Style of Design

© Bruno Helbling

Architects: Felber Szélpal Architekten ag, Solothurn
Location: Solothurn, Switzerland
Contractor: Galli AG, Surface and Civil Construction
Structural Engineering: BSB+Partners, Engineers and Planners
Furniture: Theo Jakob AG, Berne
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Bruno Helbling, Zurich

The narrow form of the property together with its descending topography has amazing architectural consequences on the house itself.

The result is an elongated cube with two floors on the basis of an S-shape in section. Because the plot is inclined lengthwise, the interior corresponds with the spaces outside on opposite ends of the building depending on the floor. The entrance on the ground floor is on a level with the site to the east front, whereas the garden can be reached to the west from the terrace above.

section

© Bruno Helbling

A marvelous view on the entire alpine panorama can be caught on the upper floor, a quality which brings in a hierarchy between above and below. Beside the entrance and the carport, the ground floor consists of other serving rooms like the office, the utility rooms and the cellar. All the main rooms for living are situated above, they are almost entirely oriented towards the view.

© Bruno Helbling

The monolithic concrete body has an elegant attitude, it appears clear and hard outside, while it is soft and warm inside. By its internal insulation, the construction can be adapted to changing needs of the family in a simple and economical manner also later on. The statics can easily be recognized outside, a long strip of a ribbon window relates the house to the panoramic view.

© Bruno Helbling

The building is inserted into the site without effecting much earthworks. Surrounding plants, flowers and trees create a powerful contrast between figure and nature.

Hugon Kowalski from H3AR shared his Watertower idea for the eVolo competition (see the winners in our previous article) with us.  His proposal addresses the growing need for water in Darfur, not only as a means to sustain life, but also to end the raging wars in the region.  Many feel the problems of Darfur will end once a viable water source is found.  Some are hopeful that water may be found in the region, however, a vast underground lake that scientists hoped could end violence, was just ruled to have probably dried up thousands of years ago because the area received too little rain and had the wrong rock types for water storage.  Kowalski’s scheme takes the water crisis into account and has developed a tower to aid in the finding of underground water.

More images and more about the tower after the break.

Kowalski’s tower  is meant to allow access to the underground water by the application of water pumps.  Inspired by water towers and also by the symbol of the African savanna – the baobab, the building houses water pumps, a treatment plant in addition to a hospital, school and a food storage center.  This building is meant to provoke economical development but also stimulate cultural exchange and the coexistence of the three different religions and languages.

“This building is to be a focal point that will provoke the formation of a new village; a new world united by the life giving power of water,” explained Kowalski.

Iseppi-Kurath’s winning competition for a highway service area intends to act as a “window towards the region”.  Located next to the exit Thusis-Nord at the highway A13 in Grisons, Switzerland, this service area boasts an expressive roof that “combines the architectural prelude of the building and brings together the entrance and exit of it.”

More about the service area and more images after the break.

The building’s layout, almost spiral in plan, allows customers to walk around the edges happening upon shops for produce and products, a restaurant, bar area, take-away, and tourism information, all with direct access from the outside.  The plan accommodates quieter areas for conference purposes and a serviced restaurant.

Large window opening toward the vast expanse of canyons (the Viamala and the Muttnerhöhe, Schin canyon) as well as the Domleschg valley.   The wooden interior adds to the  service area’s “warmth and cozy concealment.”

Structurally, the main load bearing elements are wood, complemented by some stiffening concrete slabs. These elements carry the interior wooden finishing and the exterior façade from metal. The building with its weatherproof and low maintenance façade from metal references through the formal design and choice of materials the surrounding landscape but also automobile technology.

The roof, a one meter thick folded surface, consists of beams from laminated wood and rafters.  The insulation is installed through a suspended ceiling. The wall elements of timber frame construction where prefabricated and mounted at the construction.

As seen on Bustler.  Photography by Thomas Drexel.

