Situé au Nord de l’Islande, dans le golfe de Húnaflói, il est possible de trouver ce rocher de 15 mètres de haut à la forme de dinosaure. D’une incroyable beauté, cet impressionnant colosse de pierre à la forme insolite appelée « Hvítserkur » est à découvrir en images et détails dans la suite de l’article.
Beijing studio Atelier TeamMinus has completed a visitor centre for an ancient Buddhist memorial in Tibet, which features stone walls, a central courtyard and 11 rooftop observation decks (+ slideshow).
Located in the Chinese province of Yushu, the Jianamani Visitor Centre accompanies the Jianamani cairn – a historic mound of inscribed stones amassed by pilgrims over the last three centuries.
Atelier TeamMinus was commissioned to design the building in 2010, shortly after an earthquake hit the region. As well as providing an information source for tourists, it functions as a community centre for the local residents who worked hard to repair the damage caused by the natural disaster.
The architects used traditional Tibetan architecture as a guide when generating the plan of the building. They created a square building with a central courtyard, then surrounded it with observation towers that offer views of various historical landmarks nearby.
Stone was used for the walls, resonating with the inscribed stones that make up the Jianamani memorial.
“The stone masonry is done by local masons, using the same kind of local rock from which Mani stones are carved,” explained the architects.
The rooftop decks were constructed from timber, some of which was sourced from earthquake debris.
Inside, the building is laid out over two floors and accommodates a post office, a clinic, public toilets and a small research archive.
The project was presented at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore earlier this month. It was shortlisted for an award in the display category but lost out to a whirlpool-shaped museum in Copenhagen.
Read on for a project description from Atelier TeamMinus:
Jianamani Visitor Centre
Yushu is a highly regarded religious centre to Tibetans. Its significance comes mainly from Jianamani, the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist cairn. With a history of over 3 centuries, Jianamani currently bears over 250 million pieces of Mani stones, and is still growing with new pieces added daily by pilgrims.
In Yushu, more than 40% of the populations live on the carving of Mani stones. To the Yushu community, nothing compares to Jianamani. After the 2010 earthquake, Yushu-ers immediately set off to repair Jianamani, long before they started repairing their own houses.
The Jianamani Visitor Centre serves both visitors and the local community. To visitors and pilgrims, it provides information about Jianamani and its history complemented by viewing the surrounding historical sites. To local Yushu-ers, it provides a post office, a clinic, public toilets and a small research archive.
The Jianamani Visitor Centre consists of a square building with a courtyard in the centre, and 11 observation decks surrounding it. The central square volume features the typical Tibetan layout. Of the 11 observation decks, 2 point to Jianamani, 9 point to historic/religious sites related to Jianamani, including: Leciga, Genixibawangxiou, Cuochike, Dongna Zhunatalang Taiqinleng, Zhaqu River Valley, Lazanglongba, Rusongongbu, Naigu River Beach, and Kuanyin Rebirth Site.
The Jianamani Visitor Centre is mainly built with the local construction techniques. The stone masonry is done by local masons, using the same kind of local rock from which Mani stones are carved. The railings around the roof terrace and the observation decks are made of wood, with some parts recycled from earthquake debris.
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by Atelier TeamMinus appeared first on Dezeen.
New Orleans firm Trahan Architects used over a thousand cast stone panels to create the undulating interior of this museum in Natchitoches, Louisiana (+ slideshow).
The Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame brings together two previously independent collections to create a combined exhibition for regional history and sport in the centre of the city.
Rather than separating the exhibitions over two distinct floors, Trahan Architects designed a series of curving structural volumes that allow the three galleries to gently flow into one another.
“While sports and regional history may appeal to different audiences, the exhibits and configuration explore interconnections between the two,” explained the architects.
“The spaces flow visually and physically together, configured to accommodate state-of-the-art exhibits, education and support functions,” they added.
Using the fluid geometries of the nearby Cane River as a guide, the architects centred the spaces around a generous foyer that curves through the heart of the building, dividing two galleries on the lower level and leading to a third above.
