Napoleon Flat / FREAKS freearchitects

Posted on mayo 22, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: FREAKS freearchitects
Location: Paris, France
Area: 170.0 sqm
Photographs: David Foessel

FREAKS has been commissioned to work on the transformation of a 170sqm flat downtown Paris, Rue de Rivoli. The Rue de Rivoli, which goes from Place de la Concorde until Place de la Bastille, has been built under Napoleon the 1st. The very first part of the street, facing the Jardin des Tuileries was his own property and he might have lived here or there in one of those chic flats.

The order was to transform that high ceiling stateroom into a familial flat, including two new children bedrooms in addition with the parents one. Therefore, the main target was to create new connections through the rooms ; some doors have been closed, some others have been pierced to avoid the typical dead-end distribution system. The service rooms on the backyard, at the end of a long and narrow corridor, have been transformed into the children area, to which one can acces by the service door, turning that part into an independent space within the flat. The bedrooms made profit of the high ceiling by embedding mezzanine, on which one can access by using a crinoline ladder.

A new kitchen + bathroom have been placed on the street side. Most of the existing moldings have been painted in white. The very cute Venetian style boudoir has only been renewed.

One of the main interventions consisted in opening the new kitchen towards the dinning room while taking charge to use a contemporary architectural language within the space. No furniture or decoration were required, only a dozen of industrial waterproof neons (Sammode) with a special brass cladding have been used on the dinning room and billiard room walls.

“We’re getting more and more bored by the nice shots where everything is so clean, with the perfect Scandinavian-design chair, the perfect white orchid, the perfect art book on the table”.

“Napoleon supposedly having lived there was a running joke among the building team and us, that’s why we decided, the three of us, to sort of perform the photo shoot wearing Napoleon-style hats.”

Napoleon Flat / FREAKS freearchitects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 22 May 2013.

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Vieux Port Pavilion / Foster + Partners, Photos by Edmund Sumner

Posted on mayo 21, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Located at the mouth of Marseille’s World Heritage-listed harbor, the Vieux Port Pavilion, designed by Foster + Partners, provides a new sheltered events space on the eastern edge of the port. Bringing new focus to the city, these photographs by Edmund Sumner demonstrate the stainless steel canopy’s ability to amplify and reflect the surrounding movement of the harbor, creating a spectacle that encourages pedestrians to linger. Since its opening early this year, the project is truly an invitation to the people of Marseille to enjoy and use this grand space for events, markets and celebrations once again. A complete gallery of Sumner’s images can be viewed after the break.

Vieux Port Pavilion / Foster + Partners, Photos by Edmund Sumner originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 May 2013.

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School in Montrottier / Tekhnê Architects

Posted on mayo 21, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Tekhnê Architects
Location: Montrottier, France
Area: 1,465 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Jérôme Ricolleau

Electricity, Water, Gas: ITF
Wood Structures: Sylva Conseil
Concrete Structures: DPI
Acoustics: EAI
Quantity Surveyors: Poncet

The authorities’ bold decision to build a new kindergarten and primary school in the heart of Montrottier was a result of their desire to give this medieval village a new lease of life, and to recentre its development.

Key to the success of the venture was the availability of a site which, though steeply sloping (with a 9 m difference in height between the upper and lower boundaries), was the right size, and also close to the crèche, library and cinema. Seen from the surrounding undulating landscape, the new building embraces the slope, and is integrated into the general silhouette of the hilltop bastion. It adds to the overall morphological unity, and notably the density of the ensemble, while also affirming its contemporary character with a distinctive wooden form in a granite setting.

The separation of the complex into two blocks (one for the kindergarten, the other for the primary school) is in keeping with the topography. And the classrooms are set above the flat, sheltered playgrounds in such a way that the landscape enters into them, so to speak, with spectacular views off into the distance. The project was enthusiastically backed by the authorities. It can boast of advanced environmental features, like all of Tekhnê’s designs, and does not rely on ostentatious effects.

There is a long, narrow profile that follows a north-north-east / south-south-west axis, with a north-facing slope. The dominant winds are cool and westerly, and there is a favourable orientation in relation to the sun. The utilisation of the outside spaces has been optimised.

