Hasta La Ideas

This yacht house on the southernmost tip of the Crimean coastline by Robin Monotti Architects includes four holiday apartments (+ slideshow).

Located within the Foros Shore holiday resort, the Foros Yacht House was conceived as stack of box-like volumes intended to play down the scale of the fifteen-metre-deep and six-metre high room for storing the yacht at the centre of the building.

“Yacht House is an organic composition,” said Robin Monotti. “We started with the box for the boat, then added accommodation alongside, terraces, and finally the stair tower.”

The architect drew inspiration from the traditional “dacha” holiday homes of the Ukraine’s neighbouring Russia and planned the building as a contemporary reinterpretation, with off-white walls to reflect sunlight and porthole windows that reference naval architecture.

A captain’s lodge is located on the ground floor and leads through to the yacht storage, while a studio flat occupies the first floor and two-bedroom apartments span the building on the second and third floors.

Floor-to-ceiling windows open out to glass-fronted balcony terraces, offering guests a view straight out to sea.

“Ultimately the building is about the nearness of the sea and the huge skies,” said Monotti. “We wanted people to experience their surroundings – the sound of the water, the sea winds, the changing light and moods, the changing temperatures, even the salty taste in the air – as if they were already on a yacht.”

The chunky stair tower runs up the rear corner of the building and has vertical slit windows that limit daylight. The architect explains that this was intentional, so that guests are overcome with light as they enter the apartments. “Yacht House helps you experience nature in a powerful way,” he adds.

Italian architect Robin Monotti set up his London studio in 2007.

Other boathouses completed in recent years include a Victorian boathouse in England and a cylindrical boathouse in Texas.

Photography is by Ioana Marinescu, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Robin Monotti Architects:

Foros Yacht House, Crimea, Ukraine
Robin Monotti Architects

London based Robin Monotti Architects completed ‘Yacht House’ in September 2012. The 875 sq m contemporary building creates an outstanding feature on the Crimean shoreline. It houses four rental apartments arranged around tall yacht storage at ground level, and connected by a staircase tower. The apartments provide spectacular views across the sea and the mountains, and a direct and immediate connection to the coastal environment that surrounds them.

In 2011 Robin Monotti’s Ukranian client acquired the site which lies within the Foros Shore resort owned by the Donetsk Steel Group. With a Mediterranean-like climate and dramatic scenery, the Crimea is known as the Russian Riviera. Foros is located at the southernmost tip of the Crimea, along the most sought after 30 km band of coastline in the Ukraine. Because of its enduring popularity, the area has a rich political and architectural heritage. Neighbours include the dachas of former USSR president Gorbachev and current Ukrainian president Yanukovich, and close by are magnificent palaces and churches from the Tsarist era.

Yacht House is a contemporary response to Russia’s dacha tradition. Robin Monotti’s design is uncompromisingly modern, but also open, playful and people focussed. This is important for a country that remembers the repressive Soviet regime and its association with brutalist architecture.

Brief

The client initially required winter storage space for his 13 metre yacht. The client then decided to add three rental apartments and captain’s accommodation to make the most of the outstanding site. A significant challenge was how to design the building so that the apartments were not overpowered by the massive door required for the yacht. Other challenges were presented by a steeply sloping site in a seismically active area, and its proximity to the sea which in bad weather could drench the house in corrosive salt water.

Solution

The design commenced with a yacht room 7 metres wide, 15 metres deep and 6 metres high on the ground floor giving access via a 25′ door to a railed slipway in front. To balance the 25′ door and enable dramatic, unrestricted views across the Black Sea, Robin Monotti proposed three distinctive volumes above and beside the tall boat house. By offsetting the volumes, the design provided a variety of terraces at different levels, extensive views and outdoor access.

The outside is brought inside by 9 metre wide floor to ceiling windows in the main apartments which provide almost seamless seascapes. When the bi-folding doors are fully open the interior living spaces feel like shaded outdoor spaces. Porthole windows continue the marine theme.

Glass railings to all balconies and terraces allow for uninterrupted views, and a shared 135 sq m solarium terrace on the fourth floor provides 360 degree views of the sea and the Crimean Mountains behind. A variety of different outdoor terraces and balconies offer contrasting views over the surrounding landscape.

A tall stair tower links the floors and, with its slit-like windows, recalls the nearby defensive Genoese fortifications of Balaklava. The narrow windows restrict light and views so that surprise and delight is enhanced when the main living areas, with their astounding light and views, are entered from the tower. The slit windows also provide privacy on the side of the building that faces the resort.

