Argentinian studio Andrés Remy Arquitectos have completed a house in Pilar, Buenos Aires, consisting of volumes stacked at sloping angles.

Called Casa Orquidea (Orchid House) the concrete building has large recessed windows, with smaller openings in the south facade.

The following information is from the architects:

Sustainability implies a lot of varieties, such as efficient and rational use of energy and water, natural ventilation and lighting, and low-environment-impact materials. The house has the best orientation, possible thanks to the large lot. The concept came from the client’s hobby, growing orchids. The house is based on the different parts of the orchid: the roots, the stem and the flower.

The sun rays impact in the interior of each room, were also studied, to determine the optimal depth to place the windows. This gives a unique volumetric outcome to the project. Taking advantage of sun rays in winter increases the interior temperature up to a comfortable level. The design includes glazed volumes with good thermal insulation and small windows in the worst orientation, such as the south facade. The windows consist of aluminum frames supplied with thermal bridge breaker and double-hermetic-glass. A wide variety of insulating materials were also used, as well as water based paint and wall and roof air chambers.

In the lower floor, the convenient location of the opening windows allows natural air flow helping to decrease the humidity in the room. What’s more, the big thresholds create a good distribution of fresh air. All this, gives account of the complexity of the house, a glass and concrete flower, designed according to a program of needs and the client’s concerns.

Credits
Design: Andrés Remy Arquitectos
Desing Team: ANDRES REMY, HERNAN PARDILLOS (asociated), LUCILA LOPEZ, PAULA MANCINI, JULIETA RAFEL.
Colaborators: LILIAN KANDUS, CORAL BANEGAS, GISELA COLOMBO, DIEGO SIDDI, MARTIN DELATORRE, JUAN ETALA, SEBASTIAN REMY.
Design Process: six months.
Date of completition: December 2008
Location: The house is located in a closed neighborhood called “Haras del Sol”, in the city of Pilar, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Lot size: 3640m_
Lower floor: 325m_
Upper floor: 140m_
Total: 465m_

Here are some images of a visitors centre with walkways built through and around a castle in Fundão, Portugal, by Portuguese studio Comoco Architects.

The new addition to the Castelo Novo comprises a pedestrian walkway, ramps and stairs, which guide visitors from a church square through the castle to a multimedia display inside a steel box in the main tower.

A rectangular structure with a folding facade sits further down the hill from the castle and is where the walkway begins.

Photographs are by Fernando and Sergio Guerra.

The following information is from the architects:

The project’s brief requested the conservation and valorization of Castelo Novo’s Castle and surroundings. Moreover, it suggested also the creation of a space where people and visitors could enjoy it as a place of permanence.

To answer these demands, the design solution created a “body” without a rigid boundary, organic, working independently of the existing structures but using them as a support. The construction was designed as a continuous abstract object, non-identifiable with a unique and specific purpose.

The object changes with the characteristics of the site. While in the church’s square it acts as a volume defining the limits, in the interior of the Castle’s walls, its shape is transformed into a pavement layer with ramps and stairs creating a pedestrian pathway which is suspended from the ground by metallic structure.

This solution allows the visitors to admire the archeological findings without damaging them. The pathway finishes in the castle’s Main Tower where a “steel box” was inserted in its interior containing a multimedia room.

This box allows also the creation of a platform where visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of the landscape. A

ll the construction was made using lightweight metal structures which can allow a clear distinction of the new object from the existing structures and, at the same time, the reversibility of the operation.

Project Credits

Location: Castelo Novo, Fundão
Client: Fundão Municipality
Architecture: Luís Miguel Correia, Nelson Mota, Susana Constantino with Vanda Maldonado

Date: 2003-2008
Area: 3650m2
Engineering: Direcção-Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGEMN)

Building Contractor: General Contractor: STAP – Reparação, Consolidação e Modificação de Estruturas, S.A.
Landscape: Serrasqueiro e Filhos, lda
Photography: FG+SG – Fotografia de Arquitectura

Czech architects Chalupa Architekti have won a competition to design the new Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington DC, USA.

Here’s some text from the architects:

The design of the Embassy of the Czech Republic pays tribute to its unique natural setting, and the building itself is only an adjunct, not the main actor. Its form divides the site into three separate parts.

