Located within the newly revitalized Steigereiland neighborhood, the first of the IJburg islands when approaching from central Amsterdam, the Sluishuis references the industrial and maritime heritage of the area, as well as its vernacular architecture. The architects wanted it to feel like a traditional European courtyard house was enlarged, modernized, and adapted for the canal-centric landscape of Amsterdam. The 527,000-square-foot building juts out over the waterfront on the outskirts of the city, with a triangular opening acting as a “gate” through which 54 boats can dock at an inner port.

The units on this cantilevered side of the building feature glass balconies over the water, giving them incredible views looking either outward at the city or inward at the courtyard and its gardens. The apartments at the rear of the building step down to the docks, each with its own spacious outdoor terrace. A promenade winds around the building, inviting visitors — including the public — to climb all the way up to the rooftop gardens and gaze out at the new neighborhoods on the IJ. It also connects to an archipelago of public program elements like mooring points for 34 houseboats, floating gardens, and a sailing school.

Native plants emerge from giant planters and climb the facades throughout the complex, and large windows draw daylight into all corners of the building. Untreated aluminum reflects the play of light across the water, helping the Sluishuis blend into its environment. The units include duplex penthouses, urban studios, and premium apartments, and all of the homes are accessed through the central courtyard. All 442 apartments are energy-neutral, and power for the building comes from 2,200 square meters (about 75,347 square feet) of solar panels.

“With iconic architecture, as well as new housing typologies, high-quality outdoor spaces, and breathtaking views of the IJmeer, Sluishuis is a new landmark for IJburg as well as Amsterdam,” says Dirk Peters, a founding partner at Barcode Architects. “We have tried to design a building with a surprisingly changing perspective and a unique contemporary character, which reflects the identity of the future residents and all users of Sluishuis.”

“Having spent my formative years as an architect in Holland at the end of the 20th century, it feels like a homecoming to now get to contribute to the architecture of the city that I have loved and admired for so long,” says Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG.

The post Ship-Shaped Apartment Complex by BIG Rises from Amsterdam’s Revitalized Waterfront first appeared on Dornob.

The Hotel Hubertus is set at the foot of a popular ski and hiking area called Kronplatz in Valdaora’s Puster Valley. “Hub of Huts” gazes out at this serene landscape from a high vantage point, its series of glass-walled structures collectively forming a “zen-like refuge” for the wellness-oriented hotel. It’s located on the southeast side of the complex, at the edge of a glass-bottomed and cantilevered pool noa* added to the hotel six years ago. The beautiful 82-foot-long water feature has since become the hotel’s star attraction, so the architects used it for inspiration when designing the Hub of Huts.

Architect and noa* founder Lukas Rungger explains that the firm thought about all the activities swimmers tend to do in the pool, like standing, sitting, floating horizontally, and diving upside-down. “Each of these positions have a different horizon, and from this interplay of perspectives, the idea of the project came to life.”

Emulating a small village, the huts contain showers, changing rooms, and additional pools on the upper side of the platform. Below, in the volumes that appear inverted, even more pools can be found, along with saunas, showers, and a foyer. The architects also hid a water purification system for the pools and tiered seating for the saunas within the upside-down gables. The warmth of the saunas and protection of the platform overhead make these spaces feel sheltered and almost subterranean despite their elevated position.

The aesthetic of the huts mimics those of the Hubertus Pool and the rest of the Hotel Hubertus, which was extensively renovated by noa* in 2016. In addition to adding 16 new suites, a new kitchen with restaurants, a wine cellar, and fitness and relaxation rooms, the firm created a new facade from native larch tree trunks. This rhythmic, undulating exterior connects the hotel’s old and new volumes and gives them a visual cohesiveness. The same debarked larch trunks are used as pillars for both the cantilevered swimming pool and the Hub of Huts.

The architects add that “the new pool, which imposingly rests in-between the two accommodation wings, seems like a floating rock, come to rest at the site, overlooking the valley. The hidden edges of the pool, kept in anthracite-colored stone, abolish the gap between pool and landscape, creating the impression of the water flowing into nothing, disappearing between pool and landscape. The pool metaphorically reminds [one] of a mountain lake, nestled into the astonishing mountainscape of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Dolomites…”

Network of Architects is known for its spectacular and imaginative architectural creations, particularly in the areas of hospitality and cultural institutions. Also located in South Tyrol, its AEON hotel uses dramatic color contrasts and ultra-high ceilings to set a contemplative mood. The firm has also recently created a striking “floating” library for Milan based on the Tree of Knowledge, and a modular building system used as the basis for a sustainable community center.