Project Details:
Project: Viamala Raststätte Thusis
Location: Viamala Raststätte Thusis, 7430 Thusis / Switzerland
Client: Viamala Raststätte Thusis AG (corporation)
Architecture: Iseppi/Kurath GmbH, Thusis
Building Engineering: Pöyry Infra AG, Chur
Wood Construction Engineering: Walter Bieler, Bonaduz

Materials:
Wood for construction: laminated (composite) wood 202 m3
Slat/two-by-four scantling 124 m3
Planks (timber roofing) 1,525 m2
Multi-functional boards 456 m2
Wall and ceiling finish (cover): timber 980 m2, teel 3,200 kg

Construction costs (total): CHF 9.5 Million (US$ 9 Million)
Plot area: 24,000 m2
GFA: 1,300 m2 ground floor, 380 m2 basement
Building volume: 8,500 m3
Price per cubic meter (BKP2, Swiss building cost indices): CHF 541 (US$ 511)
Construction period: August 2007 – June 2008

The project was also included in the “Exhibition
 Landmarks To-Be. Architecture and landscape projects for Graubünden” at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture gta of the ETH in Zurich along projects of Architects such as Valerio Olgiati, Peter Zumthor, Valentin Bearth/Andrea Deplazes.

Copyright© pedro kok – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuk/

It’s been more than two months since our latest Flickr Round Up and our pool has grown to almost 13,000 photos! You can check our previous selections here. As always, remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The picture above was taken by pedro kok in Barcelona, Spain. See the other four after the break.

Photo by Yasir Azami / Mumbai, India:

Copyright© Yasir Azami http://www.flickr.com/photos/yasir_azami/

Photo by pedro kok / São Paulo, Brazil:

Copyright© pedro kok – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuk/

Photo by naoyafujii / Tokyo, Japan:

Copyright© naoyafujii http://www.flickr.com/photos/naoyafujii/

Photo by naoyafujii / Tokyo, Japan:

Copyright© naoyafujii http://www.flickr.com/photos/naoyafujii/

Whatever the uses and abuses of climate research lately, buildings are still said to cause 40 percent of carbon emissions. As such, architects see themselves at the forefront against global warming. But why do most contemporary solutions involve evermore constraints? Indeed, it is now common to hear the argument that more restrictions aid creativity. Doesn’t more freedom aid creativity?

And what about the bureaucracy of carbon bean-counters? From Bioregional, the Carbon Trust and WWF to Biffa, WRAP and BRE, who are these unelected bodies that dictate environmental standards? What is the cost of prioritising carbon measuring, rationing, trading – carbon navel-gazing – in terms of design freedom and critical-thinking?

This, the first of three mantownhuman debates asks: Should architects not maximise – rather than minimise – their footprint? This event will take place March 25th, 7pm at BDP, Brewhouse Yard, London. Find out more here.

© Laurent Brandajs

Architect: Bekhor Architecte
Location: Ixelles, Brussels , Belgium
Client: Eva Franken
Total Area: 300 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Laurent Brandajs

The project take place in an atypical urban environment for a town like Brussels where row or town houses in a well aligned facades are rather the standard.

On the left side, the Léon Cuissez street has different scales of buildings and some unusual alignements. From multiple storey apartment buildings to small houses lost on the background as a witness of old discontinued urban outlines.

© Laurent Brandajs

Formerly, the place was a carpentry workshop that became neglected during the last 20 years. At the very beginning, this wall was just a protection between the private property and the public space, a fence wall. It was just 2m high with no other utility than to separate. The existing volume was constructed around 1930 by raising the main elevation over the existing fence wall and completing the volume enclosure behind it.

ground floor plan

The project guideline was first to play around this blank wall and to keep it as it is. To erect such a wall in an urban space is something difficult to vindicate. In this case the wall is used as a binder from the left, with the one level houses on the back, to the right, with the higher apartment building.

There were no certainty about the foundation of such a wall.It was decided to create a new steel structure inside the volume that would be at distance of these existing walls. Any other intervention would be based on this principle of “distance”.

© Laurent Brandajs

The facade of new part with the suspended cube on the right, is a result of the structure’s extension.

The structural grid in steel is filled by a wooden frame. The facade is expressed backwards the existing blank wall.

In order to emphasize the attitude towards this brick wall, a stair is backed on it and animated by an overhead light, offering different atmospheres during the day.

