© Maxwell MacKenzie Architectural

Architects: Robert M. Gurney Architect
Location: Albemarle County, Virginia, USA
Project Architect: Claire L. Andreas
Completed: November 2011
Photographs: Maxwell MacKenzie Architectural

© Maxwell MacKenzie Architectural

Rolling pastures, bordered with dark, stained fences interspersed in woodlands define the Albemarle County, Virginia countryside where this project is located. The new house is sited at the edge of woodland on the crest of a hill, providing vantage view points of the pastures and distant treetops.

© Maxwell MacKenzie Architectural

The house is conceived of three gable-roofed pavilions that provide a threshold between the woodlands and the pastures, taking advantage of two very different scenic panoramas. The one room deep, central living pavilion contains large expanses of glass along two walls, affording views of both the woods and rolling horse pastures.

© Maxwell MacKenzie Architectural

This configuration insures the space will be flooded with light at all times of the day throughout the year. A screened porch and bluestone terrace, running the length of the house provides a stage to view sunsets over the pastures while a manicured lawn and dry-stacked slate wall provide an ordered transition from the house to the woods beyond.

axonometric

Gable roofs with black, standing seam metal, clapboard siding and the small scale of the separated pavilions evoke a familiar, comfortable rural vernacular. The large expanses of glass, cement board paneling and crisp, minimal detailing render the house decidedly modern.

© Luxigon

Architect: REX
Location: Seoul, Korea
Built Area: 115,500 sqm (1,240,000 sqf)
Completion year: 2016
Program: 47,800 sqm of luxury housing for short-term residents, 27,000 sqm of retail, and 929 parking stalls
Renderings: Luxigon and Rex

YIBD “Project R6” is an urban boutique residence for short-term business people, young urban professionals, and foreign residents. Due to the transience of its target users and the short durations during which they are home, R6’s unit sizes are small, including 40 sqm, 50 sqm, and 60 sqm residences, with the majority being 40 sqm.

© Luxigon

To meet the trends of its users and compensate for its small unit size, R6 must engender a strong sense of community and its residences must be highly attractive, providing generous views, daylight, and cross-ventilation. Maximizing daylight and cross-ventilation are also paramount to providing a highly sustainable residence.

© REX

In a standard housing tower, 40 sqm to 60 sqm units would create poorly dimensioned and oppressive residences, offering constrained views, little daylight, and poor ventilation, and community would be limited to activities at the tower’s base.

© Luxigon

By pulling layers of the typical housing tower in opposing directions, the small units maintain their size, but are stretched into favorable proportions that provide views and daylight from both sides, excellent cross-ventilation, and a strong sense of community through the creation of a central courtyard, roof terraces, and conversation / reading/ play pods.

© REX

The stretched layers are strategically positioned to guarantee unobstructed daylight into all units, and to create adequate continuity of the building’s primary structure: a concrete-encased steel mega-brace that encircles the courtyard.

© REX

The mega-brace supports a shelf-like matrix of walls and floor slabs that define each unit. Into each shelf is inserted a wooden shell containing a bathroom on one side and a kitchen on the other. A movable wall—using standard compact shelving technology—shifts within the unit to define a bedroom (adjacent to the bathroom) or a living room (adjacent to the kitchen). The wall includes a bed, nightstands, couch, television mount, task lights, and storage.

section

A high-performance façade—composed of frameless IGUs—emphasizes the remarkable exterior views while interior black-out and shade roller blinds control sunlight and glare. The floor to ceiling interior façade—also composed of frameless IGUs and equipped with black-out and shade roller blinds—provides spatial relief and a sense of community while maintaining privacy.

sketch

The resulting architecture provides views and daylight from both sides, and excellent cross-ventilation. Community and spatial relief are further generated by conversation/reading/play pods extending into the courtyard. The pods playfully assume the varying widths of the walls behind such that no views are blocked and privacy in the units is maintained.

site plan

Block R6 is a narrow parcel bounded by the planned Mountain Park—including Children’s Interactive Spray Park, Rail Road Museum, Outdoor Amphitheater, and Yongsan Station Esplanade—and the central park of the planned development Zone B3, adjacent to Hangang-ro. By placing the building to the south of Block R6, all units command great views and the building forms a gateway to YIBD from Hangang-ro.

