A house for books. This challenge started with a premise from the client: space for many books.
Immediately, our imaginary guided us to the many classical renaissance libraries, with sliding stairs that reach the book mountain. That was the motto of the intervention: a high space capable of generate the composition and hierarchize interior spaces.
The ideia was growing and the volumetric experience led to the functional differentiation of the interior spaces, crating a roof as a restless mass with different heights. The roof also figures itself in a fifth facade and influences the idealization of the other ones.
Designed by Blaze Makoid Architecture, this 6,200 square foot house in East Hampton is situated on a long, two acre site that is steeply sloped along the eastern property line. The property is heavily wooded with mature pine trees.
Large walls of floating stone panels are incorporated at the approach to the house creating a level of monumentality as well as providing privacy to the street and guest parking. Behind these two panels, resides a pair of two-story volumes oriented in an offset ‘T’ configuration. A two-story glass entry link frames the distant views across the length of the property via a 12 foot by 75 foot reflecting / swimming pool. This configuration is meant to cradle the built outdoor spaces, as well as a play lawn while maximizing daylight and southern exposure in what is otherwise a densely shaded site. The east/west volume contains an open plan living room embraced by glass, a dining room with dramatic glass “wall of wine” and kitchen at the ground level with a master suite on the second floor.
During the 1950s, architect Roland Roessner was teaching at the University of Texas and designing some of Austin’s most daring modern structures. One of his more memorable houses, located on Balcones Drive, is notable for its prominently cantilevered concrete balcony perched above a long, sloping hillside, with Camp Mabry as its backyard. Though previously unacquainted with the period, new owners delved into all things mid-century modern and hired Clayton & Little to assist with a deliberate and sensitive renovation of this Austin treasure.
Located right next to the railway line in Rüschlikon, the two precisely placed struc-tures echo the linearity of the site and, at the same time, fit into the neighbour-hood’s open building pattern. The buildings’ positioning creates two generous exterior spaces that satisfy with their differing but high level of amenity. On the ground floor, the site borders on the railway line via a greened pergola establish-ing the important link to Lake Zurich. In contrast to the public lakeside area from where the building is accessed, the courtyard is a place of calm and togetherness. Herbaceous borders, richly flowering shrubs and geophytes have been loosely planted, lest the privacy of ground-floor flats be invaded by the other occupants. The remarkable arrangement and combination of plants lends this garden space a special touch – rich in structure, seasonal blooming sequence, and homogenous patches as well as single accents here and there. To someone looking down from the upper floors, the garden presents itself as a soothing oasis.
With a facade extended to the full width of the plot, the AA House was organized according to an essential set of overlapping volumes that, through the structural plans highlight, sought to light the composition.
The parti was based on the inversion of the traditional flow of middle of the block lots, bringing the leisure to the frontal façade, allowing the direct access to it and emphasizing the social interaction of the family, raising it as a highlight element that integrates the other areas of the house.
The original topography of the land allowed the building to be constructed on the upper part of the lot, letting the ground floor to be almost one floor above the street level and the pool to have an infinity edge; below, on the subsoil, it was sited a leisure floor with cellar and sauna. On the first floor, there are the private rooms of the house.
To remove the excess decoration in design, we leave the depth of field of lacquer texture and color blocks in the residential space. Owners in the technology industry focus on the precision and practicality of spatial measurement, so we reduce artificial design and enhance the intuitive function. With the texture of paints on various materials to replace the decorative masonry, we arrange pieces of meticulous organic blocks for this elegant off-white space and increase the visual senses with the tone. You can image it as a vivid and interesting space with depth of field as the theme.
Strathcona Village is a mixed-use industrial and residential development that occupies an entire city block on East Hastings Street in Strathcona, one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. The $112M mixed-use development, the first of its kind in North America, opened in July 2018 on time and on budget. The 300,000 square foot building accommodates market housing with much-needed affordable housing and job spaces for light industry.
The development stands as a model of revitalization without displacement in a neighbourhood that strives for meaningful development policies that enable economic inclusion coupled with safe and adequate housing. This model for mixed-use projects that retain light industrial businesses is scalable to other urban centres across the country.
Architect Team Members: Daniel Eisenberg (MRAIC), Stu Lyon (FRAIC), Eric Stacey (MRAIC), Theresa Wong, Rod Forbes, Barry Hyde, Emily Milford, Rodrigo Cepeda, Jonathan Toronchuck.
In Luxembourg, the French architect duo PETITDIDIERPRIOUX are currently developing several ambitious projects. The first to be delivered, the 99 units of Domaine du Kiem, situated on the Kitchberg plateau, is a true testament to Cédric Petitdidier and Vincent Prioux’s meticulous approach. Particular attention was paid to the relationships between inside and out, function and appearance, private and public.
Located in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Knowlton Residence contrasts simple forms with vernacular materials to update an aging country farmhouse. In response to the client’s desire to enlarge and covert the existing country house into their primary residence, the gable roofed structure has been completely renovated with a new two storey extension built upon the foundations of a previous single storey addition. Going up instead of spreading out allowed for more space and better views without the need to excavate across the hilltop. The box shaped extension plays off the familiar farmhouse typology, creating a series of intriguing contrasts between the thisness and thatness of the composition, both distinguishing and uniting different eras, forms, and materials.
William Lim, father of Kevin Lim of openUU, and Vincent Lim of Lim and Lu, invites his sons to design a house together in Kuala Lumpur for his brother. The result is a stunning 3 levels house with a central stairwell and atrium that connects 3 distinct functions on 3 levels: Live, Rest and Play.
Set in suburban Kuala Lumpur on a 800m² corner plot, the design of the 500m² house started with 2 goals: Comfort and Privacy. To create comfort, it is important to combat the intense solar heat. Inspired by the vernacular Southeast Asian colonial courtyard house, which always contain an internal courtyard to allow hot air to rise to the top, the resulting atrium design makes an internally focused design that gives great privacy to this sub-urban context.
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