Above: ground floor plan

The captain’s accommodation and the first floor flat provide studio accommodation, with two bedroom apartments on the third and fourth floor. The flats are fully furnished with high quality white Italian furniture.

Above: first floor plan

Environmental features

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete throughout to make the structure capable of withstanding earthquakes and to provide additional protection against winter storms.

Above: second floor plan

There was a conscious effort to reduce light pollution in the outside areas. It was important that the focus for guests at night time would be on the natural landscape, in order for them to witness the reflection of the moon, stars and sea. An influx in outside lighting would restrict guests from engaging with nature and the surrounding landscape.

Above: third floor plan

Off-white paint was chosen for the exterior of the building in order to absorb the least amount of solar radiation possible, as well as to enhance the visibility of the building. Porthole windows to the sides of the building provide cross ventilation.

Above: roof plan

Architect: Robin Monotti Architects: Robin Monotti Graziadei, Fannar Haraldsson
Client: Private
Structural engineer: Gennadiy Gyrushta
Main contractor: Igor Shutkin

Above: section 

Begun: August 2011
Completed: September 2012
Internal and External Floor Area: 875m2
Internal Floor area: 575m2
Yacht store dimensions 7 metres wide, 15 metres deep and 6 metres high
Sector: Residential Holiday Flats
Total cost: £1M
Address: Foros, Crimea, Ukraine, Ukraine

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Robin Monotti Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This stark concrete house in Spain by Alcolea+Tárrago Arquitectos features richly stained timber shutters that fold back to reveal large glass doors (+ slideshow).

Located in the town of Sesma, Casa MP is home to a family of four, made up of a young couple and their two daughters. It was conceived by Pamplona studio Alcolea+Tárrago Arquitectos as “a monolithic volume that emphasises its archetypal geometry using concrete and stained pinewood.”

The dark timber detailing creates a distinct contrast with the muted grey of the concrete and was added as a reference to local architecture. It frames a series of recessed windows and is also used for doors and furnishings inside the house.

The concrete was formed against timber and its surface shows the rough grain of the wooden boards.

The house is at the peak of the sloping and takes advantage of views of the surrounding fields. This position allows room for a two-car garage to one side, as well as a rear garden where residents can plant vegetables.

The main entrance to the house is through a three-metre-wide terrace that can be screened from the street using a translucent sliding screen.

An open-plan living room and kitchen occupies the entire ground floor to create a space for working and relaxing, while four bedrooms are located upstairs and a multi-purpose room and storage area are in the basement.

Other recently completed houses in Spain include a residence in Alicante with an 18-metre-long balcony and an X-shaped concrete house near Barcelona.

Photography is by Iñaki Bergera.

Here’s a project description from Alcolea+Tárrago Arquitectos:

The commission began in a private competition, in which our office was selected not by a particular project, but by the attitude showed to the clients to build a maximum house with a very small budget on a complicated plot, a very sharp slope. And not least, the involvement and commitment, perhaps beyond any logical reason, to propose successive approximations to the project (up to five preliminary projects and a full executive project with its visa) before the final solution.

Anyway, the program answers common needs of a conventional home for a young couple with two young daughters, including a garage for two cars and a small garden and orchard. It is a monolithic volume that emphasizes its archetypal geometry using concrete and stained pinewood. Any gesture is made to the better orientation and views, and to clear the plot as much as possible for the small garden and orchard to plant some vegetables and fruit trees.

The house, therefore, is set at the highest level of the site. It follows a restrictive regulation on alignment and height. But this also permits to dominate the southern view towards the grain fields and smooth foothills of the River Ebro.

Following similar strategies, the two car garage is separated from the main volume to close the north limit. Between the house and the garage, there is an entrance and patio access three meters wide. Large sliding doors in pine board communicate the garage and garden.

The ground floor of the house is linked to the garden through large windows. A single space includes the living, kitchen and a place for leisure and work. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room are in the upper floor. In the basement there is a multipurpose space, facilities and storage rooms.

The building details in reinforced concrete unify structure, finishing and texture, and control the total budget. The windows have shutters in stained pine board, very common in the folk architecture of the area.