The post Hub of Huts: Surreal Hotel Addition Resembles an Upside-Down Village first appeared on Dornob.

Japanese architecture firm Tomohiro Hata takes every opportunity to do something unexpected without sacrificing practicality. With “House in Shimogamo,” the firm displays a brilliant approach to designing a spacious and dynamic home that makes the most of its corner plot in a dense neighborhood.

Tomohiro Hata sees every space they design as a setting for exploration and movement. Their buildings aren’t simple boxes with floors, ceilings, and walls in all the conventional places – they’re typically stacked and layered spaces with interconnected circulation zones, making use of staggered planes to maximize space and visual interest. In this case, several different volumes are arranged to interplay with each other at various heights, all topped by a cantilevered structure that juts out over a courtyard like a telescope.

Located to the west of the Kamo River in Shimogamo, Kyoto, the home overlooks Mt. Hiei to the east and is surrounded by a combination of deteriorating old-fashioned townhouses and new mansions that have sprouted up in available lots. “I am very impressed with the scenery of this place, where roofs of various ages and sizes are piled up and blend into the mountains in the background,” says Tomohiro Hata, the firm’s founder and lead architect. “Therefore, I wanted to find a way of architecture that would connect and amplify the landscape of these diverse roofs.”

Instead of placing an array of rooms under a single roof, Hata made each room its own unique space. On the ground floor, the tea room and children’s bedroom are connected to the garden, the dining room, and a second-floor terrace. On the second and third floors, the dining room, living room, and terrace lead up to the cantilevered observation room. “I tried to design the grain of the living space and its relationship, such as expanding the air volume and spending it individually or integrally,” Hata says. “In this way, the grains of the space characterized by the roof collide, melt, and overlap, aiming for a dwelling that has multiple individual spaces that relate comfortably to each other.”

A diagram shows how these spaces fit together around open-air terraces, staircases, and ladders. The spaces beneath mezzanine levels are often filled in with glass, providing glimpses of other rooms and the greenery outside. The line between “inside” and “outside” is blurred, allowing for a better dialogue with the scenery. All the various spaces are united by a simple material palette of wood and white-painted walls.

The home achieves a balance of connectedness and separateness, privacy and conviviality. Who wouldn’t want to sit in that observation room, the terrace below it, or any of the other overlooks and patio spaces created by this design and gaze out at the mountains?

The post Cantilevered Wooden House Livens Up a Corner in Shimogamo, Japan first appeared on Dornob.

One level of the home is for a young family, one is for their parents, and another offers a recreational sports space and gym for the residents and their guests. The third volume rises above the others, jutting out vertically over the cliffside so that one tower-like section feels like it’s hovering in the air. A continuous stairway can also be glimpsed through the windows, making it sort of like an observation tower. Both the son’s house and the parents’ house have their own private backyards tucked somewhat safely against the cliff, and a shaded corridor offers access to the swimming pool from the son’s house.

One of the coolest aspects of this design is its wooden rooftop shades, which can be either closed or opened to let sunlight flood inside (a nice treat in this rainy part of the world). The glass walls facing the water unfold into balconies reminiscent of vertigo-inducing skyscraper platforms like the Skydeck at Chicago’s Willis Tower, the swimming pool features an infinity edge, and if you look closely, you’ll see what looks like the world’s most dangerous swing at the edge of the outdoor terrace. In other words, this residence is for daredevils only, and anyone who’s clumsy or afraid of heights need not apply.

If you think this concept looks unlikely to ever actually become a reality, you may be right, though Iranian architect and interior designer Milad Eshtiyaghi says construction plans are underway and set to begin later this year. It’s a daring project, but not impossible, and it wouldn’t be wildly out of place among the more luxurious homes in British Columbia. You can see short animations of the home’s interiors and various angles of the exterior, including the approach from the top of the cliff, at Eshtiyaghi’s website.

Eshtiyaghi is known for dreaming up incredible architectural concepts that veer into futuristic and fantastical characteristics without losing the sense that they could be real. Anything but ordinary, these projects often reconceptualize what homes and apartment buildings or condos can look like. For instance, the Villa Residential Complex, envisioned for the north of Iran, consists of a bunch of stacked triangles in various sizes ranging from singles to duplexes and triplexes facing both the southern forest and the northern sea.

