Hasta La Ideas

Japanese studio UID Architects often place gardens inside buildings and this house in Fukuyama is no exception (+ slideshow).

The two-storey family house is nestled amongst an assortment of high-rise buildings, which “shut out the sunlight” according to architect Keisuke Maeda.

Instead of adding windows to the facade, Maeda specified a series of skylights and clerestory windows to bring daylight in from above to the living room, kitchen and children’s room on the top floor.

The indoor garden occupies a double-height space at the centre of the residence and also acts as a lightwell for the entrance lobby at the front of the ground floor.

A grid of bookshelves provides a balustrade around the edge of the courtyard, which is also the location of a wooden staircase connecting the two floors.

Maeda explains how a traditional Japanese townhouse occupied the site previously and also had a garden at its centre, which he believes creates a connection between “past and present”.

This is the third project we’ve recently featured by UID Architects, following a house with sunken rooms and a renovated townhouse.

Other projects by the studio include a timber house at the foot of a mountain and a residence comprising four cedar-clad blocks.

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s some information from UID Architects:

Renewal of a form / lasting sense of scale

This is a reconstruction of a house in the centre of the city. The site has 5 meters for lateral directions, and 18 meters for longitudinal one.

This is a north‐south site formed like machiya. The family is consisted of two children and their parents.

The feature of this site is surrounded by buildings on east and west side, and faced on the south road; there is a 30-meter-high car park building. This shuts out the sunlight.

Since the site has many conditions, we thought that it would be comfortable space that we can feel basic elements such as sunlight and wind, and that we succeed to a form which nagaya have had.

As regards to the plan, we put every rooms along with the inner garden that contains the element coathouse has.

Thanks to the shape of the section like 凸, every room that run from north to south can get homogeneous sunlight and wind.

The element of the exterior of a building from inner garden make a room give space like exterior, and depth, so we can feel a vague condition.

Cut-through axonometric – click above for larger image.

The house takes in building-wind possibly from first floor, and go by through the inner garden.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image.

Which the leaves are trembling in the breeze, visualize wind, sound and sunlight. That helps making a space as if we were in the forest despite in the city.

First floor plan – click above for larger image.

Thanks to the hanging wall run from west to east and ceiling height, every rooms is connected as one room providing each territory, and frame construction, the house takes in many elements of exterior from free section.

Section – click above for larger image.

As we renewed the garden of nagaya that built before, as we make people be aware of the sense of scale that nagaya has. We thought that will be only point that can connect past to present.

Section – click above for larger image.

Location: Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan
Name project: Town-House
Architects: UID – Keisuke Maeda
Structural consultants: Konishi Structural Engineers – Yasutaka Konishi, Takeshi Kaneko,
Landscape consultants: Toshiya Ogino Environment Design Office – Toshiya Ogino
General contractor: Yamato Co.Ltd – Monden Umayahara
Structural system: steel construction
Site area: 95.41 sq m
Built area: 75.56 sq m
Total floor area: 138.23 sq m
Date of completion: March 2011

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UID Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Bright shades of yellow and green help elderly people find their way around in this 17-storey housing block in Barcelona by Spanish architects Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons and Ricard Galiana (+ slideshow).

“The building is divided into three communities and each community is assigned a different colour to facilitate orientation,” Pons told Dezeen. “We’ve used yellow and two shades of green, one lighter and one darker. These colours are uplifting whilst also calming.”

Located beside a motorway on the edge of the city, the tower contains 77 government-allotted apartments for pensioners.

A shared garden covers the top floor of the building, which Pons hopes will be used by both grandparents and grandchildren.

Corridors and staircases wrap the exterior and lead into double-height communal spaces, which were designed to encourage residents to communicate with their neighbours. ”The hallways were conceived as streets,” explained Pons.

At ground level, the building opens out to a small public square that it shares with a new sports centre and housing development.

See more stories about housing, including an apartment block with a grid of chunky balconies.

Photography is by Adrià Goula.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Torre Júlia. Government-allotted housing for elderly people

This project forms part of the urbanization that is taking place in one of the lots left over after the construction of the Ronda de Barcelona, a bypass road, in 1992.

A sports centre, a residential development and an old people’s home will all share the same space, creating a public area that will stretch from the street to a square giving access into the different facilities.

A prominent feature in the city’s northern quarter, Torre Júlia rises up to a height of 17 floors.

There are three areas in the building. Each community has a larger space assigned, where users carry out most of their collective activities. These spaces, the core of the proposed project, figure plainly on the building’s frontage, which is wrought entirely in concrete and works as a cantilever beam.

Typical floor arrangement – click above for larger image and key

Wide corridors overlooking the city, stairs in all outdoor places, double-spaced areas and sun-shaded terraces configure a building that is intended to give elderly people an opportunity to socialize and engage in community activities.

