February 2012
23 posts
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Ephemeral Architecture – Hotel de Glace
in Quebec, Canada, the Hotel de Glace is painstakingly constructed using 500 tons of ice and 15,000 tons of snow. Thirty construction professionals worked long hours to erect the basic framework, and then handed the finishing touches over to a team of 15 artists to carve the intricate decorations.It has already opened for its 2012 season, even though construction will officially be completed on...
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Dancing Trees, Singing Birds / Hiroshi Nakamura &...
Architects: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Location: Meguro, Tokyo, Japan Date of Completion: 2007 Parcel areas: 770.22sqm Constructed area: 424.25sqm Materials: RC+S Exterior Wall Finish: Japanese Cypress Lining Board Photographs: Courtesy of Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP
Behavior of Trees
People that use buildings live at a location that is physically close to nature. This can serve as a...
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SUPERNOVA STUDIO DESIGNS THE 155 BOUTIQUE
They might be the new kids on the block, but they sure know what they’re doing! In just one short year of being open, London based architecture and design firm Supernova Studio already has a quite impressive and exciting portfolio, and the new 155 Boutique is just one example.
The boutique was designed by taking inspiration from port locations because the merchandise of the store is items from...
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BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE SHOP, JAPAN
Without a doubt, the most poignant aspect of the Beautiful People Shop by creative team Wonderwall, is the blanket of 10,000 intricately crafted white blooms. Nine different floral species veil the wall in a mysterious and yet sterile aura. “It emits a tranquil force and strange sense of balance, while projecting both beauty and an opposing feeling of sorrow and sadness at the same time.” The...
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BAR BOUNI: A BAR ON THE BEACH
Looking part shipwreck and part Robinson Crusoe beach shack the Bar Bouni is awash in driftwood and warm sandy hues. Crafted by K-Studio, the relaxed, salt-stained bar sits in Costa Navarino, Greece with the azure sea lapping up mere feet away a backdrop. The restaurant is situated on an elevated wooden platform, allowing for waves to break underneath it (swoon!) Huge wood columns jut out like...
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MUNGE LEUNG DOES AME TORONTO
Canadian designer Munge Leung whipped up a warmly dim lit and sophisticated design for The Rubino Brothers latest Toronto restaurant called AME. The modern Japanese spot uses natural materials, bold pattern, and dramatic lighting to create a comfortable and sensual experience for dining guests. The design team decided to use over sized screens with cut-out patterns with the lighting to cast deep...
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TEQA OPENS IT’S DOORS IN NEW YORK CITY
A few weeks ago, Teqa, opened it’s doors to Manhattan’s Murray Hill Neighborhood offering them an unparalleled selection of unique alcohol, a scrumptious celebrity chef, and an interior which embodies old world elegance with modern architectural elements. Knstrct took a moment to stop in for the grand opening of the lounge to take a first hand look at the interior design done by none other than...
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WONDERWALL’S NEW OZONE NIGHTCLUB
New to the top floor of the new Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, which will be the world’s tallest hotel, is OZONE, a spectacular nightclub designed by Japanese based firm Wonderwall! OZONE Encompassing the majority of the 118th floor and terrace, Principal of Wonderwall Studio is Masamachi Katayama, his intention was to “create a place that is full of surprises and excitement at every turn, whether one ...
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NEW YORK’S NEW HOTEL AMERICANO
New York City is in an ever-evolving, constant state of gentrification with dilapidated buildings crumbling and new ones springing up in their place. Hôtel Americano’s parking-garage-turned-boutique-hotel follows suit. The beautiful, new, 10-story boutique hotel in Chelsea is the creation of Grupo Habita, a talented team of hoteliers who recently completed their first American establishment.
...
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The Mantes-la-Jolie Water Sports Centre by Agence...
French architects Agence Search have completed a water-sports centre beside the Seine with a roof of undulating waves.
A screen of wave-shaped louvers shades the building’s south elevation, creating dappled shadows on the lobby walls behind.
Corridors lead from here into the three swimming pools, which include a lap pool, a play pool and a children’s pool.
Chunky columns between the...
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House with Empty Lot by ON design
Japanese firm ONdesign have completed a wooden house in Fujisawa where two sliced halves are connected by a shared living area.
Resembling dollhouses, the two open facades both overlook the triple-height living room, which is called the Empty Lot.
This room is naturally day-lit from high-level windows and is contrastingly painted in white.
The side of the house containing the bathrooms...
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Hoki Museum / Nikken Sekkei
Architects: T.Yamanashi + T.Nakamoto + T.Suzuki + M.Yano, Nikken Sekkei Ltd. Location: Midori-ku, City of Chiba, Japan Completion: August 2010 Client: Hoki Museum Co., Ltd. Photographs: Noda Gankohsha , Nacasa & Partners
This is a private museum to exhibit and preserve painting and wines that Mr. Hoki has collected. According to Krzysztof Pomian, the essence of collection is not only...