Firstly what emerges is a representational circular driveway space, the austere elegance of which underlines the drapery-like front façade made of frosted glass. Secondly, it creates a private garden space linked to the apartments and offices used for more working-like meetings.

Finally, there is the representational garden space which forms the conceptual core of the project. The garden is generously dimensioned, organically connected with the main lounges of the Embassy, and mediates a strong contact between the new building and the existing residence of the ambassador.

Designing the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington poses the special challenge (apart from the obvious creation of an environment suitable for work and meetings) of how to represent the Czech Republic abroad. It does not attempt to show what we are like, but what we would like to be like, or how we wish to be seen to the world: open, confident, friendly, helpful, and respectful, considerate to Nature and the environment in general, firmly rooted in rich cultural traditions and with respect to democratic principles; and always ready to help. Our hope is that the new Embassy building will foster this understanding.

1. prize in a competition to design

Embassy of Czech Republic in Washington, DC, USA

architects: Chalupa architekti / Marek Chalupa, Stepan Chalupa, Tomas Havlicek, Michal Rosicky, Tomas Horalik, Jakub Chuchlik

collaborators: Adam Gebrian, Petr Babak / Laborator, Zdenek Sendler, Vit Musil + Radim Petruska / miss3

location: 3900 Spring of Freedom St. NW, Washington, DC, USA

client: Czech Republic – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

design period: 07/2009–02/2010

gross floor area: 5 490m2

Photographer Nelson Garrido has sent us these photographs of the recently-opened car park in Miami by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Called 1111 Lincoln Road, the building incorporates 300 parking spaces.

Eleven shops and three restaurants are located at ground level, with further shopping on the fifth floor and another restaurant on the roof.

All photographs ©Nelson Garrido/1111Lincoln Road Shot Reprinted with permission from MBeach1, LLLP

The information below is from the developers:

Situated at the gateway to Lincoln Road’s pedestrian promenade, 1111’s mix of exclusive, internationally diverse retailers will once again restore this long-dormant strip to its former position as the city’s premier retail location.

Constructed of concrete and glass, 1111 Lincoln Road is described by architect Jacques Herzog as pure Miami Beach – “all muscle without cloth”.

Each level of the sculptural parking facility is filled with natural light, creating successively striking vistas of the city.

At its base, the retail spaces offer unobstructed access to a newly transformed public space.

1111 encompasses 40,000 square feet for 11 street-level retail concept stores and three restaurants, as well as a uniquely-situated 5th floor retail store.

Estonian architects Urmas Muru and Peeter Pere have designed a house for a fishing village near Tallinn, covered in shingles on all surfaces except for one white concrete wall.

Called Liiva House, the building has a faceted roof creating an angular form with irregularly-spaced windows.

There is a full-height glass wall located at the rear of the house that creates a conservatory space.

A room with only three external walls sits at the rear of the house and is open to the garden.

The project is due for construction later this year.

The following information is from the architect:

The shape has been derived from sea side stack of boulders.

More firm and traditional facade is exposed to the street.

The courtyard is more expressive,wild, opened, communicating.

The master key of the plan solution is the butterfly tie shaped main axes of the winter garden.

It is surrounded by the rooms which compose traditional Estonian home- living room, kitchen, bedrooms, guest room, study, sauna.

The external walls and roof use tarres larch shingles.

Southern wall is of white concrete.

The wooden surfaces in the yard maily consists of untreated laurch.

Project Information

Designed: October 2008
Construction: November 2010
Site area: 1694m²
Net area: 300m²

Materials: white concrete, larch shingle, pine boarding
Architects team: Urmas Muru, Peeter Pere, Janek Maat, Doris orasi
Location: Tallinn, Estonia

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Milan 2010: Swarovski Crystal Palace present installations by designers including Tokujin Yoshioka, Yves Behar and Gwenael Nicolas in Milan this week.

Top: Yves Behar
Above: Tokujin Yoshioka

Yoshioka presents an LED light covered in 10,000 Swarovski crystals alongside a second globe growing inside a tank (see our earlier story about Yoshioka’s Venus project).

Above: Tokujin Yoshioka

Nicolas has strung crystals through the space and captured them inside balloons, while Behar’s project uses a crystal to refract light onto paper lanterns.