Site plan

Project team: Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana
Address: Via Favència 348-350, Barcelona
Program: 77 Home Units, Facilities and Parking Space
Construction dates: Building 2009-2011

First floor plan – click above for larger image

Client: Patronat Municipal de l’Habitatge
Collaborators: Gioia Guidazzi, Diana Sajdova
Consultants: Encarna García, BOMA, L3J, 3dLife, Ambar Fotografia, Artkitech, Estel Rosell
Contractor: Acsa

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

Gross floor area: 8.391
Budget: 7.518.419
State: Built

Section – click above for larger image

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and Ricard Galiana appeared first on Dezeen.

World Architecture Festival 2012: Australian architect John Wardle tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how small projects can be “a good grounding for research and testing of ideas” in this movie we filmed about his award-winning Shearer’s Quarters at the World Architecture Festival earlier this month.

The building, which picked up the award in the villas category, provides a guesthouse alongside Wardle’s own farmhouse on an island off the coast of Tasmania. The architect explains how the volume of the building employs “a series of geometric shifts” that transform it from ”a skillion at one end” to “a gable at the other”. The structure is also based on a strict geometric grid that dictates “all the windows, the doors, the joinery and the room dimensions”.

The new building is clad in corrugated iron, which Wardle describes as “the traditional material for agricultural sheds” in the area. “But as it reveals itself it opens up to a completely timber-lined interior,” he says. This interior accommodates visiting family and friends, as well as travelling sheep shearers and Wardle discusses how ”the social culture of shearing is a wonderful bit of theatre.”

Wardle also explains how his Melbourne-based practice usually works on larger projects and describes how the retention of water is an important aspect in the environmental management of any new building in Australia. He states the importance of bringing building back to cities to prevent urban sprawl and says that: ”Now is the time for considering the way that cities shape themselves and develop.”

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival, which we’re publishing over the next few days – see our interview about the World Building of the Year with architect Chris Wilkinson and our interview with the shopping centre winner Mark Dytham.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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Hackney studio Gort Scott used locally quarried stone for the rugged grey walls of this house on the Isle of Man, UK (+ slideshow).

Located in the grounds of a country house, the two-storey building is split into two apartments that include a guesthouse on the top floor and a residence for an au pair on the ground floor.

Grey slate covers the roof, which pitches upwards to create an asymmetric gable at one end of the house.

“One of the building’s primary successes in our view is its presence in the wider landscape,” architect Jay Gort told Dezeen. “The striking silhouette rises from the high point of the site and shares a relationship with some of the other figures that punctuate the horizon.”

Gort also explained how guests staying in the top floor apartment will spend most of their time at the main house, so a concrete staircase and balcony provide a route over the stone wall that separates the two buildings.

This staircase, which features stainless steel balustrades, is the only entrance to the upper floor, so the small garden and driveway belong exclusively to the ground floor residence.

As well as using regional materials, the architects also specified traditional construction methods that would suit the local contractors. “We decided to tailor details to suit their expertise and skills,” said Gort.

Other rural houses we’ve featured include a slate-clad house in Wales and a renovated farm building in the south of England.

Photography is by David Grandorge.

Here’s some more information from Gort Scott:

Isle of Man House

Isle of Man House is the first stand-alone new building for London-based architecture practice Gort Scott. The building is a part of a privately owned estate, made up of a collection of buildings and gardens, in a dramatic windswept rural setting.

Gort Scott produced a strategic plan for this estate in 2008, and the house and its garage represents the first of three proposed new buildings. A new swimming pool house, also designed by Gort Scott, is currently on site.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Set on the rocky Scarlett peninsular, on the island’s South coast, the cottage is built from local Castle Town Stone. The cottage covers two floors and contains two separate apartments each 80m2 in floor area. Emerging from the Castle Town Stone perimeter wall, the building’s cuboid form tapers up into an asymmetric Welsh slate roof pitch that leans into the Irish Sea winds. The building stands at the high point of the site and is intended to sit as a figure in the landscape; the profile of the roof was considered from a number of surrounding vantage points.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

The client requested two discrete apartments, one for guests and another for an au pair; this required the cottage to have differing relationships to the main house and to the estate as a whole. The upper floor guest apartment residents would spend time at the estate’s main house, so Gort Scott’s design provides an entrance through a walled garden to the rear of the building, connected directly to the main house along a stone path. A drive leading into the estate arrives at the door of the ground floor au pair apartment, allowing a degree of separation from both the main house and upper guest apartment. Locating the stairs to the guest apartment into the estate’s walled garden means the house’s modest garden and parking area can be used exclusively, and privately, by the ground floor residents.

First floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Inside, both apartments have a simple open-plan layout of living and kitchen areas leading onto two double bedrooms and a bathroom. The upper apartment is entered using the external staircase, leading into the kitchen, then into a double height living and dining area. This space is naturally lit by a skylight and by a floor to ceiling window, which opens onto a generous seaward-facing steel balcony. The ground floor apartment is entered through the living and kitchen area that has aspects across neighbouring fields, the estate grounds and towards the sea. Glass entrance doors that lead onto a patio area are sheltered by the upper apartment’s balcony.

Section – click above for larger image

The thick external walls of the house have a blockwork cavity wall construction with an outer face of 250 millimeter thick Castle Town Stone. The stone was quarried from Pooil Vaaish, a few miles from the site. These walls support a beam and block floor and a timber and steel roof structure. The dark colour and the roughness of the traditionally laid stonework are contrasted by the crisp pre-cast concrete window and door surrounds that emphasise the composition of windows on the four sides of the building.

