Style of Design

Some great projects we want you to see you may have missed during the weekend. Check them all after the break!

Grand Canal Theatre / Daniel Libeskind
The concept of the Grand Canal Square Theatre and Commercial Development is to build a powerful cultural presence expressed in dynamic volumes sculpted to project a fluid and transparent public dialogue with the cultural, commercial and residential surroundings whilst communicating the various inner forces intrinsic to the Theatre and office buildings (read more…)

The 22 / JSª
Facing a peruvian beach, 30 miles from Lima, El 22 is arranged with 4 beach apartments suitable for families. It’s rectangular terrain has 389 m2 of area and spectacular views to the marine landscape. Showing respect to the complex’s regulations, the project dares to expose at 2.00mts of height from the “malecón”, with such space that includes pool, waiting area, patio, kitchen and services (read more…)

Metzgerstüble Bar / DI Bernardo Bader
DI Bernardo Bader Architects have designed the Metzgerstüble bar and café in the Austrian town of Mellau. The cafe is situated between one of the small town’s main roads and the water. Made of wooden strips that vary in size to break the monotony of an entirely wood furnished structure, the cafe has a punched in window facing the water, while the front entry is more open (read more…)

Inhabitat readers huffprojects recently wrote in to tell us about this green office complex they designed for their clients R. B. Murray and Co. Here at Inhabitat we have been referring to this beautiful building as the Butterfly House because it features a distinguished butterfly roof that opens to allow a maximum amount of daylight into the building’s open offices, executive core, and conference rooms. This roof has greatly reduced the need for artificial lighting during the day. As for the other green aspects of this project they intend to use natural, recycled and reclaimed materials, and the building’s design features natural ventilation, air filtration, and abundant views of the landscape. Such features have the added benefit of improving the quality of the work environment and employee productivity.

The building will exhibit a warm aesthetic that is pleasing to both occupants and those passing by. The new R.B. Murray Company office building signifies the company’s forward thinking commitment to creating an architecturally progressive and environmentally conscious future.

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Post tags: air filtration, butterfly house, butterfly roof, Green Building, hufft projects, huft project, huft projects, natural ventilation, R. B. Murray and Co., Sustainable Building

Here’s  a kind of project we don’t frequently see a lot of…a public bathroom facility.   Shuichiro Yoshida, a Tokyo based architect, designed lavatories housed on less than 9m2 of ground space in Chikusei City.   The site is a historic storage building, (one of the few still standing after the WWII), and a volunteer group obtained the ownership of  the building to use as their activity base for “discovering the region-specific historical and cultural heritages.”  Yoshia was asked to add lavatories for visitors and staff (as there are none within the building).   Faced with such a small area of land to provide facilities for both men and women, the bathrooms are, in fact, an elegant addition to the main building.  Due to the small footprint, the bathrooms maintain an open feeling because they are open to a high ceiling with exposed timber supports.   The lavatories are seen as a way to not only preserve the region-specific landscape but also to create new landscape for the future.   The exterior is clad in elastic plasterer finish while the interior walls are finished in a white material known as “Shikkui” which has humid conditioning and fire prevention.

More images after the break.

As seen on Weheart.

What could be more relaxing than spending a weekend drifting out to sea on your own floating island? Throw in some vertical gardens, a lush green landscape, and a luxury spa and you’ve really got our attention. That’s the draw behind this floating garden spa designed by Dutch architects Studio Noach and Anne Holtrop. The structure’s interior contains baths, saunas, and treatment rooms, while the exterior is wrapped in an insulating shell of greenery designed by vertical gardens innovator Patrick Blanc.

The exhibition ”Eurovisions”, designed by Fantastic Norway, features the winners of Europan 10.  It recently opened at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo.

“Eurovisions” consists of a vast number of hovering cityscape profiles, portraying the three current Europan sites. Together the silhouettes create a vast graphical landscape, creating a pseudo-3D or “two-and-a-half-dimensional” effect as you walking through it. This technique was widely used in early Disney movies (as well as in classic theatre scenography) to create the sensation of depth and movement through 2 dimensional drawings.