Another dramatic cantilevered project, Suspended House, takes an ultramodern silhouette in black and dangles over half of it over the edge of a cliff. Cables attach the home to a huge steel mast that bears the weight of gravity while withstanding lateral and upward wind forces. “We designed the mast of the project as someone who has been bended by opposition and is pulling a rope,” says the designer.

The post Cliff-Clinging “Mountain House” Takes Advantage of Every Possible View first appeared on Dornob.

From there, the home’s identity gets less literal, but no less gorgeous. “Dunk House” is really a love letter to LA, defined first and foremost by its color. Malka created a special shade of “Los Angeles Blue” just for this application, explaining that the polarized paint interacts “with the various solar luminosities, and automatically adjusts its color to match the Californian sky’s tones, merging the house with its surrounding.” This gives the home a “contemporary stealth camouflage” that makes it less obtrusive in the landscape, merging almost seamlessly into its surroundings.

That camouflage continues from the main house to the mirrored guest home in the backyard, which reflects all the lovely sky blue as well as the adjacent palm trees and the swimming pool that stretches between the two buildings. Facing each other with oversized windows, the volumes feel like extensions of each other, and as the “Los Angeles Blue” paint penetrates the interiors, it helps to blur the lines between indoors and out.

“The result is a contextual alliance between the very materiality of the villa its surrounding, proactively interacting towards the streets of LA, the beach community, the sun’s latitude, and the sky intensity,” Malka says.

The blue is just as refreshing inside as it is on the exterior walls. Used to define a double-height lounge area, it’s painted on the walls and floors and continues with a gradient effect onto the glossy built-in cabinetry. Skylights let the sun play the same visual tricks here as it does outside, amplified by the reflections off the water. The home’s all-white furniture mimics the lounge chairs by the pool in a nod to LA’s perpetually temperate weather.

Though we only glimpse the common areas of the home in Malka’s photos, we still get a sense of the mood that likely continues into more private spaces. The bright cheerful blue shifts into textural sand-colored floors, while white walls deeper inside the home aid in reflecting the plentiful sunlight.

“Dunk House” is one of Studio Malka Architecture’s more laid-back and minimalist works. The firm has gained a reputation for pushing both boundaries and buttons, never afraid to offer surprising and unconventional solutions, experiment with new materials, or make a political statement. They often play with modularity and exploded geometric forms, recently deconstructing a brick wall at the Paname Comedy Club and stacking golden volumes of student housing, both in Paris. Earlier works include a 2014 proposal to co-opt a bridge for modular affordable housing, and “Plug-In City 75,” a sustainable development packed with balconies and hanging gardens.

The post Dunk House: A Sky-Blue Home for a Basketball Player by Studio Malka Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

Architectural firm Abin Design Studio (ADS) drew on this tradition for a beautiful new modern building in the town of Bansberia, West Bengal. “Gallery House” features an organic asymmetrical shape, a facade of rectangular bricks laid in dynamic patterns, and a cantilevered terrace that projects out over the front steps. The client originally purchased this plot of land across the street from his house as a parking lot for his vehicles, subsequently hiring the architects to build a garage with staff quarters above it.

Upon being asked, ADS had just completed the client’s home, “Wall House,” itself a contemporary residence clad in weathered steel occupying nearly 7,000 square feet. Built out to the edges of the plot, the home embraces the ongoing trend of inscrutable street-facing facades concealing luxurious courtyards, lawns, and pools. Not wanting to take up too much of the public lands, the architects managed to convince the client to use the lot across the street in a way that gave back to his fellow citizens instead of expanding his private complex.

The client initially agreed to build a garage on the ground level with a multipurpose public activity space overhead, featuring a design that would symbolically welcome community members by stretching out toward the street. As the project progressed, he decided he wanted to forgo the garage altogether in favor of opening more of the building up to the public. The ground floor then became a community hall, while the upper floor doubles as a dormitory for his resident staff by night and a multipurpose room for community yoga sessions and classes by day.

“The client enjoys a sense of pride and joy of ownership seeing the space put to good use,” say the architects, who add that “as a decision to introduce another architectural expression to the community, the building took cues from Bengal’s terracotta temples. Exposed brick masonry walls inlaid with ceramic blocks define the building character as a contemporary expression of the inspiration. Collaborating with a ceramic artist, rejected ceramic blocks produced for industrial use were collected. Terracotta bricks were procured from a riverside brick field located nearby. These two were combined, using locally prevalent finesse of building masonry.”

