Interior Design Sense

Architect: René van Zuuk Architekten
Location: Almere, the Netherlands
Client: René van Zuuk & Marjo Körner
Program: Villa
Structural Ingeneering: Van de Laar, Eindhoven / NL
Project Year: 2008
Site Area: 454 sqm
Constructed Area: 215 sqm
Photographs: Christian Richters & René van Zuuk

Behind the somewhat mysterious name ‘Project X’, hides the design of René van Zuuk and his family’s own residence. The villa with a small office space is located right next to the architect’s former residence Psyche in Almere’s The Fantasy district, an area for experimental housing. Because the old house serves as his architect’s office since 2004, it occurred that the two plots could be consolidated into one garden. The garden area is optimized by leaving only the width of a parking space between Project X and its neighbouring house.

From an urban point of view three major considerations were important: the box-shaped appearance of all the Fantasy dwellings, the fixed building line and the pattern of alternating building heights. Placing the lower storey half below ground level resulted in House X being lower than the adjacent dwellings, thus fitting in the height sequence. The distance from the living room to the water is reduced to half a metre, creating a sense of living along the waterfront despite the rather modest size of the canal. This feeling is being intensified by the large expanse of glass in the living room offering a panoramic view on the canal.

Only the exceptionally high entrance door infringes the closed appearance of the box-shaped upper storey enclosing the bedrooms. Its façade is cladded with large thin cement tiles with a continuing branch-like pattern of grooves softening and reviving the rigid box shape. The scanting daylight entering the bedrooms comes through rooflights and a few subtle ‘eyelets’ in the façade. Because of the small dimensions of the façade openings the main volume remains intact. The upper volume is separated from the lower storey by means of a glass strip. On the garden side the strip is storey high.

The basic design is largely defined by the latitude enabled by the Dutch Building Decree. The maximum volume allowed on the particular location is 500 m³, while the residence plus office required 750 m³. Nowadays the Building Decree creates the opportunity to build up to 2.5 metres outside an external wall, without submitting a planning application under the condition that it does not border a public street or public park. Therefore the building part perpendicular to the street is maximized in length to create as much extra building volume as possible. According to another provision in the Decree the extension can only start one meter from the front façade. To provide the ground-floor level with a uniform width, the upper floor protrudes one meter in the direction of the street. For the office section the rule that allows an annexe up to thirty square metres without a planning permission is utilized. This extra part is constructed as a basement to make it secondary to the living area, despite its street side location. To emphasize its commercial and subordinate character the exterior concrete surface is left exposed.

Inventive interpretation of these loopholes in the legislation has resulted not just in the space required, but also in unprecedented restrained and rich architecture.

Whole Italy is filled with a stunningly beautiful old Mediterranean architectural style, but not the house you’re about to see. Designed by architect Duilio Damilano, Maison De La Lumiere in Bologna, Italy, is a great example of contemporary design that stays far from any Italian stereotypical styles you’ve seen. With a stunning open space ground floor that leads to the crystal blue swimming pool and featuring modern furnishings, this is an amazing and exquisite tech-savvy job that mixes really well with luxury.

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Maison De La Lumiere in Bologna, Italy

Alejandro Aravena is a chilean architect, recently awarded with the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale (Promising Young Architect) and selected as a one of the 20 most promising young architects by Icon Magazine, magazine which also features him on the cover of the january issue.

Alejandro has a very strong line of buildings, on which finding solutions is the key: the Siamese Towers (Chile),  Pirihueico House (Chile), the Mathematics School at UC (Chile) and ongoing projects such as ORDOS 100 (Inner Mongolia, China), the new facilities of St. Edward’s University in (Austin, TX, USA) and a new building for the Vitra Campus (Germany).

But what has made him achieve all this awards is something else. He is the Executive Director of Elemental Chile, a do-tank that “contributes to improve the quality of life in Chilean cities, providing state of the art architecture and engineering, understanding the city as an unlimited resource to build social equity”. This do-tank has made a huge impact in public policies, improving the quality of social housing not only in several cities in Chile, but also in Mexico.

We had the chance to interview him at his office in Elemental, on a very interesting conversation sharing his thoughts on architecture, the city, public policy and more.

Architect: ARTEKS Arquitectura
Location: Lleida, Spain
Architects in charge: Gerard Veciana Membrado & Elisabet Faura Pavia
Arteks Collaborators: Carlos Cobreros, Gemma Roca, Andrea Furlan
External Collaborators: Casa O_David Tapias & Nuria Salvador
Constructed Area: 270 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Structural Engineering: Pascual Sandalinas
Facilities Engineering: Ateci_enginyeria installations
Photographs: Arteks Arquitectura

Owner wishes

The Golf must be my garden,  and the site must be keep like it is.
“I wish a huge terrace”.

