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Description originale

Nestled between cooled lava flows, the Kona residence situates its axis not with the linearity of the property but rather with the axiality of predominant views available to the site.  Within the dichotomy of natural elements and geometric hardscape the residence attempts to integrate both the surrounding views of volcanic mountain ranges to the east and ocean horizons westward.  The program is arranged as a series of pods distributed throughout the property, each having its own unique features and view opportunities.  The pods are programmatically assigned as two sleeping pods with common areas, media, master suite and main living space.  A central axis becomes the organizational and focal feature for the entire house, connecting each of the pods through an exterior gallery corridor.  To help maintain the environmental sensitivity of the house, 2 separate arrays of roof mounted photovoltaic panels offset the residence energy usage while the choice of darker lava stone help heat the pool water via solar radiation. Rain water collection and redirection to 3 drywells that replenish the aquifer are implemented throughout the property. Reclaimed teak timber from older barns and train tracks are recycled for the exterior of the home. Together with stacked and cut lava rock, the two materials form a historically driven medium embedded in Hawaiian tradition. 3-D modeling and digital fabrication through CNC machinery was incorporated to further enhance traditional elements in a contemporary arrangement. Local basket weaving culture was the inspiration for the entry pavilion which reenacts the traditional gift upon arrival ceremony. CNC milled ceilings and screens throughout the house continue the abstract approach to traditional Hawaiian wood carving.

Project Title : Kona Residence
Year : 2010
Location : Kona, Hawaii
Design Architect : Belzberg Architects
Principal : Hagy Belzberg
Project Manager : Barry Gartin
Project Team: David Cheung, Carina Bien-Willner, Barry Gartin, Cory Taylor, Andrew Atwood, Chris Arntzen, Brock DeSmit, Dan Rentsch, Lauren Zuzack.
Interiors : MLK Studio
Photography : Benny Chan (Fotoworks), Belzberg Architects – via

Dans la même thématique

• The Tangga House – Singapour
• The Conga Room (LA Live)
• Wilkinson Residence – Portland
• Fish House – Singapore
• 45 Faber Park House – Singapour

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Credits & copyright Marcel Wanders / Baccarat – via

Dans la même thématique

• Casa Son Vida – Mallorca
• Mondrian South Beach Hotel Residences
• Crystal Candy Set for Baccarat
• Hôtel Cristal Champs Elysées – Paris
• Viktor & Rolf Spring 2010

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Description originale

The original idea has been to design a houseboat that essentially has the character of a boat in combination with the comfort of a traditional family home. The formal architectural language should be clear and simple. This is reflected both in the floor plans as well as in creation of the individual rooms. Using a single wall that wraps like a spiral from the outside to the inside, the rooms are developed from public use on the outside (kitchen, dining room) to private use on the inside (bedroom, bathroom). The spaces for public use are located on the upper deck, this being the entrance level; spaces for private use (work, living- and bedrooms) are located on the lower deck. The chosen materials (mainly steel and wood) are influenced by both areas of provenance of the design – naval architecture as well as normal building construction. The residents work and live on the houseboat – in the middle of the city of Hamburg, surrounded by the green belt of the Eilbek-canal. When the mooring area has to be changed, it is easy to move the houseboat to its new destination with the help of a tug. The demand for this form of living is high, which is also shown by the huge amount of positive feedback both from the population of the surrounding area as well as from the city’s urban development agency. Right now official mooring areas for permanent residences on water are missing, but the process has been started: Germany’s first settlement with a new houseboat generation has been completed.

Credits photos Jens Kroell & Amelie Rost
Design by Rost Niderehe Architects – via

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• House of Inclusion
• The Black House – Buenos Aires
• Bape Los Angeles
• The Marcus Beach House – Australia
• Venice House – California

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Description originale

The UNStudio design for an existing loft located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan explores the interaction between a gallery and living space. The main walls in the loft flow through the space, and together with articulated ceilings create hybrid conditions in which exhibition areas merge into living areas.

