Hasta La Ideas

Input Creative Studio has created a New York studio for a children’s portrait photographer with a turquoise playhouse hollowed out of one wall (+ slideshow).

New York-based Input Creative Studio designed a neutral space for Studio Eight Photos, then made a couple of playful additions that keep children entertained both in between and during shoots.

A custom-made playhouse area is integrated into one wall, while a full-height blackboard becomes a giant drawing surface.

“Thinking back to our childhood memories, the idea of using wooden toys as our inspiration surfaced. The simplicity, warmth and nostalgia of the toys in addition with clever engineering gave us the idea to develop a playhouse, called Toto,” the designers told Dezeen.

“The playhouse not only entices the children but also provides them with entertainment; taking them out of the digital world back to analogue as they engage with the space by pushing the chalkboard door and playing in the house,” they said.

The blackboard doubles up as the sliding door for a cupboard, while the rest of the wall integrates a desk space and a line of wooden cabinets, allowing the client to stow away his camera equipment.

The rear wall accommodates several colourful backdrops for shoots, while an orange sofa provides a seating area for parents.

Photography is by Efi Panagoula of Studio Eight Photos.

Here is some more information from the designer:

Studio Eight Photo by Input Creative Studio

Studio Eight Photos’ design is composed of modular and graphic elements in a clean and neutral palette.

Bold black lines outline the space’s vast storage units that have been designed to accommodate a plethora of photography equipment. A modular lounge can be configured in a variety of ways, providing easy staging for different shoots. The studio’s layout is a blank canvas that can be easily transformed, providing an ideal and diverse backdrop.

Since Studio Eight focuses on artist children’s portraits, a custom playhouse has been integrated into the design providing both an ideal backdrop for shoots and entertainment for the kids. Flexible, elegant and fun; the overall design is sophisticated yet playful.

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features a turquoise playhouse appeared first on Dezeen.

Seven concrete fins provide a green roof that collects rainwater at this new engineering facility for a wastewater treatment plant in Portland, Oregon, by local firm Skylab Architecture (+ slideshow).

The Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant was built in 1950 to process the Portland’s combined wastewater and stormwater, and now serves 600,000 residents. Skylab Architecture was tasked with creating new office facilities for the plant’s engineers and public reception areas.

The single-storey structure has a curved plan designed to trace the path of the sun. The seven roof fins form a linear sequence over the top, turning the building into a series of angular grass-covered hills that appear to fold up from the landscape.

Each of these fins features an integrated collection system that channels rainwater down to the nearby Columbia Slough waterway.

“Inspired by the native landscape and its industrial past, the building is an elegant combination of landform, indigenous planting, formal geometry, and durable construction systems that support staff and the public interface,” explained the architect.

In contrast with the plant-covered southern facade, the building’s northern elevation comprises a glazed curtain wall with a serrated surface.

Workspaces for up to 36 engineers are located just behind, replacing the mobile units that had served as offices for the previous 16 years. South-facing clerestory windows bring light into these spaces from above, filtering through steel louvres.

A new reception welcomes guests to the plant, while meeting rooms accommodate talks and other public events. These spaces lead out to a grass lawn that functions as a common space for staff and visitors.

Here’s a project description from Skylab Architecture:

The Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant Engineering Building

The Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant was constructed in 1950 as an industrial site to treat the city’s combined wastewater and storm water now serving 600,000 residents in Portland, Oregon. In recent times, this municipal works project has become increasingly public through efforts to highlight the importance of sustainable infrastructure. Over the past 16 years, engineering staff on site worked out of portable trailers that became unsuitable for occupation.

The new 11,490 square-foot Engineering Building and site development project was proposed to create replacement office space while also establishing a new public interface for the Plant. The program included office space for 36 engineers and construction management staff, a visitor reception space and public meeting spaces all to be developed within a sustainable landscape.

The new single-storey building was oriented along the path of the sun featuring seven folded cast-in-place concrete roof forms that channel storm water sustainably through the eco-roof. The storm water then drains along the berms into a visible storm water collection system leading back to the Columbia Slough.

As an intentional demonstration, the building and its immediate landscape employ signage and educational elements to celebrate the Columbia Slough ecosystem where the project is located as well as share information about the regional watershed. Inspired by the native landscape and its industrial past, the building is an elegant combination of landform, indigenous planting, formal geometry, and durable construction systems that support staff and the public interface.

