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.
I keep on design activities in Hokkaido, so most of my projects ran there. By designing in a remarkably cold, I continued thinking on response to completely different contexts from other areas. They are mainly “cold” and “snow”. Of course there are other various things to deal with, but these contexts have the great impact. In this state, I felt the possibility of “a windbreak room” and thought about the expansion and diversity.
Parcela The plot for the construction of a family house is situated on the slopes of Medvednica, in the northwestern part of the city. The terrain is an ideal south-facing slope. The house is located in the longitudinal west-east direction, in order to maximize the benefits od of the south orientation and to allow a view of the city from the entire house. It is designed with a simple gesture of pulling the upper floor volume in a relation to the ground floor volume. This formed two valuable outer spaces as a functional extension of interior of the house – the entrance to the parking lots, which covers the console to the west, and a terrace with a roof garden for parents in the east. Cantelevered space can be used as a covered dining terrace. The ground floor has a living room, dining room and kitchen, the upper floor consists of sleeping spaces, and the basement is the utilitarian floor. The organization of the house is done around the centrally placed two-storey living room, which is vertically connected with the upper floor gallery, with dining area and the kitchen on the same level and with the exterior through the large glass walls. Gallery serves as a horizontal connection between parental bedroom and children’s rooms and as a playroom. Large windows oriented to the south allow the decline of winter sun rays deep into the house and make passive heating possible. Duplex living room accumulates heat and distributes it to other areas of the house. In the summer, the house is protected from the sun with a pergola and movable blinds.
Bergaliv Landscape hotel has completed the Loft house (Lofthuset), the first out of four planned getaways on the hillside of Åsberget mountain in the north of Sweden.
The 33 foot tall house is constructed in two stories, 14 sqm each. The lower, a sheltered room in close relation to the surrounding forrest. The upper: a roofed outdoor space stripped from walls allowing an uninterrupted view over the valley below. The dualism of the site with its closeness to nature combined with the expansive view has set the rules for the small house and is expressed in the two contrasting spaces sharing the purpose of providing a sanctuary and a peaceful vantage point for the visitors.
The primary goal of the vibeeng School is to integrate sustainability and learning in a low energy school (equivalent to LEED gold). The building is characterized by its red exterior and the abrupt foldings of the roof which create “house” like images in the facade and spatial variation in the interior. At the same time the varying shapes of the roof provide optimum angles for south facing solar panels and north facing windows. Both active measures that help create a low energy school. The school itself is designed from the inside out with an overriding concept that activates the whole plot and the landscape elements that surround the school.
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.
Part arts initiative and part residential development, 325 Westlake merges old and new structures to create a building that preserves the character of the existing building and the site, while ensuring its continued usefulness. Rents from the residential development fund MadArt, an arts initiative focused on connecting emerging artists with the community in unexpected ways. MadArt, which runs the studio space occupying the storefront, makes it possible to engage with art and artists every day, making artists and residents richer through their programmatic partnership.
The Clemson University Core Campus Dining Facility is a 81,000 square foot, 1,200 seat modern food service facility that offers freshly prepared daily meals via a variety of open cooking venues and houses five different late night retail venues and a small P.O.D. convenience store. As part of Clemson’s redevelopment of its “Core Campus,” construction of this dining facility proceeded in tandem with new student housing construction, designed by VMDO Architects. These projects as a whole address the growing demand for contemporary housing and dining options in support of the university’s goals of retaining more sophomore students on campus, and maintaining its position in the top 20 national public universities.
The initiators developed a process in which spent mushroom compost from mushroom cultivation is upgraded and turned into a valuable soil improver. They do this by biologically drying spent mushroom compost in so-called tunnels. By adding a small amount of concentrated manure, a popular soil improver rich in nitrogen, phosphate and potassium is created. The spent mushroom compost is not only upgraded to a popular soil improver but it is also made lighter in specific weight. As a result, fewer freight transports are needed to deliver the product. A large amount of heat is released naturally during the biological drying process. This heat is used to provide the neighbouring existing mushroom nurseries with heat and consequently natural gas-fuelled boilers are no longer required. The surplus heat is distributed to nearby crop growers.
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