The thermal inertia of the concrete volume as well as an underfloor heating and cooling system using geothermal energy determines a high efficiency in a quite extreme climate, very cold in winter and very hot in summer, without resigning to large windows for a maximum use of natural light. A very small local construction company owned by a family friend and local subcontractors carried out the construction. And explains the delay of the execution process.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Above: basement floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: section – click above for larger image

Above: north elevation – click above for larger image

Above: south elevation – click above for larger image

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Alcolea+Tárrago Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

London firm Alison Brooks Architects used dark-stained timber and sloping rooftops to reinterpret the rural architecture of Essex for this suburban housing development (+ slideshow).

Entitled South Chase, the 84-residence development is the first phase in the construction of a new neighbourhood on the eastern edge of the town of Harlow and it accommodates a variety of housing typologies.

Apartment blocks and stand-alone houses mark the corners and end-plots of four new streets, while rows of terraced houses and courtyard houses are arranged in rows between.

Describing the goals of the development, Alison Brooks told Dezeen she wanted to create “a completely new and more sustainable suburban housing typology where open-plan flexible houses are integrated with outdoor spaces to increase the sense of space and light”.

Above: courtyard houses

The architect also emphasised the importance of creating “dedicated working spaces” in each house, adapting to the growing number of people who work from home and “helping to create an economically active suburb”. In line with this, each house comes with an accessible loft that can be converted into an office and the larger houses also include a ground-floor study that doubles up as a spare bedroom.

There are 50 houses on the site in total: 14 stand-alone houses, 29 courtyard houses and 7 terraced houses. The T-shaped courtyard houses are designed to offer a new standard in UK housing, with a dense format that makes room for terraces at both ground and first floor levels. Meanwhile, the terraced houses include south-facing front gardens and the L-shaped stand-alone houses have both rear gardens and driveways.

The five accompanying apartment blocks each contain between six and eight homes and are positioned to maximise views.

All buildings feature a prefabricated timber construction, with a materials palette of sandy brickwork, black-stained larch and slate roof tiles.

Alison Brooks Architects designed the masterplan in collaboration with urban designers Studio REAL.

Above: terraced houses

Brooks founded her studio in 1996 and has since won the Manser Medal for the timber-clad Salt House and was part of Stirling-Prize winning team that worked on the Accordia housing development. Other recent projects include a tapered house extension in north London.

Above: stand-alone houses

See more new stories about housing design, including projects by Peter Barber and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Above: apartment blocks

Photography is by Paul Riddle.

Here’s some more information from Alison Brooks Architects:

Newhall South Chase Lot 3

This 84-unit scheme for Linden Homes will complete South Chase, Phase 1 of the award- winning Newhall development in Harlow, Essex. ABA’s approach integrates a mix of new and familiar house typologies, prefabricated timber construction and a highly efficient masterplan to maximize living space and flexibility for individual homes. The scheme’s geometric and material consistency was inspired by the powerful roof forms and simple materials of Essex’s rural buildings. ABA has utilised these geometries to bring light into terraced courtyard houses, allow rooms in the roof, permit oblique views to the landscape beyond the site, and to introduce a sculptural rhythm to the scheme’s streetscapes.

The development consists of 84 units across four building types; 5 Apartment buildings containing 6,7 or 8 flats each; 14 Villas; 29 Courtyard Houses and 7 Terraced Houses totalling 84 units, 26% of which are affordable.

Masterplan

ABA’s masterplan was developed in conjunction with Studio REAL and responds to the site’s Design Code as well as Lot 3’s prominent corner location on the South Chase site. Larger scale apartment buildings hold important corner locations to both define north-south streets and frame views to the wider countryside and beyond. 126sm villas line the north south streets and act as bookends to the more densely configured courtyard houses of the east-west lanes.

All housing types incorporate covered front porches; central stair halls; roof terraces; Juliette balconies and cathedral ceilings. Loft spaces either finished as bedrooms or can be retrofitted by homebuyers as workspaces, additional bedrooms or games rooms. Villas and Courtyard houses all have a ground-floor study – ABA consider this additional room as essential for accommodating the electronic media and home working lifestyles of the 21C.

Materials

A simple palette of materials – FSC-rated, pressure treated Siberian Larch with a non-toxic water-based stain; Welsh slates; recessed gutters; Protec Composite Windows and simple steel railings allow the subtly angled surfaces and overall scheme geometries to be clearly expressed. Ground floor porcelain tiled floors on a beam and block substructure provide thermal mass for underfloor and passive solar heating.