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Taltal Public Library by Murúa-Valenzuela
Daylight floods into the reading rooms of this Chilean library though the high level windows of faceted ventilation stacks. Watch a movie of the building »
Designed by architects Murúa-Valenzuela, the three-storey-high library is located in the coastal town of Taltal, where it faces a public square and recently completed theatre.
The reading rooms are occupy the two lower levels,...
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Origami Building by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
Manuelle Gautrand Architecture have completed the Origami office building in Paris, France.
Situated within 200 metres from the Arc de Triomphe and now hosts the French headquarters of the Barklays Capital Bank. The building was designed and developed with a strong sustainability approach. The façade is dressed in a double skin of glass and, in an origami manner, with its pleated marble pattern...
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Near House by Mount Fuji Architects Studio
Japanese firm Mount Fuji Architects Studio have squeezed a narrow gate house between two existing Tokyo residences, leading to a main house on the L-shaped site behind.
The gate house (above) faces onto the road, separated from the main house at the back of the site (below) by a small courtyard.
Both parts of Narrow House are two-storey wood frame structures.
The gate house (above) has...
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Karis by Suppose Design Office
Japanese architects Suppose Design Office have completed a boutique made of cardboard tubes in a Hiroshima shopping centre.
Called Karis, the project features tubes of different lengths suspended in clusters to create ‘caves’ within the space.
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Meat Liquor by Shed and I Love Dust
A team of illustrators and graphic artists camped out for a week in this Rococo-style dome hidden under a carpark in Soho, London, covering every surface and arch with a sinister, sprawling illustration for new restaurant and bar Meat Liquor.
Interior architects Shed of London and Singapore commissioned design collective I Love Dust to adorn the walls for food brand Meatailer, which is making...
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Philippe Starck in Beijing
Philippe Starck has completed a new restaurant in Beijing called Le Lan (viadavidreport).
The restaurant is located in the Twintowers development on Jianguowenmai Avenue in Chaoyang District.
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Leo Burnett Office by Ministry of Design
Singapore designers Ministry of Design have completed an office interior for an advertising agency that features a drawing of the company’s founder spread across the walls and floor, wielding a scaled-up model of a pencil.
Designed for advertising agency Leo Burnett and located in Singapore, the project is divided into three parts.
The first, called ‘Space to Impress’, contains the...
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VOV Building by VOID planning
Korean architects VOID planning have completed the interior of an office building for cosmetics company VOV in Seoul, Korea.
Called VOV Building, the project includes an office space, conference room, showroom, nail parlour and roof garden.
Undulating glass profiles surround the showroom and conference room, and there are 52 movable pillars containing storage.
The architects aimed to...
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Lawyers’ office by PSA
Austrian architects PSA have completed an interior project for a law firm in Vienna.
The project involved extending the firm’s existing office and providing new circulation.
The main feature is a corridor lined by walls made of 543 individually CNC-milled parts. Photographs by Hertha Hurnaus.
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Nothing office by Joost van Bleiswijk
Dutch designer Joost van Bleiswijk has designed a cardboard office interior for new Amsterdam advertising office Nothing.
Using the same method of construction as his No Screw No Glue project (see our previous story), van Bleiswijk created the interior using over 500 square metres of reinforced cardboard.
The 1500 separate pieces were slotted together using no glue or fixings.
...
January 2012
31 posts
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Face to Face by Ministry of Design
Singapore studio Ministry of Design have completed an office building in Singapore, which features strips of white lighting that seem to have been scribbled over exterior and interior surfaces.
Called Face to Face, the building contains offices, meeting rooms and informal meeting spaces.
In place of a reception desk, visitors are greeted at a 10 meter-long solid-surface bar.
The black...
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NA HOUSE BY SOU FUJIMOTO, TOKYO
We have been fascinated by the works of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto for quite some time now, but his most recent NA House in Tokyo is beyond captivating! The multi-level home is based on a split-level steel frame construction with transparent glazing, but without a full set of stairs, yep, rub your eyes and re-read the previous statement. The Na house is formed of levels, close to one...
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TURKISH AIRLINES CIP LOUNGE
You can count on most airport terminals to be outfitted in heinous, boldly geometric carpet, dusty plastic plants and the most uncomfortably, un-ergonomic plastic chairs known to man. Not the Turkish Airlines CIP lounge. Designed byAutoban and Situated in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport the lounge has a capacity of 2000. The concept was cemented in the idea of creating a smaller shell within the...
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HANGZHOU BROADWAY CINEMAS
Designed by Alex Choi and inspired by rolls of vintage movie film from a bygone era, the Hangzhou Broadway Cinemas has an oddly futuristic aesthetic. The curvelinear lines of the ceiling undulate like ribbons, creating a flow that directs traffic into the cinema. Moviegoers who pause for a brief moment from inhaling buttery popcorn will notice an oculus in the ceiling framed with circles that...