Regarding the structure’s name, the ADS team explains: “Every year, this locality holds a festive procession along the narrow, winding neighborhood lanes as a part of a cultural celebration. Reciprocating this, the building steps down towards the street form a gallery for the onlookers to sit, who gather at the street-side during this event. Through judicious planning and play of voids in volume, the integral space of the building was shared with the neighborhood people as a humane gesture of giving back to the local community, without disrupting the privacy and security of inner functions.”

The post Bricks Go Bold with Organic Shapes and Patterns Based on Bengal Temples first appeared on Dornob.

In the Henan province of northeast China, local authorities initially wanted architecture firm Atelier XI to build a single large cultural facility in the area’s largest town, Xiuwu, but the architects had a better idea. In place of one 3,229-square-foot arts and culture center, they’d split the project into a series of miniature facilities in different rural locations. The province agreed, and “Peach Hut” is the first of those pavilions to be completed.

Set in the village of Jiaozuo, near the northern bank of the Yellow River, “Peach Hut” rises from an orchard of peach trees, with one glass-clad facade cantilevering over the greenery. The combination of the building’s unusual modern geometry and cheerful color contrast with the farmland surroundings, and make it look sort of like a sentient creature from an animated film that could suddenly stand up and start walking around at any moment. Needless to say, modern architecture is rarely seen in settings like this, much less structures this bold and playful.

The building’s curved silhouette was achieved with cast-in-place concrete, with the texture of the formwork still visible on the exterior walls. The shape of “Peach Hut” also takes inspiration from the twisting shapes of local trees, which all tend to lean to one side.

“[We] envisioned that the building is cut from a series of invisible arcs derived from the earth and the clouds, forming a unique shape that rises to the sky,” explains the firm. “In the Peach Hut, all windows are of diverse shapes, responding to different views and light angles: the large floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor allows viewers to jump over the peach trees and overlook the panoramic view of the farm; the round window frame on the south side rotates along the central axis, and captures dynamic imageries of the orchard under the subtle variation of daylight; the vertical windows at the corners lengthen the depth of field from the orchard to the village at far; the shadow [created by] the skylight changes at every moment; and the entrance corner window is made as a quarter circle resembling the stooped peach trees, thus resonating with the picturesque land.”

Acting as a community center and beverage bar, the observatory hut gives local residents a place to gather and take in the views. The other six pavilions planned for the province will be built over two construction phases, including the “Periscope” (a vernacular theater) and “Bent House” (a communal library).

The architects add that “these cast-in-place concrete miniatures are interpreted into a series of tree-shaped spaces with tentacles reaching out for the sky, bathing in light and shadow. Their locations vary from fields to woods to mountaintops, and their forms differ as well: while one grows out from the ruined walls in an abandoned village, another embodies a floating theater on the water.”

The project aims to address inequalities between urban and rural areas that resonate far outside China’s borders. People living in remote areas tend to lack sufficient access to information and educational resources, let alone the type of cultural attractions that you’d find in more populated areas.

“Through these minimal architecture investments, the project aims to inspire sensibilities of local residents, to help them enjoy and rethink life quality, as well as to alleviate isolation and poverty.”

The post “Peach Hut” Brings Contemporary Architectural Geometries to Rural China first appeared on Dornob.

Designed in collaboration by the firms Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem Architects, the library has serious curb appeal for visitors arriving from Oslo’s central station, with its stepped and cantilevered upper story jutting out 65 feet. Plus, the building’s facade combines glass windows and translucent walls, and after dark, the whole structure glows.

Inside, the floor plan revolves around a central atrium going all the way up to the building’s striking honeycomb-patterned concrete ceilings and skylights. Every level has access to daylight and lots of wide-open spaces, but there are cozy reading nooks to be found, too. The building feels enormous, but not in a way that’s necessarily overwhelming or uninviting. Instead, it feels like a bit of an adventure, offering much to be discovered.

In addition to all those books, the library features a theater, a podcast studio, instrument stations to learn how to play music, space for ongoing art installations, a cinema, an auditorium, a canteen, and a restaurant. And of course, the cantilevered level on the sixth floor has plenty of seating and tables near the windows to take in the sweeping views.

Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem won a 2009 competition to design the building, which had options for the library to be placed on two different sites near the Opera House. They chose the more challenging and limiting site, but it paid off, especially in the way their design’s unusual silhouette reflects on the water at night.

“The librarians wanted a house that would inspire visitors to explore all the new facilities and activities the modern library can offer,” explains the Lundhagem team. “This motivated us to create an open and intriguing building in which you are constantly invited around the next corner to discover new places. With its central location in Bjørvika, the new library is set to become a vibrant hub — a modern meeting place for learning and exchange of knowledge.”

“The site is relatively small. In order to avoid building too many floors, the building cantilevers out above its footprint: the first floor above the street to the east, and the fourth floor almost 20 meters out above the urban plaza, creating a protective covering. Three ‘light shafts’ cut diagonally through the building from each of the entrances, giving a glimpse into different sections of the library. The light shafts connect the floors and distribute daylight downwards from three big skylights in the roof.”

The library will receive an estimated two million annual visitors with a capacity of 3,000, though for the time being, only 1,000 people will be allowed inside at any one time due to the pandemic. It officially opened its doors this summer.

The post Oslo’s Stunning New Public Library Cantilevers Over the Waterfront first appeared on Dornob.

Even at first glance, you can tell that this home is one of a kind. The dream retreat features an angular silhouette with a cantilevered upper level clad in dramatic black cedar, the roof extending down on one side to form a protective carport suggestive of a raven’s wing. The glazed lower level is partially enveloped by the rocky landscape, offering sweeping views in some rooms and gazing directly into the cutaway terrain in others.

Naturally, one of the house’s biggest selling points is a glass gallery-style room where luxury cars can be displayed, visible from the adjacent glass-walled wine lounge to maximize opportunities for admiration. Here, the latticed wooden wine rack makes visual reference to Aston Martin’s logo while creating just a little bit of separation between the two spaces.

While S3 Architecture handled much of the design process, Aston Martin had a heavy hand in the interior design and furnishings, outfitting the spaces with parquet flooring, leather details, marble-topped tables, and leather-trimmed seating.

If you’re a fan of contemporary horror films, the Sylvan Rock treehouse is sure to give you a thrill. Its design, coupled with the remote surroundings, is highly reminiscent of the setting for Ari Aster’s nightmarish 2018 film Hereditary. If you don’t have that association in your head, of course, it’s just a lovely addition to the retreat, set on bark-clad log supports and complete with suspended hammocks.

“When designing, we always let the land speak first and respond to it,” says S3 Architecture partner and Registered Architect Christopher Dierig. “The roofline mimics the jagged edges of the rock ledge reaching down into the earth, as if the home is born of and launching from the landscape. The resulting design blends our modernist aesthetic with the privacy and context of the rural location to create a unique luxury experience.”

The estate is “a strong marriage of design sensibilities,” says Cathal Loughnane, head of Aston Martin partnerships. He adds that “creating a luxury residence with warm textures, bold forms, and exceptional privacy is very aligned with Aston Martin’s own vision. We wanted the owner and their guests to experience the three-dimensional feel of the house in an organic way, just like you experience one of our cars — there is no single facade that dominates. Fully integrated into its surroundings and the community, Sylvan Rock is rare example of a complete residential work of art.”

Boasting 8,430 square feet of floor space, the home is accessed by a long driveway leading up to a lower entrance that just happens to pass by the automotive gallery. It will also have multiple outbuildings, including a series of pods that can adapt to multiple uses, like extended guest stays, remote offices, business retreats, and home schools.

Unsurprisingly, Aston Martin has a car recommendation to go along with the home, as if pairing a wine with a fine meal. The DBX, also designed with S3 Architecture, features an onyx black exterior, while the interior includes Oxford Tan leather, black Q brogue stitching, and hardwood inlay.

The post Aston Martin Designs Sleek New “Sylvan Rock” Home in New York first appeared on Dornob.

Trend forecaster WGSN, which influences designers across multiple industries, instead backed a shade they call “neo mint,” which takes inspiration from a fusion of nature, science, and technology. This invigorating shade is subtle enough to easily work into many interior design color palettes — so much so that WGSN felt confident enough to call it a great contemporary alternative to gray, providing a semi-neutral option that still feels rich and vibrant.

In one recently renovated Montreal home, mint is the color that greets you from the very beginning. Naturehumaine Architects blended the shade with gray and natural wood tones for the facade, and the effect makes every other house in the area look drab in comparison. The green-painted section is a cantilevered addition, offering the clients a whole new bedroom, to boot.