Courtyard Houses – A New Model for UK Housing

The courtyard houses are a radical reconfiguration of typical long and narrow 5m x 20m terraced house plot to a 9.5mx10.5m plot. This square plot permits a very wide house footprint, T-shaped with courtyard spaces or ‘outdoor rooms’ that interlock with kitchen/dining and living rooms. A covered front porch creates a important semi-public threshold between the house front door and the street’s shared surfaces. Inside, a very generous central hall creates a sense of spaciousness; we consider front halls as important/functional as any other room in the house.

A large 1st floor roof terrace above the kitchen in effect lifts the garden to gain more hours of sunlight. Master bedrooms have cathedral ceilings that follow the roof line, and the 3 bed versions of the house have a generous loft bedroom.

Above: aerial masterplan

Villas

The villas are two-storey, L-shaped in plan to provide a front parking court that also maximizes south facing orientation and views to the street/landscape beyond. Covered front porches with balconies give the houses an open and inviting street presence. Front ‘outriggers’ contain the study and bedroom above. This and the master bedroom have sloped ceilings that reflect the exterior geometry of the roofs. Central entrance halls lead to an open plan living, kitchen and family room and the study that can double as guest bedroom. Large expanses of glazing that lead onto timber decks draw the garden into the house and create a sense of informal spaciousness. Solar hot water panels are standard on the villas and courtyard houses apartments.

Above: courtyard house plans – click above for larger image 

The Terraced Houses – Affordable

The seven terraced houses, of 90sm and 115sm, are set back on their plots to provide south-facing front gardens. Each end of the terrace pulled forward to create and enclosed ‘courtyard- like’ street. The terraces follow the scheme’s principles of central hall, open plan living/dining and generous bedrooms, with a convertible loft space and cathedral ceilings in 1st floor bedrooms. Each house has 5.4 sm of Photovoltaic roof tiling.

Above: courtyard house section – click above for larger image 

The Apartments

Five apartment blocks form important urban markers at street junctions, and act as gateways to the development. Each block’s slightly angled geometries give the facades a directionality that responds to their orientation, views, and integrates their larger massing with the highly articulated masses and angled roofs of the adjacent houses. Upper floors clad in brick cantilever over the main entrances to provide a sheltered porch – these are expressed as timber clad ‘cuts’ in the brick volumes. Flats all have generous terraces, French doors and Juliette balconies, all of which increase the sense of space, maximize natural light and provide wonderful views for both affordable and for sale apartments.

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Alison Brooks Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

A tree-filled courtyard is glimpsed through the shimmering glass-brick facade of this house in Hiroshima, designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi Nakamura (+ movie).

Optical Glass House was constructed beside a busy road, so Hiroshi Nakamura and his studio NAP wanted to create a private oasis where residents could still make out the movements of people and traffic beyond the walls. “The serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house,” said the architect.

The garden is raised up to first floor level to make room for a garage below and the architects used 6,000 specially made glass blocks to build a two-storey-high wall in front of it. The wall was too tall to support itself, so the blocks had to be bolted together.

As light filters through the glass it creates dancing patterns across the walls and over a group of maple, ash and holly trees.

“The facade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness,” said the architect.

An open living room is located just behind and is only separated from the garden by a lightweight metal curtain. This curtain folds back to reveal a second glass-block wall at the back of the room, which lines the edge of a central staircase.

Residents are faced with the staircase upon first entering the house. A water basin skylight is positioned immediately above and projects more light patterns onto the floor.

A split-level second garden is located at the back of the house, while the children’s rooms occupy the top floor, a dining room and kitchen are on the first floor and a hobby room, Japanese room and extra bedroom can be found on the ground floor.

Hiroshi Nakamura worked under Kengo Kuma before setting up his studio in 2002. Previous projects include the Roku Museum, a small art gallery with softly curving walls.

See more architecture in Japan, including a house fronted by a stack of gardens.

Photography is by Koji Fujii, Nacasa & Partners.

Here’s some information from the architects:

Optical Glass House

This house is sited among tall buildings in downtown Hiroshima, overlooking a street with many passing cars and trams. To obtain privacy and tranquility in these surroundings, we placed a garden and optical glass façade on the street side of the house. The garden is visible from all rooms, and the serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house.

Sunlight from the east, refracting through the glass, creates beautiful light patterns. Rain striking the water-basin skylight manifests water patterns on the entrance floor. Filtered light through the garden trees flickers on the living room floor, and a super lightweight curtain of sputter-coated metal dances in the wind. Although located downtown in a city, the house enables residents to enjoy the changing light and city moods, as the day passes, and live in awareness of the changing seasons.