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WONDERWALL’S CODE KURKKU, TOKYO
Designed to be a retreat easily accessible from urban life, Wonderwall’s Code Kurkku eatery is a Zen utopia amidst bustling Tokyo. The welcoming wooden gate and lush flora beckons city dwellers inside “Yoyogi Village” where visitors are confronted with an angular incline of stairs juxtaposed with oddly stacked containers. The collaboration between music producer Takeshi Kobayashi and Shinichi...
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MR Design Office by Schemata Architecture Office
A slide is hidden behind the mirrored wall in this Tokyo office by Japanese studio Schemata Architecture Office.
The shoot can be accessed by climbing a ladder up to the top of the bathroom and storage area.
The office is intended for just five people and features a reflective dome, 3.4metres in diameter, which hangs from the ceiling over a meeting area to project light and contain sound.
...
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Brandbase Pallets by Most Architecture
Dutch firm Most Architecture have created this temporary office from wooden pallets for an Amsterdam advertising company.
The project for advertising agency BrandBase sits in a narrow Dutch canal house that runs 27 metres deep.
Whitewashed walls contrast with lighting, fittings and banisters all finished in black.
In the main room two long tables and a central walkway formed from...
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Multi-level apartment by Peter Kostelov
Russian architect Peter Kostelov has slotted a timber structure into a two-storey apartment in Moscow to create two extra floors.
The former top level of the apartment had ceiling heights of up to 8 metres, where the architect has inserted a mezzanine and new upper storey.
Openings in the walls of the wooden structure allow views between rooms on different levels, as does a cutaway in the...
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JEAN NOUVEL: LEAVES
2008 Pritzker Prize winner, and visionary, Jean Nouvel has designed this dome like wonder to house the Louvre Museum in Abu Dahbi. This extension of the Louvre in Paris has come to us two years earlier than then original expected completion date. The exact location of the establishment is on the Saadiyat Island Complex, and is approximately 260,000 square feet.
Jean Nouvel’s explained that...
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THE KUBE HOTEL IN PARIS
Tucked into a quiet street and sheltered from the crowds is the Kube Hotel planted near Paris’ Montmarte. The hotel is housed in an antique Parisian building with a retro fitted modern facade which acts as the hotel’s concierge and assistance. The jolting entrance is the one of many bold concepts of the designers Raymond Morel and Christiane Derory who took the u-shaped building and gave it a...
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THE LOLA HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY
As the old saying goes: out with the old, and in with the new. What was once Manhattan’s Hotel Thirty Thirty, in Midtown, is now the home of the savvy and stylish LOLA Hotel. A multi-million dollar renovation has been orchestrated by Highgate Hotel, with the design help of famed photographer Matthew Rolston. We caught up with Rolston in Hollywood last spring for a walk through of his newest...
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House in Matsuyama by Suppose Design Office
A house in Matsuyama, Japan, designed to offer a view of the surrounding scenery from every room.
Walls integral to the structure of the building have been scattered across the floor-plan, opening various clear views through the structure while maintaining the building’s required earthquake resistance.
The toilet can be hidden from view by a curtain attached to a rail in the ceiling
...
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Chimney House / Marcio Kogan
Architects: Studio MK27 / Marcio Kogan Location: São Paulo, Brazil Co-Author: Diana Radomysler, Oswaldo Pessano Interior Design Co-Authors: Diana Radomysler, Carolina Castroviejo Project Year: 2009 Project Area: 400 sqm Photographs: Reinaldo Coser + Gabriel Arantes
Project Team: Beatriz Meyer, Eduardo Chalabi, Eduardo Glycerio, Eduardo Gurian, Elisa Friedmann, Gabriel Kogan, Lair Reis, Maria...
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Biodiversity Center / Tomas Garcia Piriz...
Architects: Tomas Garcia Piriz (CUAC.arquitectura), Jose Luis Muñoz Muñoz Location: Loja, Spain Completion: January 2011 Colaborators: Alvaro Castellano Pulido, architectural student; Ana Delgado, architectural student; Marta Reguera Gútiez, architectural student; Daniel Usero Guerrero, architectural student; Luis Miguel Ruizaviles, architect; Fernando Alvarez DeCienfuegos Montes, Graphic...
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Inspired by Nature: Stunning Leaf House in Brazil
This very spectacular Leaf House was designed by Mareines + Patalano Arquitetura and is located in Angra dos Reis, close to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its unique design is said to be inspired by Brazil’s Indian architecture and was envisioned in a way that counteracts the humid and hot climate which characterizes the area. Stretching over a surface of 8,600 square feet, this original looking beach...
