The facade of this black and white house by British architect Matthew Heywood is sliced up into irregular shapes to mimic the crooked angles of tree branches (+ slideshow).
Matthew Heywood wanted to create an affinity with the surrounding woodland when designing the five-bedroom property, located in a small village in Kent, England.
The architect used slanted columns – known as raking columns – to form the structure of the building, referencing criss-crossing branches and twigs.
“Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees,” explained Heywood.
The residence is clad in a mixture of black-stained and white-painted clapboard, which is commonly found on houses in this part of England. “The weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within,” Heywood said.
The monochrome colour palette continues inside the house with dark flooring, white walls and furnishings in shades of grey.
The ground floor of the property includes a large reception area with a suspended fireplace and sliding doors that open out onto the garden.
A staircase with a glass balustrade leads to the first floor, which accommodates five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a dressing room.
Matthew Heywood doesn’t just work on buildings – the London-based architect previously tried his hand at redesigning London’s buses.
Engineer – Fothergill & Company Main Contractor – Ecolibrium Solutions
Here’s a description from the architect:
Trish House Yalding
The design of the house developed in direct response to the site and its location within the beautiful village of Yalding in Kent.
The building’s structure is composed to reflect the surrounding woodland with the raking columns representing the irregular angles of tree trunks and branches.
Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees.
The traditional Kentish black and white weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within. In contrast to the surrounding nature, the form and lines of the house are intentionally very geometric and crisp, creating a dialogue between the organic woodland and the modernist box.
The curved plasterwork of typical Mediterranean architecture influenced the smooth white interior of this store for skin and haircare brand Aesop in London’s Covent Garden.
Aesop Covent Garden is the fifth store by French studio Ciguë. The team designed shelves and surfaces with naturally chamfered edges, just like in the old houses of Greece, Spain and Italy.
“We did a residential project for a family in Paris and the staircase was in traditional plaster,” designer Hugo Haas told Dezeen. “I thought this finish would make a really beautiful concept for Aesop.”
The shelves are loosely laid out in seven different zones, for displaying each of Aesop’s product ranges, while the sink and countertop run along one wall.
The floor is covered with hexagonal green tiles that are engraved with geometric patterns. “We wanted something in contrast, to find a balance,” said Haas.
This hexagonal motif is also picked up elsewhere, including on the perforations in the sink’s plughole.
“It’s possible you don’t notice it, and it’s ok,” said Haas, “but I like the feeling when you notice it. It was all about developing a formal language.”
A custom-made lamp is suspended from the ceiling, built using industrial fixtures from the 1920s, while plants frame an extra window at the rear of the space.
A hand-crafted space that honours the art of plastering
London recently welcomed its sixth Aesop signature store, in Covent Garden.
This fresh collaboration with Parisian architects Ciguë began with four key design references: a Virginia Woolf quote, a Francis Bacon painting, a Henry Moore sculpture, and an excerpt from Beauty and the Beast. These inspired a space that eloquently expresses the brand, just as it embodies Ciguë’s philosophy: ‘We are very curious about history, and very attentive to transformations. We look out for old know-how and poetry in functionality.’
The brilliantly whitewashed walls reflect abundant natural light, which warms during the afternoon in step with neighbouring pubs. Exposed copper plumbing and light fixtures offer utilitarian adornment. A floor of engraved green cement tiles pays homage to the area’s Italianate piazza – London’s first open square, constructed in the seventeenth century. The colour is replicated in lush vegetation which climbs the walls from an interior window box, complementing the neighbouring gardens of Saint Paul’s Church.
Coastal walkers in south-west England can now detour through a historic naval supply yard thanks to this dramatic staircase that cuts through formerly impregnable walls (+ slideshow).
Designed by Gillespie Yunnie Architects, the cantilevered stairs link Royal William Yard in Plymouth to the public park above, allowing ramblers on the South West Coast path to enter walk through the 19th Century yard for the first time.
The stairs are part of the regeneration of the yard by developer Urban Splash, which is converting the complex of Grade I-listed warehouses that once held supplies of beer, rum and ship’s biscuits into apartments, offices, shops and restaurants.
At night the stairs are illuminated by colour-shifting ribbons of LED lights.
Here’s some info from Gillespie Yunnie Architects:
The stair links the defensive western end of the Royal William Yard to the South West Coast path above the site. The Royal William Yard was designed by Sir John Renny to supply the entire Royal navy Fleet with beer, rum, ships biscuits and cured meat. Built between 1826 and 1831 it was used continually by the Navy until the 1990s when it closed and has since been subject to one of the largest regeneration programmes in the South West. Gillespie Yunnie Architects have been working with developers Urban Splash since 2005 on the Grade I Listed site, which now houses a mixture of apartments, offices, shops and restaurants.
