Article source: tomomi kito architect & associates
This is an interior renovation project of an existing two-story timber structure house in Tokyo built approximately 40 years ago.
The client is a young couple, and the wife’s parents were living there before the renovation. The client decided to live with their parents in this house. Soon after, the wife’s grandmother who lives alone in the countryside – far from Tokyo – also decided to live together in this house. As such, the client requested to renovate the house suitable for accommodating 4 generations – the grandmother (1st generation), parents (2nd generation), the client (3rd generation), the client’s son (4th generation).
How on earth does one come up with the idea of pouring a huge amount of concrete into an Emmental farmhouse? Certainly, one could find several practical reasons (statics, thermal storage mass or the like…). For us, the house needed something rough and immediate, something that could build up its own world in the former barn and hayloft. A concrete object now cuts through all three floors and supports the old roof. In addition to its structural qualities, it holds all the bathrooms and kitchen accommodations, as well as cabinets and storage space. Large windows open up the view into the impressive attic.
Designed for a sensitive ridge in rolling countryside, this house was depressed three metres into the existing ridgeline to minimise impact on the sea views from the neighbouring sites.
What does an authentic workplace look like? Designing an authentic office is not an easy task. Just like the terms “artist”, “poet” or “great lover”, these are titles that are given or need to be earned rather than being self-assigned.
Our attempt in creating an authentic workplace started off with our WorkVitamins methodology. This methodology was created by me, Martin van der Linden, principal of van der Architects, when I was an assistant researcher at Waseda Univeristy in 2001 here in Tokyo. I believes that architecture can be a catalyst for change in innovative environments, and this methodology – called “WorkVitamins” – is based on this idea.
Hourglass is a minimalist residence located in Gunma, Japan, designed by Studio LOOP. The exterior of the house is characterized by blue galvanized panels and an array of wooden accents. The building is constructed of two main volumes, connected in the middle by a transparent walkway. The interior is composed of wooden walls and ceilings that match the bespoke cabinetry and furniture found throughout the space. The floors are a darker grain of wood that shift to walnut on the upper level.
The project is located at Marseille Campus Luminy, in the National Park area, and includes the rehabilitation of a building in the late 60s, the creation of an extension, and its landscaping.
Made for the metropolis and destined for a scientific research activity advanced (immunotechnology), design objectives include the complete transformation of the existing buildings (internal surface of approximately 2090 m2) to laboratories, offices, technical rooms and rest area.
With its dual concept between a hostel and a hotel the Superbude I in Hamburg attracts a broad-range target group. Its location in the centre of the hip district „Schanze“ enables a surprisingly unconventional design.
Our task:
Our task was to further develop and design the successful concept „Superbude“. This included designing the „Buden“, a colloquial word used for the rooms in this hotel, as well as the public areas such as the lobby, bar and shop etc. The hotel / hostel is in a listed building, once a Deutsche Post switching centre at the turn of the century. For this reason the staircases were restored true to the original.
The Falcon House challenges the inappropriate, contemporary approach of destroying the native landscape and topography. The upper level hovers gently as a white object, the lower level is a black shadow, in the middle is a thin zone of grey that reminds us that nothing is ever ‘black or white’.
Location: Lot 869, No. 18 Panamuna Drive, Falcon, Western Australia
Photography: Dion Robeson
Software used: SketchUp, Vectorworks, Rhino
Project team iph: Adrian Iredale, Finn Pedersen, Martyn Hook, Mary McAree, Vincci Chow, Jason Lenard, Caroline Di Costa, Khairani Khalifah, Matthew Omodei, Melissa Loong, Penny Anderson, Sinan Pirie
This project is by a long, open beach, on a desert dune rising in front of a wetland. It is a seasonal house to accommodate up to three couples, and can be leased or bartered the rest of the year. Its intermittent occupation and isolated location led us to think of it as a superposition of two models: the motel and the cabin. The motel suggests self-sufficient rooms served from the outside by a second access, while the cabin presumes a centralized space that brings the community together. A set of 4 rooms come together in a shared central kitchen, forming a larger compact structure enclosed by mobile panels, which open different possibilities of use according to their position.
In its cultural development policy framework and renovation of the Moulins neighbourhood, the City of Lille started in 2009 the building of a new cultural equipement that could enable the development of Moulins’s existing Maison Folie, that lacked specific spaces to carry out all of its projects, and to create a Euroregional Center of Urban Cultures (The Flow – House of Hip-Hop), a structure made necessary by the importance of activities linked to that practice that had until then no place to unfold. The importance of this project justified its integration in a site close to the town center. The will to unite these two equipments in a same place presented numerous advantages for both structures, including the possibility to ensure de facto synergy, their objectives being common. The Maison Folie, that had already conquered its own public in five years of existence, was forced to refuse or postpone numerous projects (dance, theatre, plastic and visual arts) due to lack of space.
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