History /// The collector and the architect became acquainted several years ago when UNStudio was involved in the renovation and expansion of the Wadsworth Atheneum. That project was never realized, but soon after the collector spoke of his intention to have a house designed by his new friend, the architect. Over the years, the pair regularly visited possible sites for this new house in the suburbs of Hartford. Then, in a phone call to Amsterdam in the early spring of 2007 the collector announced he had bought a loft space in Manhattan. The architect finally received his commission: not for a house, but for a home for the collector and his art and books.

Unifying Art and Urban Living /// The design of the loft in downtown Manhattan mediates between art gallery and living space. The existing loft space was characterized by challenging proportions: the space is long and wide, but also rather low. Gently flowing curved walls were introduced to virtually divide the main space into proportionally balanced spaces. This created zones of comfortable proportions for domestic use, while simultaneously generating a large amount of wall space for the display of art. The meandering walls frame an open a space that privileges long perspectives, with more sheltered corners and niches nestled in the curves. In this hybrid space exhibition areas merge into the living areas; a floating exhibition wall blends into library shelves on one side and into a display case on the other side. The client as collector had sought a space in which he could live comfortably while interacting with the many paintings, objects and books he has brought together over the years. The loft aims to merge life and art by facilitating these daily interactions, and by making clearer his own unusual way of seeing.

Field of Light /// While the walls form a calm and controlled backdrop for the works of art, the ceiling is more articulated in its expression of this transition. By interchanging luminous and opaque, the ceiling creates a field of ambient and local lighting conditions, forming an organizational element in the exhibition and the living areas. The opaque part of the ceiling consists of subtly arched elements that give a notion of an limitless ceiling which disguises the real height of the space. The luminous part of the ceiling is backlit by 18,000 led lights. This extensive membrane of light serves multiple purposes; it balances the proportions of the loft by creating an illusion of height, functions as unobtrusive space divider, and can be programmed to illuminate the space with various shades of light, from the coolest, most neutral daylight, to warmer tones. By interchanging between luminous and opaque, the ceiling becomes a field of ambient and local lighting conditions.

Framing the view /// The third element that the architect has added to this mix is the appreciation of the city which is expressed in the ‘framing of the views’. The former windows in the South wall have been replaced by full floor to ceiling glass panes that frame and extend compelling views, over a full glass balcony, toward downtown Manhattan.

Materialization /// The main walls and ceilings flow through the space, creating hybrid conditions in which exhibition areas merge into living areas; an exhibition wall blends into led illuminated library shelves on one side and a display case on the other. To enable this uniform and seamless space, partly double curved glass fiber reinforced gypsum paneling is used. Within these curved wall elements most of the technical installations like HVAC and lighting have been integrated. As a last element a Douglas fir floor with 1½ feet wide planks covers the entire loft. The subtle, even-toned floor unifies the space and allows furniture and art to be positioned as floating elements in changeable constellations.

Credits photos Iwan Baan
Design by UNStudio – via

Dans la même thématique

• Patrick Cox Shop, Tokyo
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• Wilkinson Residence – Portland
• Grey Goose Bar
• Olivomare Restaurant – Londres

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Description originale

Located in Oakland, California, on a down-sloping site high above the San Francisco bay, this home is designed to capture the magnificent vistas spanning from the Bay Bright to the Golden Gate Bridge. Floor-to-ceiling glass clears the way to unobstructed views. The predominantly south-southwest orientation required deep overhangs to cut down glare and soften the light quality in the home.

The planning of the four bedrooms centered around placement of the master bedroom, living room and kitchen on the leading edge of the home. The glass carport and secondary bedrooms are placed in a second building higher up the slope. A glass bridge spans a bamboo garden and connects the structures.

Spare and rigorously Modern in its aesthetic, the home has only a handful of materials and even fewer colors. Pale blue scratch coat plaster, concrete floors, steel and glass window systems, and a mostly white and bleached wood composition of cabinetry and furnishings define the minimalist composition. Color is introduced through landscaping, artwork and the dramatic views.