The complex fits in closely with the nature of the site and its contours. The facades of its 2 rectangular sections, though not exactly parallel, face broadly south-east and north-west. They are unfussy in the way they perform their functions.

In order to raise the kindergarten to the level of the square, a base was constructed on Chemin de Gouttevine. It includes a municipal car park, which also makes a financial contribution to the operation.

The primary school is constructed on 2 levels, with superimposed walkways that allow the passage of air and light in both summer and winter. The classrooms make use of the incident sunlight, while benefitting from the calm of the surrounding farms and forests, and also avoiding the risk of overheating.

A glazed gallery offers views from the entrance to the complex on the square, and links up the 2 sections of the complex, notably with the shared lobby on the northern side of the primary school. In order to give the project the desired visibility, the kindergarten playground and the gable of the multi-purpose space were incorporated into the square.

The base of the project is in reinforced concrete, and it is integrated into the adjoining walls and flights of steps. Above it, the frames, facings and roof structure are in wood. The passageways, which also contribute to the thermal properties, illumination and acoustics of the classrooms and workshops, rise up above the northern side of the complex. Their inclined roofs are equipped with photovoltaic panels that offset some of the overall energy consumption.

The sunlit facades have large bay windows in a varied configuration, integrated into the regular pattern of the wood frame and the horizontal weatherboarding. Some of them are fitted with fixed horizontal slats, or screens that modulate the temperature inside the passageways as well as the illumination and the thermal conditions. The fronts of the classrooms, with their salient surrounding frames, have floor-to-ceiling and double-pane windows that alternate with vertical weatherboarding.

School in Montrottier / Tekhnê Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 May 2013.

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Outside-In / Meir Lobaton Corona + Ulli Heckmann

Posted on mayo 18, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Meir Lobaton Corona, Ulli Heckmann
Location: Chaumont Sur Loire, France
Landscape Consultant: Julia Pankofer
Structure Consultant: Hector Triana
Area: 40 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Fabio Ferrario

The sense we trust the most is the sense which exposes us the least. The sense that will bring us into direct contact with life is used the least. The first is to see. What we see, we believe, but it is what we don’t see that holds the truth of what is because then it remains undistorted by our interpretation.

We think that all perception is locked within our body: The sense of seeing from the eyes, the sense of hearing from the ears, the sense of smelling from the nose, the sense of tasting from the mouth, and the sense of touch primarily from the hands. Our garden, entitled ‘outside-in’, is conceived as a visual paradox, as device that enhances such conditions in order to make the audience realize how by relying only on sight we rely on imagination, that is to say, on interpretation. In other words, how the sense of vision can become a shield that precludes us the possibility of having a holistic experience of life, one that involves the entire body and that extends beyond it.

The experience of the garden begins when the visitor finds himself confronted with a seemingly void space, only the sound of his footsteps walking on top of the red sand surface and a minimalist white box mysteriously levitating sixty centimeters above the ground complement his experience.

The weightless, five meters wide by eight meters long, semi-cubic volume –defined by a translucent white skin– takes almost one third of the extension of the garden and works as a floating canvas where a monochrome world of shadows is casted suggesting the presence of what seams to be a tiny and inaccessible chunk of forest confined within. Only when gazing inside –either by crouching down and looking under it or peeking through one of the peepholes scattered on top of the white surface– the visitor is drawn into an illusory space in which trees and plants vanish into the distance. An effect attained by the fact that the four interior faces of the volume are covered with two-way mirrors and thus create a seemingly infinite forest reflected in all directions.

Like the scene in ‘Alice in Wonderland’, in which Alice peers through the keyhole of a tiny door onto a beautiful garden only to realize that she is unable to enter, this inverted experience of peeking inside to actually look outside, is meant to be both engrossing and frustrating. This voyeuristic experience allows for the viewer’s presence never to interrupt the tableau: the forest remains infinite and trapped inside this solipsist hall of mirrors while the visitor is confronted with the paradox of being looking inside a box where the contained space is actually larger than its container.

‘Outside-in’ is a garden within a garden, a contemplative space, a small universe where landscape and architecture are fused to create an experience capable of raising questions rather than answering them, a live mechanism whose aim is to make us reflect on the contrast between what we know and what we see, demanding us to constantly negotiate the gap between physical reality and visual perception. It is a meditation on space, light, and the possibility of infinity as seen through the limitless reflections of a trapped narrative meticulously fitted inside a world of two-way mirrors.