The Royal William Yard has always been a dead end due to its naturally defensive nature and peninsular location, so the staircase linking the far end of the Yard with the open green space of the peninsula above has always been a key part of the regeneration masterplan, to allow residents to access the park and historic battlements at the top of the high retaining wall, and allow walker to continue along the Coast Path route via a dramatic piece of architecture.
As a practice we are all very aware of how stunning our local coastline is, we all sail, surf and regularly walk the coast path. To be involved in linking two amazing and contrasting waterfront locations with a piece of bold contemporary design was always going to be right up our street. We designed the stair to emulate some of the excitement and surprise of journeying along the South West Coast path.
The journey is very different depending on which way you approach the stair; From the Yard, the stair is a dark solid mass, snug against the historic retaining wall, and the journey, hidden by the high solid sides, is only apparent as you begin to climb the stair, with the concealed glass viewing platform and panoramic views over the Tamar Estuary across to Cornwall being concealed until the last minute; from the park above, you first have to find the entrance, housed within a sunken ruin of an old military store. A steel ‘portal’ is cut through the huge wall marking the start of the journey, and your first view opens up before you, as you descend down the cantilevered upper flight. At night it changes again, using concealed LED ribbon lights beneath the handrail to wash the entire inner surfaces with an ever changing river of colour, a bit of fun, and brightness in the otherwise dark, hard context of the old military site, and reminiscent of seaside promenades across the country.
In this movie filmed at Clerkenwell Design Week, French designer Erwan Bouroullec tells Dezeen he believes offices need new dividing systems now there is much less storage for paper and books.
Speaking at Vitra‘s Clerkenwell showroom at an installation showcasing Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec‘s Alcove furniture and a new office system currently in development called Workbays, Bouroullec explains that office spaces used to be divided up by storage.
But “storage is disappearing,” he says. “We don’t have real paper, we don’t have real books, not in the quantity that we used to have.”
The Workbays system Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec are developing, in which work stations are surrounded by soft fleece walls, is an attempt to re-privatise the working environment, Bouroullec goes on to explain.
“Instead of storage, we are creating a number of small enclosures in which you kind of nest, you disappear a little,” he says.
“[What] we propose are, let’s say, some elements that act as dividers in a way. But they’re not as limited as a wall system. They’re more about the function that is inside.”
Erwan Bouroullec, one half of design studio Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola talks to Dezeen about her new tile collection for Italian brand Mutina in this movie filmed at the Domus showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week.
Called Azulej, Urquiola‘s new collection of porcelain tiles features 27 different patterns, including a mixture of geometric and floral designs, available in white, grey and black colour palettes.
“The idea of Mutina was always to defend the idea of ceramic tiles as very natural,” says Urquiola. “We never use colours that are strong, always quite natural.”
Azulej is Urquiola’s fourth tile collection for Mutina, and the first to feature digitally printed patterns.
“This year, possibly after all of the work we have done with my studio and other studios, we [decided] to work with printing and with patterns,” Urquiola says. “[Azulej is] a quite industrial tile, very simplified, 20 x 20 cm.”
Urquiola believes that the success of her continued collaboration with Mutina is down to her good relationship with the company, which appointed her as art director in 2011.
“The best [projects] I got were always coming from good relations with people I like,” she says. “In the case of Mutina especially, when they asked me to become art director, [which] is not normally something I want to do, I said: ‘okay.'”
Music manuscripts and recordings of the late British composer Benjamin Britten are held within a temperature-controlled concrete chamber at this archive building in Suffolk, England by architecture firm Stanton Williams (+ slideshow).
The Britten-Pears Archive is located in the grounds of the house formerly shared by Britten and tenor Peter Pears – the composer’s personal and professional partner – and it offers a comprehensive archive of the music, photographs and letters of both musicians.
Stanton Williams developed the structure using the concept of “an egg in a box”. The archive is housed within a highly-insulated concrete enclosure, while a red-brick facade encases this volume along with the other rooms of the building.
This arrangement effectively creates an intermediate space between the archive and the outside environment, making it easy to moderate the temperature and relative humidity. The archive is also raised off the ground to prevent the risk of flooding.
Staff offices, support spaces and a study room are positioned inside the southern wing of the building and feature exposed concrete ceilings and a variety of wooden surfaces.
Brick piers surround two of the facades to create nine floor-to-ceiling windows, giving staff views out across the gardens.