Inside, use of the color gets even bolder. Within an otherwise neutral space, a minty central staircase acts as a striking sculptural focal point. The simplicity of the hardware-free cabinetry, gallery-like walls, and sleek fixtures lets this element shine, while the whitewashed wood brings in just the right amount of texture. Best of all, it’s all warmed up by natural wood floors and beams. The only other pop of color in the home is the cheerful yellow tilework surrounding a tub in the children’s bathroom.

Granted, the architects call the accent color they’ve chosen “sage green,” but it’s really more of a spearmint. The effect is the same no matter what you call it, of course, and “Victoria Residence” is undeniably a great example of how strategic use of color can dramatically transform the feel of a space.

The architects add that “the design concept is defined by the transformation of the house by integrating three structural architectural elements. First, the addition of Victoria’s bedroom on the back facade forms a cantilevered box attached to the facade, secondly by creating a new balcony on the front facade, and finally, in the heart of the house, a new staircase articulates and organizes the functions of the house. These three elements are distinguished by the use of a unique color in a sage green shade, which, depending on the light intensity and the changing exposure during the day, presents a wide variation in contrasts and shades.”

“In the heart of the house, this touch of color on the stairs attracts the attention and becomes a playful and geometric element. The monochrome staircase is designed as lightweight structural work, composed of steel blades and painted cabinetry panels. It defines the playground area in double height by extending the color applied to the floor. Also, this central space is surmounted by a large skylight that brings light to the heart of the house as well as to all of the surrounding service rooms, particularly the bathrooms, which are equipped with large glass imposts.”

The post A Splash of Mint Makes This Modern Staircase Pop first appeared on Dornob.

The Chinese architects created a museum within Fengyuzhu’s headquarters that contains all of the miniature architectural models within a structure that itself acts as a mega-model of a future city. The museum’s hallways and rooms mimic the roads, sidewalks, and buildings of an urban environment.

But there’s one big change here from any city we’re used to. Instead of building out, Wutopia imagines building up. White cantilevered platforms stagger the smaller-scale models into airy vertical layers connected by thin steel columns that also act as translucent walls within the museum.

Li Hai, Fengyuzhu’s founder, asked Wutopia Lab to take inspiration from an architectural model museum in Tokyo called Archi-Depot. The firm’s principal architect Yu Ting explains: “When I looked through the photos of Archi-Depot, an idea popped into my head: since the museum focuses on models of various built or unbuilt projects, if we look at these vastly different projects from a macro perspective, and ignore the difference in region and time period, they can form a world together.”

“Therefore, I decided to make the entire museum into a mega model of [a] future city. The collected models become different components of the future city’s fabric, with each of them divergently predicting a different future. Such an architectural model museum is truly meaningful at an architectural level, and I defined it as ‘Models in Model.’”

Ting adds that “the dense models on Archi-Depot’s shelves remind me of A.B Walker’s comic quoted by Rem Koolhaas in Delirious New York, which was firstly published in a magazine in March 1909. Koolhaas thought it represented a utopian imagination of skyscrapers. In 2011, my PhD thesis cited this part of text and image in Koolhaas’s book. I think that the imagination of skyscrapers from Europe to North America in the early 20th century formed the prototype of a vertical city. This inspired me to make the museum as a model of a future vertical city.”

In order to maintain visual focus on each of the individual physical models, the architects kept the “city” of the museum abstract. A total of 5,653 round steel pipes became the basis of the design, which Wutopia Lab calls “Last Redoubt” in honor of the 1912 science fiction novel The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.

The rest of the “city” spaces in the museum are also named for fictional sci-fi sources, like “Thunder Dome” from Mad Max, “Tijuana” from Cowboy Bebop, and “Pod Bay” from 2001: A Space Odyssey. A special exhibition hall with perforated walls, floors, and ceilings is even named “Tyrell” to pay tribute to Blade Runner. The mood of each space subtly shifts accordingly.

Can you guess from the photos which one is which?

The post Wutopia Lab Creates Sci-Fi-Inspired Museum Full of Architectural Models first appeared on Dornob.

Remarkably, corten steel holds up to even the most rugged and punishing environments, including rain, snow, ice, and fog. Its vivid orange hue contrasts beautifully with the greenery of many landscapes and harmonizes with the umber tones of deserts. It’s particularly well-suited to simple, geometric building shapes, so it’s no surprise that it pops up often in modern architecture.

