Style of Design

It might look pretty, but if it doesn’t work then what good is it? This practical kitchen by Italian kitchen company Veneta Cucine has it all – fashion and function, all the while being efficient in terms of the Earth and economy. The Liquida kitchen created by Elisa Gargan and Stefano Giovannoni puts into practice some important principles, according to the designers. “The objectives that we were aiming for make it necessary for us to seek out high-performance technical materials that are wholly recyclable and can also be used to create new functional characteristics, such as doors which slide into cupboards.” This custom-style kitchen features modern, lacquered facades with minimalist details and an integrated light that illuminates your work space and looks out of this world! Visit Veneta Cucine for more info.

House M comes from Caramel Architects and is located in Linz, Austria. The first striking thing about this house is its exterior design: two facades have a hermetic appearance in order to prevent passers by from looking inside, while the other two feature windows from floor to ceiling. This design allows the building to receive plenty of natural light throughout the day, which is just one of the factors due to which this construction can be called highly economical and ecological. House M is built from prefabricated materials and has cellulose-fiber thermal isolation. The kitchen and dining rooms are spacious and open areas and offer great views of the near by pond.

© Marcos Mendizabal

Architects: Rearquitectura / Antonio Menéndez Ferrer – Cristian Barrientos Vera
Location: Cerro Yungay, Valparaiso, Chile
Client: Inmobiliaria Rearquitectura Ltda.
Contractor: JMC Constructora Limitada
Structure Engineer: Jorge Dadhal Casas-Cordero.
MEP: H.A.O. Ingeniería.
Site Area: 400 sqm
Project Area: 1,350 sqm
Project Year: 2008–2009
Photographs: Marcos Mendizabal

Lofts Yungay II is a collective housing building located in the outskirts of the World Heritage Area of Valparaíso, Chile. This city is one of the largest Chilean ports in the Pacific Ocean. Valparaiso’s landscape is very characteristic due to its many hills packed with colorful houses almost falling out of the cliffs. Each house is different from one another, but together they create a harmonic landscape.

location plan

The project’s lot is located in a hill side with a strong slope in both north-south and east-west directions. The site has two main facades; the east façade faces the street at the top of the hill, mean while the west façade faces a steep cliff.

© Marcos Mendizabal

The project was intended to blend into this urban landscape characterized by the combination of small colorful houses dispersed throughout the steep hillside. The building required to house 20 units, and thus its volume was much larger than the neighboring houses and would require a heavy intervention of the hill’s geography. This would destroy the scale and geography of this urban landscape.

To blend, the project required a smaller scale, and required to adapt into the geography. For this reason the building was fragmented into a series of smaller volumes. Each of these volumes is an individual unit, and has an individual color. They are placed at different altitudes following the slope of the hill, and thus, adapting the building into its geography. On the rear façade the units are slightly turned accentuating the idea of a combination of smaller units instead of a sole large volume. On the main façade, the volumes are aligned respecting the continuous façade of the street.

© Marcos Mendizabal

Certain construction elements that are present in the surrounding historical buildings, such as the small-wave galvanized coating and the tall wooden windows, were used in the facades. These were combined with new elements such as the double height windows and the perforated steel sheets of the parking lot gates. Together, these old and new elements mix into a contemporary façade with a strong local identity.

In the interior, the building is structured with a north-south axis containing three levels of corridors. Each one of these corridors has a series of short ladders that reflect how the building adapts to the slope of the site. The up most corridor has a succession of skylights separated from each other by colorful volumes, allowing the natural illumination of this area.

© Marcos Mendizabal

The building contains 20 lofts. The corridor at level -1 leads to the storerooms and to 6 two-story units, each one with a small garden overlooking the cliff. The street level contains the parking lots and 3 one story lofts. Finally, on level +1 are the entrances to 11 three-story lofts, each one with a roof-top terrace and a wide view towards the ocean.

© Marcos Mendizabal

Architects: Rearquitectura / Antonio Menéndez Ferrer – Cristian Barrientos Vera
Location: Cerro Yungay, Valparaiso, Chile
Client: Inmobiliaria Rearquitectura Ltda.
Contractor: JMC Constructora Limitada
Structure Engineer: Jorge Dadhal Casas-Cordero.
MEP: H.A.O. Ingeniería.
Site Area: 400 sqm
Project Area: 1,350 sqm
Project Year: 2008–2009
Photographs: Marcos Mendizabal

Lofts Yungay II is a collective housing building located in the outskirts of the World Heritage Area of Valparaíso, Chile. This city is one of the largest Chilean ports in the Pacific Ocean. Valparaiso’s landscape is very characteristic due to its many hills packed with colorful houses almost falling out of the cliffs. Each house is different from one another, but together they create a harmonic landscape.

location plan

The project’s lot is located in a hill side with a strong slope in both north-south and east-west directions. The site has two main facades; the east façade faces the street at the top of the hill, mean while the west façade faces a steep cliff.

© Marcos Mendizabal

The project was intended to blend into this urban landscape characterized by the combination of small colorful houses dispersed throughout the steep hillside. The building required to house 20 units, and thus its volume was much larger than the neighboring houses and would require a heavy intervention of the hill’s geography. This would destroy the scale and geography of this urban landscape.