Architect Alan Stanton said: “The new building will play an important part in preserving Britten’s legacy and serve as a research centre for future generations of musicians and music lovers.”
Here’s a project description from Stanton Williams:
Britten-Pears Archive
The Britten Pears Archive, Stanton Williams’ new passive archive building for the Britten–Pears Foundation (BPF), houses the extensive collection of music manuscripts, letters, photographs and recordings of the composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears. Originally assembled by Britten and Pears as a working library of their own collections of books, manuscripts and printed scores and recordings, the archive has now grown into one of the country’s most important centres for music research and scholarship. In 2005 the collection was officially given Designated status in recognition of its significance.
The archive building complements the site of The Red House in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the Grade II listed former home of Britten and his partner Pears and has been completed in time for Britten’s Centenary celebrations at the Aldeburgh music festival in June 2013.
Stanton Williams’ design roots the building firmly in its context and is appropriate to the listed house and garden, providing optimum environmental conditions for preservation of the significant collection through pioneering low-energy means, achieving a passive archive environment.
The building is expressed as two interlocking forms, reflecting the internal functions. The concept is that of an ‘egg in a box’: thick, well insulated walls enclose the main storage room, surrounded by a buffer space which helps moderate the temperature and relative humidity between the outside environment and the material within.
The volume to the north contains the staff offices, support spaces and a study room, with generous windows on the west and north façades allowing views out to The Red House gardens, giving a sense of connection with the site. The southern volume houses the archive collection, raised from the ground to protect it from flood risk. This functional and efficient concept is based on a tradition of building treasure houses, granary stores and shrines and gives form to the ‘precious’ nature of the collection.
The outer building walls are constructed entirely from solid brick. The bricks connect the building visually with the rest of the site and provides thermal mass to help moderate the conditions within the building. This is essential for passive control ensuring low-energy and high environmental standards for the building.
A green sedum roof on staff areas helps blend the building with the landscape, encouraging biodiversity.
Internally, the materials are limited to fairfaced concrete soffits and columns (providing thermal mass and cooling) and timber wall linings, floors and windows to provide warmth and texture.
The new archive brings together this internationally important collection in one central place for the first time in the very place where Britten created his music, improving staff workspace, access and security.
Re-housing the archive created opportunities to free up space within the existing buildings on the site, most importantly, the composition studio in which Britten worked from 1958 to 1970, and where masterpieces such as War Requiem were written, has been re-created for visitors to experience.
Construction value: £2.0 million Completion Date: June 2013 Date of Occupation: June 2013 Construction phase: Nov 2011 – June 2013 Postal Address: Golf Lane, Aldeburgh, IP15 5PZ Gross Internal Area: 520m2
Client: Britten-Pears Foundation Architect: Stanton Williams Building Services Engineer: Max Fordham Civil and Structural Engineer: Barton Engineers Project Manager: David Langdon Main Contractor: R G Carter Ltd Cost Consultant: Davis Langdon Arboriculturalist: Ian Keen Ltd
The southernmost tip of Scotland’s Isle of Skye is the setting for this small wooden house by local firm Dualchas Architects (+ slideshow).
The single-storey house was designed by Dualchas Architects as the holiday home for an English family, who have been visting the island for years and wanted a more permanent base.
Unlike the gabled buildings that typify the island’s architectural vernacular, the house has a rectilinear form with large windows and deep alcoves. Larch panels clad each elevation, arranged in horizontal stripes.
“The proportions, massing and siting of this house are derived from traditional forms,” say the architects, explaining how the building manages to fit in with its surroundings. “Despite its obvious abstraction from the local vernacular it remains a house rooted in its place.”
The body of the house is divided into two blocks, with three bedrooms lined up on the rear side, and living and dining rooms running along in front. A bathroom, utility room and entranceway are sandwiched into the space between.
Small patios were added to three sides of the house to catch the light at different times of the day. The largest spans the length of the living room, while the second and third are positioned beside the kitchen and main bedroom.
The living room also sits slightly lower than the rest of the rooms, corresponding with the natural slope of the landscape.
The Singletons had been visiting Skye with their dogs for many years. They love the landscape and positively enjoy the unpredictable weather and choose to eat outdoors in all seasons. They brought to us photographs of their main home in Lancashire which is simple and minimal, a CD of their favourite music and the encouragement to do something different.
The site is at the end of the road at Aird of Sleat. It has a sense of the end of the world, shore access and extraordinary views back to Knoydart, Morar, Ardnamurchan and down the coast to the island of Eigg. There are views on 3 sides and it was decided to tuck the bedrooms behind the main living spaces to enable us to create a terrace from the kitchen for the morning light, a terrace from the dining space for the afternoon light and a terrace off the main bedroom for the evening light.