US-based architecture firm Axis Mundi has envisioned a visually spectacular use for it in one of the world’s most dramatic landscapes. Set high up in the Swiss Alps, “XYZ House” consists of three long, skinny rectangular volumes stacked against each other to create one of the most unusual house shapes you’ve ever seen.

Measuring about 4,000 square feet, the house has a steel and concrete inner frame finished off with corten steel and glass.

The firm explains that the home’s “cruciform-ike assemblage contains three bold architectural volumes clad in corten steel,” adding that “conceptually the project is organized by three mutually perpendicular planes (the three Cartesian coordinates of x, y, and z): an entry tunnel/bridge, a tower which contains the vertical circulation (staircase and elevator), and the main habitable space, which is suspended weightlessly above the valley below.”

“In essence, this is a dwelling meaningfully stripped of all nostalgia from the material world. One is immediately reminded of the great German romantic poets and painters like Caspar David Friedrich and the poet Heinrich Heine, who’s work emphasized the tension between the daily world and the irrational and supernatural projections of creative genius. The project is a ruin from the future and its poetic power lies in its supreme muteness, as a place to contemplate the horizon and eternity in silence.”

As you can see, lead architect John Beckmann’s description of it as a “ruin from the future” is fitting. Its starkness against the mountain scenery, with no other structures in sight, conjures the feeling of coming across something from another time in an unexpected place.

It may seem like oddly shaped structures like XYZ House are unrealistic and unlikely to ever be built, but you might be surprised by some of the incredible modern structures that can be found in similar places. Mohr Life Resort’s new wellness area in Tirol, Austria by local architecture practice noa* is one recent example, and a vision for the Nemrut Caldera Observation Route in Turkey uses corten steel to a similar effect.

Interested in seeing how corten steel holds up in real-life projects? Check out the “Site Shack” portable prefab office by Powers Construction, which is designed to hold up to the rigors of construction sites, and a Washington State cabin sheathed in corten steel shingles.

The post Cantilevered Corten Steel XYZ House Looks Out on Scenic Swiss Alps first appeared on Dornob.

First, there’s the fact that Fallingwater came close to literally falling right into the water thanks to a cantilevered design that wasn’t well supported. Erosion of the banks on either side presented a serious concern, and dampness penetrated the house on all sides. Ultimately, it’s cool to look at but not very practical. But could a different sort of design on a different sort of waterway be successful in ways that Fallingwater isn’t?

Architect Dan Brunn didn’t have Frank Lloyd Wright in mind when he designed “Bridge House” over a small natural stream in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. He was actually inspired by the elongated motor court of the Breakers, the ostentatious waterfront Vanderbilt family home in Newport, Rhode Island, though you’d never guess it from the final result.

The home is true to its name, with a simple form stretching from one bank of the narrow trickling stream to the next. Sleek and modernist, it has no unnecessary frills or complicated floor plans. Serving as Brunn’s full-time residence, the 4,500-square-foot home has a rectangular shape, measuring 20 feet wide by 210 feet long, stretching from the front of the building site to the back instead of side to side like a more conventional residence.

“The idea is to do something extraordinary with ordinary means,” says Brunn.

That wasn’t his first idea, though. When he bought the property, he intended to renovate the existing home, but problems with the foundation soon emerged, so he decided to go in a dramatically different direction instead. Determined to build to zero net energy (ZNE) standards and make full use of passive solar orientation and the beautiful views, the architect saw the bridge plan as a way to have a lower impact on the site.

Usually, the opposite would be true. One good reason we don’t see a lot of residences straddling creeks and streams is all the potential for disruption and pollution, not to mention messing up the views for other people. But the lightweight modular steel structure of the Bridge House, supported by two heavy steel beams, made it possible to set the building in place without making a mess. The fact that the stream is small and flows within a private neighborhood helps, too.

Making extensive use of carefully placed glass, Bridge House gets sunlight streaming in from optimal angles all day long and focuses views on the trees and water outside rather than neighboring houses. Standout features include a Series 980 Double Pivot Door from Western Window Systems, which sets the airy, welcoming mood at the main entrance, and a courtyard centered over the stream so it can really be enjoyed to the fullest.