Design by Kanner Architects & Credits photos Tim Griffith – via

Dans la même thématique

• The V House – Bogota
• Mizu Spa, San Francisco
• Point Perry Beach House – Australia
• The Black House – Buenos Aires
• House in Dionysos – Greece

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Credits & copyright Emanuele Canova

Dans la même thématique

• Mercedes-Benz F800 Style
• Initialis
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Site Conditions
A Pre-Paleozoic fold creates a distinction between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain Foothills. Geologically referred to as a syncline, a crease caused by uplift of an ancient sea bed, the fold distinguishes the inhabited plains from mountain park space. The upward plane of the fold presents a landscape described and observed moving sectionally through the house. The wedge shaped site was bound by numerous restrictive land use limitations: a wetland buffer, height restrictions, a solar access restriction, and multiple setback and easement boundary requirements. A three-dimensional computer model was developed describing the limits of the buildable envelope.

Design Strategy
The project was conceived as a threshold between the city and the mountain park.  The client, an entrepreneurial and professional rock climbing couple, requested the house to be “a place where town life can be left behind.”  The house is a threshold between both the  cultural and geologic creases: one between the domestic and the feral, the other between horizontal and vertical. Through a domestic grove of flowering trees, a solid wood wall, broken only by a perpendicular stone wall, opens to the house interior.  Once inside, the stone wall becomes a thickened poche of mechanical and service elements leading through to the west wall of the house, a glazed wall framing the mountain parks. The western wall phenomenally erodes, revealing the landscape with varying degrees of openness. At the entry, framed apertures provide controlled vignettes of the landscape from foreground meadow to high ground cliffs. As the entry opens to the living spaces the apertures transform in scale to reveal the expansive landscape in its entirety.  At the southwest corner thirty feet of glass retracts into the walls, dissolving the boundary between the domestic and the wild;  the living spaces are then bounded only by the uplifted cliffs beyond.  Reciprocally, the native meadow to the west folds onto the garage roof providing easy outdoor access for visiting guests in the house’s guest suite. A simple stair cantilevers from the stone wall. Climbing the stairs, the foreground, mid range, and ridge views are sequentially revealed. Experientially scissoring into the landscape and back into the house the stairs connect the mountain park with the house.  The west wall of glazing extends the western room boundaries to the wall of rock and meadows beyond.  The east wall remains closed, allowing only privileged, controlled views and light from the clerestory above.

Building Technology
Working within some of the strictest energy performance codes in the country, the house is designed to be self sustained utilizing  a ground loop heat exchange system that taps into the very bedrock seen at the distant ridge.  A ten kilovolt photo-voltaic electrical system powers pumps, compressors and the domestic electrical needs. To support an envelope comprised of 50% glazing, a structural steel frame is used in place of traditional stick framing throughout the home.  The western facade was challenged by height and wind exposure.  The thickened wall is a steel brace frame that incorporates vertical vierendeel trusses to resist the 120 mile per hour winds coming down out of the mountains. Additionally, it accommodates the primary vertical mechanical chases.

Design by Arch11 & via

Dans la même thématique

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• The Mooramie House – Sydney
• 45 Faber Park House – Singapour
• The ROBERT Restaurant – New York

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Description originale

The Dangle-Byrd project was an opportunity to explore the challenge of maintaining the spirit of craftsmanship within a modern domestic landscape. Set on a wooded five-acre site in rural Pennsylvania, the house utilizes a material consciousness to engage the neighboring handcrafted Amish farm buildings. The house consists of three interlocking volumes. While each volume is very simple in its form, the exchange between them allows for a wide variety of spatial experiences. The first impression one has is that the house is two “shadow-boxes” connected by a “bird cage”. However, as you enter the house the perceptions change. From the interior, the cage is no longer a figure, but rather a looking glass to the outside. The single storied master suite becomes an intimate walnut valise, retreating from the exposed glass living room. A dramatic perforated steel bridge passing through a two-storied screened porch reaches the guest suite. The northern end of the house has a private balcony looking down to the lap pool set into the woods.