The design developed into 2 distinct forms with a stepped foundation to give additional height to the main living space and to allow views across the dining space from the kitchen to Eigg beyond the fireplace. This step in the foundation corresponded precisely to the slope in the landscape. The link between the 2 forms houses a utility room and shower room.
The proportions, massing and siting of this house are derived from traditional forms; narrow in span and tight to the ground. It is clad in a skin of narrow larch cladding walls and roof. It fits in to the township settlement pattern and sits quietly in its place on the edge of its world. Despite its obvious abstraction from the local vernacular it remains a house rooted in its place and a direct response to both site and brief.
A grand top-lit atrium forms an entrance to concerts, recitals and classrooms at this music school in Manchester by local architects Stephenson: ISA Studio (+ slideshow).
As part of Chetham’s School of Music, the new building by Stephenson: ISA Studio is constructed alongside the school’s existing medieval quadrangle to provide it with a 350-seat concert hall and a 100-seat recital hall, as well as additional classrooms and practice rooms.
The foyer occupies a triangular triple-height space at the centre of the building. Six huge fins stretch across the ceiling, moderating daylight flooding in from above.
Mezzanine corridors lead into classrooms and practice rooms, which are lined with timber slats to improve acoustics. The main auditorium is currently an empty shell and will be fitted out once the school secures extra funding.
The building has an exterior of red brick, designed to fit in with the industrial architecture of the city.
Strip windows wrap the curved corners of the structure, while protruding lintels form strong horizontal stripes.
“The form of the building reflects the fluid forms of musical instruments,” says the studio. “The elevations are expressed horizontally and are influenced by the musical stave and pianola.”
The ground floor comprises a three-tiered split level, allowing the building to amble down its sloping site. The entrance and foyer are positioned on the middle level, while performance areas are set below and classrooms sit above.
A bridge links the new spaces with the existing campus to the south. There’s also a cantilever in one corner to avoid a river that cuts across the corner of the site.
Here’s some more information from Stephenson: ISA Studio:
Chetham’s School of Music
Chetham’s School of Music is the largest world class music school in the UK and is unique to the region. The existing medieval building contains the first public library in England, which boats amongst its’ scholars Karl Marx and is an architectural gem. It is currently not readily accessible to the public and one of the main design principles was to create a dialogue between the existing buildings, the new school and its wider context.
The musical heart of the school is in a building which is no longer fit for purpose and the school has outgrown its current building provision for teaching and learning through its increased success and profile.
Our brief was to create a unique contemporary new building for the musical and academic teaching facilities, providing a state-of-the-art environment which will be a fitting platform for the students. A public auditorium will allow Chetham’s students to display their talents to the public. The building itself will provide an iconic opportunity for the educational and cultural standing of Manchester to consolidate its position on the international scene.
Architectural Response
The site varies in elevation by approximately 6m from the bottom of Walkers Croft to Victoria Station Approach. We propose to use the height difference as a datum to reinforce the diversity of the buildings’ programme. The performance spaces and their associated service spaces are located below the datum whilst the music and academic classroom accommodation is placed above the datum. The main public entrance, foyer and ensemble rooms are located on the datum itself. A new bridge link allows daily secure access for the staff and pupils from the existing school campus to the south.
The building is conceived as a carved solid, rising from the south adjacent the grade 1 medieval building, to a fulcrum above the main entrance to the north. The form of the building reflects the fluid forms of musical instruments and the island nature of the site. The elevations are expressed horizontally and are influenced by the musical stave and pianola.
Many challenges of the site have influenced the form and structure of the building. The river Irk runs in a culvert along the route of Walkers Croft and cuts across the site at the south western corner requiring the upper floors of the music school to cantilever substantially at this point. Due to the city centre location and the sensitive acoustic requirements of the music teaching and performance spaces most of the internal rooms are independent floating boxes. The Concert Hall has a complete independent internal structure floating on springs.
This is a project that sits at the core of the ambitions of the Manchester city region, which is looking to preserve and enhance its unique assets for the long-term benefit of its people.
London studio AY Architects has constructed a small wooden nursery in a public garden in Camden. Scroll down to see a pair of cute axonometric drawings (+ slideshow).
The Montpelier Community Nursery provides affordable day care for children between the ages of two and five, so AY Architects had to design a building that would be inexpensive to both build and run.
The architects designed three large skylights to maximise natural lighting, then angled them across the roof to a north and south orientation.
