Mosquito Coast Factory by Benoît-Marie Moriceau and Gaston Tolila

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Behind the sliding doors of a corrugated steel shed near Nantes, France, is an artist’s studio with a double-height atrium and translucent rear wall.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

French architect Gaston Tolila and artist Benoît-Marie Moriceau collaborated to design the building, which houses both accommodation and studios for resident artists.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Daylight glows through the polycarbonate back wall and filters into the atrium that runs through the centre of the building.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Staircases lead up from here to overlooking galleries on the first floor.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Studios are located on the ground floor below the galleries and facilitate woodwork, metalwork and painting.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

The building is named Mosquito Coast Factory, after a book by Peter Weir that features a metal factory in a Honduras jungle.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Other buildings from the Dezeen archive with corrugated exteriors include a film storage bunker and a house clad in red fibre-cement.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Photography is by Philippe Ruault.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Here’s a little more from the architects:


Mosquito Coast Factory

A New Factory for Contemporary Art

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

The Mosquito Coast Factory is an artist’s studio located in the heart of an Industrial Development Zone (ZAC) between Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, France.  It is the fruit of collaboration between the artist Benoît-Marie Moriceau and the architect Gaston Tolila of Tolila+Gilliland.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

The project consists of a multifunctional space divided into multiple workspaces (metal, woodshop, paint studio) and living spaces (exposition, office, sleeping, bathing) permitting the artist to produce works of widely varying dimensions.  The entire atelier is bathed in natural light through the use of translucent polycarbonate on the north façade and for interior partitions.  The exterior is rendered voluntarily blank and monolithic, referencing the impersonal and mysterious qualities of the factory.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

The Life of the Atelier

The Mosquito Coast Sessions are based on the desire to create an atelier, a place for experiences and research open to different conceptions and exhibition practices.  Thought of as a kind of laboratory, this building is dedicated to receive, each year, curators and artists for exchange, experimentation and collaboration.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

The Mosquito Coast Factory also refers to a fictive architecture drawn from the eponymous novel by Paul Theroux (1981) and brought to the screen in 1986 by Peter Weir.  The story features an inventor who flees the United States for Honduras to found a utopic society.  He leaves with his entire family to the “mosquito kingdom” and builds, in the heart of the jungle, a metal block housing a vast ice factory intended to revolutionize the lives of the indigenous population.  This stage piece, a sort of projection for creative reflection and of the fantasy of a new society, here becomes a source of architectural interpretation, support and tool for potential dreams and fictions.

Mosquito Coast Factory by Tolila Gilliland

Technical Information:
Area (SHON): 517 m², Materials : Structure and cladding in galvanized steel. North Facade in polycarbonate panels (Danpalon), floors in waxed concrete.


See also:

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Art and Architecture Faculty
by Lobo and Trindade
T Bailey Office
by Tom Kundig
Multi-Level Parking Voestalpine
by Xarchitekten

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

The ceiling of a drama studio in Milan is imprinted with inverted bubbles that house both spotlights and skylights.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Italian architects Franco Tagliabue of ifdesign and Pietro Bagnoli converted a former office building into the Zona K studio, which can be used for events and exhibitions as well as for drama rehearsals and performances.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

The bubbled ceiling over the main hall is comprised of suspended cones that regulate acoustics, whilst concealing electrical cables and ventilation passages.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Pairs of fluorescent lights are hidden inside each of the cones, although only a selection of the bubbles double up as roof lights.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Furniture slots into the walls of corridors that lead from the hall to changing rooms, toilets, a canteen, an office and an entrance cafe at the front of the building.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Other stories about studios on Dezeen include an apartment combined with a choreography studio and a dance studio with the illusion of mist in the air.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Photography is by Andrea Martiradonna.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

The following text is from Bagnoli:


Zona K

Scuola di teatro (Dramaturgy school)

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

This project deals with the renovation of a former workplace purchased by a director and playwright to establish a dramaturgy school.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

The aim was to create a very flexible and neutral space able to accommodate at the same time events, exhibitions, concerts, courses, performances and lectures.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

A spectacular hanging cones ceiling, modulating natural and artificial lighting, acting as an acoustic modulator and hiding impressive electrical and air passages, sets the tone to this vibrant place.