The elegant engineering of farming equipment and local Pennsylvania trussed bridges inspired the unusual structure of the house. The resulting form is a steel “exo-skeleton” with a wood and glass box suspended within the exposed frame. The structure is not just visual, but literally wraps around the inner volume as if it were a “ship in a bottle”. The glass living room walls and roof structure is suspended off of the cage by 6 strategic supports. Severe in form, the materiality of the house combined with a sustainable approach allows it to become part of the surrounding landscape. Passive solar heating and radiant floors enable the “bird cage” to respond to Pennsylvania Winters. A massive “hand set” stone chimney anchors the house. The luminous floating glass walls of the living room contradict this permanence. The blackened cedar boxes combine the architects’ Japanese background with the simplicity of the Pennsylvania farm buildings The honest steel structure and rough cedar boxes reinforce the importance of “making” rather than “concealing”.

Credits photos Nikolas Koenig & Patrick Casey
Design by Koko Architecture + Design – via

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• House of Inclusion
• The Black House – Buenos Aires
• Wilkinson Residence – Portland
• The Syncline House – Colorado
• Open Air Pool Eybesfeld

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Description originale

The house is a 3100 square foot single family residence located in Venice Beach, California. It is located in a quiet pocket of Venice on a corner lot just blocks from Marina del Rey and the popular Abbot Kinney Blvd. It consists of an open downstairs plan with a detached two car garage off the rear alley and 3 upstairs bedrooms and a guest house/studio, and 3 1/2 bathrooms, including the guest house/studio. The 5000 square foot corner lot is larger than the typical Venice lots and allows for maximum light and air exposure as well as a complete indoor/outdoor experience with the front yard, porch, patio, pool and garden space. The house was stylistically conceived as a hybrid of early modernism, influenced by architects such as Rudolph Schindler, and contemporary Japanese, Mediterranean and Californian architecture. These styles respond to the climate of Southern California and the eclectic nature of Venice Beach. The structure is organized with a series of L-shaped spaces with glazed corners creating diagonal views which accentuate the depth and maximize the expansiveness of the limited lot dimensions and blur the interior/exterior boundaries. These glazed corners include two 8 feet wide by 11 feet high steel and glass sliding pocket doors in the living area which open onto the pool patio. The clear central longitudinal circulation with perpendicular vertical stair and the open plan minimizes the amount of space devoted solely to circulation. These L-shaped forms repeat in the plan and both exterior and interior elevations to create a three dimensional harmony of form and proportion. There were a minimal amount of materials used and all chosen in order to maintain a consistent visual flow and experiential peacefulness. Finished concrete was used on the ground floor for its durability and its ability to be used both inside and out. Stained Mahogany wood windows, doors, cabinets, siding and second level floors was used again for its durability and to create a warm textural counterpoint to the concrete and drywall. Light blue and green glass tile was used inside and out to bring the color of water to all water locations such as the kitchen sink splash, bathrooms and pool. The house is heated with radiant floor systems, the pool water is heated with solar panels and the domestic water is heated with tankless heaters. The house is powered by photovoltaic panels located over the studio/guest house roof. The landscape is all drought tolerant with an eclectic mixture of native and Australian species of shrubs, trees and ground covers and exotic succulents.

Credits & copyright Lewin Wertheimer – via

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Description originale

The built body results from a manifested desired integration with the uneven topography that characterizes the land it occupies. Thus, the house is addorsed to the land, with the objective of defeating its accentuated slope. This three-storey building embodies distinct programmatic subject matter, which is organized vertically. On 2nd floor, situated at street level, we find the entrance and the garage. Descending, we pass 1st floor where the private spaces are located, reaching ground floor where we find the homes social spaces and its direct contact with the land. Although we are dealing with a building of 3 floors, one of the architectural projects objectives is to establish connections between the building and its surroundings, between its interior and exterior spaces. All floors are contemplated with covered or uncovered verandas and patios that are closed off or open to the landscape, creating variable possibilities of inhabiting spaces, taking advantage of the light and scenery that change with the different seasons. Thus, the dense white volume acquires, with its large openings and differentiating materials, contrasting hollows.

Credits & copyright Pitagoras Architects – via

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