The site development transformed and redefined the transportation traffic flow to create a newly formed pedestrian central green space used for educational tours of the plant and as a commons for the overall plant staff. This commons space replaced the original axial road leading into the plant improving vehicular circulation, plant security, parking organisation to create a shared central gathering space.

Juxtaposing the soft, vegetated southern edge, the building’s northern facade is a dynamic, serrated curtain wall that tracks the circular path of the commons. Exterior stainless steel solar shades and a system of clerestory windows create modulated day lighting in concert with a fully glazed operable north facade connecting the interior spaces with the central green space.

The mechanical system is a heat pump system that taps into the plant’s process water source for heating and cooling. While the building has a photovoltaic system it also benefits from an on- site co-generation plant for power.

Owner: City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services
Architect: Skylab Architecture
Contractor: Skanska USA Building
Engineer: Solarc Architecture and Engineering, Inc.
Engineer: Catena Consulting Engineers
Landscape: 2-ink Studio Landscape Architecture
Lighting: Biella Lighting
Civil Engineer: Vigil-Agrimis Inc.
Environmental Graphics: The Felt Hat

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features a roof of grass-covered fins appeared first on Dezeen.

This weekend cabin in a Washington national park, by Seattle architect Tom Kundig, features a protective steel exterior that slides across its windows and a floor raised up on stilts to prevent flooding.

Sol Duc Cabin was named as one of the ten recipients of the American Institute of Architects‘ 2014 Housing Awards earlier this week. Completed in 2011, it provides a rural retreat for a couple who take regular fishing expeditions in the Olympic National Park.

Kundig, principal designer at Olson Kundig Architects, was asked by the clients to create a “virtually indestructible” residence that could be left uninhabited for weeks at a time. It needed to be both secure and protected from the occasional flooding of a nearby river.

He responded by creating a 30-square-metre cabin clad externally with unfinished steel and raised up on four steel columns, similar to the Delta Shelter he completed in 2005.

“The cabin’s rugged patina and raw materiality respond to the surrounding wilderness while its verticality provides a safe haven during occasional floods from the nearby river,” said the architect.

Windows can be secured behind steel shutters that blend into the walls. Residents open them using a mechanical system of gears, drive shafts and U-joints, which are set into motion by turning a wheel.

“Sol Duc Cabin opens to the environment through human power,” said the architect.

The main space inside the cabin is taken up by a double-height living and dining area with a compact kitchen along one edge. A small washroom is tucked away at the back, while a ladder leads up to a mezzanine loft that functions as a sleeping area.

Walls, floors and ceilings are lined with timber panels. There is also a balcony with a see-through mesh floor, which faces out towards the river.

An overhanging roof provides some shelter over the balcony and shades the windows from the harsh sunlight.

The entire building was prefabricated and then assembled on site, reducing its impact on the rural landscape.

Photography is by Benjamin Benschneider.

Here’s some more information from Olson Kundig Architects:

Sol Duc Cabin

Providing secure shelter for every season, this steel-clad 350 sf cabin on stilts can be completely shuttered when the owner is away. The cabin’s rugged patina and raw materiality respond to the surrounding wilderness while its verticality provides a safe haven during occasional floods from the nearby river.

The overall design responds to the owner’s desire for a compact, low-cost, low-maintenance, virtually indestructible building to house himself and his wife during fishing expeditions. Composed of two levels, the cabin’s entry, dining and kitchen areas are located on the lower floor while a sleeping loft with minimal shelving hovers above. A cantilevered steel deck extends from the lower level, providing unimpeded views of the river.

Constructed primarily of unfinished, mild steel and structural insulated panels (SIPs), the cabin is supported by four steel columns and sits lightly on the site. Most of the structure — the steel frame and panels, the roof, shutters, and stairs — was prefabricated off-site, thereby reducing onsite waste and site disruption. Prefabrication kept typical construction wastage to a minimum.

With a cantilevered roof that provides solar shading and protection from the elements, Sol Duc Cabin opens to the environment through human power. Each of the building’s shutters can be opened and closed with hand wheels that move the shutters over the glazed portions of each facade. The shutters are operated by a series of mechanical devices including a hand wheel, drive shafts, u-joints, spur gears and cables.

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steel cabin on stilts appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Danish firm BIG has unveiled plans to install a wooden maze with a concave surface inside the National Building Museum in Washington DC.

BIG, led by architect Bjarke Ingels, will use Baltic birch plywood to build the 18-metre-squared maze in the west court of the National Building Museum‘s Great Hall.