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Client: Nuove Imprese Culturali (via Spalato, 11 – Milano)

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Dimension: 320 sqm

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Year: 2008-2010

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Builder: CO.VE.RI. srl, Artec srl

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Architectural Project: Pietro Bagnoli, Franco Tagliabue (Ifdesign) with Silvia di Vita, Ida Origgi, Chiara Toscani

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Consultants: Luca Leo, Stefano Gervasi, Diego Borroni , Guido Scavini

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue

Graphic Design: Fabiano Cocozza

Zona K by Pietro Bagnoli and Franco Tagliabue


See also:

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Marni store
by Sybarite
R-House by
Budi Pradono
Interpretation centre by
Alvarez-Sala Architects

Welham Studio by Mark Merer

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

British artist Mark Merer has completed this pointy studio for himself and his wife in Somerset, UK.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Called Wellham Studio, the building is clad in insulated ply panels and has a green roof.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The structure is the result of Merer’s earlier Landhouse project working with the Swinomish Tribe of Fidalgo Island in Washington State, where he investigated ways to create environmentally sensitive buildings with a strong relationship to the ground and surroundings.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Photographs are by Louis Porter.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Here’s some more information from the architects:


Welham Studios started with the study of placement, watching objects in clay and sand creating shapes through the interaction of the wind and rain.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The work is looking for a union of object and environment.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

One aspect of the work developed into the basic forms using triangulation, and this work was the basis of a project with the Swinomish Tribal people of Fidalgo Island Washington State,

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The Swinomish housing project which has become Known as Landhouse, started in 2006. It was a visit to my studio by a couple who lived in Seattle.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

They became interested in the work being done, its physical relationship with the ground and how it translated into a building.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The Pennock’s saw an opportunity to connect myself with an Architect friend of there’s, Art Peterson of Cedar Tree Architects in Seattle, who had been working with Ray Williams of the Swinomish Tribal People of Fidalgo Island Washington State, they had just completed the building of a Traditional long House.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

They had been discussing the current housing situation on Fidalgo Island which is a long way from the beliefs and traditions of the Swinomish and bore no resemblance to their surroundings.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The houses are currently designed and placed regardless of the Landscape and their Traditions.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

A meeting was organized and out of it came the idea to develop an environmentally sensitive scheme for an allocated development area and Landhouse was born.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The structures were refined and developed into module units comprising of Elder, Student, Single family, Vacation, Multifamily and community facilities.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Above: Swinomish housing

I came back to the UK and decided to build one which is now almost completed and due to be opened in the spring of next year.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Above: Swinomish housing

This has become Welham Studios that my wife Artist Lucy Glendinning and I work from.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Above: Swinomish housing

The building is constructed in structurally insulated panels using the factory in Seattle that was involved in the Swinomish project; this was to be a test for the modular units.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

We used thermoform 3ply cladding that came in 5m by 2m sheets.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

The roof is a EPDM membrane with a inbuilt root barrier, a 100mm substrate with a wild flower turf.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

We are know looking for Partners to set up a US wide Research program for developing designs in the Landscape with Tribal communities in collaboration with Landhouse.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Designer: Artist – Sculptor Mark Merer
Location: Welham, Somerton, Somerset. TA11 7AJ. UK.

