Designed for a couple as a weekend house and eventual retirement home, this house sits in the high desert of the San Luis Valley (elev. +8,500 ft.) with exceptional views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Great Sand Dunes National Monument to the Southeast. The area is known for its serenity and environmental uniqueness. The house has been designed to not only respond to that environment, but also to take advantage of the unique spirituality of the site.
The base for the design was the desire to create a free unrestricted access to knowledge and information, as well as a collaborative and cooperative management and decision making process with emphasis on the right to see the operations and activities of government at work. This supports government accountability and helps protect other necessary rights. The new City Hall of Sandnes would celebrate the concept of openness and transparency. Designed as a welcoming house which is as accessible as possible to it’s citizens and a building that lives up to the highest requirements for a modern, efficient and flexible office space. The volume required by the program would be adapted to the local urban conditions and modified to create connections with the surrounding area and bring the inhabitants closer to the city officials and their decision making process in the spirit of true participation. With all the office spaces continuously facing the streets a courtyard is created which would be the central area of the whole Havneparken masterplan. Walking and biking, crisscrossing from the streets, would be encouraged to reach the water promenade, creating a vibrant district for pedestrians and cyclists. The importance of the building in the area would be emphasized by it’s architectural exterior design where past tradition would be commemorated with a modern dynamic and universal outlook.
James Beard award-winning Chef Jose Garces wants guests to feel as though they have traveled to the relaxing and vibrant beach towns of coastal Mexico while dining at Buena Onda, a taqueria and margarita bar. Inspired by the ambiance of Acapulco and color blocking of Luis Barragan, CORE worked closely with Chef Garces to find the right balance of color and texture for each of the restaurant’s distinct elements.
We have completed a ‘water well’ inspired building near Seoul, which is home to a family run Shabu-Shabu restaurant.
The form of the building was taken from a disused natural water well which was revealed on site.
The water well was further incorporated into the functionality, where it is used to provide water throughout the building, as well as irrigation for the restaurants micro-farm on site.
TRLZAK studio was asked by ekies All senses resort to give a deeper meaning to the hotel’s identity. Inspired by Chalkidiki’s special ecosystem, where rounded stone volumes and pine trees are in direct contact with the sea, CTRLZAK studio developed creative solutions that underline nature’s presence and invite visitors to reflect on their relationship with it. The typical Mediterranean Pine tree (Pinus Pinea), which is found in the region, was the archetype of the project. Starting from the lower parts of the Pine tree, the roots are translated into various paths leading visitors gradually towards the sea shore and eventually branching inside the sea itself. Going higher up the tree-trunk, one finds the tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius), an umbrella-shaped fungal species, that inspired us for the new shade coverings of the lounge area. The pine needles themselves become protagonists of the resort functioning as dividers and coverings taking the shape of articulate patterns that evolve in the restaurants, bar and in particular the Treehouse itself. Inside the tree’s branches though, there are also parasitic organisms such as the Pine Processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) whose larvae form silk-like nests and constitute the inspiration for the ‘cocoon’ that wraps around the gourmet restaurant of the Treehouse. A seemingly negative connotation that creates yet a scenic setting hopefully making people reflect on their role within such a context while providing a unique gourmet experience, admiring the sea from within the tree’s embrace. The studio’s intention with the above metaphor and other related elements within the project is to underline, in a symbolic way, the transition of the visitor’s role from parasitic to symbiotic creating a harmonic relationship between humans and nature.
Located across from the St. Etienne station on the Esplanade de France, the influence of the intervention at the heart of the BIA Châteaucreux is a link between neighborhoods and horizon lines, a low point in the topography of St. Etienne in front of a preferred route to the city center. Combined with the scale of the project and the symbolic value of the program, This unique location gives the project a special status in the construction of the city. The project subscribes to the contemporary idea of the construction of the city that leads to the creation of rhythms, of multipurpose spaces contributing to the realization of a less linear environment, able to evolve and mutate. The goal is to embed the large commercial component of the neighbourhood in a more complex urban dynamic, made of interlocking assemblies essential to any large and vibrant city. Thus, the project offers an open floor plan, initiating continuity and affiliations, creating links between polarity and panoramas, hills and plains, lower and upper town.
The Tower of Power, located in the Vienna Brigittenau district, is a public charging station for electric vehicles. Operated by the Wien Energie electrical company, it was conceived to be a teaching and research facility as well. It was built by the students of the BFI Wien vocational training institute together with leading firms in the mobility industry. Using different charging systems, the station provides electricity for four cars and four e-bikes at a time.
The site is located in an alley, a few blocks away from Dosandae-ro – a busy boulevard in Seoul’s Gangnam district. The area used to be a low-rise residential district in the past, but now rapidly transforming into a commercial district full of shops and restaurants. The existing building had a simple rectangular structure with a courtyard in the middle, using concrete blocks and blackened steel as a major finish material. The main interest in designing the building was to keep the existing materiality, yet to make enough alteration to accommodate the new program. The concrete block wall on the north was maintained in order to preserve the original materiality of the building, and the blackened steel was mainly used for the newly built walls.
ÜberRaum Architects designed a full refurbishment of this Old Town Residence. Converted to a high-end private house, the design features luxury materials including marble, hardwoods and onyx.
The new rooftop extension forms a double height dining room, and opens panoramic views from the terrace and living spaces, across the Caspian Sea and old town roofscape.
Like some sort of sinuous, white wave, the Porta Nuova Building fits in with the master plan for the urban redevelopment of the old railway station in Porta Nuova, Milan, situated between Corso Como, Garibaldi Station, the Isola neighbourhood and Piazza della Repubblica. This huge structure extends over a distance of 140 metres to create a structure covering a total of 16,500 m² designed for holding offices and shops. This powerful and, at the same time, lightweight, white coloured, glazed building serves a fundamental “urban purpose”: it hinges together the existing city and the latest dynamics triggered off by the entire Porta Nuova project, falling in line with the heights of the old buildings and embracing the square that is set higher level than the surrounding roads.
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