living space, and creates expansive walls for display of large artworks and objects and for storage of valuable books.

On the upper levels, non-structural walls have been relocated to shape a range of spaces appropriate to the family’s lives. Throughout the property, new doors and internal windows connect individual rooms while maintaining distinctions between them, offering glimpses through the house itself, and then out into the city beyond.

The family wanted a characterful home, contemporary in tone without feeling ‘new’. In response, AOC enriched bare walls with bespoke timber profiles created from the facial profiles of family members – a reinterpretation of traditional mouldings. Used as skirtings, architraves and linings, these ornamental features ensure each room is uniquely tailored to its inhabitants. In the lower, more public, levels, all four mouldings are combined to create a rippling timber lining that softens and connects.

A unique domestic character has been created through deploying a range of materials, chosen for their associative qualities, to create diverse surface effects. A slumped concrete sofa, tinted green, anchors the new staircase at the centre of the plan, before evolving into a kitchen work surface. The use of mirrored laminate on storage units helps them dissolve into their surroundings, while providing endless games of reflection for the children. A basket weave floor pattern, used in a variety of scales and materials, reinforces the individual characters of different parts of the house whilst creating a coherent whole.

The architects worked closely with the family to ensure the house could support the visual choreography of special objects, while still being a practical space, able to manage their storage needs in a discreet, integrated way. The subsequent combination of bespoke panelling with open shelves, interspersed with glazed, mirror and even secret doors, bestows an ‘instant maturity’ upon the home, as though the family have been there for generations.

The post AOC adds wall-hung bicycles and basket-weave
flooring to London townhouse appeared first on Dezeen.