Hasta La Ideas

This children’s playhouse by Barcelona architects Anna & Eugeni Bach has stripy wooden walls, folding window hatches and a ladder instead of stairs.

The architects designed and constructed the folly at their parent’s farm in southern Finland, following a request from their children for a house of their own.

Assembled from nothing but locally milled spruce, the structure comprises two connected modules with roofs that pitch in different directions.

One side of the playhouse contains a double-height room, while the opposite half comprises two storeys.

We’ve also previously featured a playhouse inside a clothes store – take a look here.

Photography is by Tiia Ettala.

Here’s some more text from Bach Arquitectes:

Playhouse

When an architect couple has young kids, there will arrive a day when they ask:

– Mom, dad… You´re architects, aren’t you?
– Yes…
– And you make houses for people?
– Yes, of course…

And then comes the key question:

– So why don’t you do a house for us?

In such a situation, there are two possibilities: find an excuse to avoid it, or promise them that you will make a house especially designed for them.

We found ourselves in this stuation last summer, and we promised them that we would build a house for them on their grandparents farm in Finland. And, of course, at the kids insistence we fulfilled our promise.

The cottage is mainly based on a section: the structure is very simple, repeated in two equal modules but oriented in opposite directions. One of these modules is double-height (to the scale of children), which allows an adult to enter the house without having to bend. The other module has two levels, connected by a simple ladder allowing a more complex game inside.

This simple starting point means that from the outside, the house acquires the presence of an almost abstract object, without reference to the scale; while inside, when crossing the two modules you can identify the prototypical section of a childish house, with the typical symmetrical roof, like those we drew ourselves when we were kids.

The interior becomes what children understand as an essential house: a larger space that could be the living room, a lower space where the kitchen could be imagined and a higher ground where there could be the rooms. The abstract nature of the interior spaces allows a child´s imagination to flow, and those spaces that could be identified as a domestic interior can suddenly become the dungeon of a medieval castle, or the attic in the main tower from which to shoot arrows at enemies.

The construction of the house took two weeks. It was all built by two persons (ourselves, plus two little helpers), and was an educational process as rewarding as pedagogic: children saw and understood that things are achieved with effort, and that you can build your own dreams.

For the structure and the floors we used spruce wood from the grandparent´s farm, from trees planted by the kids´ great grandfather and cut by their grandfather. The rest of the wood was bought at the hardware store, from small wood sawmills in the area.

The whole house is made of wood; structure, floors, walls and roof, using traditional construction techniques used in Finnish barns such as leaving a nail distance between slats to ventilate the house, or a roofing system made from a simple overlapping of grooved wooden planks to prevent the ingress of water.

Only a small galvanized flashing helps protecting the wood cuts at the facades.

The house was painted with vertical white stripes, which persist on the roof and help to explain the original section of the project. The rest of the wood is left untreated, so that over time it will take a grayish hue that will increasingly contrast with the painted surfaces, showing more obviously as time goes on, and also symbolising how children get older.

These strips give a festive character to the volume, likening it to a fair house or an old beach changing hut, although in this case, its location in a rural environment, surrounded by apple trees, adds a more dreamlike character.

Author: Anna & Eugeni Bach, architects
Collaborators: Uma and Rufus Bach
Project dates: From July 20th to July 21st 2011
Work site dates: From August 10th to August 24th 2011
Built surface: 13,50 m2
Budget: 800 €
Promoter / owner: Uma and Rufus Bach
Constructor: Self built (Anna & Eugeni Bach)
Address: Pälölä farm, Nummi Pusula, Finland.

Ribbed timber framework folds around the walls and ceiling of this bar in Porto by Portuguese studio AVA Architects (photos by José Campos).

The three floors of La Bohème include a first-floor mezzanine and a basement.

The walls between the wooden ribs are painted black, while all furniture is made from wood and black fabric.

We also recently published a lime green school by AVA architects – take a look here.

Here’s a longer project description from the architects:

Bar “La Bohème entre amis”, Oporto – Portugal
The Bar “La Bohème” (entre amis) is located in the “Galeria de Paris” street, amidst the downtown area of Porto.

The redesign sought to implement and structuralize the space, creating its own identity.

The solution was formalized through the texture and the colour of the wood, which defines the space and provides depth to the structure’s design.

This structure, which was placed along the corridors and namely at the walls and ceiling, allows to subvert the whole appearance of the space, appealing to its visitors sense of discovery.

The bar spans three levels: the main floor, basement and a mezzanine.

The latter establishes a visual relationship with the main floor.

The bar counter is located at the main floor’s bigger span, next to the entrance door and public access.

The previously adopted functional solution was maintained, although we opted to change the (only) existing counter’s location in order to give it a larger dimension, functionality and space for its customers.