Outside-In / Meir Lobaton Corona + Ulli Heckmann originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 17 May 2013.

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Farm Building Renovation / Loïc Picquet Architecte

Posted on mayo 11, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Loïc Picquet Architecte
Location: Obermorschwiller, Alsace, France
Area: 110 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Stéphane Spach

The project created 4 lodging rooms in a farm building in Alsace. A new wood construction was added as a natural and fluid extension of the old farm, not only renovating it but mostly honoring it by the use of its history and details.

Thereby, niches were built in the walls and double doors were chosen over the regular ones, so that a special interaction between the bathroom and the room could be created.

The room set is illuminated by Velux windows, drilling in an almost artificial way the old building envelop.

Farm Building Renovation / Loïc Picquet Architecte originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 May 2013.

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Farm Building Renovation / Loïc Picquet Architecte

Posted on mayo 11, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: Loïc Picquet Architecte
Location: Obermorschwiller, Alsace, France
Area: 110 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Stéphane Spach

Thereby, niches were built in the walls and double doors were chosen over the regular ones, so that a special interaction between the bathroom and the room could be created.

The room set is illuminated by Velux windows, drilling in an almost artificial way the old building envelop.

Farm Building Renovation / Loïc Picquet Architecte originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 May 2013.

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Housing Units in Nantes Winning Proposal / Hamonic + Masson

Posted on mayo 8, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Designed by Hamonic + Masson, their winning proposal for the housing units in Nantes opens a dialogues with the surrounding space by introducing a new way of living together, mainly based on the generosity of the exterior private and community spaces. The architecture of the building and public spaces will be composed of a play in the accumulation and stacking of floors. The ensemble of curves highlights the building’s radiance and dialogue with the near and far environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Height in contemporary architecture is often a byword these days for modernity and aesthetics. It has to be addressed as a planning tool; it can create density in certain areas to keep open space in others. We are proposing a project that is clearly part of a forward-‐looking approach to urban housing, i.e. a high-‐rise building will make it possible to engage in a new housing relationship with the outside world.

High-‐rise buildings make it possible for their inhabitants to be out of the way while still living in the city, to see space. Living there is like travelling. The benefits of living high up in a tower block are having an uninterrupted view without the need of curtains on the windows. A panoramic view lets people see the horizon, the moving sun and the changing seasons. Living in the air gives a sense of privilege. But to achieve that, buildings have to be user-friendly, enjoy reliable lives and be perfectly integrated into their surroundings.

One luxury in a city is having one’s own outside space as symbolized by a house, grounded on terra firma. We have introduced scaling in the way of living in the air with the lower floors defining the various outside spaces and the inclusion of a planted tray as part of the balustrade enabling a different appropriation of the terraces. The higher up you go, above any obstructed views, the more the terraces become big, panoramic screens with winter gardens protected from the wind and weather.

The businesses and offices located on the entire ground floor work in partnership with the “pedestrian volume”. A place that is transparent and deep with rich and varied perspectives, this “pedestrian volume” enhances the town by offering a dynamic and lively character to the entire project area. Lot C1, a genuine “urban signal”, stands on a strategic location. The building’s volumes accompany the varying scales with a play of sensual curves. The inclusion of its intermediary platforms makes it possible to sequence the volumes.

As a forward-‐looking project, what we are proposing is a simple, chiseled script that will wed a contemporary register.Our building reflects a highly sober image by its character and “clothing”. Encased in a subtle mantle of light-‐tinted metallic cladding, its surfaces draw the light. Due to the building’s vestment, surfaces dialogue with the surrounding buildings through a constant play of reflection, luminosity and tones.

We are proposing a “landscape” building with an inhabited “biotope”. By working on the skyline we can introduce variations in the building’s outline as it stands out against the sky and appropriate various and different types of roofing. Neighboring inhabitants are thus given a scaled variety of views and the building’s users a variety of spaces. So the project plays on the idea of movement, backgrounds and multiplicity. The building shines night and day, giving the city a new place and a new dynamic benchmark.