The function

Private house to be used the weekend.
A couple with 3 teenagers sons.
PB+penthouse for the couple
P-1 for the sons and friends
REFUGE Leaving-room separated from the kitchen-dinning-room.
Main access through the kitchen.

Architectural proposal

The house is buried and the main façade is orientated south-west. Many and diferent kinds of “brisse-solei” all over the windows. The big ones are mobile.

It is hard to build in Washington DC; there is a lot of history and a lot of approvals required. Surprisingly, it is easier to build there than it is the Canadian wilderness; that is what philanthropist Joseph Hirshhorn found out when he tried to build a new town “planned towards happy living” north of Lake Huron, with Philip Johnson as his architect. Blake Gopnik writes in the Washington Post:

Joe Hirshhorn, a child of the tenements, had made…

Mixing modern curves, shapes and materials with classic furniture and colors, Florence based architect Pierluigi Sammarro managed to turn the interior of the Geraci Residence in Calabria, Southern Italy, in a real dream home. With everything so well furnished, a lovely wooden staircase, beautiful curtains and wall prints, discrete lights and a highly modern kitchen, I’m pretty sure these owners are happy with what came out. However, there would be one thing I would have changed: the flooring. [via Contemporist]

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The Geraci Residence in Calabria, Italy

I thought I could delve into this topic like an engineer or architect, showing: heating degree-day isotherms, cooling degree-day isotherms, and mean annual temperature maps. But, alas, the graphics just don’t work at blog-format. What else, then?

Turns out that, for the USA at least, plant hardiness zone maps get the overall idea across much b…

Architects: Architecture W
Location: Nagoya, Japan
Project Team: Michel Weenick, Yukiko Iwanaga, Brian White
Client: Michel Weenick
Project Year: 2005
Constructed Area: 320 sqm
Structural Engineer: Structure NANA
Photographer: Andy Boone

Located in one of Nagoya’s more attractive residential neighborhoods, but with only 2.5 meters of dead end street access and set on a difficult site that steps down from this access level a total of 7 meters, M-House is designed to both address the site conditions that rendered the site “unbuildable” by the local real estate community and provide for a simple, modern lifestyle for the American owner/architect and his family.

In addition to the challenge provided by the site itself, the house also addresses the conceptual challenges of planning for a multi generational/multi national family, as well the even bigger challenge of securing precious views, sunlight, and breezes in the context of a cramped traditional Japanese neighborhood. Despite the difficulty in accessing and actually building on the site, it was the property’s one redeeming feature – its location at the edge of a cliff that hovers over the northern part of Nagoya – that inspired the design of the house.

A hybrid structural system made up of simple reinforced concrete, concrete incased steel, and a pair of 3 meter tall steel trusses – all running inside the east and west walls of the house – allow the design to accommodate a variety of site and program conditions while also allowing for the north and south elevations to be composed entirely of sliding glass walls that capture the views, sunlight, and breezes(essential to surviving the smog & humidity present during Nagoya’s summer months) that make this building site so special.

At the lowest level, this structure is tied into additional retaining walls to carve out an independent apartment that is a modern take on the Japanese notion of looking after one’s parents as they get old.

At the entry level, column free space is provided for both parking and turning the owner’s automobiles, as well as for the house’s entry, bedrooms and main bathing area. A small pool is situated underneath the cantilevered top level to reflect sunlight into the bathing area where a single glass wall is all that separates this center of Japanese family life – complete with its wooden soaking bath -from the entry area.

The top level of the house is virtually a single open space that serves as the house’s main living space. The steel trusses that allow for the 5+ meter cantilever are buried behind 2 walls of storage and kitchen cabinetry so that the remaining 2 sides of the steel box – the north and south elevations – can be composed entirely of sliding glass walls. These 2 walls slide into pockets and allow the entire room to become an “outdoor” family room from which spectacular views and pleasant breezes can be enjoyed.

A roof deck caps off the house and accommodates another large outdoor gathering space for entertaining. The main stair well, with its yellow wall slices through the residence to visually tie the different levels together and to allow sunlight down into the main entry level of the house.

The project’s simple architecture – exposed concrete walls & floors, galvanized metal siding, plasterboard infill walls and white laminate cabinetry – provide a neutrality that is animated as much by the Japanese and Western influences of the the client’s family as it is animated by the site’s vistas, breezes, and passing sunlight.

This is truly an impressive Lake House set in Como, Italy. Designed by architect Marco Castelletti, the building incorporates a mix between the vertical design and the horizontal structure. The modern home is built on the slope of a hill with stairs leading up to the top, has an entrance hall that leads to the main hall which faces the lake and houses the living areas and bedrooms. The horizontal column contains the service wing of this Lake House. A serene view, a brilliant amalgamation of Italian design and modern furniture, are just a few things that will charm you. Like it? 

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Italian Lake House by Marco Castelletti