Optical Glass Façade

A façade of some 6,000 pure-glass blocks (50mm x 235mm x 50mm) was employed. The pure-glass blocks, with their large mass-per-unit area, effectively shut out sound and enable the creation of an open, clearly articulated garden that admits the city scenery. To realize such a façade, glass casting was employed to produce glass of extremely high transparency from borosilicate, the raw material for optical glass. The casting process was exceedingly difficult, for it required both slow cooling to remove residual stress from within the glass, and high dimensional accuracy. Even then, however, the glass retained micro-level surface asperities, but we actively welcomed this effect, for it would produce unexpected optical illusions in the interior space.

Waterfall

So large was the 8.6m x 8.6m façade, it could not stand independently if constructed by laying rows of glass blocks a mere 50mm deep. We therefore punctured the glass blocks with holes and strung them on 75 stainless steel bolts suspended from the beam above the façade. Such a structure would be vulnerable to lateral stress, however, so along with the glass blocks, we also strung on stainless steel flat bars (40mm x 4mm) at 10 centimeter intervals. The flat bar is seated within the 50mm-thick glass block to render it invisible, and thus a uniform 6mm sealing joint between the glass blocks was achieved. The result – a transparent façade when seen from either the garden or the street. The façade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness.

The glass block façade weighs around 13 tons. The supporting beam, if constructed of concrete, would therefore be of massive size. Employing steel frame reinforced concrete, we pre-tensioned the steel beam and gave it an upward camber. Then, after giving it the load of the façade, we cast concrete around the beam and, in this way, minimized its size.

Project name: Optical Glass House
Main purpose: Housing
Design: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Co.,Ltd.
Structure design: Yasushi Moribe
Contractor: Imai Corporation
Location: Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hitroshima, Japan
Site area: 243.73m2
Total Floor area: 363.51m2
Completion year: October,2012
Structure: R.C.structure

Above: site plan

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: section

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Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP appeared first on Dezeen.

This lopsided house by Argentinean studio Adamo-Faiden has a pointed balcony poking out of one side and a caged terrace on the roof (+ slideshow + photos by Cristobal Palma).

Located in Villa Adelina, a suburb in the north of Buenos Aires, the two-storey Casa Martos butts up against a neighbouring commercial building of the same height and Adamo-Faiden has matched the proportions of the volumes to tie together the conflicting architectural styles.

The facade of the house faces south-west, which architect Marcelo Faiden explains was to bring in natural light and prevent any issues with overlooking windows from the other two properties. “This decision allowed us to cover the ten-metre-high party wall, maintaining the existing sunlight and generating long views to the new house,” he said.

The balcony shelf protrudes from this glazed elevation behind a layer of metal fencing, creating a ledge of plants beside the first floor window. Faiden added: “From the inside, the vegetation of the double enclosure seems to merge with the patio of the next plot.”

A small room and garage occupy the ground floor of the house, while the bedroom, bathroom and living room are positioned on the first floor.

The architects compare the project with Casas Lago, their first built project, which also features a rooftop terrace. “In both cases the new construction tries to create a relation with the urban fabric through an immaterial, open air room located on the terrace,” said Faiden.

Since completing Casas Lago, Adamo Faiden has worked on a number of residential projects, including designs for social housing on top of existing homes and a housing block that could also be used as offices. See more architecture by Adamo Faiden.

See more architecture in Argentina »

Photography is by Cristobal Palma. See all our stories featuring Cristobal Palma’s photos.

Here’s a short description from Adamo-Faiden:

Martos House

The house is located in Villa Adelina, a neighbourhood in the north area of Buenos Aires suburbs where great commercial activities, industries and housing coexist.

The construction is close to the street in a lot where a prefabricated house already occupies the central area of it.

The characteristics of the buildings nearby, determine the position of the new house. An industrial building generates towards one side a 10 meters height division wall that is used to structure lengthwise the house while orientating all the interior spaces towards the garden of the opposite field.

A metal tray runs all along the structure length, becoming a shell for a new vegetation that gazes from the inside and seems to merge with the neighbouring garden.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: roof plan – click above for larger image

Above: section aa – click above for larger image

Above: section bb – click above for larger image

Above: section cc – click above for larger image

Above: front elevation – click above for larger image

Above: rear elevation – click above for larger image

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Adamo-Faiden appeared first on Dezeen.