Style of Design

Property development group Euroboden is building a unique apartment house at Johannisstraße in Mitte, Berlin’s downtown district. J. MAYER H. Architects’ design for the building, which will soon neighbor both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, reinterprets the classic Berliner Wohnhaus with its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard.

More images and description after the break.

A suspended lamella facade not only provides privacy but also draws historical reference to the elaborately decorated facades from the Wilhelminian period. Plans for the ground floor facing the street also include a number of commercial spaces. The generously sized apartments will face south-west, opening themselves to a view of the calm, carefully designed courtyard garden. Spacious, breezy transitions to the outside create an open residential experience in the middle of the city that, thanks to the variable heights of the different building levels, also offers an interesting succession of rooms.

The units’ varying floorplans and layouts indicate a number of housing options; condominiums are organized into townhouses with private gardens, classic apartments or penthouses with a spectacular view of the old Friedrichstadt. The integrated design concept, which incorporates everything from façade to stairwells, elevators to apartment interiors, promises a unique spatial and living experience with an eye to high design.

Property development group Euroboden is building a unique apartment house at Johannisstraße in Mitte, Berlin’s downtown district. J. MAYER H. Architects’ design for the building, which will soon neighbor both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, reinterprets the classic Berliner Wohnhaus with its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard.

More images and description after the break.

A suspended lamella facade not only provides privacy but also draws historical reference to the elaborately decorated facades from the Wilhelminian period. Plans for the ground floor facing the street also include a number of commercial spaces. The generously sized apartments will face south-west, opening themselves to a view of the calm, carefully designed courtyard garden. Spacious, breezy transitions to the outside create an open residential experience in the middle of the city that, thanks to the variable heights of the different building levels, also offers an interesting succession of rooms.

The units’ varying floorplans and layouts indicate a number of housing options; condominiums are organized into townhouses with private gardens, classic apartments or penthouses with a spectacular view of the old Friedrichstadt. The integrated design concept, which incorporates everything from façade to stairwells, elevators to apartment interiors, promises a unique spatial and living experience with an eye to high design.

French architect Jean Nouvel recently unveiled a shining new LEED Certified skyscraper on 11th avenue in New York City. The building features a stunning facade composed of 1,700 different panes of glass and is described by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect as a “vision machine”. With apartments reaching from $1.6 million to $22 million, one wonders if New York really needs another green luxury building when there’s so much need for affordable housing. But nonetheless, 100 Eleventh Avenue is a stunning portrayal of what modern design can accomplish in a city like the Big Apple.

Read the rest of Jean Nouvel Unveils Reflective LEED Certified Skyscraper in NYC

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It’s getting closer and closer. Shanghai World Expo 2010 is around the corner and we want to remind you some pavilions we’ve been featuring in the post. Check our fourth selection after the break!

French Pavillion

Jacques Ferrier Architects were selected to design the French Pavillion at Shanghai Expo 2010. Their project ‘The Sensual City’ is a simple building with a big style French garden inside. Surrounded by water it appears to be floating. The 6000 square meter pavillion will use advanced building materials and environmental protection technology including solar panels on top of the roof (read more…)

Hungarian Pavillion
Hungary inveiled the design for their pavillion for next year’s Shanghai World Expo, designed by Tamás Lévai. Gömböc, as a hungarian invention, is the central element of the exhibition, a two meter high solid plexiglass moving object (read more…)

The Shanghai Corporate Pavillion
In the past months we’ve been featuring several pavillions from the countries participating in the Shanghai World Expo 2010 (and many more to come). Today, we bring you the Shanghai Corporate Pavillion, designed by Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (read more…)

China Pavillion
The Chinese Pavillion for the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is already in construction. Being the country that hosts the World Expo, the pavillion designed by Chinese architect He Jingtang stands in the central location of the Expo site at 63 meters tall, which triple the height of any other pavillion. The main structure of the China Pavillion, “The Crown of the East,” has a distinctive roof, made of traditional dougong or brackets, which has a history dating back more than 2,000 years (read more…)

Malaysia Pavilion
Construction for the Malaysia Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo began a couple of weeks ago. The 3,000-square-meter pavilion will be like a traditional and high Malaysian hut. The facade of the pavilion will be made from a combination of palm oil and plastic, which will be recycled for other constructions after Expo (read more…)

Italian firm Studiodosi’s proposed building for the waterfront in Leeds, UK definitely packs a radical punch with its bright green facade, but its sustainable features are just as notable. Named “The Calls Henge,” the design was developed for the 36 Calls competition, which challenged architects to submit proposals for a site by the same address. Situated by the northern bank of the river Aire, the verdant building (which actually looks more like a hedge than a henge) is an eye-popping addition to the area.

