Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: there are no horizontal crossbeams to interrupt the vertically striped wooden batons that clad this house outside Munich by German architects Titus Bernhard.

Matching wooden slats frame the building’s deep-set windows, which fold around the corners of walls as well as up over the concealed eaves.

The structure below the wooden cladding is constructed from prefabricated elements that were assembled onsite.

The name of the three-storey residence is House 11×11, which relates to its square shaped dimensions in plan.

The lowest level is an underground basement, while an open-plan living and dining room occupies the ground floor and a bedroom and two offices are located upstairs.

See more houses in Germany here.

Photography is by Jens Weber & Orla Conolly.

Here’s some more information from Titus Bernhard Architekten:

House 11×11

The idea behind House 11 x 11 was to design an apparently compact house of homogenous materials, with a low external surface but as large a usable area as possible, a house that serves a family as an inhabitable sculpture and shows its exterior as an image of the inner organization.

House 11 x 11 is an icon for its users, symbolic and built with a new method of construction: the exterior walls and the wooden roof made of prefabricated elements are covered by a vertical wood-lamella façade without counter-battens, converging on the ridge of the roof.

A pronounced graphic character is the result, reinforced by the variable density and very precise setting of the lamellae, including the integration of the wooden window frames.

The inner organization expresses itself in the open-plan floor space of the ground floor, containing a kernel for secondary uses as a space continuum, connecting optically with the upper story by means of airspaces and cleverly designed lighting.

This table with folding trestle legs by Spanish designer Tomás Alonso is one of nine new products that Japanese furniture brand Karimoku New Standard will present at Erastudio Apartment Gallery in Milan later this month.

Collaborating with the brand for the first time are Swedish design duo TAF, whose Soft Triangle low table (above) is carved into a form somewhere between a triangle and a circle.

ECAL student Lucien Gumy was inspired by a mountainous landscape when designing his Berra card holder (above).

The Castor chair (above) is a new addition to the range that Lausanne studio Big-Game presented during last year’s furniture fair (see our previous story).

Dutch design duo Scholten & Baijings have created two new products, the first of which is a series of chestnut containers ranging in size from a desktop pot to a large waste bin (above).

They have also designed a dining table (above) to supplement their Colour Wood range, which was part of the original Karimoku New Standard collection launched in 2009.

Karimoku creative director Teruhiro Yanagihara has designed a table made from oak and maple with hexagonal legs (above).

Alonso Frame Desk by Tomás Alonso

Italian design group Arabeschi di Latte will serve dishes and drinks derived from trees, referencing the material from which the furniture is made.

Colour Bin by Scholten & Baijings

Last year the gallery in a 100-year-old Milanese apartment hosted Natura Morta by Studio Toogood – read more and see photos from the even in our earlier story.

Soft Triangle table by TAF

See all of our stories about Milan 2012 »

Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

Here is some more information from Karimoku New Standard:

A New Standard in Japanese Furniture Making

Karimoku New Standard is a trademark of the Japanese firm Karimoku Furniture Inc., known as Karimoku, launched in 2009 under the creative direction of Teruhiro Yanagihara. Collaborating with emerging international designers and with its products sold internationally, it is the most innovative brand in the company’s over-70 year history. Karimoku New Standard distinguishes itself from other brands with high-quality furniture items that follow the concept of ‘Everyday Life’. All collaborating designers turn their back on fast-moving trends with products that hold functional flexibility and cater to a wide range of individual tastes and life-styles.

Castor stool by Big-Game from the 2011 collection

In line with Karimoku’s philosophy, Karimoku New Standard supports the sustainable use of forest resources and experiments with new methods to retrieve a balance between global environments and local industry. Karimoku New Standard products are predominantly made of solid Japanese hardwoods such as maple, chestnut and oak. The wood stems from low-diameter trees that have previously remained significantly underused, usually ending up as wood chips for paper pulp. Likewise, Karimoku New Standard makes the most out of Karimoku’s know-how accumulated over generations of furniture-making and uses its well-equipped factories for manufacturing. A deep understanding of experienced craftsmanship, together with cutting-edge technologies produces furniture that meets the highest standard. Since its founding, Karimoku New Standard has manufactured 15 innovative pieces of furniture and 4 home accessories, all of which are versatile products that carry the silent beauty of every day life.