The white stone surfaces can be used as screens for film projection, plus there’s also a first-floor balcony overlooking the city square.
The museum’s exterior envelope is a simple rectilinear volume, clad on all sides by pleated copper panels that form louvres.
“The louvred skin controls light, views and ventilation, animates the facade and employs surface articulation previously achieved by architectural ornamentation,” said the architects.
The building was recently nominated for awards at both the World Architecture Festival and the Inside Festival, which took place in Singapore earlier this month.
Photography is by Tim Hursley.
Here’s a project description from Trahan Architects:
Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame
The Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame in historic Natchitoches, Louisiana merges two contrasting collections formerly housed in a university coliseum and a nineteenth century courthouse, elevating the visitor experience for both. Set in the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase on the banks of the Cane River Lake, the design mediates the dialogue between sports and history, past and future, container and contained.
Our exploration focuses on three questions. How does our design explore the client brief to exhibit sports and history simultaneously? How does it respond to the historic building fabric? How does it make a connection to context?
Our resolution is, first, to interpret athletics as a component of cultural history rather than as independent themes. While sports and regional history may appeal to different audiences, the exhibits and configuration explore interconnections between the two. The spaces flow visually and physically together, configured to accommodate state-of-the-art exhibits, education and support functions. Visitors however can experience both narratives either separately or simultaneously.
Second, historical pastiche is set aside in favour of a design language in response to the site. The internal organisation is an extension of the existing meandering urban circulation, while the design mediates the scale and character of the historic commercial core and adjacent residential neighbourhood. The “simple” exterior, clad with pleated copper panels, alluding to the shutters and clapboards of nearby plantations, contrasts with and complements the curvaceous interior within. The louvred skin controls light, views and ventilation, animates the facade, and employs surface articulation previously achieved by architectural ornamentation. The flowing interior emerges at the entrance, enticing visitors to leave the walking tour and into the evocative exhibit spaces within.
Third the design reflects the carving of the ancient river whose fluvial geomorphology inspired the dynamic interior form. The dynamic foyer is sculpted out of 1,100 cast stone panels, seamlessly integrating all systems and washed with natural light from above. The cool white stone references bousillage, the historic horse hair, earth and Spanish moss utilised by 17th Century settlers. The flowing surfaces reach into the galleries, serving as “screens” for film and display. At the climax of the upper level, the path arrives at a veranda overlooking the city square, sheltered by copper louvres, further connecting the interior to the public realm.
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of Fame by Trahan Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Walls of weathered stone and timber surround this gabled family retreat by British studio McLean Quinlan Architects on the Devon coastline in south-west England (+ slideshow).
McLean Quinlan Architects located the building against a slope, in a position that offers views of both the surrounding countryside and the ocean.
Wooden panels clad the long sides of the building, while the gabled ends are constructed from stone and the pitched roof is covered with grey slate.
The architects intended this materials palette to reference the aesthetic of American summer houses. “The clients had in mind initially elements of a New England beach house, and so external materials of green oak boarding were used together with the local stone,” said architect Kate Quinlan.
A protruding stone wall marks the house’s entrance, leading through a heavy wooden door to a “mud room” used for drying wetsuits and storing wet-weather clothing such as overcoats and wellington boots.
An open-plan kitchen, living room and dining area occupies most of the ground level, and includes a children’s play area, a large larder for storing food and a laundry space.
A staircase spans the width of the house, leading up to a first floor containing five bedrooms and three bathrooms – offering plenty of space for guests. A second staircase is hidden amongst the closets, ascending to an attic with two extra bedrooms.
Other waterside holiday homes on Dezeen include a raw concrete summerhouse on a Swedish island, a house clad with seaweed pillows in Denmark and a small wooden house on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. See more holiday homes »
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Morthoe House
The house in located a small village on the North Devon Coast. It was built as a holiday home for the family, and designed to maximise the number of bedrooms and open living space.
The site is accessed down a long drive and the building is tucked up against the slope of the site to make the most of the long views down to the sea from the upper levels.
A stone gable end is the first glimpse you get of this building with a dark industrial chimney dark against grey stone.
