miércoles, 31 de julio de 2013

A house of Tiles / Welsh + Major Architects

Haberfield, NSW

This house is a conglomeration of small scale decisions, each a response to a specific requirement. The existing house was typical of many federation houses: a freestanding bungalow that has been added to sometime in the sixties or seventies. The original house had been further closed in on, the block being subdivided sometime in the 1950’s. Our brief was to reinvigorate the house for a family of four- reinstating the dignity of the original home and re connecting it with new garden spaces.
The new pavilion from a distance reads as a terracotta volume, defined by surrounding ridge lines and building setbacks: it is intended to act as a stitch in the streetscape, responding to the requirements of context using a familiar palette. via welshmajor




martes, 23 de julio de 2013

Strick House / Oscar Niemeyer´s only US House

He's best known for his work on Brasilia, a whole-cloth Brazilian capital city built in the late 1950s, but he did design one house in the US, "where he was long banned because of his leftist political associations," according to an Architectural Digest story from 2005. The 1963 Strick House sits on Santa Monica's architecture-packed La Mesa Drive, and it was designed via post--Niemeyer never visited the site or met Joseph and Anne Strick, who commissioned the house (Joseph was a filmmaker best known for his adaptation of Ulysses and in fact divorced Anne before the house was even finished). According to Santa Monica Landmarks, the Stricks were politically-progressive types living in the mid-century Mar Vista tract designed by Gregory Ain when they asked Niemeyer to design them a new house. Anne said that "The choice of Niemeyer was not only an aesthetic one, but, in part, a way of thumbing our noses at the whole McCarthy era because it seemed so reprehensible that a man, simply because of his political views, could be prevented from working in this country." Local architect Ulrich Plaut handled the working drawings and "Anne Strick oversaw the completion of the residence with the collaboration of Interior Designer Amir Farr."
The Strick is a one-story T-shape with bedrooms along the east side, the kitchen in the center, and the main living area in the stem of the T, according to AD: "The glassy, indoor-outdoor pavilion, with a flat roof suspended by an exoskeletal superstructure, was part of a very sensible floor plan that harbored a swimming pool in an outdoor room at the rear."
When the Strick family finally had to sell about a decade ago, a developer bought the property and planned to knock the house down, which "finally triggered the attention of the landmarks commission, which issued a stay of execution, putting the preservation community on alert." Modern collectors Michael and Gabrielle Boyd bought the house within the month and found that, unlike a lot of other landmark modernism, it was in pretty good shape and didn't need any major work. The only big thing they did was convert the garage into a library and extend its walls to put in a new garage. Michael told AD in 2005 "As far as we can tell, there's nothing left to do." Judging by Redfin, they still own the house. via loveisspeedtext by Adrien Glik Kudler 




sábado, 20 de julio de 2013

Small Japanese Gardens / Kofunaki House

Bringing garden ideas into indoor refers to large windows and sliding doors Japanese architect has managed to solve it by bringing outside in concept literally. ALTS Design Office show Kofunaki House with small Japanese gardens that was completed in March, you will see Japanese home design that is filled with shrubs, succulents and some small trees. House is perfect for families who crave green space everywhere, enjoy. via homemydesign

 

viernes, 19 de julio de 2013

Pin Hole House / Caja Oscura / Javier Corvalán

This is a unique, if a little odd, solution to a project on a tight budget. Paraguayan architect Javier Corvalán, inspired by his film director client, designed a house in Asunción whose upper volume—a tilting metal box which houses the kitchen and living room—doubles as a camera obscura inundating the interior with the upturned image of the surrounding landscape through a pinhole. But it isn’t just a nod to the cinema, there are very practical reasons behind Corvalán’s design. With high heat and sunshine the majority of the year in Paraguay, the comfort of shade is very welcome. The tilting feature allows for ventilation and added light as necessary. The budget for the project was a tight 20,000 euros and using materials such as corrugated metal on the top exterior, with concrete and stone sourced from a nearby quarry for the base, and MDF panels on the interior as well as the lack of windows, helped to keep the project on budget. In addition, due to social and economic differences in Paraguay, the crime rate is rather high and security is a serious consideration. The clients’ long absences would have exposed the house to risk of robbery or vandalism but Corvalán’s solution is a virtual hermetic box.





Travels / Richard foulsen