Elevation one – click above for larger image

There are essentially three parts to the form of the building, the main body of the house that is abutted by a table-like terrace to the front and an external stair to the rear. The terrace and stair are constructed in slender, exposed in-situ concrete, with stainless steel balustrades, and were conceived as large pieces of external furniture.

Elevation two – click above for larger image

Structurally these two elements are independent of the estate’s main house, but are ‘pressed’ into the house’s external wall so that the concrete supports are flush with the face of the stonework and appear as concrete ‘veins’ in the surface of the stone walls. This detail is repeated for the wind post in the garage building. The tone and finish of the in-situ concrete was chosen to marry with the pre-cast window surrounds.

Elevation three – click above for larger image

Professional Services
Contractor: Nick Ingam
Quantity Surveyor: Berrie, Millar & Cox
Structural Engineer: Structural Engineering Services Ltd
Stonemason: Dennis Quayle

Elevation four – click above for larger image

Materials / Suppliers
Precast concrete: Lancashire Precast & Brick
Windows: Veka
Roof: Natural Welsh Slate
Castletown Stone: Pooil Vaaish Quarry

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by Gort Scott appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian architect Omar Gandhi has completed a wooden cabin for two artists that appears to be climbing up a hill in rural Nova Scotia (+ slideshow).

Surrounded by woodland, Moore Studio is built on the side of a slope so that the upper floor is accessible through the back door – an arrangement that creates jagged, asymmetrical elevations at each end.

While the western side of the house has a simple gabled roof, the eastern side of the roof has been split to create a long clerestory window on the upper floor.

The exterior walls are clad with vertical timber while seamed aluminium has been used on the roof.

Inside the house, plywood and chunky chipboard appear on the walls, floors and ceilings alongside industrial fixtures such as bare bulbs and concrete floors, ”emphasising the rawness of the interior,” as the architect explains.

On the ground floor are a double height kitchen, dining area and living room, leading to two bedrooms at the front of the house and two bathrooms and a storage room at the rear.

Two separate first-floor studios overlook the kitchen and are partly lit by the narrow glazing in the roof.

We’ve previously featured a writer’s retreat in the woods of upstate New York and a series of artist’s studios on a small island off the coast of Canada.

See all our stories about Canada »

Above photo is by Omar Gandhi

See all our stories about houses »

Photographs are by Greg Richardson except where stated.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The clients, who are new empty-nesters with two dogs, had previously been full time artists before finding other work to support their family. The project is intended to be a vehicle for pursuing their youthful ambitions once again. The new home is built on a recently purchased piece of land amidst a dense forest in the small town of Hubbard’s, Nova Scotia, approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Halifax.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

The 1500 square foot house is designed to be left exceedingly raw, providing open spaces and allowing plenty of natural daylight to penetrate the interior. The objective was to provide a platform for their artistic aspirations to flourish once again, while also providing a quiet setting for the couple to enjoy the surrounding landscape with their dogs, free of the stress of the city.

First floor plan – click above for larger image and key

The project relies heavily on idea of metamorphosis. The point of departure for the form began as a simple and elegant gable with a 12:12 roof pitch, a vernacular form commonly found in Nova Scotia. As the design process began, the undemanding form began to shift and change to allow for the space and natural lighting requirements of the clients, while still relying heavily on the simplicity of the original gable.

Section

The unique product of this distortion is a result of the relationship between all of the entities involved, including the landscape, the programme and the clients.

Section

The palette of the designed house is soft wood, exposed to the sometimes harsh weather of Nova Scotia, aluminium roofing and concrete floors. The interior walls, floors and ceilings are clad in plywood and OSB, reducing the need for drywall to a minimum and emphasizing the rawness of the interior.

East elevation – click above for larger image

The ground floor includes a double height kitchen and dining space, a living room, 2 bedroom and bathrooms. The upper floor is separated into two individual studios for Peg and Garth, each looking down upon the kitchen from above.

South elevation – click above for larger image

Materials such as caged industrial fixtures, salvaged steel grating and natural construction materials (plywood) flank the interior space. Stretching along the main façade of the house is a continuous strip of windows, which allow for a long view of the property and opens up the main floor to the exterior.

West elevation – click above for larger image

The upper floor is lit by an end to end clerestory window. The upper floor also opens up to the rear bank as the house is built on the side of a natural hill. Adjacent to the house, a steel shipping container has been re-used as a shed. The house was built by young and highly skilled local contractors Mike Burns and Adam Smith at MRB Contracting.

North elevation – click above for larger image

Moore Studio
Client: Peg and Garth Moore
Location: Hubbards, Nova Scotia
Project Status: Completed Winter 2012
Architect: Omar Gandhi Architect
Contractor: MRB Contracting (Mike Burns)
Structural Engineer: Andrea Doncaster
Physical Model: Ryan Beecroft, Jeff Shaw, Omar Gandhi (photography)

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Omar Gandhi appeared first on Dezeen.