It’s hard to find a more difficult place for building a house than the peak of Mt. Sněžka. Wind speeds reach up to 250 km/h, winter temperatures hit record freezes, it is the most strictly protected zone of a national park. How to build in such a locality without spending excess money, and create a house that would remain in the minds of the people who visit? This building is a cousin of the storage depots of Amundsen’s or Scott’s polar expeditions, or the houses that you see in Greenland or the Spitzberg Islands. It enters on tiptoes into the national park: it is of wood and glass, standing on delicate metal supports. In the harshest winters it is completely closed off behind interior insulation slabs – shadowboxes – and exterior blinds, which protect it from flying bits of rock and ice. Its outdoor staircase reminds you that you are climbing to the highest point of the Czech lands. An environmentally friendly wooden building, respecting nature, humanity, and the majesty of the mountains.
At number 6 in the historical Via Maggio in Florence, stands the sixteenth-century Agostini Suarez palace, which for the warm tones of the facade and the presence of an imposing carved crest, symbol of the prestige of the original owner family.
For the top floor of this elegant palace studio Luigi Fragola Architect shasperformed a major renovation giving rise to a fascinating and quirky home of refined taste in contemporary interior design.
A house that is integrated into a densly urbanised slope of a historic Vilnius suburban area dictates a new quality and aesthetics. The structure comes in contrast with it‘s surrounding architecture – wooden wreckage from the beggining of the 20th century and gigantic residential houses of early Lithuanian indepencende years that might remind a small school rather than a residential house. Even so, the house remains cultured, eligible and appropriate while firmly stating the new level of architectural value.
The architects’ studio heri&salli designed the VIENNESE GUEST ROOM for the Gegenbauer Vinegar Brewery in Vienna. They created guest rooms in 5 small apartments in a Viennese apartment building, with the bare minimum of intervention. The main and practically the sole piece of furniture is the socalled VIENNESE GUEST BED.
In March 2009 schneider+schumacher won a competition run by the Förderverein Autobahnkirche Siegerland e.V, which was founded for the specific purpose of establishing an Autobahn church.
The initiative for this project came from Hanneliese and Hartmut Hering, after having visited an Autobahn church in south Germany. Just one glance at the map revealed that a place like this was lacking in the entire Siegerland area, and consequently also along the very busy A 45.
The two dwellings are connected by a “bridged” living space, providing continuity of the outdoor space. Located in a quiet space near a local primary school, the concept for this dwelling started with a dual yard layout, the front for guest parking and an aesthetically prioritised garden at the rear.
Designed as a nuclear family residence for a couple and their three children, Gurmail residence is envisaged as a quiet, natural retreat in sync with the latest technological aspects for the globally travelled techie client. Answering the challenge of creating a simple, automated yet distinguished design complying with the strict by-laws of the city, we decided to utilize the assets like a corner plot, favorable wind direction and excellent views to a well manicured garden in the front, to their maximum.
Located in the Cambie neighbourhood of Vancouver, the steeply sloping site affords views of the city and mountains beyond. The curved roof allows the mass of the new, modern home to step down the cross slope of the site without resorting to traditional forms, and imparts a sense of lightness and space to the upper floor, without losing the domestic sense of enclosure. There is a sectional split on the upper floor that isolates the master bedroom from secondary bedrooms, and allows for higher ceilings in the master bedroom. The secondary bedrooms have lower ceilings as the section defers importance to the higher ceilings of the living room below. The change in ceiling height on the main floor defines the space in an otherwise open floor plan. The rear roof terrace views the nearby park, while the front terrace has views of the city and mountains. The cross slope of the site positions the terraces above the adjacent neighbours creating a sense of privacy. The garage at lane elevation has a laneway house below that shares the rear yard with the main house. A flexible basement layout allows the owner the ability to adapt to future changes in use.
Article source: STUDIO DI ARCHITETTURA DANIELE MENICHINI
The “green room” project originates from architect Daniele Menichini’s eco-sustainable and eco-friendly approach to the projects he develops for the horeca sector, as well as for other client areas.
Each concept is developed by means of a search for solutions and products that have the least possible environmental impact and maximum energy saving – a philosophy that does not preclude elements of development, innovation and technology.
The client purchased land in a protected nature reserve known as “Czech Canada”: wide meadows and rock outcroppings surrounded with pines. His wish was to build a stack here. What emerged is a house of nine modules of 3.60 m: the two modules at the edges are left open as terraces. The entire northern side is insulated and simultaneously forms, as in Japan, a long cabinet with sliding doors. The southern, eastern and western sides of the house are glazed from inside. The sliding dilation joint allows for fixed swinging frames with double glazing to be fitted even into the structure of the lumber stack, which can change its dimensions with damp or gradual drying of the wood. Experimentation with the hollow lumber stack here reached the level of a fully inhabitable house, where the tectonics of the hollow lumber stack simultaneously serve as a pleasant, firm external shading that prevents the emergence of a greenhouse effect inside.