The clients had in mind initially elements of a New England beach house, and so external materials of green oak boarding was used together with the local stone.
The resulting building is simple in form. A neat pitched volume coupled with a generous entrance porch.
This provides a formal entrance and provides direct access to a large mud room for drying wetsuits wet from days out surfing, and drying out muddy boots from walking the costal paths.
The building is split down the centre by a central stair. On entering the hall opens up to a double height space with views of the garden.
The main living space is open plan, with a separate games space for the kids and the practical necessities of a large larder and laundry.
Up the open tread stairs, on the first floor the spit volumes separate the master bedroom suite from the main bedroom wing.
Here there is a long corridor with a single pane window at the far end leads to 4 double bedrooms.
Half way along is a ‘secret stair, tucked amongst the linen cupboards, which winds up to take you to to two further attic bedrooms above.
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McLean Quinlan Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Local basalt stone mixed into the concrete used to construct this holiday home in India helps to connect it with its mountainous site (+ slideshow).
Mumbai firm SPASM Design Architects took its cue from the dark tones of the basalt which surrounds the site on a rocky hillside in the Maharashtra region.
“We chose to build the house as an accretion on this rocky basalt outcrop with the same inherent material transformed,” the architects said, explaining how they mixed water, sand, cement and granular basalt to cast the thick raw walls.
The use of robust concrete for the Khopoli House was dictated by the drastic climatic changes that the region experiences, which include high temperatures in the summer and heavy rainfall during the monsoon season, while natural stone was used for key details like flooring.
“Stone has been used in many forms, based on use, wear, grip, texture,” said the architects. “The dark, saturated black matt-ness conjures a cool sense of refuge and calm.”
The house perches on the edge of a cliff with views of the distant hills, which are framed by the walls on either side of a vertiginous projecting swimming pool.
A cantilevered concrete overhang marks the entrance to the house and creates a sheltered outdoor space with a suspended sofa.
The living and dining area is located in a void between the building’s two wings, with blinds enabling this space to be closed off when required.
The entrance hall and dark passages give the interior an intimate feel, while a stone-lined staircase leads to a guest bedroom and bathroom buried in the rocky hillside.
Other architectural projects that celebrate stone include an apartment block in Iran made from offcuts from a local stonecutting business and a house in England with a sliding stone wall.
Mumbai practice WE Design Studio has designed a coastal holiday home built on top of a basalt stone retaining wall with views of the Arabian Sea, while another Mumbai practice, Rajiv Saini + Associates, has created a single-storey house with a scooping cantilevered concrete roof.
See more stories about stone »
See more stories about India »
Here’s some more information from the architects:
The house cast in liquid stone
A second home on a rocky outcrop at the start of the western ghats (highlands), Khopoli, in Maharashtra, India. An area of high precipitation in the monsoons, and equal heat during the summers, the site changes remarkably from March to July, with the onset of the south westerly monsoons.
Basalt the local black rock of the region is what this site was about. We chose to build the house as an accretion on this rocky basalt outcrop with the same inherent material transformed. An outgrowth which was made of a mix of water, sand, cement and the granular basalt. Concrete finely honed to serve as refuge, to face the climatic changes that the site offered.
The house was conceived as a cast for human occupation, a refuge which trapped the views, the sun, the rain, the air, and became one with the cliff edge it stood on. Akin to the growth of a coral, the substance of the walls and roof dictate the experience of inhabiting the site.
Stone has been used in many forms, based on use, wear, grip, texture. The dark, saturated black matt-ness conjures a cool sense of refuge and calm.
Photographs cannot express the sense of weight when one approaches, or the sense of release at the edge of the pool at the far end of the open terrace, the feeling of burrowing deeper enroute, past the stacked stones, to the lower bedroom.
The house, a cast, an object for living, whatever you may call it, has transformed into a belvedere to minutely observe and sense the spectacle of nature, of shade as a retreat against the sharp tropical sun, the resurgence of life, a sudden BURST of green, when the hard pounding monsoon arrives, the waft of breezes filling the air with the fragrance of moist earth, the movement of stars across the very dark night skies.