Homerun chair by Sylvain Willenz from the 2010 collection

Milan Design Week exhibition 2012

Where New Furniture Starts to Blend With Existing Lives

A 100-year-old apartment building at Milan’ s Via Palermo forms the ideal setting to present the new collection of Karimoku New Standard during the Milan Design Week 2012. It is a place that, over the years, has been used by many different people in various ways. Exactly in this kind of everyday environment we would like to show that Karimoku New Standard furniture can easily mix in with any existing living environment, and be used by anybody at any time. In addition to the existing products in the brand’ s collection, we will exhibit an additional 9 new prototypes. Besides designers Scholten & Baijings (The Netherlands), Big-Game (Switzerland), and Sylvain Willenz (Belgium), and the Karimoku Design Team, creative director Teruhiro Yanagihara this year invited ECAL/ Lucien Gumy (Switzerland), TAF (Sweden) and Tomàs Alonso (UK) to participate. In four apartment rooms Karimoku New Standard presents four new tables, as well as a chair, a stool and small daily objects of a paper bin, a wall hook and a cardholder, which are mixed with items previously designed by our collaborating designers, such as vases, rugs and lamps.

Colour Wood tables by Scholten & Baijings from the 2010 collection

Food Preparation meets Furniture Making

In order to highlight the “Everyday Life” concept of Karimoku New Standard, the Milan Design Week exhibition will host a food installation prepared by the Italian design unit Arabeschi di Latte. Under the title of ‘TOKENS / Love for Food and Wood’, special dishes and drinks will be served based on ingredients derived from ‘trees’, the very origin of furniture. Arabeschi’s food TOKENS refer to “small food units” or “snacks” inspired by the Japanese way of eating from different small plates. In this setting, we would like visitors to experience something indispensable on a very ordinary day.

Erastudio Apartment Gallery
Via Palermo 5 (3rd floor)
20121 Milano

Tuesday 17 – Sunday 22 April, 11.00-19.00
Event with Arabeschi di Latte, Thursday 19 April 17.00-21.00

The top floor of this periscope-like wooden house in Stavanger, Norway, cantilevers northwards towards the sea.

Top: photograph is by the architects

Oslo architects Element renovated the 40-year-old house in 2010, choosing to reconfigure the existing two lower storeys and to completely replace the original upper floor.

A long window stretches across the entire width of the cantilever to provide a view across the water from the new open-plan living and dining room.

Residents enter the house at this level, while the floors below step down in tandem with the steeply declining hillside.

Above: photograph is by the architects

Photography is by Dinesen, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from Element:

The existing house was built in 1969 as a “twin” to the neighbouring building. It did not function well to the demands of 2008-living, neither in the room sizes nor in their solutions, and it had generally a need for restoration work.

Element, together with the client, has come to a solution where mainly the bottom two stories are rehabilitated while the top story is replaced with a lighter and more open construction which opens up towards a grand view of “Byfjorden.”

This is a big change from the earlier situation where it was necessary to go down a level to see the view.

The volume on top is also pulled further away from the road to make room for a larger sun deck towards the south and to let more light into the building. This deck is also thereby sheltered from the northern wind.

The architectural expression strengthens the qualities on the site and reflects its northern orientation. At the same time it respects the existing constructive principles.

Click above for larger image

Sustainability: massive wood construction; reuse of the old foundation and walls.
Program: single family house
Location: Lauvastølveien 20, Stavanger, Norway

Click above for larger image

Client: Ingvild Sæther
Collaborators: Florian Kosche AS, Moelven Massivtre AS

Click above for larger image

Size: 277 m2
Status: completion 2010

Slideshow: Swedish architects Waldemarson Berglund were inspired by the slopes of a nearby ski resort to create these three slanted timber cabins in north Sweden.