“The building is more or less located on the footprint of the previous nursery building in order to not disturb the existing beautiful garden,” architect Yeoryia Manolopoulou told Dezeen. “We then decided to sculpt the roof diagonally so that we could get better daylight.”
The building has an all-timber construction, with slender columns both inside and outside. White-washed timber panels were used to build the walls and roof, while the exterior is clad with black-stained larch decking.
Floor-to ceiling windows stretch along the north-west elevation to allow the playroom to open out to an enclosed garden playground. There’s also a projecting canopy to permit sheltered outdoor activities.
“The design of the new building takes its inspiration from the unique setting within the public gardens,” say the architects. “Indoor-outdoor play is central to the design concept and the garden environment is considered central to the children’s learning experience.”
Tucked away within Montpelier Gardens in Kentish Town London and surrounded by the rear of terrace houses, the new building is planned around a central flexible playspace that generously opens out to a garden of mature trees. Indoor-outdoor play, children’s learning through nature, the experience of a wonderful bright and airy space, and the architects’ continual engagement with parents, staff, children and the local community are central to the success of this project.
The nursery is a registered charity and voluntary organisation, providing the most affordable childcare for 2-5 yrs old available in Camden. Its size and low-budget limits did not prevent the architects from creating an imaginative and highly poetic space.
The nursery had been operating from a dilapidated and unsafe portakabin with a lifespan of only 15 years, originally built in 1983. AY Architects initiated a proposal for its demolition and replacement with a new building in an effort to secure affordable childcare and a sustainable building for the community for the long term. They worked closely with the neighborhood in their mutiple roles as local architects, former parents, trustees and voluntary members of the nursery’s management team. In January 2009 they coordinated a successful application for a Capital Grant which would cover the project’s costs and pursuaded London Borough Camden to give full support to their initiative.
The brief was for a larger and environmental friendly facility that could provide an increase from 18 to 24 nursery places. The footprint increased from 90 to 130m2.
The design of the new building takes its inspiration from the unique setting within the public gardens. It is planned around a large flexible playspace that generously opens out to the external green space distinguished by a concentration of mature trees. Indoor-outdoor play is central to the design concept and the garden environment is considered central to the children’s learning experience.
The superstructure is made up of cross-laminated timber panels with an exposed internal white wash finish. The exterior of the building is clad with ebony-stained fsc siberian larch decking to give the building a robust skin. The dark exterior allows the building to sit contently within the park and amongst the trees trunks.
A series of glue-laminated timber columns echoes the verticallity of the surrounding trees while the roof is designed to maximise daylight and allow natural ventilation. Three strip windows with north-south orientation span the plan diagonally. The orientation of the openings welcomes the sun to enter the building when it is low to take advantage of solar gain in colder months, while large overhangs block out the sun when it is hot to prevent overheating. The larger north-facing roof window brings in an abundance of daylight and facilitates cross ventilation.
The south wall of the main playspace includes a large window and shutter looking directly onto the public gardens, and also offers a slender low bench to be used by the neighbours. In this way the nursery gains a greater level of interaction with the community, contributing to a safer and more enjoyable green space.
The nursery is designed as an energy efficient building in operation and low carbon in construction. A mixed sedum blanket forms the roof finish, contributing to local biodiversity and water retention.
The building recently won an RIBA London Regional Award 2013 and an RIBA National Award 2013. It is listed among 52 buildings across the UK and Europe, competing for further special RIBA awards, including the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Stirling Prize. It is one of 13 buildings in London competing for these awards.
Funding award: Early Years Capital Grant £476,000 Project Budget: £476,000 Area: 136m2 internal gross Architects: AY Architects Structural engineer: Price & Myers Low carbon consulting engineers: King Shaw Associates Main contractor: Forest Gate Construction Ltd Timber subcontractor: KLH UK
In this movie filmed at Clerkenwell Design Week last month, BarberOsgerby’s Jay Osgerby tells Dezeen that he wanted to design comfortable, understated sofas rather than statement pieces for their new collection for American furniture brand Knoll.
“You don’t want to live with something that is a huge statement. So we decided that we should try to make something that was super comfortable, something that sat back,” he continues.
The furniture collection includes a range of different sizes, from an armchair to a three-seater sofa, which feature prominent cast aluminium legs that can be finished in red, white or black paint.
“We looked at developing a series of cushions as individual objects that seem to be held together by a detail,” says Osgerby. “The foot detail is like a clip holding the pieces together. Because the sofa is really understated – it’s quite quiet – we felt [the foot detail] should be something recognisably BarberOsgerby.”
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