The architect says the structure will borrow forms from mazes throughout history, from ancient Greek labyrinths to European hedge mazes and modern American corn mazes. Starting with a height of five and a half metres, it will gradually diminish towards its centre.

“The concept is simple: as you travel deeper into a maze, your path typically becomes more convoluted,” explained Ingels. “What if we invert this scenario and create a maze that brings clarity and visual understanding upon reaching the heart of the labyrinth?”

“From outside, the maze’s cube-like form hides the final reveal behind its 18-foot-tall walls,” said Ingels. “On the inside, the walls slowly descend towards the centre, which concludes with a grand reveal – a 360 degree understanding of your path in and how to get out.”

The “BIG Maze” will open on 4 July and will remain in place until 1 September. Visitors to the museum’s upper-floor balconies will be offered an aerial view.

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Washington’s National Building Museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Shigeru Ban‘s design for an art gallery opening this summer in Aspen, Colorado, has been demonstrated by a new architectural model, following news that the Japanese architect will receive this year’s Pritzker Prize (+ slideshow).

Set to open on 9 August, the new Aspen Art Museum will be a four-storey building containing six separate galleries, more than tripling the amount of exhibition space in the museum’s current facility.

Shigeru Ban designed the 3000 square-metre building for a site at the corner of East Hyman Avenue in downtown Aspen. Its primary feature will be a basket-weave cladding that wraps around two elevations.

A grand staircase will be slotted between this woven exterior and the interior structure. There will also be a glass elevator dubbed the “moving room” that will connect galleries at the northeast corner.

Glass floors will allow visitors to see between storeys, while a sculpture garden located on the roof will offer views towards Ajax Mountain.

The inaugural exhibition will feature the work of artists Yves Klein and David Hammons, but the museum also plans to host an exhibition dedicated to Shigeru Ban’s humanitarian housing projects.

Here’s some more information about the gallery from Aspen Art Museum:

The New Aspen Art Museum

Located on the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue in Aspen’s downtown core a few blocks from Aspen’s main skiing/snowboarding mountain, Ajax Mountain, the new AAM is Shigeru Ban’s first U.S. museum. Of its design, Ban states: “Designing the Aspen Art Museum presented a very exciting opportunity to create a harmony between architecture and Aspen’s surrounding beauty while also responding to the need for the dialogue between artwork, audience, and the space itself.”

Ban’s vision for the new AAM is based on transparency and open view planes—inviting those outside to engage with the building’s interior, and providing those within the opportunity to see their exterior surroundings as part of a uniquely Aspen Art Museum experience. The new Museum features 12,500 square feet of flexible exhibition space in six primary gallery spaces spread over the museum’s four levels – more than tripling the amount of exhibition space in the museum’s current facility. The galleries have a ceiling height of fourteen feet, most infused with natural light.

Visitors will enter the new AAM through a main public entry on the north side of the building along East Hyman Avenue, which allows access to the main reception area, as well as the new AAM’s two ground floor galleries. From there, visitors may choose their path through museum spaces -ascending to upper levels either via Ban’s “moving room” glass elevator in the northeast corner of the new facility, or the grand staircase on the east side of the facility perpendicular to South Spring Street. The grand staircase – an interstitial three-level passageway situated between the building’s woven composite exterior grid and interior structure – is intersected by a glass wall dividing the stairway into a ten-foot-wide exterior space, and a six-foot-wide interior space. The unique passage allows for the natural blending of outdoor and indoor spaces and will feature mobile pedestals where art will be exhibited.

After climbing the grand staircase to the roof deck sculpture garden, visitors will enjoy unparalleled, sweeping vistas of Aspen’s internationally recognised environment. This will be the only unobstructed public rooftop view anywhere in town of the iconic Ajax Mountain. The roof deck will also be an activated exhibition and event space, with a café and bar and outdoor screening space. Shigeru Ban envisioned that visitors would navigate the new AAM the way a mountain is navigated when skiing or snowboarding – by proceeding to the very top of the building and descending from floor to floor.

Other features of the museum’s architecture include: “walkable” skylights that will assist in illuminating the single main gallery on the second level; two galleries, an education space, bookstore/museum shop and on-site artist apartment on the ground floor; and, on the new AAM’s lower level, three galleries, art storage, and art preparation spaces.

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Shigeru Ban’s new Aspen Art Museum appeared first on Dezeen.