Above: Tokujin Yoshioka

Swarovski also present a collection of furniture in Milan – see our earlier story.
See all our stories about Milan 2010 in our special category.

Above: Yves Behar

The information below is from Swarovski Crystal Palace:

Swarovski Crystal Palace 2010 launched new works by five international designers in a ground-breaking exhibition that took visitors on an experiential journey at the Salone del Mobile 2010.

Above: Vincent Van Duysen

In 2010 Swarovski Crystal Palace presented yet another exhilarating and inspiring series of commissions, demonstrating the creative potential of Swarovski crystal and the artistic expression of each designer’s work.

Above: Vincent Van Duysen

Swarovski Crystal Palace commissioned five international designers to interpret the beauty of Swarovski crystal and incorporate their vision into a piece of design. Tokujin Yoshioka from Tokyo, French-born, Tokyo-based Gwenaël Nicolas, Belgian architect Vincent van Duysen, Dutch architectural lighting designer Rogier van der Heide and Swiss-born, San-Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar each created strikingly different concepts.

Above: Gwenael Nicolas

“Swarovski Crystal Palace is Swarovski’s think tank, a platform for creative expression and experimentation with innovation and technology,” Nadja Swarovski, Vice President of International Communications at Swarovski, comments. “Our designer collaborations not only push the boundaries of the designers’ own work but also of the use of Swarovski crystal in an artistic, decorative and functional way.”

Above: Gwenael Nicolas

The Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition, an incubator for cutting edge design, demonstrated the merging of art, design, science and technology. Each designer’s creative expression was captured in single room installations, captivating the imagination of each visitor. The final designs were a combination of sculptural pieces, art objects, or works which had a decidedly architectural quality. The exhibition brought on board Jules Wright, founder of the The Wapping Project in London and a background in theatre, who created a mise-en-scène that brought dramatic life to the different designers’ works.

Above: Gwenael Nicolas

The guiding theme was inspired by the idea of inspirational palaces – from Versailles with its hall of mirrors, to Japan with its Zen aesthetic, to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Each design was showcased in a separate room, allowing the designers the opportunity for creative expression. “Every space focused the eyes on the specific object and the environments contextualised each piece in a theatrical way,” Wright explained.

Above: Gwenael Nicolas

As visitors moved through the exhibition, they engaged in a journey through the different worlds and environments conjured by the designs. The journey culminated in a final room celebrating some of the staggeringly inventive concepts created by the world’s most innovative designers for Swarovski Crystal Palace over the last 8 years. “We were delighted to have Jules Wright’s involvement this year in curating the show. Her concepts have enhanced the meaning of each piece, each design,” Nadja Swarovski commented.

Above: Gwenael Nicolas

STELLAR by Tokujin Yoshioka

Visitors entered the exhibition through a room dedicated to Tokujin Yoshioka’s design. For Swarovski Crystal Palace he created an installation, which consisted of a 1 metre diameter globe encrusted with 10,000 Swarovski crystals and lit from within by 600 LEDs. An accompanying piece featured another globe suspended in a vast tank of water, on which crystals grew naturally. The design was an evolution of Yoshioka’s 2008 work entitled “VENUS – Natural crystal chair” in which the chair – like Venus – emerged from the ‘water’ as the crystals naturally grew on its frame.

“What is important to me is not just designing another sculpture with crystal, but to create a star which shines in the viewer’s heart,” Yoshioka explained. His approach was to, “incorporate the element of beauty born of coincidence,” into his piece, adding that, “it was technically challenging because the unpredictable element found in nature had to be accurately expressed by human design.”

Above: Rogier Van Der Heide

SPARKS by Gwenaël Nicolas

“I wanted to imagine a space with no gravity,” Gwenaël Nicolas comments on his project, which consisted of two separate designs. The first item was almost, “not an object anymore, where crystal and light become life.” Nicolas created large, free-floating, transparent balloons filled with helium, in which floated a small crystal sculptures lit by a battery powered LED inside. The balloons, which measured 2.4m in diameter, drew on NASA technology to enable them to be as thin and transparent as possible. The LED light emanating through the crystal within set off a series of ’sparks’ which moved as the balloons and crystals gently floated through the room.

A separate design consisted of a 10m long string of crystals incorporating LED lighting that was programmed to set off more ’sparks’ which jumped along the length of the rope.