Read the rest of Studiodosi’s Henge Adds a Radical, Modern Look to Leeds City Waterfront

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Our friends from Abitare shared this cool noodle shop designed by ISSHO Architects with us. Located in central Tokyo, the ‘soba’ noodle shop has Machiya-style wooden louvers, invoking a traditional Japanese townhouse.  The varying depth of each louver creates a textured sensation across the facade.  Regionally different patterns of light spill through the façade from the interior, allowing a gradual change of character at dawn, especially as viewed from the main street.  The facade aesthetic is modified on the interior’s ceiling as white curved panels contrast the concrete and wood dinning areas to soften the space.  A minimalistic residential apartment for the owner sits above the noodle shop.

More images after the break.

Images photographed by KOICHI TORIMURA

Our friends from Abitare shared this cool noodle shop designed by ISSHO Architects with us. Located in central Tokyo, the ‘soba’ noodle shop has Machiya-style wooden louvers, invoking a traditional Japanese townhouse.  The varying depth of each louver creates a textured sensation across the facade.  Regionally different patterns of light spill through the façade from the interior, allowing a gradual change of character at dawn, especially as viewed from the main street.  The facade aesthetic is modified on the interior’s ceiling as white curved panels contrast the concrete and wood dinning areas to soften the space.  A minimalistic residential apartment for the owner sits above the noodle shop.

More images after the break.

Images photographed by KOICHI TORIMURA

Studio Shift’s newest retail center runs along the riverside in Miyi, and its position allows it to capitalize on the naturally cleansed waters of the South Lake area.  The center creates a significant public space with a direct connection to the water so the complex becomes a destination for relaxation and water-based recreation due to the favorable climate.   Retail is arranged such that equipment for various watercrafts, which can be launched directly from the rental facility, line the channel while restaurants and a cafe sit along the pier. 

 More about the retail center after the break.

Evoking the materiality and massing of the mountainous terrain of Miyi, the three buildings are conceptually carved from one solid entity and reconnected through the public plaza.   The subtractive process frames views to the surroundings.  The stone-clad facade suggests weight and permanence and utilizes locally-sourced materials. 

 An extensive climbing wall that can be used both from the exterior and the intrior is articulated as a glass-clad void inserted into the solid mass of the structure.  The south-facing plaza maximizes sun exposure as it extends outward, its edge disintegrating into the water as a series of steps enabling residents and tourists to immerse their feet in the refreshing and naturally cleansed waters of the South Lake.  It is here where the descending plaza stairs meet a gradually submerged plane, providing the critical, yet casual transition from land to water-based activity. 

EOOS is well versed when it comes to interior design concepts and bringing them to reality. For A1 Mobilkom Austria’s leading mobile phone provider the creation was a combination of technology, innovative thinking, and cutting edge aesthetics. When entering the customer passes through a “fog facade” that produces various scenarios of transcendence according to the time of day. Once inside the store, people stroll among LCD tables. Each customer receives a “ghost mobile” crystalline body to represent a mobile phone. By just placing it on various surfaces visitors can make purchases by loading the real and virtual products into the transparent object – and pick up their items at the checkout counter. A “future ramp” where “future cubes” displaying upcoming products as holographs takes customers to a metallic wing from which they approach the monolithic white bar and lounge area. See more from EOOS here.

Post from Ultra Modern Interiors : A1 Mobilkom Store in Austria by EOOS

Alejo Bague

The Office of Architecture in Barcelona, OAB, just finished the Azahar Group headquarters in the Castellon region of Spain.  Since the Azahar Group is very active with recycling, waste-treatment plants, and the like, the building intends to serve as a manifesto, in a way, to showcase their ideas of the importance of maintaining a relationship with nature.

More about the headquarters and more images after the break.

Alejo Bague

With the mountains as a backdrop, the building’s two wings hold two different open patios.  The first patio, the ‘parade ground’, is an external gathering area for users, while the second patio is more reserved for private use. Inside, the company’s different departments are housed in the ends of each wing and converge at the main hall, a large exhibition space.

Alejo Bague

The building’s dominate roof-scape compliments the mountains, while, from a distance, the roofs situate the building in the landscape.  The geometry of the roof is carried through to the inside and ”the vision of the continuity
of these is produced by transparent glass supported on the dividers of the different rooms.”

Alejo Bague

A new material, a flexible and self-washing white stucco, was applied to the facade and the roof to create a continuity of materials.

All images © Alejo Bague and courtesy OAB.

As seen on designboom.

location: carretera nacional n-340, castellon
client: grupo de empresas azahar
date project: 2004
construction: 2009
author: carlos ferrater – nùria ayala
collaborator: emilio llobat
photographer: alejo bagué
area: 4.304 m2
cost: 1.711.142 Euros