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Formal entryways may have been très chic just a few decades ago, but these days, trends lean in the direction of more casual open spaces that interplay with the outdoors. For Red Rocks, architects Claire and Calvin Costello found a clever way to expand shaded outdoor spaces by as much as 2,000 square feet (186 square meters) while opening up the heart of the home, all without expanding beyond the original footprint to avoid disturbing the natural landscape.

“It was clear very quickly to [us] that although the Spanish Colonial Revival style can be beautiful in the right situations, the style of this home was repressing the potential of the site, or more simply put, the house was style over substance,” they explain.

The Spanish Colonial facade, along with its view-blocking columns, was removed altogether. The architects then stripped the home down to its core: a simple, two-story stucco box. They then stacked a larger volume right on top of it, stretching a Juliet-style balcony over the mountainside, itself adjacent to a brand new master suite. This addition is wrapped in vein-cut Veracruz limestone to mimic the natural calcite veins that often appear in the red rocks of the surrounding landscape.

The interiors got a whole new layout that placed more importance on the connection between the living spaces and views of the city in the distance. Now measuring 4,490 square feet (417 square meters) inside, the home boasts plenty of glazing to open lines of sight in all directions. In the common spaces, these windows look out onto cacti, sage, marigold, and palm trees, while the more intimate spaces gaze directly onto the rocky crags of Camelback Mountain for plenty of natural light and privacy.

Concrete flooring, walnut wood, white walls, quartz counters, marble tiling, and a constrained color palette modernize the interiors and complement the color of the rocks, but it’s the outdoor spaces that really make the new version of the Red Rocks residence shine. The architects created a covered patio on the first level, which gazes down at the shimmering turquoise pool in the stepped backyard, along with a fire pit and a hot tub.

On the second floor, sliding glass doors open the bedrooms to a long elevated terrace that’s shielded from the penetrating Arizona sun by an overhanging roof and the addition of perforated folding metal screens. The residents can close the screens by day to keep the rooms cool and open them at dusk to watch the sun set.

The change may be striking, but the home is now more beautiful than ever before, and more importantly, it’s actually serving the needs of the people who live there.

The post Red Rocks Residence in Arizona Undergoes Modern Transformation first appeared on Dornob.

But even if you’re yearning for a backyard office pod of your very own, space can be a major issue. For one family in New South Wales, Australia, the only available outdoor area was situated on a steep slope that climbed almost vertically to meet the adjoining yard of a neighbor, making it seem nearly impossible to build upon.

Tasked with designing a new addition, architect Matt Thitchener found himself up against all sorts of obstacles. First and foremost, the hillside slopes at roughly a 45-degree angle behind the family’s existing split-level home, so the new volume would have to be safely and securely supported without disturbing the site’s structural integrity. Second, all building materials would have to be lifted right over the home with a crane.

But for the clients, who primarily work from home, finding a way to use the slope would create some much-needed extra space while also taking advantage of some seriously picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean — so Thitchener was determined to find a solution that complemented the challenging landscape instead of clashing with it. The result is a simple, lightweight rectilinear volume clad in black steel placed at the very top of the slope, just under a retaining wall, preserving their hilltop neighbors’ views as well as their own sense of privacy.

The project’s difficult geotechnical conditions required substantial footings, Thitchener explains. Steel supports embedded into the rock allow the volume to cantilever off the edge of the slope in seeming defiance of gravity. “Clever design ensures a minimum of these footings and a reduction in cost by splitting the load into two paths down a cluster of piloti to the ground,” he says.

Capped with solar panels and accessible via a staircase that leads straight up from the back door of the main house, the new “North Avoca Studio” boasts a glazed facade and a glass-walled balcony to take in the vast sky and shimmering water through the treetops, gazing right over the rooftops of the surrounding coastal community.

Inside, the addition’s open-plan interior offers a mini living space of its own, complete with a kitchenette, bathroom, sitting area, and a long dining table. With views like this, it would be a waste not to have this lofted cube double as an extra living area. By day, it’s filled with natural light, with operable windows along one side allowing a cross breeze for natural ventilation.

Winner of the Colorbond Award for steel architecture, North Avoca Studio is a technical marvel, a testament to the architect’s creative vision and proof that sometimes you have more space to work with than you might think. Doesn’t it make you want to wander outside and evaluate your own yard for all the possibilities you’ve yet to consider?

The post Slope Too Steep to Build? Not for This Backyard Office Addition first appeared on Dornob.