To blend, the project required a smaller scale, and required to adapt into the geography. For this reason the building was fragmented into a series of smaller volumes. Each of these volumes is an individual unit, and has an individual color. They are placed at different altitudes following the slope of the hill, and thus, adapting the building into its geography. On the rear façade the units are slightly turned accentuating the idea of a combination of smaller units instead of a sole large volume. On the main façade, the volumes are aligned respecting the continuous façade of the street.

© Marcos Mendizabal

Certain construction elements that are present in the surrounding historical buildings, such as the small-wave galvanized coating and the tall wooden windows, were used in the facades. These were combined with new elements such as the double height windows and the perforated steel sheets of the parking lot gates. Together, these old and new elements mix into a contemporary façade with a strong local identity.

In the interior, the building is structured with a north-south axis containing three levels of corridors. Each one of these corridors has a series of short ladders that reflect how the building adapts to the slope of the site. The up most corridor has a succession of skylights separated from each other by colorful volumes, allowing the natural illumination of this area.

© Marcos Mendizabal

The building contains 20 lofts. The corridor at level -1 leads to the storerooms and to 6 two-story units, each one with a small garden overlooking the cliff. The street level contains the parking lots and 3 one story lofts. Finally, on level +1 are the entrances to 11 three-story lofts, each one with a roof-top terrace and a wide view towards the ocean.

© Kaj Lergaard

Architects: CEBRA
Location: Denmark
Builder: M2 A/S
Project Area: 164 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Kaj Lergaard

By using the “pleated facades” (giving name to the house) the Sinus_House is meant to combine the wish of having large glass areas and view with the wish of privacy.

diagram 01

diagram 02

The concave cuttings in the long side of the wing house function as large reflectors of light, and irrespective of the position of the sun in relation to the house they secure that daylight is being let into the house – either directly through the large glass areas or reflected by the white surfaces opposite the glass areas. Even when the sunlight falls longitudinally on the façade the home will be filled with warm light.

diagram 03

diagram 04

Moreover the white cuttings function as shielded terraces. In this place, which is connected to the family room or sitting room, you can sit peacefully and sheltered, weather permitting. As there are cuttings on both sides of the house you are free to choose between sun or shadow.

Arrangement

© Kaj Lergaard

The rooms inside the house are arranged as independent boxes which together form a central area for common stay: kitchen, family room and sitting room. The bedroom with its own bathroom and toilet is one independent unit. Opposite the bedroom the two rooms are placed end to end. Between the rooms there is a recess, which can be used by children or adults as you prefer, or it can be used as a third room. Placed on each side of the entrance hall you find utility room and guest toilet. Above this there is a room in the attic for storage. There is direct access to either utility room or entrance hall from the integrated carport with place for 2 cars. There is a tool shed in connection with the carport.

Materials

© Kaj Lergaard

The house appears as a dark mass with white pleatings or cuttings – it almost corresponds to cutting a piece of an apple. The dark surfaces of the house consist of a roof covered with fillets and felt and glossy walls of anthracite grey bricks and dark joints. The white cuttings are covered by plaster and painted. All window frames in the dark areas are black, whereas they are white in the cuttings. Inside the house all ceilings and walls have a smooth, white finish. All rooms have wooden floors, except for wet rooms and weather porch, where tiles are more obvious. Kitchen arrangement, sanitary appliances and white goods are to be designed and selected together with the builder of the house.

© Kaj Lergaard

Architects: CEBRA
Location: Denmark
Builder: M2 A/S
Project Area: 164 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Kaj Lergaard

By using the “pleated facades” (giving name to the house) the Sinus_House is meant to combine the wish of having large glass areas and view with the wish of privacy.

diagram 01

diagram 02

The concave cuttings in the long side of the wing house function as large reflectors of light, and irrespective of the position of the sun in relation to the house they secure that daylight is being let into the house – either directly through the large glass areas or reflected by the white surfaces opposite the glass areas. Even when the sunlight falls longitudinally on the façade the home will be filled with warm light.

diagram 03

diagram 04

Moreover the white cuttings function as shielded terraces. In this place, which is connected to the family room or sitting room, you can sit peacefully and sheltered, weather permitting. As there are cuttings on both sides of the house you are free to choose between sun or shadow.

Arrangement

© Kaj Lergaard

The rooms inside the house are arranged as independent boxes which together form a central area for common stay: kitchen, family room and sitting room. The bedroom with its own bathroom and toilet is one independent unit. Opposite the bedroom the two rooms are placed end to end. Between the rooms there is a recess, which can be used by children or adults as you prefer, or it can be used as a third room. Placed on each side of the entrance hall you find utility room and guest toilet. Above this there is a room in the attic for storage. There is direct access to either utility room or entrance hall from the integrated carport with place for 2 cars. There is a tool shed in connection with the carport.

Materials

© Kaj Lergaard

The house appears as a dark mass with white pleatings or cuttings – it almost corresponds to cutting a piece of an apple. The dark surfaces of the house consist of a roof covered with fillets and felt and glossy walls of anthracite grey bricks and dark joints. The white cuttings are covered by plaster and painted. All window frames in the dark areas are black, whereas they are white in the cuttings. Inside the house all ceilings and walls have a smooth, white finish. All rooms have wooden floors, except for wet rooms and weather porch, where tiles are more obvious. Kitchen arrangement, sanitary appliances and white goods are to be designed and selected together with the builder of the house.

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.

© 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.

© 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.