© Laurent Brandajs

The second guideline was to relink this unordered urban space. The new “skyline” of the project is made of different in a row of “step volumetry”.

Levels are open spaces, but each have connection with closed rooms in order to make privacy possible.

Material treatments are chosen to break the frontier between the inside and the outside.

These materials like steel, zinc, wood or coating are used in both situation in a fluid continuity.

On Friday, April 23, 2010, top UK, European and American industry leaders will gather at the Architectural Association in London for a day-long Think Tank to explore solutions that could change the building industry for the better.

Among the firms that will participate are: Adams Kara Tylor London / Atelier Ten / Grimshaw Architects LLP / Foster and Partners / Johnson Controls / Oldcastle Glass/ Arup / Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners / Turner Construction / Werner Sobek / NG Bailey Off-Site

The Think Tank will consist of three 90 minute sessions of a series of “pecha-kucha” style short presentations followed by roundtable discussions. The C-BIP London Think Tank is the second in a series hosted by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation and generously underwritten by Oldcastle Glass®.

For more information on this event, click here.

© A1Architects

Architects: A1Architects
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Project Team: Lenka Křemenová, David Maštálka
Client: Dr. Radek Pokorný, Dr. Dita Hašková
Graffiti: Alexey Klyuykov & Vít Svoboda / CAP
Project Area: 150 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: A1Architects

New space for Dental Clinic D.VISION was opened after refurbishing ground floor at 19th century apartement house in Prague. Beyond the regular dental treatment D.VISION practice also oral surgery, according to such a sensitive theme one of the main goals of architectural design was to break-through the stereotype of cold and often stressful enviroment of health care centres.

floor plan / after

floor plan / before

Rounded wall with oak veneer is the central motif and links the space of three treatment rooms and waiting area. Beyond the pleasant oak texture the atmosphere of waiting room is characteristic for its ubiquitous painting by Alexey Klyuykov and Vít Svoboda the members of CAP. Those golden graffiti naturaly leak in the interior from the street with its free funny attitude.

© A1Architects

The oak wall also comes through the surgeries and together with light glass mosaic tiling brings calm enviroment for precise and concentrated dentist´s work. The oak veneer is designed in contrary with white furnishing in all treatment rooms, where the white colour associates purity, which is natural and important in health care. The space harmony is achieved by interaction of pleasant character of natural material and perfectness of white colour. The interior is lit by series of round ceiling lights, which freely flow all around the space.

© A1Architects

There are several functions within 150 square meters such as two main surgeries, one treatment room for orthodontist and dental hygienist, panoramic X-ray unit, waiting room with reception and a large room for doctors to relax after concentrated work.

Copyright© pedro kok – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuk/

It’s been more than two months since our latest Flickr Round Up and our pool has grown to almost 13,000 photos! You can check our previous selections here. As always, remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The picture above was taken by pedro kok in Barcelona, Spain. See the other four after the break.

Photo by Yasir Azami / Mumbai, India:

Copyright© Yasir Azami http://www.flickr.com/photos/yasir_azami/

Photo by pedro kok / São Paulo, Brazil:

Copyright© pedro kok – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuk/

Photo by naoyafujii / Tokyo, Japan:

Copyright© naoyafujii http://www.flickr.com/photos/naoyafujii/

Photo by naoyafujii / Tokyo, Japan:

Copyright© naoyafujii http://www.flickr.com/photos/naoyafujii/

Whatever the uses and abuses of climate research lately, buildings are still said to cause 40 percent of carbon emissions. As such, architects see themselves at the forefront against global warming. But why do most contemporary solutions involve evermore constraints? Indeed, it is now common to hear the argument that more restrictions aid creativity. Doesn’t more freedom aid creativity?

And what about the bureaucracy of carbon bean-counters? From Bioregional, the Carbon Trust and WWF to Biffa, WRAP and BRE, who are these unelected bodies that dictate environmental standards? What is the cost of prioritising carbon measuring, rationing, trading – carbon navel-gazing – in terms of design freedom and critical-thinking?

This, the first of three mantownhuman debates asks: Should architects not maximise – rather than minimise – their footprint? This event will take place March 25th, 7pm at BDP, Brewhouse Yard, London. Find out more here.