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Click for larger image

Engineer: John Beverage. Street, Somerset. BA16 0HA. UK.
SIPS: Premier Building Systems 4609 70th Avenue East Fife,
Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Click for larger image

Consultant Architect: Art Peterson 3518 Fremont Ave. N., #477
Wildflower Turf: Lindum Turf west Grange Thorganby York YO19 6DJ
Welham Studios by Mark Merer

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Cladding: Binderholz Gm6h Holzindustrie Zillertalstrabe 39
Windows: kneer – sud Fenster, Sud-fensterwerk, GmbH & Co.
Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Click for larger image

Date: construction 2008 / 2009
Budget: £350,000

Welham Studios by Mark Merer

Click for larger image


See also:

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8 House by
BIG
Nature Centre by
EFFEKT
Sunnyside Up by
SO-IL

Beacon Arts Building

A massive art compound opens its doors in Los Angeles
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At over 32,000 square feet, the renovated former storage warehouse located in the middle of the downtrodden city of Inglewood, CA, doesn’t exactly have the pomp and circumstance that you’d expect Los Angeles’ newest art studio complex to have. But that’s the point. The new Beacon Arts Building is a low-key space designed to serve as a refuge for artists looking to focus on producing work away from the hype of the L.A. art scene.

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Kicking off with “Ghost Stories: A Night of Happenings and Hauntings,” the Beacon Arts pre-Halloween bash will mix art, music and food “to activate architectural and societal space through shared experience” says curator Shana Nys Dambrot.

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Rather than divide spaces into pre-built rooms, the open floor plan means renters can choose the size of their work spaces up to 800 square feet. The first floor houses the Beacon Arts Gallery, overseen by director Renee Fox, whose series Critics As Curators will bring in art critics and their visions for the space. She’s pushing for them to not include only stationary art pieces but more dynamic pieces with interactive elements, such as performance-based art. “We believe experiencing art on an engaging level and acknowledging the symbiotic relationship between artists, peers, art viewers, patrons and supporters will help to break the boundaries between viewer and artwork,” she says.

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The premiere exhibit, curated by Flavorpill’s Shana Nys Dambrot under the Ghost Stories title, began a few weeks ago and fulfills the fine art part of the proposal, while this weekend’s event with storytelling, piano concert and performances including one by the Reverend Ethan Acres fulfills the interactive part.


Batemans Row by Theis and Khan Architects

London studio Theis and Khan Architects have completed their own home and studio in east London. (more…)

Richard Meier Model Museum

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Almost as impressive as his magnificent buildings, Richard Meier‘s Model Museum in Long Island City, Queens is both an homage to his impressive portfolio, as well as a lesson in the architectural creative process.

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Consuming much of the 3,600-square-foot space, the model of the L.A. Getty Center represents a project that took up a similarly significant portion of Meier’s career. The undertaking brought the New Jersey native west during its 13-year construction, where he lived on site, riding his bike down most mornings to check on the structure. When he found a spare moment, he collected wood scraps from the site, creating sculptures by binding together the pieces with string and casting them in stainless steel. Interspersed with the models, alongside colorful collages he also made, the museum gives a real sense of the architect as artist.

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Many of the models themselves take years to complete (five for the Getty Center) thanks to the fanatically precise detailing. Each piece of wood is cut and shaped by hand, although model maker Michael Gruber, aka Mr. Tree, designed a now-patented pattern used to laser-cut the delicately intricate trees .

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Like many of his buildings, the all-white space makes the perfect backdrop—in this case for displaying the massive models. With such large dimensions, they were all craned in through the ceiling, and many have accompanying blown-up versions detailing smaller sections of the original. Some simply represent the future site without any buildings, one of which hangs from the wall giving the impression of an abstract artwork.

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Meier explains that “what we’re doing is open, transparent and expressive of our time.” At 76, with both a humbly positive outlook and expansive body of work, the renowned architect shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The Richard Meier Model Museum is open to the public on Fridays by appointment only. To book, phone the museum (+1 212 967 6060). See more images in the gallery below, including a look at the only model built by Richard Meier himself.

Click Here


Yud Yud by Davidclovers and C.E.B. Reas

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The Dovecote Studio by Haworth Tompkins

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Ateliers Ciudad de las Artes by Lucio Morini and GGMPU Architects

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The Sackler Building by Haworth Tompkins

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