Architects: Hamonic + Masson
Location: Nantes, France
Client: Kaufman&Broad
Program: 135 Housing units
Site Area: 11,000 sqm SDP (housing, retail, offices)
Status: Competition winner
Year: 2013

Housing Units in Nantes Winning Proposal / Hamonic + Masson originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 08 May 2013.

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Appartement Spectral / BETILLON / DORVAL‐BORY

Posted on mayo 7, 2013 by :: noticias arquitectura ::

Architects: BETILLON / DORVAL‐BORY
Location: Levallois, Paris, France
Project Team: Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Raphaël Bétillon (principals); Federica Sedda, José Rocha Gonçalves (interns)
Budget: 33,000 € VAT excluded
Area: 20 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: BETILLON / DORVAL‐BORY

Spectral apartment is a renovation project of a small Parisian studio, in which the lack of natural light led the client to ask us to intervene particularly on the issue of artificial light.

To do this, we chose to adopt a radical and binary approach by studying the spectral qualities of two different sources of artificial light.

Although often overlooked, since hardly noticeable in everyday use, the color rendering index, abbreviated CRI is one of the fundamental criteria for evaluating light. It depends more precisely on the spectral power distribution of light (SPD) and was identified in 1948 by the Scientific JP Bouma, then qualified by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The CRI of a light describes its ability to reflect accurate color of a surface. Bouma noticed that daylight was much better to estimate the colors and the work of the CIE established its value to 100 to determine the scale of CRI. Thus, a light with high CRI, close to 100, can render the colors properly (homogeneity in the spectral power distribution), while a low CRI is synonymous with loss of color range, so a disappearance of colors.

So in the manner of architect Philippe Rahm, the idea is to explore from an objective and scientific point of view the spectral qualities of these various light sources, and then to create an architecture that considers and even uses their special qualities.

The case of low-pressure sodium lamps (LPS) is in this particular. This system is extremely popular because of its particularly high efficiency (amount of light compared to consumed electricity) and it is used for the illumination of cities along the streets, roads and highways. Its characteristic color temperature gives this particular orangey shade to our nocturnal urban environment. However, these lamps have the lowest CRI, close to 0. This means that the light is monochromatic, in a wavelength of 589.3 nm, and cannot render any other color.

At night, along a road, we believe we can discern red from blue, but it is physically impossible with LPS light. A photo taken with such a light is monochromatic and necessarily, so to say, in black and white. Furthermore, for humans this wavelength is particularly suited to night vision, since the wavelengths around the blue (totally absent from LPS) induces a contraction of the pupil, limiting the amount of light perceived by the eye. After a few seconds of retina adaptation, the human brain rebalances the perceived color to produce a virtual spectrum, giving an impression of the scene as close as possible to objective reality. Now with LPS lighting, the brain has no other color to produce the virtual spectrum, so it literally produces a grayscale image.

So what does a space illuminated only in black and white become? What is the most appropriate architecture, the one that operates at best this particular artificial light. It is known that LPS lighting makes police work more difficult on the road at night, as distinguishing the color of a car is impossible. But one could imagine very intensely lit places where it would not be useful to perceive colors, and where this feature of artificial lighting would be known and controlled. Similarly, certain types of fluorescent lighting tubes with high CRI should be used for places that have been developed taking into account the abundance of some spectral peaks.

In our project, the first phase consisted of a division of program elements according on their spectral needs: which uses need a good color rendering, which spaces can be content with a very low color rendering? This first classification generates a hierarchy of space: on one side the kitchen, the living room, where distinguishing colors is required, on the other hand the bed and the shower where monochromatic light suffices.

This bipolarity between high and low CRI becomes the crucial element of space composition. Holding two separate light sources, a simple 2m high wall divides the studio and generates this composition. On one side an over 90 CRI lighting (940 fluorescent tubes) with a neutral color temperature (4000K), on the other side a warm light from low-pressure sodium lamps with zero CRI. Each of the two light sources produces about 16,000 lumens. The accurate analysis of the distribution of light in space then indicates the positioning of uses. Since there is no other source of artificial light in the studio those spaces are arranged in a form of free plan. As both sources can be switched independently, different lightning patterns appear, giving rise to unforeseen uses in particular areas of the apartment.

The apartment is designed in a simple and neutral expression, without color or particular detail, annihilating any architectural expressiveness or narrative to leave only the logic of composition generated by light.