I stumbled across my first Morphosis building during a brief stint on the L.E.S earlier this year. Although still under construction, the new Cooper Union site was awe inspiring. The facade reintroduces a sense of drama to the street scape as it crashes to the pavement in a series of fractured folds sucking in the past and spitting out the raw architectural talent that the Cooper Union is renowned for.
This Beautiful piece of Architecture in Utrecht is by Dutch Architects Rocha Tombal. With House Bierings, The typical pitched roof silhouette is beautifully disrupted by a series of protrusions from its timber skin. The architect’s call these anomalies “sculptural eyes” and I imagine they are carefully positioned to view all corners of the landscape that surround it.
The Japanese have a refined talent for reducing architecture to its barest essentials. The KA-2 House in Tokyo by Takao Akiyama is a perfect example of how to craft the typical “White box” typology. Delicate details such as the shift in timber floor colour help to orientate the occupant and prevent them getting lost amongst the expanse of white. The spiral stair in this project effortlessly cuts through the levels like a piece of folded paper, dissolving where the walls end and the floors begin. Beautiful.
I saw this House at the Interior Design awards this year and was impressed by the attention to detail and warm minimalism expressed through its finishes. Yarra House was designed by Leeton Pointon Architects and features some of the most carefully considered details I’ve seen in a local project for some time. The connection with the landscape and the way in which the spaces are crafted is of particular note. If I was lucky enough to live alongside the Yarra I imagine this would be the place to do it.
The Sorte House by A.L.X shows what thinking big on a small site can achieve. As with all innercity, japanese housing the high density style of living lends itself to creative architectural soloutions that challenge what we in the west would consider for a residence. Of particualr note in this project are the carefully positioned windows and apertures which frame the view towards the city in unexpected ways.
This lovingly restored mid-century home belongs to author Douglas Coupland and is situated in Vancouver. The attention to detail is superb and the connection with the surrounding landscape creates a sense of serenity within the home.
F-White house by Takuro Yamamoto is a beautifully crafted residence sited in Kashiwa prefecture, Chiba. The connection between spaces and the centrally located courtyard harks back to a more traditional style of Japanese housing, contemporized through the use of material and the lack of ornamentation.
The La Estancia Chapel in Mexico is by Bunker Arquitectura and has an almost dream like quality to its interior space. The chapel itself is situated amongst some beautiful gardens and their greenery is evident through the opaque glazing elements that surround it. On top of this, the story of how it came to be is both touching and unheard of;
“when one of Bunker´s associates decided to marry in these gardens – the client had been toying for some time with the idea of building the chapel. When he found out a young architect was getting married in his garden the commission to design and build the chapel was granted for what the architects thought was an almost ridiculous caprice: the client found very romantic the idea of an architect designing the chapel he would get married in.”
The South harbor Resort was recently completed by SUPPOSE Design Office in Hiroshima, Japan. Here,the warmth of the timber offsets the minimal lines of the architecture, providing a calming respite from the city beyond. I especially like the operable facade which dissolves the boundary between interior/exterior and provides a connection to the reflecting pool adjacent.
Spanish Architect Jordi Badia has just completed the CAM FRAMIS Museum in Barcelona. I love the sensitive link between old and new both through form and materiality. There is an inherent honesty in this type of context driven approach to architecture which is too readily forgotten these days.