Key Personnel: Tiago Barros, Adam Chizmar, Danny Duong, Luis Gil, Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, SeokHun Kim, Armen Menendian, Romea Muryń, Roberto Otero, Se Yoon Park, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Lena Reeh Rasmussen, Yuan Tiauriman
Executive Architect: Mooyoung
Consultants: Barker Mohandas, Buro Happold, Front, Level Acoustics,Magnusson Klemencic, Scape, Shen Milsom Wilke, Tillotson Design

Ayer Jueves 17 de Mayo El Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo junto al PNUD realizaron un seminario acerca de la nueva Política Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano. Ignacio Voullième Bruñol, Sociólogo de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Alumno del diplomado de Planificación y Gestión Urbana Integrada de la Universidad Católica, asistió a este seminario y nos mandó este resumen con algunas de sus impresiones sobre lo ocurrido.

El Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo junto con el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo llevaron a cabo ayer jueves 17 de Mayo un seminario en el Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral con el fin de exponer “algo” relacionado con la nueva Política Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano. Esta actividad se está desarrollando en todas las regiones, por tanto será exhibido en 15 oportunidades con exponentes diversos.

En este seminario participó el ministro Pérez Mackenna quién abrió la jornada con una ponencia sobre el estado actual de nuestras ciudades, mostrando principalmente lo necesario que es el proceso que se está desarrollando. Luego de eso vino Pilar Jiménez y José Ramón Ugarte, miembros de la comisión presidencial. Luego de estas exposiciones la información entregada a la ciudadanía se resume en los siguientes puntos:

• La política nacional de desarrollo urbano (PNDU) no parte de cero, si no que retoma las discusiones y avances realizados por los gobiernos anteriores.

• La comisión presidencial está divida en cuatro subsectores de Planificación, Institucionalidad, Patrimonio e Integración Social.

• Existirán cuatro momentos en la elaboración de la PNDU, siendo el primero el de conformación de la comisión, subdivisión, recopilación de antecedentes. Luego el proceso de construcción de un borrador de la PNDU, para dar paso al tercer momento de discusión y corrección de ese borrador para finalmente buscar la firma presidencial.

• Se generarán actividades “participativas” como esta para el diálogo con la ciudadanía. Estas reuniones regionales en el primer y luego en el tercero de los periodos para trabajar sobre un borrador ya construido de la PNDU.

Luego, en el segundo periodo vinieron los comentarios de Josefa Errazuriz de Ciudad Viva, Luis Eduardo Bresciani académico PUC, entre otros. Desde donde se manifestó la real inquietud sobre lo que ellos llaman “participación” debido a que instancias como esta solo existe un interlocutor que no recibe ninguna respuesta desde el público. Se propuso también la inclusión de agendas de trabajo propuestas desde organizaciones como Ciudad Viva y otras. Finalmente hubo una ronda muy corta de preguntas que se hicieron a través de papeles que fueron filtrados por el moderador, en donde la mayoría de las respuestas las llevó a cabo la representante de la comisión presidencial. La más destacable de las preguntas apuntó hacia la inexistencia de una subcomisión de Sustentabilidad y quienes serán los expertos que trabajarán este aspecto. La respuesta dejó entrever bastante abandono del tema, ya que se consideró como obvio que si hablamos de desarrollo estamos hablando de sustentabilidad, por lo tanto será un factor tratado de forma transversal en todas las comisiones, y respecto al experto no quisieron dar nombres por miedo a no nombrar a todos quienes están participando y dañar sensibilidades.

Ya terminando la mañana se presentaron casos de Políticas nacionales o locales, específicamente lo que ocurrió en Colombia (Medellín) y Estados Unidos (Oregon). Y finalmente vinieron las palabras de agradecimiento y despedida de parte de la presidenta de la comisión presidencial.

Retomo la inquietud sobre el concepto de participación que está usando el gobierno, por que lo ocurrido ayer en ningún momento fue participativo. Las preguntas fueron filtradas y el tiempo destinado para ello era en extremo escaso, y aunque las hubiesen respondido siempre hubiese faltado una contrargumentación para completar el ciclo comunicativo. Se evitaron muchísimos conceptos o distinciones como por ejemplo sobre la escasez de suelo urbano, gentrificación, etc. La falta de profundidad es algo que alarma, creo que se este seminario buscaba tranquilizar a los interesados y demostrar que “ya estamos trabajando”, pero creo que lograron justamente lo contrario. Es realmente vergonzoso que su mayor lógica participativa hasta el momento sea a través de la página www.pndu.cl , en donde cualquier ciudadano puede obtener la información y hacerse parte de este proceso. Eso se llama ley de transparencia.

