2020 Winner of the National Best of Design Award, Religious/Institutional Category, from The Architect’s Newspaper.
For whomever visits a structure, architecture serves as a vessel of experiences and events. Sacred architecture can treasure memories, house beliefs and sustain confidence.
This two-story row-house in Northeast DC was completely remodeled, and a new third floor and rear build-out were added. The Owner, a single woman who travels internationally for her work in Public Health, requested a minimal, timeless modernism reflective of the spaces she sees in Europe.
Miya is a fast casual restaurant located in the historic center of Florence, a few steps from the Santa Maria Novella station, specializing in oriental cuisine.
Characterized by a fresh image and energetic colors, it draws the attention of the locals and travelers who frequent the street that connects the station to the Central Market of San Lorenzo.
Reima and Raili Pietilä won the competition for the Finnish Embassy to be located in the diplomatic enclave in Chanakyapuri in 1963 with a beautiful and powerful competition entry called “Snow speaks on the mountains”. The project was commissioned and redesigned based on the original concept in 1980, and the building was finally opened in 1986 with the large single expanse of roof broken up into the six lateral separate buildings standing on the embassy compound today.
Software used: AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Microsoft Office
Client: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Architect, Renovation: ALA partners Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki, Janne Teräsvirta and Samuli Woolston with Simo Nuojua, Harri Ahokas, Anders Jönsson, Lotta Kindberg, Mirja Sillanpää and Sari Vesanen
Collaborators: SCG Contracts India (main contractor), Sitowise (engineering), WSP Proko (project management), Annukka Pietilä (Pietilä architecture specialist), C. P. Kukreja Architects (local architect partner), Jasleen Waraich Landscape Architecture (local landscape designer) Architect, Original Design: Raili and Reima Pietilä Architects, competition 1963, completion 1986
Three residences sit on three small and narrow up-hill lots in the Hollywood Hills. M u t u o ’s design for this project aims to maximize indoor residential areas as well as outdoor living areas. It also seeks to craft intricate details through the interplay of different construction methods and materials.
The Italian Job is the first pub to bring Italian Craft Beer to Londoners. Utilising this unique selling point we drew inspiration from copper, a material integral to the production of the beer. From the copper top of the counter to the lighting which features exposed conduits and aged copper shades, this raw material gives the pub an industrial look and feel. Exposed brick walls and a reclaimed wooden flooring, alongside a monochrome colour palette add to this effect.
The project designed by Nada comes from the need to refurbish a living space of 70m2 (754 ft), located in a multi-family building constructed in the 70s next to Passeig Picasso in Barcelona. The apartment overlooks the Parc de la Ciutadella, the greatest green space in the city centre.
The original state of this space was highly compartmentalized with unused spaces, and a complex circulation between disconnected spaces.
Servete Maçi is a primary school located in the capital of Albania, Tirana. This new built school is situated in a very dense area close to the center. The building is composed of 18 classrooms, 5 laboratories, one gymnasium, one full size auditorium for 140 people, a library, 8 individual spaces dedicated to the learning of musical instruments, several administrative area as well as all the necessary technical spaces and restrooms to accommodate all the functions and users of the building.
The school also has a semi internal / external courtyard which serves as a dynamic public space that allows students to enter and exit the school through a safe threshold. This is a strong element which can be used by both students as well as their parents. In addition, this public space creates a soft transition between the school and the main street.
A 3-patio house on a hillside in the city of Tijuana. The house takes advantage of the city views to the east with a linear balcony, then it centers around an entry courtyard that allows natural light to penetrate all the interiors. The hillside helps create a small garden and green roof for the guest bedroom and studio space. The house is in constant dialogue between the inside and outside.
Designed for a social scientist, the project is an interplay of layered spaces. Rendered in white allowing its interior to be a canvass of natural color throughout the day. All of its inhabited open spaces lay in a seamless second-floor level that moves from interior to the exterior as daily life progresses.
Opposites rule: light and darkness create an ideal separation, so the same space can serve the two souls in Japs! – fast and slow. This was a 360° project that went from interior decor to branding, connecting every aspect: for example, the decorative motif in the logo became a graphic and architectural element, in a relationship of perfect symmetry between image and architecture. Now each Japs! restaurant offers a different Japanese specialty, effectively connoting the chain’s different venues and sparking clients’ curiosity.