The involving wooden structure was maintained on the lower level (basement) as to create uniformity with the main floor, and a large wine showcase was added.

The building’s facade is clad in granite ashlar.

We assumed that the previous window frames were made of solid wood, as to the resemblance of some existing adjacent buildings.

Changes made to the facade were solely at the level of framework and entrance span, combining an “Afizélia” wood (natural colour) with colourless laminated glass.

The proposed functional solution seemed more appropriate for the establishment’s new areas of operation and organization.

The composition and design of the elements in the framework were formulated taking into account the interior design of the space, while introducing rhythm by drawing vertical uprights.

This also ensured some security, preventing the installation of security systems previously installed.

Stockholm designer Anki Gneib challenged artistic collective SX70 Europe to transport her enormous carved candlesticks from their place of manufacture in the woods of Sorvi-Pojat in Finland to her studio in Stockholm. They decided to wear suits for the occasion and photograph the journey.

Eirik V Johnsen and Kristian Pohl of Mentalpropell transported the Holy candle sticks as the first in a series of experiments called Overland Express, for which they intend to photograph large and unwieldy objects as they’re transported across different landscapes.

Gneib’s candle holders are each carved from a single piece of wood with a brass insert in the top to protect them from fire.

There’s also a smaller version called Holy Moly.

She showed them at NK department store during Stockholm Design Week, which took place from 6 to 12 February. See all our stories about the event here.

Here are some more details from Anki Gneib:

HOLY – by Anki Gneib

More than ever we need to surround ourselves with objects that inspire us, that create a mood and make us reflect. The monumental candlestick Holy encourages us to celebrate in our everyday lives.

Holy embraces the Scandinavian traditions of worship and the importance of illumination during our long winter nights with the magical warmth of the candlelight.

The shapes are drawn from classical models, each with its own expression, that complement and interact
with each other.

They are turned from a single piece of wood, with a natural finish or painted with Swedish traditional colors.

HOLY MOLY: height 1600, 1400 and 1100 mm.
Adapted for pillar candles with 150 and 80 mm in diameter.

HOLY: height 570, 490 and 390 mm.
Adapted for taper candles, tealights and pillar candles with 40 mm in diameter.

Each candle has a candleholder in brass to protect against fire and candlegrease.

HOLY has had a long journey. I was curious to see how HOLY would interact with the landscape and challenged the artist collective SX70 Europe to travel with HOLY from Sorvi-Pojat in Finland to Stockholm. They have done this in their own inimitable style, and I am proud to share their project SILENT CARGO with you.

SILENT CARGO – an Overland Express project by SX70 Europe

We wanted to explore how HOLY would interact with the slow, flat landscape in Ostrobothnia. The suited gentlemen from mentalpropell.com accepted the task of letting HOLY inspire them on their way from Sievi to Stockholm. Their investigation of HOLY has led us to see new aspects, both of the candlesticks and of the suited gentlemen. Transporting monumental candlesticks led us to new insights on the interaction between physical objects, people and landscapes.

Kristian Pohl and Eirik Vandvik Johnsen has explored Deadline Art projects since 1988. «Silent Cargo» is our 18th project, and the first one in the series «Overland Express». Later «Overland Express» projects will further investigate what happens when large, unwieldy, mysterious objects are transported over large distances.

Bartholomäus Traubeck est un designer vivant à Rotterdam qui a eu l’excellente idée de penser Years, ce projet de lecteur de disques de bois à la manière des vinyles. Avec une vidéo de qualité, ce projet intéressant est à découvrir dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Nadia Camera
• Willy Verginer
• Hopen Place

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Stockholm 2012: Londoner Benjamin Hubert has designed a fruit bowl for Swedish brand David Design with concentric circles milled out of a slice of oak, cut deeper as they approach the centre to form a stepped dish.

These steps reduce the surface area of the fruit that’s touching the bowl, allowing air to circulate and preventing mould.

Called Halo, the bowl is part of David Design’s Atelier collection, which also includes the Heart Chair by Claesson Koivisto Rune that we published yesterday.

Stockholm Furniture Fair took place 7-11 February. See all our stories about it here.

Here are some more details from Benjamin Hubert:

Halo – Benjamin Hubert x David Design

Halo is a range of geometric CNC cut Solid Oak fruit bowls designed by Benjamin Hubert for Scandinavian brand David Design’s ‘Atelier collection’.

The bowls signature is a series of concentric ribs in the surface, these ribs allow for a minimum surface area contact with the fruit contents. This allows for optimum airflow beneath the fruit decreasing the presence of mould and increasing the shelf life of the produce.

David Design has re-launched under New management and art direction in 2012 working with a number of established and up and coming designers under new management and art Direction.

Materials:

Oak with natural oil
Oak with black stain

Dimensions W320mm x H60mm