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Kimball Art Center / BIG
In approaching the design for the new Kimball Art Center, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)found great inspiration in the urban development of Park City, the Kimball site, and the city’s mining heritage. They feel the form of the new Kimball Art Center emerges where these rich stories overlap.
BIG was particularly moved when a long-time resident of Park City spoke nostalgically about the former...
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SPREAD by GUM by Eureka
Architects Eureka have made a bicycle shop in Hong Kong where recycled paper tubes can be pushed in and out to make an ever-changing display wall.
Eureka were inspired by the Pinscreen executive toy, creating a wall of 5,412 recycled paper tubes so that products can be cradled in, nestled into, rested against or hung off a display that is different each time.
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MUR by Apollo Architects and Associates
Japanese house that blocks all views to and from the street but still draws light and air inside.
The single-storey house by Satoshi Kurosaki and architects Apollo is located in a residential neighborhood in Hodogaya Ward, Yokohama.
A wall behind the public approach allows for only a glimpse of the private courtyard within.
The windowless perimeter wall and a winding alley from the...
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Liyuan Library by Li Xiaodong Atelier
This project is modest addition to the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing, just under a two hours drive from busy Beijing urban life.
On the one hand it forms a modern programmatic complement to the village by adding a small library and reading space within a setting of quiet contemplation. On the other hand we wanted to use architecture to enhance the appreciation of the...
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Izukougen House by Atelier Shinya Miura
Japanese architect Shinya Miura has completed a house in Shizuoka with three courtyards concealed inside.
Glass walls surround each courtyard to draw natural daylight into the rooms of the residence, which is named Izukougen House.
Windows are scattered across the facade at different heights, even though the house has only one primary storey.
This residential project for a couple who...
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Haus W by Kraus Schöenberg
A painted-timber skin that skirts around the top storey of this Hamburg house reveals the heights of staggered floors inside.
Completed by German architects Kraus Schöenberg in 2007, the two-storey Haus W is nestled into a gently sloping landscape.
A living room occupies the entire ground floor and is fronted by continuous walls of glazing that face a sunken garden.
The rooms upstairs,...
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Red Bull Amsterdam by Sid Lee Architecture
The Red Bull’s business headquarter was fathered by the Netherland-Canadian studio Sid Lee Architecture. A contemporary cave with metal walls and a winding loft-like disposition is settled in a former shipyard next to a harbour in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Three interior wings are lit by typical indurstrial hall lights. The building encompasses a system of metallic and plywood constructions which...
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Tenerife Centre of Dramatic Arts by GPY...
GPY Arquitectos, the Spanish architectural practice established by Juan Antonio González Pérez and Urbano Yanes Tuña have completed this multifunctional, concrete-and-wood art centre located on the biggest island of the Canary Islands, Tenerife. Featuring a striking, zigzagging ‘system of ramps that relate the different scenic spaces of the building’, the multi-storey building has been developed...
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Bosco Verticale / Boeri Studio
Bosco Verticale, Vertical Forest, by Boeri Studio is a high-density tower block that experiments with the integration of a lush landscape within the facade of the architecture. The two towers, currently in construction in Milan, Italy, deal with the concept of regenerating the lost forests on the ground within the inhabitable space of buildings. The towers are 80 metres and 112 metres tall....
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Bondi House by Katon Redgen Mathieson
Located on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, this four level house occupies a narrow infill site, and has been designed to maximise its’ compact 120m2 site and capitalise on views across Icebergs to the beach. The ground level accommodates the entry hall and two bedrooms; one, on the beachside opens onto a courtyard with a cut-out that frames the sweep of the beach, the other opens onto a garden courtyard...
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Louver House / LSS
Architects: Leroy Street Studio Location: Long Island, NY Completion: 2007 Size: 7,400 sf House, 1,900 sf Wood Shop and Garage Photographs: Paul Warchol
To satisfy a client’s passion for barns, we sought to capture the qualities of traditional barn structures (generous spaces; repetitive timber frames), while developing a modern building responding to the demands both of a residential...
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Yalumba Winery – Signature Cellars / Grieve...
Architect: Grieve Gillett Location: Tanunda, Australia Client: Yalumba Winery Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Courtesy of Grieve Gillett
Yalumba is Australia’s oldest and most successful family owned winery. The company’s success is driven by tradition and innovation.
To mark Yalumba’s 160th year, Grieve Gillett were commissioned to design a flagship dining and wine tasting area for...
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Villa Midgård by DAPstockholm
Residents plunging into the swimming pool of this Stockholm house may feel like they’re in an aquarium.
The surface of the swimming pool is located on the deck of the upper ground level, but a large window in its concrete side faces visitors arriving on the floor below.
Designed by Swedish architects DAPstockholm, the three-storey Villa Midgård and its swimming pool are set into the...