To heighten the drama of the the site through what we build, without building a dramatic building!
Lead Architects: SPASM Design Architects
Design Team: Sangeeta Merchant, Mansoor Kudalkar, Gauri Satam, Lekha Gupta, Sanjeev Panjabi
Location: Khopoli, Maharashtra, India.
Contractors: IMPEX Engineers, Mumbai
Engineers: Rajeev Shah & Associates (structural)
Site Area: 19,950 sq.mts.
Total Built Area: 638 sq.mts.
Design Period: November 2009 – Oct 2010
Construction Period: May 2011 – May 2013
Photographs: Sebastian Zachariah, Denver, Tanmay, Gauri
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Design Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
It’s the little details that matters when it comes to good design, and this Kiwi designer is all about the details. We caught up with Welfe Bowyer, a New Zealand native making a name for himself…
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Spiralling stone walls will be carved with images of extinct species – with space reserved for future extinctions – at this observatory and education centre designed by Adjaye Associates for the Isle of Portland, England.
The Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory (MEMO) will function as an information and exhibition centre dedicated to the 860 species of animals, birds, insects and sea life that have been identified as extinct since the demise of the dodo in the seventeenth century.
Positioned on the edge of a cliff, the 30 metre-high structure will also house an observatory overlooking Bowers Quarry, one of the main producers of Portland Stone since the late eighteenth century.
Adjaye Associates based the spiralling form of the building on the gastropod fossils commonly found in the quarry. The structure will be built from Portland Stone, with a rough surface intended to echo the rugged cliffside.
The plan is to add more carved stones in the future, if and when more creatures become extinct. These occasions will also be marked by a toll from a bell at the centre of the building.
Floors inside the MEMO building will follow the corkscrew shape. Stone models of extinct species will be displayed around the circular route, leading up to the observatory on the uppermost floor.
Adjaye Associates, led by architect David Adjaye, also recently unveiled designs for a silk-weaving facility in India and a fashion hub in Hackney, London.
Dezeen caught up with David Adjaye at Design Indaba, where he described his relationship with Africa and why he believes the continent provides a great opportunity for architects. See more stories about David Adjaye.
Here’s some more information from Adjaye Associates:
Memo
Portland, UK
The Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory (MEMO) will comprise a monument to the world’s extinct species and an adjacent biodiversity education centre. Conceived as a continuous spiral of stone, it will be carved with images of the 860 species assessed as extinct since the dodo. It will be an on-going monument, with more stones added into the future if more species become extinct. The bell of biodiversity, placed in the centre of the monument, will be rung annually on the international day of biodiversity and to mark further species becoming extinct. Sited on the Isle of Portland on the south coast of Britain, each creature will be immortalised in stone along the circular ramp that leads to the top of the 100 foot-high Bowers Quarry observatory. Visitors will then walk down the outside of the ramp to ground level.
A fitting insertion into the landscape, the project presents an opportunity to revitalise the old Bowers Quarry and to draw attention back to the natural beauty and craftsmanship of Portland. Rather than a building or shelter, MEMO is devised as a journey, exploring the relationship between interior and exterior, landscape and enclosure. The circular form resonates with Portland’s three lighthouses near Portland Bill as well as the remains of the windmills at Perryfields to the south east of Weston. The spiralling arrangement is inspired by a turreted gastropod fossil, found in particular abundance in Bower’s Quarry, the ‘Portland Screw’ (Aptyxiella portlandica). The material palette is predominantly Portland Stone to reinforce a sense of the landscape, echoing the character of part of the cliff with its exposed stone strata. The sizes of the blocks and the rhythm of the joints are alternating with an accent on the horizontal joints, while the surface of the stones is rough – like the face of a Quarry Block. The development will promote the use of local and recycled material.
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by Adjaye Associates appeared first on Dezeen.
This apartment block in the Iranian town of Mahallat was constructed using the otherwise useless offcuts from local stone cutting businesses.