Designed in Hackney: we conclude our week of fashion design from Hackney with Hussein Chayalan and his dresses that emit laser beams.  (more…)

© Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Daniela Droz

Architects: Studio Inches Architettura – Matteo Inches
Location: Vacallo, Ticino, Switzerland
Design Team: Arch. Matteo Inches, Nastasja Geleta
Completion: 2012
Ground Coverage: 42 sqm

Total Floor Area: 120sqm
Photographs: Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Daniela Droz

© Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Daniela Droz

The house was an old farm storage, then residence for a poor 6 person family and recently, only at ground floor, the meeting place for the main political party in town. The project deals with the strict swiss laws that don’t allow modifying existing openings and roof structure of the building on the outside.

The project though wants to take out the most out of the 6 x 6 meters of the interior spaces and to underline the massive structure of the thick old walls of the existing building. Finally, I believe that renovations of existing building are a forced answer to the increasing urban sprawl and waste of land in the italian part of Switzerland.

© Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Daniela Droz

History
House Rizza is located in Vacallo, a village of 3000 inhabitants in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland, which is situated on the border of Italy (Province of Como), nestled on the foot of Mount Bisbino. Vacallo was originally a farming village, which gradually devolped into a residential area during the twentieth century. The house is in the “historic core” of the town, with a portion of settlements dating back to the seventeenth century.They are protected by the regional government that has set strict rules on renovating.

The building was a barn and storage area for the farmers and the beasts, then hosted a family of 6 members that became one of the most influent families in town that has established on the ground floor of the building the headquarters for the local political party. Today the house has been restored and is owned by the Mayor of Vacallo.

1st floor plan

The construction
House Rizza is a square floor “tower-house” of 6 x 6 m, on 4 levels. Due to restrictions setby local building laws, the envelope has not changed: the openings remained the existing ones, as well as the height of the eaves, the ridge and the type of pitched roof. The load-bearing exterior walls are the only pre-existing elements that remained untouched. The interior was totally emptied, partly because of the precarious condition of the walls and floors, and completely rebuilt.

The projectwants to underline the historical background of the building on the outside while on the inside the intention is to give people the perception of a bigger space then the bare 30 square meter on each floor: The windows are flushed with the inner surface of the 50 cm wall structure (to increase the perception of the old walls from outside)

The double height space in the living room increase the perception of verticality and size of the spaces. The lightweight metal stairs is visible from all spaces which yearn for a visual relationship with each other. Equipment room and wc are located at the entrance floor, kitchen and the living area are at 1st floor, the 2nd floor hostsa small room and a wcthe study spacethat overlooks the living room, while at the top floor is located the master bedroom (with his cloakroom an wc) that overlook the surrounding valley of Mendrisio.

 
This week Dezeen has been all about skyscrapers, with towers by 15 of the world’s most famous architects for a new business district in Seoul plus a timelapse movie and interview with architect Renzo Piano as his 300 metre-high tower The Shard nears completion in London. (more…)

In light of the announcement that Herzog & de Meuron and Ai WeiWei will be designing this year’s Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery, we take a look back at last year’s Pavilion and the architect behind it, Peter Zumthor.

Last summer London’s Serpentine Gallery unveiled a new architectural feat in the form of the celebrated Pavilion, built to stand for just three months. In the past few years esteemed designers Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Olafur Eliasson have exercised their creative muscles, and last year Swiss architecht Peter Zumthor steps up to the plate to create a relaxing space to encourage conversation. Here, Crane.tv finds out what inspired Zumthor.

Undurraga encabeza marcha con vecinos de Maipú para exigir a Golborne “igualdad de trato”

El alcalde de Maipú, Alberto Undurraga (DC), encabezó una marcha junto a los vecinos de su comuna, a raiz del aununcio del plan de inversión de 500 millones de dólares para descongestionar el sector oriente hecho por el ministro Laurence Golborne, prestando poca atención al sector poniente. Saber más.

Nuevos colores y fiscalizadores: los primeros signos del “Transantiago 2.0″

Comienzan nuevas normas para renovar servicio del Transantiago, entre las que incluye eliminar alimentadores, reducir trasbordos, obligar a empresas a controlar y promover pago de pasajes. Cinco de los siete operadores ya han internalizado nuevas reglas. Saber más.