Although they look like they’ve been tipped upwards by accident, the three Åre Solbringen residences were actually designed to follow the slopes of their hillside site and have level floors inside.

Only the perpendicular windows that intermittently puncture the wooden facade give any indication that the buildings are intentionally sloped.

Staircases spanning the length of each building link the five tiered floors inside, connecting bedrooms, a bathroom and a sauna on the upper storeys with a kitchen, living room and outdoor terrace on the levels below.

Last year another wooden house designed by Waldemarson Berglund was one of our most popular stories – see it here.

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

The following text is from the architects:

Åre Solbringen

3 houses on Åreskutan’s southern slope. Partly, the houses’ shape is a consequence of the urban regulations. Partly, the form is also the consequence of a discussion on the site.

The commission was to divide the plot into three equal ones where houses for recreational use would be built.

The property is located just outside Åre’s centre, in Åreskutan south-facing slope, overlooking the river and the mountains.

Building designs in Åre are often half buried houses in 1 ½ plans with a sloping roof and big gables facing the views down the mountain, resulting in houses with only one really profitable floor.

The half-buried level is partly windowless, and the upper level is limited by its low, sloping ceilings.

According to the local regulations the plot could only be divided in the direction of the slope, with a minimum size of 800 m2, maximum built area of 120 m2, minimum distance to the neighbouring property 4,5 m and maximum height of 5,2 m.

Being the slope one of the conditions for skiing it was tempting to let the buildings doing so. Or at least to let them give that impression.

So we decided to make a building which would lay over the ground without disturbing the mountain, where all the rooms would have a generous height and windows with views.

A connection axis extents along the building’s long side, divided in four generously sized sets of stairs. This space allows a view of the whole house from the entrance to the opposite end.

Height difference between the highest and lowest points is 31 stairs, as in any other 1 ½ storey house with two stair cases.

The difference, though, is that this house has 5 individual levels. The upper levels house the hall, two bedrooms, bathroom and sauna, and the two bottom levels the kitchen and the living room, with a terrace facing south.

The house is completely built in a wooden frame system. Due to the limited width of the house it was possible to use standard pieces everywhere but in the floor slabs, built in glued laminated timber.

The wooden construction rests over brick slabs located across the longitudinal axis of the houses. A wide vent runs along this axis, allowing the eaves to meet the ground cleanly and ”tightly”. Wooden panels are the facade’s material, which will darken and turn greyish as they age.

The wooden windows and doors have a painted steel exterior framing and the roof is built in painted, folded metal sheets. The floors are in massive oak, whilst walls and ceilings are finished in white plasterboard.

Project: Åre Solbringen
2006-2012
Björnänge, Åre, Sweden
Architect: Waldemarson Berglund Arkitekter AB, Stockholm. Jonas Waldemarson, Paulina Berglund, Hanna Kucera Wengelin

Designed in Hackney: our pick of design talent in the London borough of Hackney today is East London Furniture, a company that makes all its products from scrap materials found in the local area surrounding its shop on Hoxton Street.

Dezeen first discovered East London Furniture when we were based in nearby Rivington Street for Dezeen Space.

Everything is reclaimed and recycled in the workshop at the back, then displayed and sold in the shop at the front.

Products include benches, lighting, stools and accessories, displayed on the website alongside a record of who made each piece and on what date.

Going beyond the normal reclaimed timber yards, all materials used are salvaged from waste so that most materials used in the products have been diverted from landfill.

East London Furniture was founded in 2011 and is run by Ben Green, Reuben Le Prevost and Christian Dillon. Since forming they have worked in a series of empty shops around east London on short-term, “meanwhile” leases.

“So as well as materials we also upcycle property,” says Dillon.