Stone cutting is the largest trade in the area but is a wasteful process that discards more than half of its produce, so architect Ramin Mehdizadeh of Tehran studio Architecture by Collective Terrain (AbCT) decided to recycle the material and use it as cladding for a building.
“There are some very nice characteristics of this waste, and one is that the thicknesses are all the same,” says Mehdizadeh, explaining how easy it is to stack the pieces in rows to form a wall.
“The form is very familiar for the people, because the origin of this form is the quarries, and that’s why even a contemporary piece of architecture could sit here easily,” he says.
AbCT built up the stones around each elevation of Apartment No. 1, a five-storey block that contains eight apartments on its upper floors and two shops at ground level.
The variations in colour, size and texture give a natural pattern to the walls, which angle outwards at intervals to shield small windows from direct sunlight.
Larger windows are screened by timber shutters made from locally milled wood. Designed in response to the conservative lifestyle of the local community, the shutters help to regulate light and temperature in the apartments at the hottest times of the year.
The building is one of 20 projects on the shortlist for the Aga Khan Award 2013, alongside an Islamic cemetery in Austria and the reconstruction of a refugee camp in Lebanon. Five or six finalists will be revealed later this year and will compete to win the $1 million prize. See more shortlisted projects for the Aga Khan Award.
Photography is by Omid Khodapanahi.
Here’s a short project description from the award organisers:
Apartment No. 1
The majority of Mahallat’s economy is engaged in the business of cutting and treating stone, over half of which is discarded due to inefficiencies in stone-cutting technology.
This project turns the inefficiency to economic and environmental advantage by reusing leftover stones for both exterior and some interior walls, and has led to the increasing adoption of stone recycling by local builders.
The five-storey structure comprises two ground-level retail spaces and eight three-bedroom apartments above. Its austere prismatic form is balanced by the warmth of the natural materials. Small windows are shielded by triangular stone protrusions, and larger ones have wooden shutters that allow residents to regulate light and temperature levels.
Location: Mahallat, Iran (Central Asia)
Architect: AbCT – Architecture by Collective Terrain, Tehran, Iran
Client: Ramin Mehdizadeh, Hossein Sohrabpoor, Mehdi Mehdizadeh
Completed: 2010
Design: 2007
Site size: Ground floor area: 260 m2 – Total site area: 420 m2
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by AbCT appeared first on Dezeen.
Milan 2013: bamboo trees sprouted up around a topographical landscape of stone and water at this installation created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in Milan last month.
As one of three architect-designed installations for the Urban Stories exhibition of contemporary living, Kengo Kuma‘s Stonescape was designed as an interpretation of a traditional Japanese Zen garden.
Cascading stone strata formed a series of undulating curves around the room. Pools of water formed at some of the lowest levels, while others contained clusters of bamboo trees planted in gravel.
“The clean and pure Pietra Serena stone is used so as to recreate a topography that, as in real landscapes, moulds the shape of water, guides our walking and gives a context to the objects to better admire them,” says Kengo Kuma and Associates.
The installation was located in one of the buildings of the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, a new skyscraper district designed by architects including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw. It was used as a showroom for furniture between 9 and 14 April, alongside spaces designed by Michele de Lucchi and Diego Grandi.
Other recent projects by Kengo Kuma include an experimental house in Japan and a fashion boutique in China. See more architecture by Kengo Kuma.
See more projects from Milan 2013, including offices of the future imagined by Jean Nouvel and a courtyard installation of rotating cork platforms by the Bouroullecs.
Photography is by Giovanni Desandre, apart from otherwise stated.
Here’s some more information from the exhibition organisers:
In the spectacular skyline of Porta Nuova Varesine in Milan, on the occasion of the Fuorisalone collateral event, three exceptional architects are ‘staging’ three extraordinary suggestions of contemporary living.
Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma, ‘tell’ their Urban Stories, through unique and thrilling installations, for an eagerly-awaited event, which supplements the busy schedule of Fuorisalone events.
Urban Stories, organised by MoscaPartners, with the collaboration of Hines, is a spin-off from the extraordinary success of Bologna Water Design 2012, the exclusive event dedicated to water design, which involved the city’s most prestigious venues during the Cersaie show in September.