Runner up – and winner projects were exposed at the back of these silhouettes. In addition to this the exhibition features an educational area where information, facts and models of the Europan cities are exposed. Projected onto the walls, fake TV-news clips (set in a not to distant future) reports a variety of stories portraying possible futures for the cities at hand.

More images after the break.

The exhibition ”Eurovisions”, designed by Fantastic Norway, features the winners of Europan 10.  It recently opened at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo.

“Eurovisions” consists of a vast number of hovering cityscape profiles, portraying the three current Europan sites. Together the silhouettes create a vast graphical landscape, creating a pseudo-3D or “two-and-a-half-dimensional” effect as you walking through it. This technique was widely used in early Disney movies (as well as in classic theatre scenography) to create the sensation of depth and movement through 2 dimensional drawings.

Runner up – and winner projects were exposed at the back of these silhouettes. In addition to this the exhibition features an educational area where information, facts and models of the Europan cities are exposed. Projected onto the walls, fake TV-news clips (set in a not to distant future) reports a variety of stories portraying possible futures for the cities at hand.

More images after the break.

The design inspiration for these storage cabinets come from landscape found in nature. The product comes from Arflex and is called “Hillside” due its resemblance of the ebb and flow of hills in a landscape. Hillside comes in several colors and is intended to provide extra storage space in a living room, bedroom or media room. More information: here.

Post from Arflex Hillside Storage Cabinets

Working with the idea of “creating a society that is based on quality not quantity, on cooperation and not competition,” CTRLZ architectures have rethought a new model for, not just a building, but rather for society.  Due to the on-going “cultural revolution” we are experiencing, the way we approach solving the problems of the world have changed, and architecture along with it.  Now, the architect must not merely respond to designing spaces, but to other factors, such as  society, energy, the internet, and politics, as well. “We believe that architecture is not anymore about form and/or/…function, but that it is about relations. The development of network systems shows us that the power resides in links and connections.”

More about the model and more images after the break.

Their new decentralized mode of living emphasizes the interconnectivity of social spaces and a transparent model of energy and production to create a collaborative base.  “This is to promote a transparent hyperlocalized society and culture, where inhabitants can develop a public consciousness about their life cost in term of product waste and energy consumption.”

The raised housing units share a landscaped area as private and public spaces then branch off.  The ground level lacks built construction and is, instead, left for the cows and cultivation. “From the bottom to the sky, the succession of relational function is (-1) commerce /// (0) landscape and food production /// (2) housing /// (3) social public places and /// (4) energy collect,” explained the architects.

Follow CTRLZ on twitter.

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. (Design Architect); Institute of Architectural Design and Planning with Atelier Zhang Lei (Chinese architect of record)
Location: Nanjing, China
Client: Nanjing University
Project Area: 16,000 sqm
Budget: RMB 3,000/sqm
Design Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Iwan Baan

context plan

© Iwan Baan

Located centrally in the new Nanjing University Campus in Xianlin, this building aims to offer a singular expression of the dialogue between two opposing paradigmatic forms of symbolic significance: a curving roof that appears to be related to the landscape of the larger campus context, and a tower which acts as a beacon and observation point. The design exploits the techniques and economy of local construction practices as a means to develop an exceptional form. The interior follows an exceedingly compact plan of different types and sizes of rooms and auditoriums.

© Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

Architects: Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. (Design Architect); Institute of Architectural Design and Planning with Atelier Zhang Lei (Chinese architect of record)
Location: Nanjing, China
Client: Nanjing University
Project Area: 16,000 sqm
Budget: RMB 3,000/sqm
Design Year: 2007
Construction Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Iwan Baan

context plan

© Iwan Baan

Located centrally in the new Nanjing University Campus in Xianlin, this building aims to offer a singular expression of the dialogue between two opposing paradigmatic forms of symbolic significance: a curving roof that appears to be related to the landscape of the larger campus context, and a tower which acts as a beacon and observation point. The design exploits the techniques and economy of local construction practices as a means to develop an exceptional form. The interior follows an exceedingly compact plan of different types and sizes of rooms and auditoriums.

© Iwan Baan