Above: Rogier Van Der Heide

FROST by Vincent Van Duysen

Vincent van Duysen created a highly versatile glowing ‘beam’ encrusted with Swarovski crystals. The design could be used on its own – suspended above a table for example or leant against the corner of a room, or joined together as modular elements to create dramatic architectural shapes. The elements came in three different widths – from 6cm to 16cm, and three different lengths, from 140cm to 220cm. The surface of each bar featured a ‘crust’ of randomly assorted, different sized crystals set into resin. Sandwiched between the crystal exteriors was a thin glass panel which gave the ‘beams’ their structure and rigidity while also acting as a vehicle for the LED lighting within. Van Duysen commented on the way in which Swarovski crystals brought out an element of playfulness in the design process; “They remind you of natural elements like water and ice, and allow you to bring in more poetic and emotional aspects to lighting design.” He also commented on the pleasingly contradictory nature of the crystals used in this design, with the outer ‘crust’ having a temptingly tactile quality while actually being surprisingly rough to the touch.

DREAM CLOUD by Rogier van der Heide

This installation was an interpretation of the crystals’ purest, most intrisic features: how they spark our imagination. The installation relied on the beauty of the crystals and had the magic of the Northern Lights.

Rogier Van der Heide comments: “I presented Swarovski Crystal Palace in Milan as a dreamy cloud of crystals, a three-dimensional sculpture that expressed the natural, magical, imaginative and beautiful.” ‘Dream Cloud’ consisted of thousands of pure crystals floating in the air, transforming the space into a captivating sculpture that relies on the reflective properties of the crystals against the blackened walls. An external source of light illuminated the cloud of crystals with a changing spectrum of colours. A body of black tulips carpeted the floor which provided a dramatic setting.

AMPLIFY by Yves Béhar

Yves Béhar combined the possibilities of technology with the inherent qualities of Swarovski crystal to create a beautiful yet surprisingly affordable lighting arrangement, which consisted of a series of deceptively simple ‘paper lanterns’ shaped like crystals, within which light was refracted from a real crystal, casting its patterns on the surface of the paper.

Béhar’s design was created with a focus on sustainability and affordability, featuring a faceted shade made from recyclable materials, one crystal and one low-energy consuming LED light. The design featured 6 different crystalline shapes in varying sizes, which could either be used individually or clustered together to create a striking effect.

태국의  Supermachine Studio 건축가 그룹에서 방곡에 밝은 붉은 빛의 차 쇼룸을 완공하였다.

도로를 향해 각각 다른 크기의 창이 나 있는4개의 다르게 연결된 룸들을 가진 '오토스텔라 Autostella'.

Photographs are by Wison Tungtunya.

The information below is from the architects:

Autostella showroom, Bangkok

From early period of the last century, automotive industry seems to have always influenced the of architecture (but not so much the other way around.) In the modern history, different aspects of “automobile” has been inspiring architecture, whether as a material, shape, speed of the way cars are manufactured.

We have learned so much from the classic examples like Fiat’s Lingotto factory in Turin, (Mattè Trucco 1923) that has a test track on the roof top or BMW’s Central Factory in Leipzig (Zaha Hadid, 2005) that incorporates the process of car production and architecture into one.

Car is another architecture’s best friend.

Autostella is a small imported car showroom in Bangkok located around Eakamai-Ramintra expressway.

The types of cars Autostella keen to sell are those cute car and fun to drive like Fiat 500 or some other small models of another Italian car maker, Alfa romeo. Autostella is not an automobile showroom with super high glass windows as commonly seen in Thailand.

We accessed the project by neglecting the stereotype aspect of automobile that people connect themselves with which is “speed” and its “Dynamic” look. But it is designed like a small bakery and cafe’ that has small car parks right in the middle of the shops.

Their potential clients are those lifestyle concerned people (who sometimes emotional buy rather than logical buy things.)

The flat and long red box is pushed-pulled deformed and divided in to 4 different (but connected) rooms. Each room has windows in different sizes facing the street.

Each of the window is different size according to the size of the room. The room can be decorated differently in the future to suit the mood of the new models of the cars coming-in in the future. “Why the car showroom has to be single white room with non-differentiation all the time? It’s so boring.”