The limelight is therefore cast on Urban Stories and its stars, who thanks to the enthusiastic participation of major leading companies in a variety of industries will give rise to charming captivating set-ups.
The focus of Urban Stories is the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, which is the result of an ambitious urban and architectural replanning project involving large areas of the Isola, Varesine and Garibaldi districts, developed and implemented by famous architects, including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw, under the direction of Hines Italia Sgr, promoter and investor.
The original installations created by Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma will transform the important display spaces of the ‘new centre of Milan’ into an exceptional cultural box, ready to welcome the curious multifarious public who animates the most important and eagerly-awaited international design event every year.
Urban Stories are therefore not just simple installations, but proper ‘seductions’, resulting from a sensitive way of designing to imagine the landscape within our cities and outside them.
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by Kengo Kuma appeared first on Dezeen.
Rough walls of locally sourced rubble surround this house on the south coast of Ireland by Dublin studio Aughey O’Flaherty Architects (+ slideshow).
The single-storey Carnivan House overlooks the sea from a cliff-top vantage point in Fethard on Sea, so Aughey O’Flaherty Architects designed the residence with floor-to-ceiling windows and a rooftop terrace.
The building features an L-shaped plan with a square lawn on the eastern side, where it can benefit from morning sunlight but is also protected from the prevailing south-westerly wind.
Narrow terraces are tucked into recesses along three different elevations. Framed by polished concrete and with glazing behind, these inserts exaggerate the thickness of the exterior walls.
The entrance to the house is at the outer corner and leads through to an open-plan living and dining room in the southern wing, or to four bedrooms in the eastern wing. An indoor staircase ascends to the roof, where the private terrace is screened behind a parapet wall.
Other recently completed houses in Ireland include a seaside residence with two wooden halves and a rural cottage with four limestone extensions. See more Irish houses on Dezeen.
Photography is by Marie Louise Halpenny.
Here’s a project description from Aughey O’Flaherty Architects:
This project is a new house on a site by the sea in Wexford. The site is located on a headland, Baginbun Head, a protected scenic amenity area. It contains a Norman wall and is bounded on three sides by cliffs and sea. The challenge was to deal with the potentially conflicting objectives of creating a home that was sensitive to this beautiful landscape and that also made the most of it.
The form of the house is a simple L shape. This is a response to function, the path of the sun through the day and to the wind.
The living accommodation is located in one wing, which is dual aspect and avails of the east-west orientation. The bedroom accommodation is located in the other wing and avails of the north-south orientation. The entrance and services are located in the intersection of the two wings. This square intersection has a low ceiling height to enable a roof terrace, positioned above. This is open to the sky and concealed within the roof profile.
The building is kept low and the L shape plan is rotated to avoid the prevailing winds, regularly wild, from the sea to the west. The two wings protect and shelter a south-facing garden which completes the square.
Three external covered spaces are cut into the L, in the form of niches, of varying depth. The entrance porch is located in a recess on the more public, northern side. A south-facing terrace opens the bedroom wing to the garden. A long west-facing covered porch opens the living room wing to the wonderful landscape and the views of sea and sunset to the west.
Above: site plan – click for larger image
The building was designed to be energy efficient and cheap to run. The house is a combination of new and traditional construction technologies. The house is a super insulated air-tight prefabricated timber structure, slowly wrapped in a local random rubble, sitting on a polished concrete base. Its layout and detail were guided by the principles of sustainable design.
Above: floor plan – click for larger image
The use of natural light is integral. There are tall ceiling heights and large areas of full-height-glazing and sliding screens located to maximize the solar gain.
Above: section one – click for larger image
The east, west and north façades are exceptionally thermally efficient. It was designed with a marsh grass roof to increase thermal efficiency and link it with the ground.
Above: section two – click for larger image
The house is 260m² in size. The design process began in Jan 2008 and the house was completed June 2012.
Above: section three – click for larger image
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by Aughey O’Flaherty Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
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