Cencosud deberá realizar estudio para definir obras de mitigación de 3ª etapa

Se realizará un monitorio entre Andres Bello y El Bosque para evaluar el impacto de las 22 medidas de la primera etapa de las obras de mitigación. Entre estas obras figuran un puente sobre el Mapocho, ensanche de calles y una pasarela peatonal. Saber más.

As The Shard nears completion in London, here is the transcript of an interview conducted with architect Renzo Piano before work started on the 300 metre-high tower.  (more…)

Courtesy of Jost Architects

Architects: Jost Architects – Patrick Jost
Location: Milton St, Elwood, Victoria, Australia
Area: 430 sqm
Photographs: Tara Pearce, Patrick Jost

Courtesy of Jost Architects

The Elwood House is a new residential dwelling with a separate garage and studio to the rear. The client’s brief was for a modern family home that was interesting and exciting but not to the detriment of the comfort to the occupants and within a sensible budget. “The client wanted a house that was clean, distinctive and enjoyable to use without feeling like they were an object in their own home purely because it was of a contemporary design” says the architect, Patrick Jost.

Conceptually, the house is separated into two clearly defined elements to the upper and lower levels. The lower is a solid masonry form, giving the impression that a block has been carved and hollowed revealing areas of the interior from different external views which in turn create views of the surrounding area. The upper level sits over the top as a lighter, more private timber element. It interacts with its solid base, cantilevered over some areas creating sheltered areas and set back in other areas allowing more exposure to the surroundings.

Courtesy of Jost Architects

A flat roof was required to reduce the height of the structure within the street but the arrangement of the cladding with angled junctions between timber and cement sheet negated the boxy form that is always so often associated with current modern buildings and also references the pitched roof angles of the neighboring properties. Internally, a combination of simple, natural and low maintenance finishes create an inviting and clean aesthetic.

1st floor plan

The living areas, including an internal courtyard between the formal living and dining area, on the ground level are separated by large, double glazed sliding doors. When open these doors allow the spaces to be visually combined, right through from the front to the rear of the main house. When closed, due to the reflection generated by the glass layers of the doors make each space more intimate and private.

World Architecture Festival 2012: in the final movie from our series announcing the call for exhibitors at this year’s World Architecture Festival in Singapore from 3-5 October, programme director Paul Finch discusses why an experimental office building with an inflatable facade was named World Building of the Year in 2011. (more…)

En el contexto del seminario ¨Soñar Valparaíso¨, realizado el 25 de abril del 2012 en la sede Valparaíso del Duoc UC , se debatieron diversos temas relacionados con la actividad portuaria y el desarrollo urbano de la ciudad. Entre los participantes estuvieron diversos expositores nacionales e internacionales vinculados al área portuaria, a la logística y la ingeniería de puertos, que frente a las autoridades ministeriales, parlamentarios regionales y representantes de empresas vinculadas al tráfico marítimo, generaron un interesante debate sobre los proyectos de infraestructura que Valparaíso pretende llevar a cabo y que afectarán su estructura urbana.

Pinche aquí para ver el vídeo

Tratando el tema de la cuidad-puerto, el Arquitecto PhD Alberto Texidó, editor de Plataforma Urbana, dedicó su exposición a tratar el tema que apuntamos en este post titulado: ¨Valparaíso Dicción, Contradicción y Oportunidad¨ cuyo relato y presentación adjuntamos. Este seminario abre posibilidades de repensar la ciudad, dentro de las pocas oportunidades de pausa reflexiva, para tratar las relaciones cuidad-puerto desde diversos enfoques, como una oportunidad coordinar las intervenciones sin dejar de incorporar la problemática urbana.

Dutch design studio HEYHEYHEY assembled an assortment of objects including toothbrushes, books, marbles, matches and a toy train inside two suitcases to build a chain-reaction machine that signs and stamps a postcard. (more…)

COEN! designed the shop for Kameleon presenting the jewels by their personality, not by material of by brand. They also designed a new logotype and a new website.

Project description:

Everyone is unique. COEN! and his team have the expertise needed to translate this uniqueness into a consistent and powerful corporate identity which fits like a glove.

In this project the design uses color effectively: an appropriate color combination can greatly enhance your shopping experience. Color elements enhance and foci attention on the identity of this shop.